My first batch of felting kits are finally up for sale in my Etsy store as of this afternoon.  I can’t believe how long it has taken to get to this stage, really I am kicking myself they were not up earlier but truthfully I just seem to have been totally snowed under with other important things as you may have guessed from my recent posts! 

Some of the wool for my new flat felting kits

Each kit contains between 110g and 120g Icelandic wool in mixed colours, a small bag with various embellishments which might include beads, buttons or fancy yarn, bubble wrap and full written instructions on how to make your flat felt masterpiece.  The kits make ideal presents for crafty male and female friends, both adults and children alike.

After Christmas (not going to be too ambitious about the date this time!) I will also be offering nuno felt kits, felt jewellery kits and simple felt vessel kits.  Realistically I need to write up clear instructions for all the tutorials, order in  more silk for the nuno kits, cut out resists for the vessel kits and basically take some good images of each individual kit to upload to Etsy.  The weather has been so bad here recently that I have not been able to take individual shots of the flat felting kits (they kept flying off the table this afternoon in the wind!), at the moment I only have the one photo but in the absence of any others I guess it will just have to do for now!

I love this bag certainly makes me want to explore more depth of shape within resists ,and embellishing on a machine

ok I have now firmed the felt u after rolling about 200 x either direction and 5 mins of throwing the bag was really firm and the cutting began.I then inserted the handle supports and began stitching .I used thread for leather and the 2 needle technique.The work then begins on the handles under the stitch lines you must kee working where your cut lines were to firm u the edges and make it look pretty.Shaping the bottom and stuffing it while it dried was the best thing I did as it kept the design.It had 3 days in the airing closet which is very warm hot air blowing all the time (not very eco friendly) and then I wire brushed the outside before shaving which sounds odd but it worked and I got a really smooth surface ,come back tomorrow and see the finished bag

My goal every year is to make all my own Christmas cards, and of course write a personal note on each one that I send. In the real world, many times I just sign:

Love,

Joe & Carla

Also, I’m realistic enough to buy boxes of cards when they go on sale after Christmas. If nothing else, it gives me a cheap source of envelopes for the cards that I make. Sometimes the boxes go on sale for .25 for 25 cards. Now that’s a mathematical story problem I can solve. A penny apiece.

Affordable cards made in the U.S.A.

Stickles

For embellishments, I got out plain old Elmer’s glue – not made in the U.S. anymore – and my box of glitter tubes and bottles. My sister uses Stickles and it’s so easy to use and goes where where you want it to – next time I’ll use it for this kind of project. Stickles is glitter glue made by Ranger (in the U.S. as all there products are). It’s really superior to the kind of glitter glue I used to buy in the 1980’s. Nana’s Scrapbooks in Weatherford has some and I hope to add new colors to my stash. Nana’s is a very nice little scrapbook store. The owner is a kind Christian lady and very helpful. I’d link her website, but I couldn’t find it using the search engine.

Can a girl have too much glitter?

Red glitter for the berries on the bell cards.

These also needed something extra so I touched up the snow with white glitter and also a few bits of red and green.

Not exactly handmade, but at least hand embellished. And it was surprising how much nicer they looked. They certainly didn’t look like penny cards.

oh so love playing with silks and getting differing effects this is going in the hand stitch pile or maybe machine embroidery before I then work it into the felted container which will be a christmas present for someone .At the chapel we see the most incredible skies and this was in my mind as I worked .On another note I so hope everyone at Glaramara in the lakes are ok with these floods –this is a twice ayear felting venue for me .

With Autumn Gathering approaching, the black dress project has been set aside for other – more pressing things.

The first of these things was to go back to the original dresses (white chemise and brown over gown) I’d made and tack down the facing at the neckline.  Two evenings of stitching and movies and these were crossed off my list.

Next up was the embellishing of my blue wool sideless.  After much thought and research of my stitch dictionary, I decided to ‘borrow’ the chain stitch technique from Cristiana de Huntington and trim out the neckline and armholes with white thread and some lovely blue glass beads I’d picked up. 

The neckline and one armhole were finished when I realized that I wasn’t going to have enough of the beads to finish it out.  *sigh*  No worries, I’ll just pop back over to the craft store and pick up another tube of them.  Excellent theory, unfortunately, their entire bead stock has been wiped out.  Two weeks later and they still have not re-stocked their shelves.  Headed over to the local fabric store to check their stock…  They had the right color but in the wrong size.  They had some others that might be a possibility if I wanted to re-do all of my work so I picked up some of those.  Just in case.

