AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRE FUNDRAISER

CALLING ALL ARTIST'S & CRAFTERS

UPDATED FOR FUNDRAISER - OFFICIAL

I know most of you have seen the news in Australia about the worst event in our Australian History, bushfires have wiped out whole towns and caused so much carneige and distruction, Its the saddest time in our lives with so many people perishing in these fires as they came so quickly there was absolutely no time for some area's to be evacuated. Now Over 1800 homes lost and so many lives !!!!! fires are still burning now after almost 2 weeks so there is still a lot of concern.

I didnt really want to put any photo's up as the survivors have been through so much already. But ??

So now what to do, most of us feel so helpless and unable to do a dam thing so i had a thought and after a few phone calls and the green light to go-ahead, i'm organising a fundraiser to help our survivors try to re-build there lives.

There were so many people on our FeltingForum that wanted to know what they could do to help , so this is what we've come up with.

As we live in a major tourist area we have organised (and registered in conjuction with the REDCROSS) an ARTIST OFFERING FUNDRAISER to be held in one of our busiest times of the year. Easter Weekend. were calling all Artist's to donate a piece of their art to be sold in this Fundraiser. As i am involved in the Forum but Live in Victoria Australia i am volunteering to be the collector and co-ordinator of all items. Anything that is sent will be LOGGED and registered and preciously looked after.

Would anyone wanting to donate items please put a small tag ( Link attached ) on everything , with your name and were your from, I think this should make it so much more special and buyers can see items donated from all around the world. The deadline will have to be Friday the 3rd of April to allow me those few days in the next week to set everything up. and it will start on Easter Good Friday the 10th of April, and will be run for 3 days. I have had a fantastic Venue Donated by our Masonic Lodge Committee and the Feedback and Support i have recieved from this so far as been amazing with so many people wanting and needing to help.

Please rest assured that any items you send will be extremely well looked after.

Thankyou so much for reading this, if you would like to contact me then please feel free , also if you could add this link to your blogs to spread the word, that would be AWESOME

To Send your Art Work the details are

Karen Erickson

C/O Artist's Offering Fundraiser

P.O.Box 308

Cowes , Victoria

Australia 3922

Pricing your item is optional as we will price to sell.

Please print out tags and add to your donated art work

http://feltalive.fileburst.com/Item%20Identification%20Tags.pdf

Thankyou so Much

Learning to Spin on a Drop Spindle

I was never really interested in spinning yarn but just thought i would give it a go and
now i'm learning to spin, i love it,
Go Figure lol

These ones are just drying out at the moment with weights.
The pink is merino and the only one so far that i've plied, purple merino, raw merino and then a mix of merino and alpaca. the bulk of my fleece is merino that i dye and card but i think i might have to acquire some different types of fibres to card together.


















Daz (hubby) made me a winder, its a pretty rough one but he calls it his prototype lol but hey it still works a treat and spins pretty fast.

















This is the first lot i did, the colored one is bought rovings and the other is raw carded merino which i'll dye later.



















Made myself a couple of drop spindles, first one broke as soon as i put the cup hook in (the one with the black tape), its still works though , i think i might need some smaller ones to.
Now i've seen some gorgeous ones out there and i know these are pretty plain and simple but there great for learning on.

Im having so much fun with this now
i find it very relaxing sitting there playing and making yarns. I'd love to make some Art yarns and really fun stuff.
Cheers all and Happy Felting, Spinning,Carding, Everything

CARDING,CARDING AND MORE CARDING

Happy New Year Everyone, I'm looking forward to a spectacular 2009 of Felting , Dying , Carding & Sharing.

I am having so much fun with my new carder, i was asked to make a kit up with small amounts of colors, so i've had 3 days of dying and carding and now i cant stop lol . At the moment i'm just using 3 primary colors in the landscape dyes and just about to order a whole range of dyes so will be able to dye up a storm.

Here come's Santa

As its getting to be that time of year again i thought i would make another Santa. He's checkin us out to see if we've been good i think. He's in a pot at my back door and then when i looked again he's gone to the tree in the front to see through our window. He's just head and arms attached with wire for the photo shoot, i think he's pretty special and a bit cheeky, he's 100% needle felted.

