My First Nuno Felt

I finally did it, my first nuno felt and i made a little vest for my Granddaughter Charlie, I did blog about it here
http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/


But !!!!!
So this is my first nuno one and although its far from perfect i'm happy to have had a go and looking forward to trying again

I used Merino and BFL along with lots of silk, silk threads & sari ribbons

 

 Thought i might have over done the bits and pieces at first, and i did add a bit to much fiber on top because i wanted it a bit more wrinkly than what it came out, but thats ok '

 

This is after throwing it about 100 times, it did shrink a lot

 

Cutting it up and adding beads, blanket stitching all the edges and all had to be done by hand as i dont have a machine anymore , and i know its just plain and simple but its the first one lol

 

Of course i did cut a pattern from one of her tops but i should have made the front sides a bit larger, she's still only little but she seems to be filling out nicely, love the double chin lol 

Its not going to fit her for long but i'm still happy with the way it turn out and learning by my mistakes is half the fun  !!

Happy Felting !!!

Finished Book Cover

Well i finally finished my book cover, i just added a few clusters of beads and i'm pretty happy with the end result. Normally when i add beads to things i have this thing that i need to make them nice and even and really symetrical and thats what always stops me and ends up giving me so much grief. This time i decided not to fuss and just start adding willy nilly sort of.   I kind of just picked up certain colors and beads, dropped and spread em and then stitched in place. Sooo much easier and a lot less stress than trying to get them all perfect and patterny :)  I dont even think it needs any fancy stitches. I havent fixed on a closure for this one and i dont think i will but i'll sit on it for a while and see !

 

A little close up of the bottom part and i dont think it needed any more than this,  I really like the colors of the fibre as well !

 

And now i'm a Happy Camper :)

New Book Cover

 

 

 

I've been working on another book cover, this one i added a whole piece of silk to the front, you can see where it didnt quite felt in but thats ok as i'm going to add stitching and beads to this one, It actually fit the book to so i was pleased as punch with that.

 

 

Front of course

 

Just to give an idea of the texture, i love it

 

                                                                             Inside right

 

Inside left

 

and back cover, its a little darker than what this shows up

 

I'm also making a small purse for my camera but its giving me a bit of grief so i'll keep working on that.

To let everyone know as well, i've been trying to add comments to some blogs and that word verification just wont let me, Heathers in fine but not the rest. I've unchecked the sign in box as last time that was the problem but it still wont let me add comments and i give up after around 8 goes :)

 

Happy Felting xo

My Week

Hi Everyone, I just put this post on the forum so thought i'd put it here to,  I tried to get in some felting this week, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I would have liked but at least I managed a few things, We had such a beautiful sunny day the other day that I felt like felting some flowers

I had a fair bit of trouble with the first smaller one getting the stem attached, it took me an episode of NCIS of rubbing and squishing with lots of soap to actually get the flower head and stem firmly attached. Then with the larger one I decided to do the stem and large flower as a whole which seemed to work so much better, I also made another smaller flower head and inserted it in the centre by needle felting it together, there both pretty strong now and I’m fairly happy though I know I can do better.

 

 

 

 

 

I really wanted to make a vessel of some sort to so off I started again, I cut a resist and was thinking I’d do an enclosed one and then cut and see whats underneath, mmmmm first of all the shape was all wrong again, it was more bag shape than vessel shaped, well to me anyway

I wasn’t really sure how many layers to do so I started with 3 layers of white Romney, ( sorry I forgot to take a pic of that part) then added a layer of purple BFL –merino

 

Then a layer of redy, it looks more pink in the pic but its redy orange really

 

 

Then the final layer of more red and lots of sari silk, threads and nylon

 

5 layers in total and its already super strong and nice and thick.

So now I didn’t much like it as a vessel, as I said the shape is wrong and I’ve already cut the top off and tried to get it in the shape I want but of course it just wanted to look more like a sack than anything else :) and once again I didn’t take a pic of trying to get that shape, so after much bravery I cut more and more and now I’ve ended up with what will be a small bag but Ill have to make a new handle and mess around with it way more than I wanted. Having said that I’m really enjoying playing around with it and we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out. Don’t be shocked but this is what I have to play with now and I do have more of an idea of what the finished piece will look like but it’ll take me a couple more days to finished it off

 

 

 

The flap isn’t going to stay that shape this is just as far as I’ve got with it right now and I’m going to add some leather ( i think) and generally mess around with it.

