Happy New Year!

It's been pretty obvious to the two (three?!) of you who read my blog that I've had difficulty keeping up with it for quite a while now, like I mentioned in a blog post in June. I made a similar post on The Felting and Fiber Studio site in November, and if you read the comments, you'll see that I'm not alone! As I was stressing again this week about how much I've let slide, and worrying about how I'll even 'catch up', let alone stay on top of things, I thought I would start with a look back over the year like we do on the Studio site each year. But instead of making a couple of slide-shows of my work, like I did there, I thought I would pick one project from each month of the past year to share. And this made me realise that if I find it so hard to blog weekly, why don't I blog monthly instead? Seems obvious when you think about it doesn't it!?! I didn't make anything in January, but over the holiday break I tidied up the supplies from the class I do at the Well-Being Centre and in late Jan/early Feb I made lots of batts from all the odds and ends and matted bits of wool tops from the bottoms of boxes:

In March I made a couple of vessels, I used texturey wools on this one and left it to dry without anything inside to shape it and I liked the way it came out:

Having a 'play day' at the well-being centre one day in April, I made this piece using tubes of wool made by wrapping wool wisps around a kebab stick:

In May, I made a nuno felted piece for a challenge on the Studio site. This is one of my favourite photos from while I was making it, I thought it looked like a cow's stomach/tripe!

This is what the finished piece looked like held over a lightbulb:

In June I made a felted painting for a friend. I'd shown him some photos of paintings I'd done and he liked a few in this style:

Originally, I'd planned to do a painting on canvas for him, but the technique I'd used didn't transfer to canvas very well, so instead I thought I'd see how well the idea worked in felt. I have to say, it's one of my favourite pieces I've ever made!

I kind of got hooked on making felt pieces inspired by paintings, I used this painting too for inspiration:

And this is the felt piece I made:

In July, I made a kind of seascape felt piece:

And then used it to make a notebook cover:

In August, I made a few collage pieces for greetings cards, this is one of them:

I did a bit of needlefelting in September, this is a piece I made using various wools dyed with natural dyes:

This is a piece I made in October for another Studio Challenge, I combined wool tubes and twists with nuno felting:

I made a purple and black piece embellished with lots of undyed fibres, in November:

One of the last things I made last year was a case for my best friend's birthday. I made it in one piece over a resist and used silk to line it, I added a button and stitching before I gave it to him, but here it is when it had dried:

I'm grateful for anybody who ever takes the time to read the blog posts and I hope to blog a bit more frequently this year. I hope you have a fibre filled 2019! Happy New Year :)

Etsy

I've opened an Etsy shop :)

There isn't much there at the moment, but there are a few silk fibre packs. They are packs of aproximately 20g each of natural silk hankies; silk carrier rods; silk noil and gummed silk throwster's waste. I got a shock when I looked up postage prices! I always wanted to be able to offer reasonably priced fabrics and fibres, but the price of postage has shot up recently. If you're in the UK it might just be cheaper to call round for them :)

Silk carrier rods are odd, ugly looking things! But once they are soaked in water and the layers are separated they make great embellishments for felt or mixed media. Like any silk fibres, they can be dyed too. They look like coloured foil to me. I've even carded them and felted the 'fluff'.

Silk Throwster's waste really doesn't look much at first, stiff and nylony, like tangled dolls hair! But once it has been degummed it is soft, fluffy, shiny and crimped.

 It's easy to dye too, and looks gorgeous once it's felted. It spins well too.

Silk noil has great texture. Soft but with nubby bits that feel a bit like oats :) It smells nice and even has a nice sound when it's separated. You can use it to create subtle interest and texture or use it more densely and it will have the appearance of a fabric.

Silk hankies are one of the most popular silk fibres for using with felting. They can be used whole as a single layer:

Or more than one layer for more  texture:

 Or you can draft them into roving and use smaller pieces for different effects:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeltbyZed