Floral Nuno Felted Wrap

Nuno felted silk flowers (up-cycled from a skirt) on custom hand dyed merino, silk, and bamboo fibers.

Wet felted Upholstry Fabric

A thrifted metal chair with a broken seat needed a pick-me-up. The fabric is nuno felted on silk to give it integrity and keep it from stretching too much. The pattern was inspired by an image in the book Gaia Star Mandalas: Ecstatic Visions of the Living Earth by Bonnie Bell and David Todd.

Felting, Dyeing, Sewing, Pricing, Listing and Blogging

This started out as an experiment nuno felting some tightly woven silk, but the weave was so tight the wool fibers would not migrate through. I peeled off the silk and had a basic natural white purse. That simply would not do, so after looking at it hanging on a skirt hangar for ages I got out the dyes.

I've been resisting doing a lot of dyeing. If a purse takes a couple of hours to lay out, a couple of hours to felt, and an hour or two to finish, adding dyeing to the process makes for a mighty expensive item in terms of man-hours. Or woman-hours.

But maybe that resistance was ill founded? I really like this purse. I like it better than the dark red one I am carrying now. In fact, I am tempted to make another one in another color with the same two interior pockets and a dark bottom with a bright top.

Fingerless Gloves

Lately I've been making fingerless gloves for texting. They are all merino wool with silk carrier rods, bamboo fiber and upcycled beads.

Of course the weather has been unseasonably warm. Who needs gloves when it's 70 degrees?

Pebbles and Patchwork

Yesterday, as I was cutting out prefelts to lay the pebbles out on the silk scarves, I swore I would not do anymore polka dots or pebbles. Some people enjoy cutting things out, and more power to them!

The green patchwork wrap needed a fresh photograph, so this morning in the early light it went on the mannequin out on the patio.

The rest of the pre-dawn was taken up loading them into the etsy shop.

What's Missing?

This pair of hand warmers is for my sister, but they look unfinished to me. The beads across the wrist aren't quite enough, but I haven't figured out what else to do with them. Maybe a bit of contrasting color or fabric inside peeking out either at the finger end or the wrist end? Constructive criticism is welcome!

A Matter of Semantics

Recently, I manned a table for my husband at an event. Trying to pass the time I was beading embellishment on a felted hat. A lady stopped by because the hat caught her eye. She is a spinner, weaver, knitter and in her words, a felter. She commented on the light weight of the hat I was working on and said hers were never so soft or so light because after knitting them and putting them in the washer they grew much heavier. I commented that she wasn't actually felting, she was fulling her knitted items. She said, "Oh, that's just semantics."

But is it really? Felt, by definition, is a non-woven textile. If one twists fiber into yarn and knits it, it is a woven textile. Fulling it produces changes, but it certainly does not produce felt. I didn't argue with her, but mis-labeling a product is deceptive. Does anyone else care about the definitions that pertain to their craft?

The Cat in the Hat

Check out Cathy in the curly lamb's locks beret! I made the hat to match a messenger bag adorned with curly locks. cAthy is the proprietor (proprietress?) of Villa Capelli in Decatur, TX.

Beaded Nuno Felted Purse

What color is this? I'd hate to have the job naming paint colors! This has some golden dijon mustard, black, and an interesting blue cast. The bling comes from an upcycled beaded skirt, the strap is an upcycled leather belt, and the closure is one of the leather attachments for a pair of men's suspenders.

Completed Floral Scarf in Retro Colors

The colors in this scarf are so happy! So many things these days are drab, but this sure isn't. Nuno felting the cotton took about a hundred eleventeen hours. I didn't think the wool would ever migrate through. The bamboo and firestar didn't help speed things up. I'm quite pleased with the end result.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/84384261/retro-colors-floral-turquoise-red-brown

Floral Print Scarf Project in 1950's Colors

I've been cutting individual elements of a print out of a thin cotton fabric and laying them on wool roving. The fabric was a blouse in what look to me like 1950's color combinations. It must be the turquoise background that reminds me of my grandmother! It needs a bit more wool between the flowers and leaves and will be ready to felt.

Red Clutch

I made this bag as a tote big enough for paperwork, but it wasn't talking to me. After removing the handles and folding over the top edge to reveal the bright red interior it looks a lot better. The cuts in the wool closed up quite a bit as the wool shrank.