So thats it so far, next week i wont have anything in my house, not even the kitchen sink so it might be a couple of weeks before i can get into anymore felting. hope your all having a fun week. Happy Felting xo

 

 

Inspired by Heather W

Hi everyone, i just put a new post up on the forum with my latest pieces inspired by Heather @ Woollove-functional fiber

 

I love the way Heather made her new journal covers, all in one piece and not stitched together so had to have a go.  Yes i made a few mistakes but im still very happy with how they turned out, especially this first one, not so much the second one :)

 

I added in a slim resist to make a pen pocket , you can just see the plastic sticking out of the center top ( i thought that was clever) and a way to always have a pen with the note book, also some tribute orange  ( her favorite color) :)

 

 

I cut a piece of leather and used the inside of it for the closure ( the right side is brown and i wanted the orange ) with a toggle for the button

 

 

I loved this one at this stage but after it was dry there just not my colors, my daughter loved it so its hers now.  Again another resist for a pen pocket which works really well

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankyou for the inspiration Heather,  i loved making these and plan on making more and perfecting more :)

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2012/08/30/inspired-by-heather/

 

Heathers blog

http://woollove-functional-fiberart.blogspot.com.au/

 

Re-doing this blog

I'm having to re-do this blog as i was hijacked and all my pictures gone,  so far its taken me almost the whole day to get done what i have,  re-loading pics ect in every single post :(   not a happy girl )

So excuse the mess right now as i've decided to re-do everything including a new banner, but i havent got the right size yet. 

I'm also going to learn to back up everything !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Help Please

I'm having so many problems with this blog and im not sure how to fix it.  I was hoping someone would be able to lend a hand,  this blog keeps going straight to some other web ring and its driving me banana's.
I dont know why its doing it and i'm not sure how to contact blogger to find a solution, I'm ready to delete the whole thing and start again but in truth that would be horrendous lol 
Does anyone have any ideas of either what i've done or whats been done on my blog,
I appreciate any advise you can give
Thanks karen xo

Book Give-Away

Over on the felting studio Ruth is giving away a signed copy of her new book.  I can tell you this is a brilliant book jamed packed full of informatiom, tip and ideas.  She shows lots of different breeds of fleece and what there best used for with some great samples of how they felted.  Theres projects for wet , nuno & resist felting plus needle felting by hand and machine. Over 800 color photos is this gorgeous big book so  if you'd like a chance to win one  then hop on over to the studio and all you have to do is leave a comment then check back to see if your the lucky winner !!!

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2012/08/16/win-the-complete-photo-guide-to-felting/

Where have i been

Hello Everyone

I just did a blog post on our studio site but thought i'd put it here to

I thought it was about time I explained my absence and whats been happening in my life over  the last few months.

I started out with my Father In-law very sick in hospital for a month and everyone thinking that he wasn’t going to come out,  Happy to say he’s well again, home and at 86yrs young hes back at work lol  loves his job and not quite ready to finish up yet.

Then we had a huge flood in our house and imagine all this water inside as well as outside

I had to call the ses for help and they promptly dug up our back yard to fill sand bags to put at all the openings in the hope of stopping the water. It did work but what a mess, this pic was taken a few hours after the storm and most of the water had gone, we had a months worth of rain in one afternoon.

Then both hubby and I ended up with a very bad flu, I think that was because we waddled in this water and a deluge of rain for hours, freezing cold to so we ended up pretty sick.  In fact that nasty flu found it way to so many people down here, it wasn’t nice and to top that off we then had a strain of gastro that was worse lol  Were healthy now and I personally plan on staying that way.

The insurance is just coming through now so were in the middle of packing up the whole downstairs of our house in order to have new flooring, were going for polished concrete this time and in case we ever flood again then it’s a matter of mopping up instead of ripping up floating  floors and vinyl. My craft room is downstairs to but I saved just about everything in there and now its being packed away till the floors are done and I’m so looking forward to re- organizing my room again and starting fresh.  I’ll be like a brand new room so no excuse for me not to have it organized properly

I had to stop everything and then I think we get ourselves into a mind meltdown and find it hard to come back from. I’m very happy to say that im getting back into the right frame of mind and cant wait to start working with some wool again.

Ruths new book came and Its fantastic,  im enjoying reading through it and very eager to get my room all set back up and unpack supplies. I really needed the inspiration so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Its a Gorgeous  book jam packed with lots of information, projects and over 800 color photo's. Well done Ruth !!!!
  

I have so much to catch up on and looking forward to seeing what everyone has been doing while I’ve been gone.

For now I’ll leave you with a pic of the one little person who keeps  us all going with her happy little smile and squeals of delight. At 7 months old now my Granddaughter Charlie is the happiest little  girl ever and cant you tell that she's well looked after with those bright chubby cheeks :)  

Happy Felting Everyone xoxo

Something Different !!

Well i havent been able to do anything for a while now due to Father In-law being in hospital ( hes finally on the mend and at home) so things can settle down a bit now and we can get back to some normality
So having said that this week at the resort i manage we had a lady ( Dianne) staying for the week who came down to teach workshops in Paverpol Dolls, and since i havent done anything for what seems like ages and i'd never seen them before i couldnt wait to do a class with her, good or bad move i'm not sure yet as i think i'm hooked lol  I love them
Ive made these 2 dolls using an electrical wire amateur, wrapped in skin, dressed and coating them in paverpol, they set very firm so once possed they'll stay that way, i'm already starting another one tonight and because i havent been able to do much lately i had so much fun with this workshop


This green girl was the first one and i really like her although i think she's a bit on skinny side

This one is bit more solid and i made a little bunch of flowers for her to hold out of the silk paper that i made the other week

I know its not felting but i thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing , Thanks Dianne for giving me something else to obsess about  lol 