Headed to the Shire Sewing Gathering with nothing to work on since no one had my beads in stock.  I ended up having the opportunity to make a run to Vancouver to check a couple of places this afternoon so on the road we went.

Three craft/fabric shops later, still no matching blue beads.  I did pick up some lovely pink cube beads and frosted clear glass ones as well…but that’s another project for another day.  The last store we went to had some lovely blue beads that don’t quite match what I’ve been using.  I picked up a few tubes of these as well, just in case.

…the beadwork/embroidery is finished on the sideless.  Finally!  And it ended up not needing all of the beads from one tube.  The result there is – I’ve got a lot of blue beads left over for a future project.

There never seem to be enough hours in a day to fit in all the things that I really want to do.  Luckily my flu is now 90% over so I am starting to plough through all the paperwork and outstanding letters/emails etc. that built up over the 4 weeks while I was away from home.  My exciting news of the day however concerns the Icelandic wool that I will soon be selling from my Etsy store, I haven’t linked through this time because I need to wait until the wool arrives and get the images uploaded first!  The colours are fabulous and as well as offering different weights of the wool for sale I also intend putting some fun kits together with clear (hopefully!) instructions on how to make various different items.  The Icelandic wool is superb for structural work, bags, vessels, sculpture, light shades etc. and also could be used for warm scarves although would not be as soft as merino when worn directly against the skin.  Please let me know what you think about putting felting kits together, I was thinking along the lines of …..  beginners flat felt, simple felt vessel, felt purse, felt flower, felt necklace, felt brooch etc. and then a kit with instructions for a first nuno felt scarf using the fantastic short fibred merino I import from Filzrausch.  I would include all the raw materials including embellishments and any findings, clear but simple instructions and enough bubble wrap and resist where necessary to complete the project.  All comments gratefully received!

This Thursday is the deadline for all Clasheen Autumn Swap packages to be on their way across the globe!  If you have been one of our gang participating this time please remember to get your goddies out and then to leave a message of thanks and pictures to the Clasheen Crafty Swaps pool on Flickr as soon as you receive your own package.  If for any reason you are going to be a day or two late getting to the post PLEASE just leave a message on our message board.  Everyone understands if a delay occurs (so long as it is not every time!) and it just relieves the pressure on both ends of the swap.

Next Monday I will be taking down my felt ‘Cascade’ from Sculpture in Context so if you have not yet visited the Irish National Botanic Gardens in Dublin to view the exhibition now is your last chance.  Check out this article from the Irish Times.

Article in the Irish Times

Well when it rains there’s no gardening or sunbathing so I felt and today has been busy carding fibre ready for my new jewelry to take to France ,just for me to wear this time .It has been a great day figure wise on the blog thanks to blogsurfer us. it is uncanny how this site increase your visitors but cool.Lots of fabulous colours to look at for fall 09,yummy colours for making jewelry in

fall 09 colours

I’ve just been working on these bags which I have called

“Pretty Wedding Bags”

(for lack of a better name……)

I bought these bags ages ago..they are so pretty

I am sure they are made from silk

(I even took them in to the staff at Spotlight who thought they were made from silk)

but even if they aren’t – they are still very pretty

I have added a little embellishment with ribbon flowers and gold yarn

The lace overlay already has tiny little pearl beads and little sequins around the bottom edge.

I will be posting them for sale on  oztion.com.au

http://www.oztion.com.au/buy/auction.aspx?itemid=8201728&

]]> http://lucretiamyreflection.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/off-the-wagon/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:09:08 +0000 lucretiamyreflection http://lucretiamyreflection.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/off-the-wagon/

i went back to that web site. i think i will be cured for a while though, since a fight broke out over what feminism means. the thread included references to burqas — in favor of women who “choose” to wear them, and against those ignorami who find them abhorrent.

(i am such an ignoramus, for the record, but that’s not what the fight was about)

i don’t know what makes people write shit they know isn’t true online. i also don’t know if it’s any more common than people just shooting their mouths off, although it seems that way to me. i also don’t know if my problem dealing with people online is that i do tell the truth. maybe i should bend it a little, for flavor.

and feminism, at least at that site, is the hotbutton, shoot-your-mouth off topic. it’s downright odd how much psychological crap we pile onto that term, and how we cling to that label, and how deeply wounded we get when something happens to challenge our “feminist credentials.”

people go there and talk about how unhappy they are with their husbands never doing laundry, “because i’m a feminist.”

