child's play

Sometimes, if I have room on the surface area where I've laid out a scarf to roll, I'll use the extra room for a rectangle of wool layers that I can stitch up into a clutch purse or a Little Bag or a Bigger Little Bag after it's felted.

These little purses give me a chance to try out techniques I've seen or heard about without a huge investment in effort and materials.  Recently, I started playing with m childrens' marbles.

I placed them between layers of wool and snipped them out after the wool was fully felted. The effect was brilliant (the bag sold before I even had a strap on it) and makes me want to use different shaped toys on my next effort.

My interest in childhood activities also led me to create a gorgeous strap based on the friendship bracelets my daughter now makes for her girlfriends.  (I'm lucky enough to be sporting one on my own ankle as well.)


Right now, I'm working large; too large to create another little bag.  But when this big piece is done, I can't wait to see what other advantage I can pull from having children.  Or is it that I'm still just a child myself?

Oooh, pretty!

So many different things can inspire me to start a new project.  Sometimes it is a photograph, or flowers climbing up a lamppost.  Today it is a particularly soft, fuzzy yarn that moves from cool periwinkle to ivory white to chocolate brown.  I rummaged through my stash (this felter's stash consists of many balls of dyed roving, lots of interesting yarn, various fabrics but mostly silk) until I found the perfect roving to accompany this yarn.

Now all I need is a dark brown silk scarf as a base.  I begin by laying pieces of fuzzy yarn down and add some other pieces of plain yarn in similar colors.  None of these will felt directly onto the silk so I'll end up with a wonderful draping effect after I'm finished.

Then I begin laying thin layers of roving down, sandwiching the yarn between silk and wool.  I lay the wool in a long swooping design that will hang beautifully around the shoulders.  (Over time, I've realised I care enormously about how it hangs.  If the work is hard to wear, it will sit in a closet or in my inventory.  What is the point of that?)

I've sandwiched lengths of yarn at the ends of the scarf so their will be a bit of fringe later. I am also taking a chance and laying bits of the fun, fuzzy yarn on top of the merino.  Sometimes this yarn will adhere to wool; sometimes not.  If not, I'll end up removing it partway throught the felting process.  I know that whatever happens, this wrap will be lovely.  

Time to felt.

Intention

I understand that this scarf thing is supposed to be work. I feel it in my body as I get tight in the shoulders and neck from all the felting I'm doing. But it is the other part of the work that I really struggle with. Even as my current photos are a huge improvement on my first photos (and believe me they are leaps and bounds better), they aren't good enough. I need to either get a better camera (no money), find a photographer willing to barter (any leads?), and/or hire models (money again). Regardless of what I do to change this, photography takes more time than I give to it right now.

But it must be done. This is a business and I need to promote myself in every way possible. I took the time to get new business cards, a business email address, all the legal trappings of a business (LLC, EIN #, etc) , credit card processing, a bank account and business credit card. If the photos are crap after all that, and no one buys my work, I may as well kiss all of my investment thus far goodbye. Time, materials, legal paperwork, artistic effort --- it must needs be supported with the visual work. Time to stop wishing and start doing. It can't hurt anymore than my tight shoulders, right?

New stuff

I am in serious production mode, creating inventory for two shows that are going to run on back-to-back weekends this August. It is a hot humid day and I really need to get some of this photographed so my son obliged and sweated in the sun while I put silk and wool around my shoulders again and again. These are just a sample of the results.

Felting with attitude

Who knew there were upsides to a daughter who can wring more vowels out of an "I'm not" than Eliza Doolittle managed at the beginning of Pygmalion?

I was all set to suspend work on a new scarf and take my youngest shoe shopping. (Her feet do not stop growing just because it's summer.) She still had a dishwasher to empty and was looking in the top rack for something when I heard a creak and looked up. There she was, leaning over the top rack and putting a little too much weight on it. I simply asked her to not lean on it. (My temper is not exactly even, but this time I really did request it nicely.) "I'm not!" This had many more syllables than two somehow. We give no warnings for consequences due to snotty responses anymore. Shoe shopping postponed for bad behavior. And I get to work more on my felting.

Beadgotten

Here it is, in all its bead-inspired, colorful glory. The tulle worked pretty well, but some of the little "floating" circles of wool needed additional tacking down. Part of what I love about felting is NOT having to sew, but I loved the effect and decided not to rip them off when it appeared they weren't fully adhering. I am so pleased with the final result.

Felting Tip for Tulle

Think sandwich next time.