I learned to felt by accident. I was signed up for a class to make puppets and at the last minute the teacher decided she wanted to teach felting. Well all the other classes were full by then so I took a felting class. Within 5 minutes I understood the technique and was off to find things to felt around. I found a hotel water glass and tried felting around that. The teacher stopped by to tell me why that would never work. By the end of the class I had a perfect little amulet bag from the glass that I just needed to bead a strap on it. Well that got me really into it. I have taken every felting class I could find and have even hosted teachers from New Zealand to come teach in my studio. Along the way I have learned to make hats, many types of scarves and shawls,all sizes of bags and am now working on my first coat that will be all my handmade felt and hand-dyed by me. It will be very unusual I am sure. At this point I am teaching felting to feed my wool habit. What a wonderful class mistake this has turned into for me.

Weekend Jewelry Making for Auction at Corgi-L

Many of you have seen posts with photos of my beautiful Pembroke Welsh Corgi. I also belong to a group who raises money for corgi's at shelters, at puppy mills and corgi's who need expensive medical attention that owner's can not afford. Each year this group has picnics and auctions to raise money for Corgi-L.

None of these events is close to me so I usually send some money but this year has been so tight, I decided to make jewelry for the auctions. I found an incredible dog artist on Etsy who gave me permission to use 4 corgi images from him and I am shrinking these down to 1.5 x 1.5inches so they will fit into a small glass pendant which I frame with batik fabric. I am putting on chains, charms and other beads. These pendants are turning out to be really nice so I do hope they will raise a lot of money. I am also going to give people and option at a higher price to send me pictures of their own dogs and I will make them custom pendants.

This is going to be an adventure!

Friday again

How fast a week flies by when you spend most of it asleep. This bug has certainly had it hooks in me but today I fell almost human. I am flying to NC tomorrow to give a speech on cellular microbiology and it would be quite helpful to have a voice by then.
In other news, the dogs have been angels for the most part, they know when mama is sick and except for a few fraps, they have been very good. Even Phil has been inventive and made his own meals but that leaves a sink full of dishes that I am sure will be waiting for me on Weds.
I have 6 necklaces ready to be strung, photoed and put up on etsy. Maybe I will find time next week., I really need new stuff in there. I have been buying some lovely batts of wool on Etsy, hey wait aren't I supposed to be selling things not buying things there? Anyway, they batts are beautiful and I just don't know what I will do with them. I have a jacket in my head so that may be what it ends up being. Well have a good weekend all.

Saturday and the dogs are wet

Today I decided to go to the studio and dye wool, do a scarf, play around with my new cotton banners. It is cold and rainy. The heat in the trailer studio doesn't work so I have space heaters and can turn on the house fan which warms it up well. Unfortunately, Phil and Jonathan went to a movie and I forgot to tell Phil to turn the water on so that messed up my plans. I decided to bring it all shop and play here. I dyed my banners and just can't seem to get the right undercolor. I am doing shibori on them but they aren't behaving well. I did dye a bunch of prefelt and it took the color beautifully, even exhausted the dye bath. I tried to felt some soap, I have decided that I can only successfully do I soap a day. grrrr I did felt a few balls for jewelry and I plan to restring a lot of necklaces tonight.

My eye is much better today where Jack punched and scraped it. It still waters but the swelling is down. I haven't looked at the color yet.

We went to Chili's for Jonathan's birthday last night. Food was good but I swear next time I am only get their broccoli. It is some of the best I have ever had. I made a huge mess with the chicken tacos. Guess that is all for today.

Quiet Friday

I planned to sleep in this morning and then go in to work. I was sleeping and dreaming good things when I felt this sharp pain across my eye. I tried to get out of bed and was totally wrapped up. Turns out Jack the dog decided it was time for breakfast and she got in 3 good scrapes before I could get up. I have nice dog claws across my face, swollen eye and an eye ache if there is such a thing. Didn't make it in to work though I have a thousand things to do, didn't get any felting done either, what a waste of a day.
The good thing that happened today is I got an order from Jill Gully today. It is a lovely bluish,teal prefelt and a bag of throwsters waste in colors that will complement the felt. I think I might have a silk hankie that would work well on it tomorrow. I hope I can make a shawl with it tomorrow. I also have 3 necklaces to repair and 2 to restring and then I can put them on etsy. I swore I would not do jewelry since there is so much out there but I need a few lower priced items. Have felted some soap and it turned out pretty, just need to photo and list it. Life is good, except for my pushy dog.

The sunny weekend that looks like rain.

We had snow last weekend and this weekend it is forecast to be sunny and in the 70's but it is grey outside and looks like rain. I had planned on going up to the trailer to do some more organization and maybe some felting. Well I also thought I had a class intown at 2pm yesterday and when I showed up, it is for 2pm today so that changed my plans abit for today's fun.

I am still going to the class although it means driving for 65 miles round trip to take a felting class that I could probably teach but I just feel like I need to be with other creative spirits at the moment. Playing by myself is fun but I love getting feedback from others and it isn't quite the same on line.

In other weekend news, we don't have Jonathan this weekend but he tries out for soccer today. He is so good at that sport, I have no doubt he will be picked to play, I just hope he gets on a better team this year. His team last year had at least 5 good players but the rest could care less about being there and it was frustrating for the good players to win few games. Next week he tries out for some sort of pitching team (?). This is all set up by his mother who just called me last week to let me know that she thinks we have Jonathans schedule too full, sigh, such fun being a stepmom.

just normal stuff

Not much creativitivity here but it is supposed to be in the 70's this weekend so maybe I will be more motivately. I did get one piece to send off to a gallery and have one more to go. Am still waiting to hear bout the show in June. Also saving money for the Kentucky classes this year. With 2 groups of classes and extra classes after the convention, I will need to use up a lot of my annual leave and save up much more money. I did get some birthday money yesterday so that will go towards the shows. It is looking to be a good spring. My attitude is very hopeful. I am taking a felting class at a local shop tomorrow, it is probably going to be a class I could teach but I was hoping to convince the teacher to sell my hand dyed wool, that would really be worth the class and I will probably have fun on top of that! Anyone else doing anything fun?

snow in Georgia

What a difference a day makes. I am still not making anything but am sitting and watching the snow fall. It won't stick, not cold enough and we have had too much rain but it is beautiful. Wish it would do this all day and all night, it has been so long since we have had a pretty snow. I would love to go out and photo some things for etsy in the snowy trees.
The birthday dinner didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would. Jonathan was really delightful even as a 10 year old know it all. My MIL gave me a really "interesting" rhinestone very big seahorse necklace. Will look like Bling on me LOL. She also gave me $30 which I can't decide if I will use for a new book or add it to my stash for the classes I am taking my Sept. Probably the classes are what I should do.
Hope everyone else is having a nice day and either relaxing or being productive as the snow keeps falling.....