WHAA??

that’s the reason? how about you married an inconsiderate turd? how about you stew over mundane shit, rather than negotiating a chore distribution like a grown up? how about — laundry sucks and you get sick of it sometimes? but it’s not that, really. because we can all feel like that sometimes. i know i have, when i was pissed and blowing off steam. what befuddles me is the responses that these comments will get, from people who are not pissed off, or blowing off steam, but who are supposed to be the person’s sounding board and/or support. what they get is  coddling, “of course you’re a feminist,” and paragraphs and paragraphs about what an important isssue housework is.  god, i almost wanted to not type that, it’s so silly. and i’m not talking about dumb people, i’m talking people who seem reasonable on other topics.

so today was dogpile on me day, because someone posted this vague story about how some feminists made her feel less feminist, for having a child, rather than aborting, and i found the story implausible. i “invalidated” and i don’t know every single feminist, so i can’t say that, and whatever happened, that other chick did “feel” like she was being called less of a feminist.

i’m still like, forcing myself to type it. it’s silly. no one talks like that. maybe the odd crazy person fixated on feminism does, but how many of them are there really? you have your crazy people fixated on jesus, government surveillance, homosexuality, abortion, but there aren’t that many who really fixate on feminism. i hang with a left-leaning kind of crowd and in all my years i have NEVER seen anything that even approaches such a conversation. in fact, i have never seen a group of feminists talk to a person about her deficits in her own feminism, based on any of her life choices, let alone an existing child. political conversations about reproduction are almost always, and in my experience infallibly always, kept abstract. sometimes, people do gossip about someone who isn’t there, and may put a political slant on it. but even so, that’s a far cry from what this person described. more likely, she doubts her own feminist credentials and was feeling like an outsider in her group of friends, because she had a child when they didn’t. and rather than the story being “i felt,” i was “they made me feel.” which is always lovely.

so what is feminism to me? i feel like it’s only right to answer that, even though what i really think is that it’s not an important question. what’s important is how i live my life, not which leaders or thinkers i identify with. not that i do much identifying with leaders in general. so, dunno,  i read gloria steinem at a young age. it made sense to me. what she espoused is a given in my head, and any other social construct seems foreign to me. an australian feminist said that they’re just women who don’t want to be treated like shit. and that’s cool. i guess i’m more with susan brown who says that anarchists must be feminists by definition, being opposed to relationships of power. because i really think i would oppose these relationships just as much, even if i were born with testes.

i have no respect for authority. or rules, or status quo. maybe that’s a separate issue, but i’d prefer to think not.

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the, “Embellish My Own” workshop on May 31^st.  The workshop was a great success.  Those who attended brought their own projects to embellish.  There was plenty of creativity going around.  This is the only workshop of it’s’ kind in NYC.  If anyone else is interested in attending the next one, give us a call at 1-800-9-MJTRIM and we’ll put you on the list for this exciting workshop.  The next “Embellish My Own” workshop will be on June 28^th.  This workshop is great for all ages. 

“Embellish Your Own ” Workshop May 31st, 2009

Last chance to sign-up for the, “Embellish Your Own” workshop.  The workshop is on May 31st at M&J Trimming’s NYC showroom.  It’s from 9:30am to 12pm and only cost $30.  The workshop teaches you how you can be creative with simple trimmings and embellishments.  There are so many things you can do with trimmings; from embellishing your garment to decorating your home.  You can bring what you’d like to embellish to the workshop and we’ll teach you how to make it more beautiful than ever.  Call 1-800-9-MJTRIM to sign-up.

I remember the first time I used the word ‘mental orgasm’: it was for the disclaimer in our college literary folio, with ‘mental orgasm’ referring to the creative literary and art works of the authors and artists who had the privilege to be included in the folio.

I would like to think that creativity is a form of mental orgasm. You can furnish the details by yourself – I don’t like to be graphic about it. LOL.

Inspired by the contagious excitement of kg about the May/June Creative Swap, I decided to join myself in search of a new blogging adventure.

In line with me participating, this post is a shout out to whoever the cosmos will choose (or whoever caryn assigns to me, LOL) as my creative swap partner (whoever you are, I already like you because we have something in common: we are both latecomers).

Q: What kind of creative things are you into?

PM:I would like to think I am into creative things. LOL. Let me see. I like scrap booking, embellishing and recycling, reading and writing prose, photography and lay-outing, and shirt printing.

Q: How would you describe your personal style?

