Hello friends,

I have updated the Workshops and Celebrant listing on this website, please take moment to have a look at what I have to offer in 2010.

I no longer run scheduled workshops, but will happily arrange singular or group workshops and felting parties for anyone who is interested in learning the art of felt-making and waldorf doll-making. All you need to do is contact me via the CONTACT button at the top of this website.

Blessings to you for a peaceful and prosperous 2010,

Jennifer

My mother, who doesn’t get out as much as she used to, has grown fond of the birds that frequent her back yard. She used to fuss at my dad for feeding them, calling it “bird welfare,” but these days, with dad no longer with us, she has taken on the task of keeping their feeders full and keeping a watchful eye on them.  She watches the birds so much that she’s afraid the neighbors, who see her at the window with her binoculars, think she’s watching them.*

She hates the neighbor’s cat, a skillful hunter of songbirds.

With winter upon us, I decided she needed a hummingbird for her house.

So I needle felted her one:

Once I got started, it wasn’t so easy to stop. Not only did she get a hummingbird, but several other birds, all native to the part of Tennessee where she lives, also found their way south to her house for the holidays:

She ended up with a cardinal, an owl, the hummingbird, a bluebird, and a goldfinch. About the goldfinch, the less said the better. He’s apparently from the shallow end of the goldfinch gene pool, and I hope to replace him soon with a more advanced goldfinch.

The cardinal is my favorite:

Special thanks to my niece, who made sure a nice sturdy branch was waiting for the felted birds to perch on when they arrived in Tennessee. And merry Christmas, Mom. Spring down your way is only about 3 more months away.

__

*Oh, okay, so maybe a little.

I know you’ve done it.  If not, some man in your household has done it for you.  That special sweater that is supposed to be dryed flat…. now fits a toddler.  So how and why does wool shrink when dryed?

First of all, the wool did not shrink.  It has however changed shape and may or maynot ever be the same again. 
Secondly, many people think it is the heat of the dryer that caused the damage.  This is not true.  When wool is dyed it is brought to near boiling temperatures, yet does not ’shrink’ or felt at all. 

So what does happen and why?

Take a look at these wool fibers up close.  See the scales on them? 

When wool is wet and agitated, these scales begin to connect together and interlock.  The more they are agitated, the more tangled and locked they become until they are densely felted.  Your sweater has an even great tendency to felt because heat and detergent cause the scales to open more readily.  Plus the knit of the sweater gives the wool a ‘head start’ on the tangling process.

But what about needle felting?  The wool is dry for that and yet it still felts. 

With needle felting, the effect is the same, but the cause is different.  A specially designed felting needle is used.  At the tip of the needle are very tiny barbs, or scales.  These barbs lift the edge of the wool scales, allowing them to interlock and the felting action to take place.

Can felting be ‘un felted’. 
I’ve never tried to unfelt something that is firmly felted, but since what has happened is a tangling and interlocking of the wool, some gentle tugging and maybe even a mist of fabric softner could help your unintentionally felted object.  But a fully felted object is pretty permanantly changed.

Oh!  And be careful with those needles!  They are sharp!

I love handmade Christmas decorations, but I hardly had any that were made by my own hands…until now…

I think I meant to make this felted garland last year…but I never got around to it. (That’s a familiar tune around here this time of year.)  It was not *quite* as quick and easy as I had hoped, but that’s probably due, in part, to my perfectionism rearing it’s ugly head halfway through this thing. That’s not to say that it was difficult, by any means. I just added some extra steps.

I used about 1.5 oz. wool roving in several colors, and got about 48 balls out of it. I needed two pairs of stockings to tie up the roving, and used the washing machine technique for felting. The problem was that wherever the stocking gathered between knots, it created a crease in the felted ball. I wound up with 48 little brightly colored…fannies (which you can sort of see in the bowl in the photo below). Ahem. So I hauled my fanny to the craft store and bought some needle felting tools. I’d only tried needle felting once, at a sheep and wool festival, but that little demo provided me with all the knowledge I needed for this project i.e., stabstabstabstabstabstabstab…

I arranged the various felted balls in a perfectly random pattern (I know, I have a problem), and used a natural, twine-colored worsted weight yarn to string them.

