sweet thing(s)

adventures in needlefelted creatures

not too long ago i made some more needlefelted creatures.  i was trying to make them for christmas presents, but every one i made Asa or Maxine BEGGED if he/she could keep it.  so in the end, i only gave away 2- a white dove for my dad, and a pig for Asa's teacher.  (both were finished the night before I had to give or send them, so i have no photos!)

here's a fox (we had a fox or two on the Island last winter)

a penguin (in the habitat that Asa made for it, and with his friend penguin that Asa also made)

a mouse (Maxine claimed this one- the cat likes it too)

and an Angry Bird

please excuse the copyright infringement!!  this is not my usual style, but my little guy was desperate for and Angry Bird stuffy.  so i made one!  and thank goodness, he actually thinks it's cooler than the 'real' ones.  

I have said this before, but I feel so lucky my kids think homemade=the best!

 

another felted friend

I made this little lamb for a young friend's 3rd birthday. 

she can take her lamb with her wherever she goes-

i love these small projects.  it is satisfying to finish a project in one sitting (in this case, on the floor of the living room, the morning of the birthday party!)

felted friends

the Easter bunny had some help this weekend:

I have always wanted to try 3D felting.  It turns out to be both fun and easy!  i really appreciate holidays for the crafting potential.

I thought of making bunnies for all three kids, but knew the boys wouldn't like them as much.  so, a bunny for Maxine:

a monkey wearing bunny ears for Asa (obviously!)

and- what for the big boy?  Lee is on the edge of adolescence- really too old for stuffies, but still young enough to care if I didn't make him anything.  he likes stuff from the Deep Sea- so, here's an Easter octopus.

i usually don't like plastic all that much, but i couldn't resist these cute carrot conatiners to house the new felted guys.

needle felting with kids

last week i went into Lee's class and we did some needle felting.  his teacher thought it would be good for the kids to do a landscape, and indeed, it was!

my personal favourite- a felted Toronto skyline including the CN Tower

it is such a great craft to do with kids (i'd say age 5 and up) because it is so fast, easy to learn and forgiving.

inspiring

check out this amazing artwork from Lala and Gleen.  it's needlefelted and machine stitched.

i'm itching to get my needles and wool back out (after a very loooooong hiatus)

felting at Asa's school

last week i spent the morning with Asa's class doing some needlefelting.  (Lee was my assistant. Maxine got to hang in the classroom with the other little guys- she was so excited!) 

I find 5 is a really good age to start with needlefelting.  they are old enough to focus and also aware of the sharp needle danger.

here are-

Asa's friend's squirrel and Asa's duck with baby duck

too cute!  i especially love the clouds in both pieces.

bumblebee sweater love

i sent off a custom order sweater today.

i love the ribbon trim so much.  it is recycled- off of a dress i got at the thrift store for Maxine.  

it's always fun seeing how each sweater turns out.  the design and the ribbon trim and buttons pull together at the end.  sometimes it seems they have lives of their own!

another sweater

here's a special order sweater i just finished and sent off to a customer, for a little girl whose mom loves butterflies!  i make my sweaters out of recycled adult wool sweaters and they are getting so hard to find.  maybe because of the recent popularity of crafts out there that use recycled wool sweaters!  this one was cream to start out with- actually a DKNY sweater that someone had already accidentally 'felted' in the washer and i had to dye it lavender.  it came out so soft and snuggly.

my creative space

lilacs are my favourite flower.  

i have loved them since childhood, but even more now because the time that they bloom on the island is the exact time of Asa's birthday.  the day that he was born my man filled the house with lilacs and the heavy scent of them will now always remind me of my sweet baby.

my creative space today:

lilacs and a lilac-coloured sweater for a custom-order Sweet Thing(s) sweater

guess what?  here it is 3 days after i made this post, and i realized i have a heart in my photo- the leaf of the lilac.  there was a 'challenge' this week to hide a heart in your picture, and i had already taken the photo when i read that, so i kinda ignored it- but there it is!  how cool.

i'm a janome sponsored artisan

the nice people over at Janome Canada loaned me a Janome FM725 felting machine a while ago.  i did a 'top 10 tips' for their website, and i just finished a stuffie tutorial that they will also put up.  (it's the kitty, now in the tutorial sidebar on the right here on my blog)

here's a screen capture shot from their website:

i really like the felting machine- it's definitely saved my wrist and a lot of time poking down those designs (i still lay everything out by hand- the machine saves on elbow grease)

kitty

i made this little guy for Maxine's friend's first birthday. 