Funny Little Pumpkins

I enjoyed making my first pumpkin so much i thought i would make another one . He's a bit grumpier though ,especially with the sun in his eye's. He really didnt want to be disturbed. Both are 100% Needle Felted.

I made this cute little pumpkin for the october challenge on the forum. For some reason i cant seem to do creepy or spooky and it was a holloween theme this month.

He is 100% Needle Felted using my dyed wool,

Looks who's arrived early

I love santa, he's 100% needle felted and i had so much fun making him, i couldnt reach my chimney so i had to just sit him on the roof, that is were he comes in anyway isnt it lol

He's 12in or 32cm tall and i just love his face, he looks so kind

Sour Grapes

This was my first attempt at using Alpaca for Needle Felting, I found it to be a bit squishy and to soft, (beautiful to touch) but a lot harder to needle with. I think thats why she might look a bit sour, and the fact that she had no time to fix her hair before her photo shoot. lol

This is my version of our Hilda challenge that our teacher Kay Petal (Feltalive) put to her students. Hilda is a voluptous Pin-Up Character of the 1950"s created by Artist Duanne Bryers. This was such a fun challenge and even though i could not for the life of me get her face anywhere near what she looked like, i still had a ball bringing her to life my way.

Whenever i look at Garf i have to laugh, I just absolutely love this guy, He came out of no-where really, i was just doing a practise head that i was going to leave alone but then i couldnt really do that now could i.. He still needs some butterflies and flowers cause i think he would just love them. Big ole dumb Garf. He's my biggest doll yet and he took me quite a while to make. But loads of fun to see him come to life. Wool really does have a life of its own and really does create a lot of giggles. lol He's all needle felted using a single barbed needle.

Hazel is another of my favorite Dolls. Originally she was a boy right up until i added the hair and then whala, lol she was a girl, i was wondering why i was having so much trouble getting him the way i wanted, its because he wanted to be a she . lol Hazel loves to read and she quite often sits outside under a tree and spends hours immersed in her favorite books. I really love the way she turned out even with her wonky teeth and face. She is just so happy all the time.

This is my man Bert lol He's a funny little fella, he was lucky enough to be there with Mya in the Art Show and they both received a Highly Commended award to. Thats pretty special especially as now fortunately or unfortunately (whichever mood im in) Bert has since been sold to a lovely lady that begged me for 5 days to own him. I'm sure he's very happy now with his new owner but i'll have to make Mya a new friend.

Introducing Mya She is my absolute Favorite Doll and my very first Feltalive Doll with Kay Petal, I love her to pieces, she has such a free spirit and so calming on me. Mya is 100% needle felted using a single barbed needle as is all my work. I think just the thought of taking that handful of raw fleece and washing and dying and then creating something ,that to me, is just awesome. I am so in love with the whole process and it really amazes me what or who can come to life with wool.

This is one of my favorites, a gorgeous lady by the name of Marti helped me create this tapestry, i really wanted to do a scene from our harsh australian outback and this was the end result. I actually entered this one in my very first Art Show and received a Highly Commended Award, i was so very Happy with that.

I wanted to try my hand at a needle felted tapestry and these are the first two that i accomplished, the little cabin is a bit wonky but i love them anyway

Flowers anyone, I love a house full of flowers and i love them even better when i dont have to water them or do anything, as i dont have a green thumb i thought these would be perfect. My daughter has the little pink one on her bed head and she loves waking up to a pretty flower every morning.

This fruit platter was one of my earlier pieces to. The banana is my favorite but i really enjoyed trying different pieces of fruit. Couldnt quite get the bunch of grapes happening though but i will try again later.

I am so sorry but i already seem to have accidently deleted the lovely comments made to me by 3 friends. I do have a lot to learn and i'm pretty shattered by that.

She is supposed to be a pin cushion or something. Still had no idea what i was doing then except enjoying myself a lot

I love this little wall hanging, the background is wet felted and then the flower is needle felted in place. Its only small and pretty bright, the very first wall hanging

The Weird & Wacky

This needle felt lady was one of the first pieces i tried to do without having any instructions. she's a bit wacky and she was a lot of fun especially as i was really just learning.