I love the handmade touch they add to my mantle.  

Last night i went to see Greg Mortenson speak in Portland about his work in Pakistan and Afghanistan and his new book. I had read Three Cups of Tea a couple years ago and was impressed with the passion this man had for his vision. Today, with his help millions of girls are getting an education in these devastated countries. He read us a proverb last night

Educate a boy and you educate an individual, educate a girl and you educate a nation.

Girls who are educated, then teach their mother to read and their mother become educated and understand their power and do not allow their boys to be taken by the Taliban. The Taliban destroys girls schools. they understand the power of an educated woman. they are fearful of an educated 8 year old who will in turn become an educated woman. that is powerful. 1 in 3 children die before the age of 1. in one village, a girl fought for her education and graduated from highschool, she left and became a nurse. She returned to her village and in the years she has been back, not one child has died in birth. EDUCATION! We take it for granted but we are so lucky.

The military is so far ahead of our own government in its thinking. Instead of bombing villages, the heads of the military understand that the people of these countries must be empowered and given education to regain control of their own land. Mortenson believes that you can not understand poverty and war from behind your desk, you must taste it and feel it and see it to understand it. Three Cups of Tea is now mandatory reading for all military deployed to the middle east. The men and women who are being sent there from our country are the people who are going to help pick up the pieces and give them back to the people of these countries. They will be the educators.

We spent about 90 minutes listening to Mortenson speak and view his slides. It was an incredibly educational evening. Ignorance breeds hatred. i hope if you have a chance to become a little more educated in anything, you grab onto it like a life jacket. It is the only thing that is going to safe us from ourselves.

Now, on a completely different topic,  I learned how to knit a hat with earflaps. I know your brain is trying to transition here so i will be brief.  This may not sound like a big deal and for many knitters, it probably isnt  but for a girl who only understood knit…not even perl…this was a big move. Now i understand increasing, knitting, perling and i can make my hats have a bit of a pattern.

This wee hat is for my dear Rowan because his head keeps growing. I needle felted the little bird onto it, for fun

This Needle Felted Anatomical Heart was done as a one off commission.

Here are some of the holiday ornaments being exchanged by Living Felt customers and felting friends in the
2009 Holiday Ornament Exchange. These were so wonderful that we just had to share them with you.
Perhaps they will provide some inspiration for your own tree or for gifts!

Needle Felted Santa Gnome

Sharon DeHaemer of Norwalk, CT sent in this simply sweet Santa gnome ornament.
He has been designed to either dangle or stand!

Needle Felted Christmas Baby

Joyce Hazlerig of Smithville, TX crafted these adorable Christmas Baby  ornaments.
You can see more of her needle felted Christmas babies and other art work at www.gypsyharte.etsy.com

Needle Felted Cookie Cutter Ornament

Laura Burke, aka “Louie Girl” of Bolton, MA cooked up these festive little cookie cutter ornaments. She recommends brown for gingerbread people and white for sugar cookies. See more of Louie Girl’s creations on her blog:
http://louiegirlfibers.blogspot.com/

Needle Felted Gingerbread House

When I opened this ornament I was literally chuckling out loud with glee at how completely wonderful it is!
This charming little needle felted house has been crafted around a piece of needle felting foam cut in the shape of a house. Laurie Magnabosco of Everett, WA really put her love into this and I felt it the moment I touched it. It is complete with whispy smoke coming out of the chimney.

Needle Felted Angel

Laurie also sent us a picture of this needle felted angel….looks like she branched out for this
year’s ornament exchange and did not make everyone the same thing. How fun and how darling this little angel is!
I love her pink cheeks!

Needle Felted Ballerina

Viola Hebert of Winnepeg, Canada designed this dainty little needle felted ballerina for her ornament swap partners. She has the perfect little hair-do and even a body suit under her tu-tu!

Needle Felted Penguin

Sheryl Smith of Van Nuys, CA needle felted this perky little penguin! He stands so
sweetly and looks adorable in his little scarf!