Celtic Cross, Part II

The colors of the prefelt Celtic cross were dulled by the brown fibers that crept through. The embroidery delineates the design, but I missed the saturated colors from the prefelt. I decided to make another cross to put on the other side of the bag.

The handles are once again an upcycled leather belt. The trim on the top edge of the bag is silk tartan upcycled fabric.

Notice the color of the grass in the background. This August has been terribly hot and dry, even for Texas.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81693657/celtic-cross-wool-felted-tote-bag

Celtic Cross

The inside layer of wool is white corriedale, andthe middle layer is the multi-colored BFL in Redwood Forest. I hope the colors all show through the white to make a lighter colored interior but still showing the lovely shades of blue, green and brown. The exterior is natural brown with a little blue and green carded in.

I made a length of felt out of the BFL to cut up for the design which I will felt in place. After it is felted the plan is to use the green yarn to add the detail to the Celtic cross. The template for the cross was an image from layeducation.org. By the time the felted project is complete it may not resemble the original at all!

Primary Colors

No, not the book! A red, yellow and blue scarf made from merino wool, silk sari threads, bamboo, and bombyx silk fiber. It's hard to even think about wearing a scarf now that summer has come to Texas. The best part of the heat is the scarf was dry in about 10 minutes after hanging it out on the clothesline.

Sandwiched Felt

After weeks of recuperating I am back to felting. Hooray!

This was an experiment that didn't yield the intended result. I sandwiched wool between a floral upcycled piece of organza silk and a green silk yardage from the fabric store. The floral side is heavily textured, which I like. and the green side has a much finer, tighter texture. What I didn't anticipate was how little drape the overall piece would have once completed. A smaller quantity of roving laid out in the middle might have allowed the silk to drape nicely. Aahh, tomorrow's another day, Scarlett!

Upcycled Leather Belt Bag Handles

To use a leather belt for purse or tote bag handles, first assemble the tools. My favorite sources for belts are the Goodwill where they are $1.99 each, or the Genesis Thrift Shop in Dallas where they cost less than $5. I've tried lots of different kinds, and I prefer leather that is not bonded or sewn. Lots of belts are a different color on the back side. For handles I like the front and back to be the same color.

Cut the leather to length. If you don't like the holes in most belts, cut the the end off and make a shorter strap. Or punch holes the entire length of the belt to make them look intentional.

The easiest way to attach them is to use rawhide and lace it in place. The rawhide lacing makes a nice, strong junction. I would hate to have the handles fall off of something I had made.

For a rawhide lacing attachment, use a leather punch for a nice neat hole. Depending on the size of the bag, I usually either use four holes or six, but you really could lace it any way you would like. On the natural colored wool bag in the photos there are four holes in each end of the belt. Since the top of the bag is folded over, I put a slit in the top edge and sandwiched the leather in between the wool so the lacing could go through two layers of felt. It is a fairly large bag and I wanted it to have extra load bearing area. I use small scissors that have a very sharp point for poking holes in the felt. You can see the belt end peeking out of the bottom of the folded over edge in one photo.

If you don't want the lacing to show, cover it with something. On the outside of the bag I sometimes use beads threaded through the lacing. On the inside I often line the top several inches to both cover the attachment and add a contrasting color or texture.

When using belts that are woven strips of leather I poke the lacing through existing gaps instead of using a leather punch.

The Big Dipper

I embroidered around the stars and added some Austrian crystals to make the night sky pop. The bag is black, navy and white merino wool with some blue silk wet felted around a resist. I haven't decided yet whether to put a flap closure on it or a drawstring or to just leave it open.

Summer Handbags With a Pop of Color

I had a bag full of seashells that I've wanted to incorporate into a felted bag. I thought about felting a face and using the shells for eyes, but the lavender color might have looked either creepy or vacant. Anyway, I like them just as plain shells with some art yarn scribbled around them.

The cotton batik inside really pops. I think I will make a bunch of these handbags in different bright colors just because they make me happy.

St. Patrick's Day Green

Okay, I thought I had finished with this theme of scarves, but with St. Patrick's day right around the corner I had to do just one more in green. This one is wide enough to be a wrap and has lots of tussah silk shot through the white area.