PM: I am very much laid-back, minimalistic, and in my dreams I think I am stylish. LOL.

Q: What are your favorite colors?

PM: I like white, orange, pink, and yellow.

Q: What is one craft you would like to learn?

PM: Carpentry? LOL. I would like to learn the ones that require patience like paper crafts or cross-stitching but that is never going to happen. LOL. I would want to paint, but that is also never going to happen. LOL. Or maybe it can, abstract painting. LOL. And baking!

Q: What other hobbies are you into?

PM: I take care of my fat cat, Jin, and read a lot of boring things. LOL. On my free time, which hardly comes, I watch Nat. Geo and Japanese manga with my sisters. I do not like to move a lot. LOL. I am a stay at home person, very laid-back.

Q: What items do you really wish you had right now?

PM: A new laptop? LOL. Let me see. Maybe tons of shirt printing stuff and loads of photo paper that is self-adhesive. LOL.

I am pretty excited about this because I really enjoy giving stuff away. LOL. I wish I would not accidentally send Jin by courier to my creative swap partner. LOL.

BTW, laugh with us here.

Well a new way of working for me, to create strips of felt then use these to form the jacket it has been interesting and we created bags of texture within this jacket,basically we are creating textures with silks shibori dyed fibres merino wool and fine cotton gauzes.Watch for the tutorial coming on this jacket

 What is your craft? Scrapbooking? Sewing? Knitting? Crochet? Jewelry?

 What ever it is, this site is for you. The categories are endless, whether you are a beginner or not.

 The best part is, if you sign up for their newsletter now, you will receive a free video and eBook bundle  that’s  a $75.00 value. Where else can you go to get a bundle like that?

 Looking to learn more about polymer clay, embellishing a pair of jeans or learn basic decorating of cakes, visit “You Can Make This” today!

So click on the box and sign up for the newsletter now. Don’t forget to look over the site and check out the “free” category area to download one of their projects now!

You know, I should really schedule some time to actually sit and write.  I have so much to write about… and I just don’t get it done.  And now I’ve kind of put myself on the hook, so I had better keep up.

What am I babbling about?  Well, it all started quite some time ago.  I was asked by the Program Comittee of our Quilters’ Guild to do a presentation on Computers and Quilting.  The place we meet does not have internet access, so I was working on a few things getting ready for the presentation.  One of the topics to be discussed was Online Courses.  It is amazing in less than one year, how many online courses are now available at different websites.  Some are free, some require a membership, and of course there are the paid ones.

While checking out Quilt University I saw that they had a Beading class beginning January 23.  I thought it over, even brought it up at the discussion.   I jumped in and signed up for it on the day it began.  So now I am a student at Quilt University.

Now for a little more history on my Adventures with beading.

At the top of my blog, you’ll notice a bargello.  This is my first Bargello.  When I displayed it to my guild (in the fall of 2007), one of the members suggested I bead it.  I was aghast… I had no idea how to bead.  I let it slide.     A workshop was offered by our guild in early 2008 on beading and embellishing.  I wasn’t ready to pursue that venue, so I didn’t sign up for it, but I did show up to take some photos of the group, and what they were doing.  The bug hadn’t bit me yet.  I was asked to come and visit during the Spring Retreat, and to take some photos.  I had a lovely day, and I look forward to when I can actually participate in an entire weekend retreat.  Well, one of the members (actually the one who suggested I bead the bargello), asked if I wanted to do some beading.  I quickly explained, I had no idea what to do, and she very promptly told me that didn’t matter… put the thread on the needle, poke it in the fabric, put on a bead, and put it back through the fabric.  Sounds easy enough?  Well, it was, and I felt I got very creative with her piece.  Don’t know if it was to her liking, but no matter, I had fun with it anyhow.  The bug hit me!

In September’ish 2008, the bug bit me even more.  I decided I was going to quilt a setting sun, and sun rays on the bargello.  My first attempt did not appeal to me… There wasn’t enough contrast between the beads I was using, and the fabric.   I mentioned this to another guild member, and she offered to give me some suggestions.  I was heading to her place to teach her a few things on her computer.  WOW!  What great ideas.    So I’ve been working a little at a time on the Bargello, to get it ready for our Quilt Show in March.

I had actually stopped working on the Bargello, as I felt that if I worked on a small piece, and do some practice it would better prepare me for the Bargello.   This did and din’t work.

I started “My Beading Experiment”.  My idea was to find a piece of fabric with a design, and then use the design as a guide to the beading.   I found a Fat Quarter of fabric.