We’re expecting more ornaments, but wanted to share these with you for inspiration while there is still time to make them as gifts or for your own tree!! Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s felted ornament exchange!

For a Christmas/Winter themed swap within Unlimited Textiles. A mix of needle felting, fabric and stitching. The snowman is a vintage clip art image, altered and printed onto fabric, then stitched into place.

Here is a sneak-peak of one of the new items I have working on in time for the holidays. I think they will be perfect for resting my Eggnog on! 

Available in Sets of 4 for $28.00. I will have them available for sale at Bazaar Bizarre, so come on by and get some. Your coffee table will thankyou for it.

Handmade Felt Coaster Set.

the December 1st Elf

I’m making the commitment this year to do an Advent calendar for the kids  (well, I’m not sure that Thing 2 will get all that much out of it to be honest).  I have clothing for the first 10 elves done, and the bodies done for 8.  Considering it’s the first already, this is actually pretty good for me.  I’m hoping that by the time we are entering the second week of December, I’ll have the pockets done as well and it will be a proper Advent calendar.

In addition to having an elf for each day of the month, we will also have an activity or task for the day as well.  Today’s activity was to bake cranberry bread – something Thing 1 has been bugging me to do ever since I made it last week for Thanksgiving breakfast.

Cranberry Bread

We ended up making a double batch – so one large loaf and four mini-loaves. Thing 1 was very gung-ho about helping me to make it and it as a bit of a study in frustration on both of our parts as he pushed to do as much as possible and I was trying to keep my patience. We did get them put together with a minimum of snapping on my part (something I am working very hard to limit), and they both enjoyed one of the small loaves at dinner.

Here’s my own tweaking of my mother’s recipe – enjoy!

Cranberry Bread
makes 12 regular muffins, 4 mini-loaves or 1 large loaf

• 2 c (10 oz) flour
  I only use unbleached when I make it, one of the few times I don’t do a 50/50 whole wheat/white flour blend
• 1 c sugar
  this is one of the few quick breads that I do use as close to the full amount of sugar as possible due to the tartness of the cranberries
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• .5 tsp baking soda
• .5 tsp salt
• 1 c coarsely chopped fresh cranberries
• 3/4 c orange juice
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbs oil
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
• 1/2 tsp orange zest (optional)

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix together dry ingredients. Mix eggs, orange juice, oil and vanilla. Stir liquid into dry ingredients, pour into well greased muffin tins or loaf pans. Muffins should cook for 18-20 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Mini-loaves take 20-25 minutes and a large loaf takes 50-55 minutes.

This is also a great go-to dairy-free muffin recipe, especially for things like blueberry or raspberry muffins, just replace the orange zest with lemon zest for some extra sparkle. You can make the recipe with just one egg, but it tastes much better with two.

Enjoy!

I’m uploading some scarves today on Etsy. Here is the first of the batch… Pussy Willow. I designed this scarf by first knitting the scarf in 100% wool yarn, I wet felted and shaped it. I then needle felted the pussy willows with 100% wool yarn and roving.

Here are more Christmas ornaments. A small crocheted Christmas Tree and  two ornaments (or door hangers) made with felted recycled wool.

This is our updated version of the Needle Felted firmness tutorial.

Hi Marie! Some time ago I bought a teddy bear kit from you. I would like to thank you for great directions and materials that I had pleasure to work with! I added a little more details to the model you offered and made it smaller, and that is the result on the picture I am sending you.

If I win the contest I would buy the Santa kit!

 Thank you for the opportunity!

-Anastaisa.

i got some new toys in the mail today that i ordered.  i ordered some felting needles.  if you aren’t familiar felting needles are longish triangular shaped barbed needles that bind woool fibers to one another to allow you to create firm objects.  i have never needle felted before but wanted to learn how as i had seen my friend megan doing it on several occasions.  i also bought some beautiful balls of wool rovings when i was in belgium.  once again if you aren’t familiar wool roving are carded, and often dyed wool that is used for wet felting or spinning.  the needles do not cost very much so i ordered a 3 pack in different sizes.  the needles came with a small sample pack of wool.  so this evening i pulled it out and decided to make patrick a dinosaur.  it was so easy!!  plus the dinosaur is very mini!!  i even gave him a set or scarlet spikes up his back, blue eyes and a nice set of sharp teeth.  it took me under an hour to finish the dinosaur so i started on another creature using the wool rovings i already had.  unfortunately they do not work that well as they are too fine.  so the dog started out as a horse, then a pig and finally a pit bull.  there you have it.

