Monday, August 23, 2010

Would you like to own a fabric collage I made? Go to http://tinyurl.com/2cztp5b and make a comment about my shop and that you would love to win Moon over Smokey Mountains. My shop is http://raven333.etsy.com
Thanks for checking it out, so far only 1 person has voted for my collage so you have a great chance of winning!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Saturday Felting

We are finally getting some rain in Georgia and it is wonderful. It is still really humid so when I decided to felt today, I quickly came back inside. Felting soap, that is a great indoor thing to do and I have a show in about a month so I need more soap. Well, I think I have some superwash, in which case it will never felt. I am going to use up the entire soap bar before I get this to work so change in plans.



I decided to can all the tomatoes before they went bad. Then I decided I would rather can salsa so that is what I am doing this evening. Stirring, boiling and waiting for that little pop that seals the lid.



Did take some time off to go to a family reunion where I ate far too much of course but at least I don't have to try cooking around the canning. One thing happened that got me so excited. I don't have any children but married into a family of grown children and lots of cousins having their first babies. Today for the first time, my grand niece came up to me and held up her arms for me to pick her up. Of course everyone said I held her like she was a puppy and might pee on me at any moment but I finally got to hold her. She turns 2 this month and is a cutie.



Hope all of your are having a great weekend and we are all really productive for the rest of it.

Libby

Friday, August 13, 2010

Saturday at the Hen House

Some of Chad Hagen's felted pins
I am finally going to make it to a meeting with the Georgia Farm Girls. We are supposed to learn about canning and freezing. Just so happens I am in the middle of a tomato explosion, we are getting at least 4 a day and one vine has 15 that will be picked today. I am determined to be more self-sufficient and eat more organic food.


Am still working on the felt for the Peace project though I never got notice of a partner as I should have by now, I think. Oh well, this will just become something else. In making this piece I have realized that I should have laid out some wool on the back too. This piece is really wispy but isn't shawl or scarf size. Maybe it will become a pillow. Will probably do some bead embellishment and maybe add some ribbons.


I have been beading much lately, my eyes are due for a check up. The class I am taking from Chad Hagen will be making felted pins and embellishing them with some beading. It is an all day class so lots of beading. Wonder if I can bring my Ott light? I won't be able to thread the needle if I can't.

There is talk of us getting 2-3 inches of rain this weekend so do the rain dance with me please. We really need it. Well water is keeping my plants alive but they aren't very happy. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

An Experiment






Have you ever gone to the home page of Etsy and typed in something in the search box that you might be interested in? First of all it is a great time waster if you are waiting at Dr's office or during lunch at your desk. Second it is very interesting to see just how much stuff come up that has your request in the tags but not in the object being sold. Third it gives you an idea of the going prices and is useful to see how other's have described their products.

I did this today and typed in felt. The very first item that came up had felted in the tag but it was a brass kalidescope(can't spell, sorry) that had a chain necklace and was very cute. Then I started looking for the felt. It didn't come in a felted bag, none of the pieces of the scope appeared to have felt on them, hmmm, an intentional mistag?

Next I noticed that over 1/2 of the items were made of commercial felt, not that there is anything wrong with that but I should have narrowed my search to handmade felt.

There were lots of knitted items that had been shrunk in the dryer. That is called fulling, not felting but I guess the average person wouldn't know that. A fiber person really should though.

I was amazed at the prices on felted items similar to my own. I mark mine much cheaper, maybe people think cheap price means cheap product. Will need to re-consider my pricing. I also noticed that the people who sold the most had a much better description of the product than I did and including cleaning instructions. Looks like I have quite abit of site improving for my shop.
Last I will leave you with some beautiful felted items from http://www.wraptinfelt.etsy.com/

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Atlanta is HOT

I finally did some felting. It was a nuno piece and I had trouble keeping it wet because of the heat. I am still working on it, it is going to be a very light wall hanging. I hope it ends up with lots of wrinkles and crinkles. I want to bead it but will have to see the finished product before I can make more plans. Maybe my embellisher could be used to add some velvet leaves.....

I sold all my dyed blue roving this weekend. Both the robin's egg blue and the blue with purple carded in. The carded fiber was so soft and beautiful and really did not take as long as I had expected. Now I want to dye more roving and card colors together with some silk, just to see what I get and how it felts.

Got to tell you it is so nice to be felting again. My foot swelled but nothing major, I think I am back in business again!