Frustration

I havent been able to do much of anything lately, my father in-law is quite sick in hospital so we've been running back and forwards, seeing him and cleaning his house for when he comes home and its a 3 hr round trip so makes for long days, also my Daughter is doing a beauty course thats about an hour and 20min drive away so guess who sits in the carpark waiting all day lol   im using that as my chill out day either reading or stitching all by myself , its lovely
So this morning ( sunday) i was itching to try some silk paper making, not good,  i started out with mulberry silk and then added silk throwsters waste, silk rods and hot fix angelina and i can tell you that NOTHING stuck to the mulberry silk, not sure why and the dye ran a lot.  I tried a few times but just couldnt get it to work, i didnt have any trouble with the straight rods, waste and angelina so i can only assume that the mulberry isnt something that you can use to make paper ?  has anyone else ever had trouble with that fibre ? 
So heres a couple of pics of what happened
the layers seperated so i could put my hand through lol nice

The mulberry just would not stay put

 

 using silk rods, waste and angelina, I even added in some Rainbow Trilobal that zed sent me and it worked fine

straight silk rods

on to the next one lol  ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

A New Bag !

It was time to attempt another bag and i'm a lot happier with this one, i still need a lot more practise but i'm actually going to use this as my everyday bag,  its only day 1 so we'll see how it holds up lol

I've used Alpaca, BFL, merino, silk, silk waste and some nylon that Zed sent me. The top was a bit to wonky for me so i've turned it in and blanket stitched it down, i've also created a seam at the bottom that i'm hoping will wear down, i guess i used to much fibre at the edge ? 
I'm still very happy anyway and looking forward to starting another and improving as i go !!!

I also have to find another button or some sort of button as the black one was the largest one i had and i dont really like it

and the back

Roll on the next one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I've  posted this in our studio to at

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Not quite a pod

Some of the girls over on our Studio site and forum  have been making bird pods and they look amazing. Well i thought i'd try my hand to and it didnt quite turn out lol


My so called pod ended up looking more like a pink sorting hat from Harry Potter, as i started felting i realised that i'd cut the resist all wrong, thinking only of the top and not the bottom, silly me so, what started out looking like this

then became a secret fairy house with a very shy fairy, i was quick though and managed to get this shot lol

These flowers were probably the best ones ive done so far .  I ended up having some fun with this so i'll try another pod shortly.

So come and join us over at the studio and have some fun in our interactive forum
See you there and happy felting  !!!

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/
http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/index.cgi?

More from me !!

I've just put the blog post up in our studio site along with a felted note book cover i made

I  have added to my tree project in my mixed media course.  I”ve added some more stitching with some leaves and flowers  in straight stitches and French knots and I did try to be very clever and create a picot stitch, ( on the right up the trunk )  I haven’t done one of them before and I want to do a vine going around and up the tree and in a 3d kind of effect,  so this is my first attempt at that stitch and while I thoroughly enjoyed how it works I will more than likely take those few out and re-do. That was just a bit of practise J  I’ve also added a spider web and the dreaded spider ( sorry zed )  he's a friendly one   J    

I am really enjoying this and although nothing is perfect  and its not supposed to be, I’m loving how its all coming together.  I still need to add more foliage and I’m not really sure what to do with the background but it does need something, maybe a shrub or to in the far distants.   I’m just taking my time with this project and as things come to mind I’ll be adding them in !!

This is my latest note book cover using stitch and beads

The whole post is over at our Studio Site

http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Happy Felting & Stiching xo 

More Mixed Media

Sorry I haven’t been able to post in a couple of weeks, we’ve been very busy with Family and friend commitments, weddings, engagements and 50^th birthdays.  I’m so glad its all over now and we can get back to normality, plus I’m partied out and pooped lol

 I'm a bit behind in my course with Victoria but as its an online course this one is able to be done at leisure and I’ll always have it, which is great

For this course we had to do some pages in a book and as I’m not a really big fan of altered books, although i have seen some gorgeous ones,  I’ve used some pages and then on calico and a couple of canvas’s.  The pages are so far done using acrylic paints, pressed flowers and stamps made from leaves, you can see that I’m not very good at the stamping bits lol  But I am still having fun so that’s the main things, and i will add some stitches on this to see how it goes.

The next one is on canvas and using water color pencils and painting with coffee, of all things, lucky I bought a jar that we really don’t like so I’ll keep that for this use.  And yes its smells like coffee everytime i pick it up lol

I do prefer to work on calico so this is my tree. This is done using acrylic paints and coffee again. Victoria uses memory thread which I don’t have ( YET) so  for the main area of the tree I used the 6 strands of thread and the rest is using 3 strands, I still have a fair bit to do on this as it needs flowers, bugs and spiders. The foliage is her thread salad stitch which I really like and can be used for a lot of fill in work and more foliage.

And last but by no means least is my gorgeous Granddaughter Charlie,  She’s such a little sweetheart, at 7 weeks old she’s  full of smiles and a very contented baby, at least until she's hungry lol  Were all in love J

 

So till next time Happy Felting and Stitching or whatever it is you love to do