This is a Needle Felted Pet Portrait Sculpture that I made of a cute Cocker Spaniel named Honey! She is sculpted from wool and is poseable! I can make a miniature sculpture of your pet also! This one is an animated style.

***SEE MORE EXAMPLES BY CLICKING ON FLICKR IN THE RIGHT COLUMN or My Gfelted SHOP on Etsy!

This is my third needle felting project.

Open Farm Day!  This Saturday November 21 we will again be opening the farm to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

We try to have an Open Farm Day at least once a quarter but with the holiday season rapidly approaching we will be having Open Farm Days on November 21 and December 19.  In addition to the Open Farm Days we will also be opening the Farm Store from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday in December until Christmas.  So there will be plenty of opportunity for people to come out and do their Christmas shopping and also see the alpacas between now and Christmas.

There is always much preparation for an Open Farm Day, new products to be found, inventory to be priced and put out on display, copies of alpaca coloring pages to be made to help keep the little ones entertained, cookies to be baked and a general tidy up around the farm.

I am excited that we have recently started to offer a few new products, pretty Peruvian alpaca hats, needle felting starter kits in bright colors, handmade soaps covered in a felted alpaca wrap that smell divine and also alpaca bird nesting balls to help the birds build their nests in the spring.  It’s great that we have access to such a diverse selection of alpaca goodies and shows how people in the alpaca industry are becoming very creative in using our versatile alpaca fiber.

Alpaca Bird Nesting Ball (picture courtesy of Alpacas of the Covenant the creators of this neat alpaca product)

Of course we will also have plenty of alpaca socks in stock along with gloves, scarves, ski bands, yarn and rugs.   We feel it is important to have a nice selection of inventory on hand to suit everyone’s budget and so have products ranging in price from $10 to $200.

The alpacas of course always receive a lot of attention during Open Farm Days and hopefully will be on their best behavior.  They usually manage to easily entertain our visitors with their curious stares and cautious sniffs.  I can guarantee that they will have their pictures taken several times during the day and I suspect Theresa’s new cria will be the star of the show.

Hopefully our warm and sunny weather will hold out at least through the weekend, it’s always more pleasant for our visitors if they can stand in a warm, sunny pasture, but of course those colder days make people appreciate the warmth of alpaca fiber more.  Whatever the weather we will enjoy meeting those who come out to the farm and hope that they will enjoy meeting us and spending their time here too.

Rosemary

here is the first creation with my winning wool. a FAT little lamb. he has a pipe cleaner body/frame. his snout and feet are wrapped in black wool yarn. i needle felted his coat on top of it all. it appears to be an easy craft to do with kids. as long as you monitor needle use.

we are also working on a purple bird in a nest and a turtle.

i really liked how easy yet satisfying this was. and can see myself filling that “field” of green felt with a bunch of grazing sheep. and some shepherds. and hanging stars. for a Christmas themed nature table.

oh. the things. you can do with wool. *sigh*.

Since we get so many questions about roving vs. top, vs batting, we have put together this little video. We do not go into detail on breeds of sheep, but this brief intro to the difference between wool batting, wool roving, wool sliver and wool top along with suggestions of felting projects you can create with each. We show samples of our merino cross batting, new zealand corriendale, merino top, merino silk blends and more. Also covers which wool you might choose for your wet felting and needle felting projects.

HAVE FUN!      www.LivingFelt.com

Needle Felted Elephant

Sheryl Smith from Van Nuys, CA is another brand new needle felter…but you’d never know by the lovely
items she makes! This cute Elephant, “Ellie” was made with merino-cross batting from our Monochrome Goody Pack;
but the individual color is SUEDE.