I cut it into quarters, added sashings and a border, sandwiched, and quilted in the ditch around the sashing and borders.

My plan is each quarter will be a different colour scheme, and each will be beaded differently.  The first colour I used was green.  I’ve started in the photo above.

I have since finished the green, and am working in the opposite corner with blue.    I want this project to be a surprise to my Guild Members… so I won’t be publishing any more photos until it is completed, after the Quilt Show.

Which leads us to the Quilt University course.  We will be working on a sampler during the course, and another project or two.  I don’t know if I will ever apply beading to clothing (never say never, right?), but I will be definitely looking at projects a little differently.

Well, I should be off to prepare my fabric for the course.  I’ll be posting my progress here.  Thanks for stopping by!

-Alice

Thanks so much to Micki who has given me this Blogging Friends Forever Award!  Micki is an American living in beautiful Donegal who is passionate about quilting, embellishing, felting and all fiber arts.  You can catch Micki’s blog Irish Muses and enjoy some of her favourite music by clicking here or following the link in the blogroll on the right.

The rules for this award are that you …

• link back to the person who gave you this award
• give this award to four dedicated followers of your blog
• present it to one person who is new to your blog and lives on the other side of the world

The people that I would like to give this award to are Joni Phippin, Sylvia Oreifig, Mary Dawson, Dawn Edwards and Martin Lyttle. 

Yesterday I had my interview for ‘Craft in the Classroom’ and should get to know on Monday whether I am selected for the project or not.  I am really hoping that I will be chosen as one of the participating artists because it would be a great oportunity to work with primary school children and introduce them to the art of feltmaking.  On Sunday this weekend I will be having a small stand at a local craft fair so am busy today making some more scarves and putting a few things together that I might need for the day.  Because of all the work that I have been doing recently for the 2 exhibitions I don’t actually have a lot of stock lying around.  I am not going to worry unduly about selling work but have decided to do a few demos and advertise my felt making classes in addition to displaying work.  If anyone is interested in coming along the event takes place from 12pm  until 4pm at Boats Bistro on the Carlow side of the river at Tinnahinch, Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny.

It’s school holidays at the moment and I have thoughts of escaping to the scrapping studio almost every three seconds…

“Mum, can we make playdough?” (No. I much rather be scrapping)

“Mum, can we go to the movies?” (Won’t that take up scrapping time?”)

“Mum, Ryan trod on me!” (Is anyone bleeding? Because then I’d have to go to the doctors and I’d rather be scrapping)

“Mum, I’m bored” (What do you want me to do about it? I’m scrapping)

It seems that the thoughts of scrapping increase with the number of kids in the house. Coincidence? I think not! After making the playdough, the muffins, going to the movies, watching the Spongebob Squarepants show at the local shopping centre (amid hundreds of other screaming toddlers and their “gotta get this photo of little Jimmy with my phone camera” mothers – argh!) I am fantasising about scrapping time.

On the plus side, I actually have managed to get some scrapping done in the wee hours of the night when I can finally get my stress levels down LOL. So I have put together a few LO’s for you to have a sticky at this week…

I dearly love these older photos of my kiddos – they are so darn cute! lol – this is Ryan half way through gumming a choc chip cookie. He had it EVERYWHERE. I made the little elephants and little giraffes out of scrap cardstock – keep watching over the next few days as I am going to upload a template for them into my Tips and Techniques pages. The papers are new Reminisce if anyone wants to go searching for them.

After a fun day at Kindy painting faces, HB went around the house all day making cat noises to go along with her kitty face. Cute!

Last, my fave LO of the week – I love the colours and the photo but I also love the papers – guess what? They are MY papers. I have been designing for Eidou now for a while and one of my greatest loves is creating papers. These papers on the LO are from my “Grandpa’s Slippers” range.

The background paper is from Club Scrap and it is deeply embossed with a celtic filigree design – isn’t it gorgeous?

Check out my next Tips and Techniques page which will be uploaded soon – the template for the little animals in my “Making a meal” page and one will go up about Masking your title soon – along with a suprise “reveal” of a new chippy product to hit the market – here’s a sneak peek:-

Have fun and happy scrapping girls!

Sares xx

If you’d like to embellish some of your accessories with rhinestones, but you’re not sure where to start, then you can try the “Rhinestone Starter Kit“.  The kit includes all the items that will assist you in sparking up your cell phones, ipods, glasses and more.  We’ve added a video online that will help guide you in using the kit.