i'm working on a tutorial for it if you're interested...  you'll see it in the sidebar when it's done.

felted soap

starting about now, the big thought taking up a lot of the space in my brain is "what to make?"  (for Christmas gifts and our neighbourhood Christmas Boutique)

we did a trial run of felted soaps today:

i have to admit, i thought these soaps were really strange seeming when I was given one as a gift but i love them now!  try it, you'll see

i bought some lavender glycerin soap and cut the bars in half.  there is a good tutorial here, i'll spare you the details in this post!  we used bubble wrap instead of a felting board. 

Lee and Asa each made one and used them in the bath tonight.  success!

my attempt to contribute to the household income

on my sweet thing designs website, i have had a message forever telling folks i would be taking custom orders again soon.  well, the time has come- perfect for the holiday season!  realistically, i won't be able to do more than a handful of orders, but at this time of the year every bit helps.  i also figured i need something to do with all my free time (ha!)

SO- on the left here you will see 2 new links:

'sweet thing(s) needlefelted sweaters' and 'sweet thing(s) textile art'. 

The sweater link is a gallery of past (and, alas, sold) favourite sweaters, with information about custom orders, AND a link to my deeply discounted stock on Etsy (here's a link as well to my Etsy shop).  The textile art link shows the pieces currently for sale. 

check them out, if only to see some of what i've made in the past few years!

 

(i have been meaning to show what my wall art pieces look like framed and ready to hang- here's one.  each piece is mounted on a birch board panel)

felting fun

i taught a needlefelting class at our Island "community centre" yesterday.  a bunch of people came, including a little friend of Asa'a (pictured below, with her pig that she made). 

we had a great time and i realized once again how easy felting is to learn and how much fun it is to do.  i really liked seeing the variety of work everyone created.  it was inspiring- made me want to start a craft club!

honeycomb felt

i've been meaning to share this:

from a book called Creative Felting by Lizzie Houghton.  i love the way she uses nature as an inspiration for her felting.  this particular piece uses marbles to get the bumpy texture.  (this is a technique borrowed from the Japanese texture dye method called shibori- i've seen other people do shibori with knitted wool, but never before incorporated into a wet felted piece)

how beautiful and inventive

done!

phew

here are the new pieces I did for the show I'm participating in tomorrow.

   
 
 

 

i have been completely stressed and definitely shouldn't have taken this on  BUT now i'm almost there. 

i couldn't have done it without the support of my women friends on the island- Karen, Nina, Samantha, and Allyson for childcare, housecleaning, card stamping, website and computer advice, framing opinions and meals!  and my city friend Karen who is doing the show also for bringing my booth tent and furniture and sharing her credit card capability with me! 

wow.  i am humbled at how many of us/you it has taken to get ready for this show.  thank you!

sharing the felt wealth

today I taught a needlefelting workshop at my local community centre.  seven of us sat and felted for a few hours- lots of fun. 

which reminds me...

i've been meaning to put up a few photos I found on flickr (searched under needlefelted sweaters Martha) of sweaters people had made from/inspired by the instructions on my Martha Stewart appearance.

 

really cool

also I saw that my favourite wool mail order catalogue had caught the fever! (those of you who know my work thought this was one of mine!)  i set them up with the MS show for the audience gift promo.  they are in Maine and a very nice store

I like seeing the work that people have been inspired to create.  needlefelting is such an easy and accessible craft. 

(by the way, not sure how to mention this or even if I should because I think it is a big topic deserving of more attention...  how do you deal with people who copy your ideas and then sell them for 1/2 the price you are asking?  this, to me, raises the topic of charging a living wage for crafts and also the question of originality.   obviously I haven't copyrighted my sweaters, but since my MS appearance I have seen many too-close-similarities-to-be-coincidence-themed-needlefelted-children's-recycled-sweaters-for-much-cheaper on etsy.  i don't want to care, but it does irk me a bit)

i just recently was sent a machine similar to the one pictured above.  it's a Janome FM 725  I'll let you know how it works out.  Janome has a very generous artist loan program, of which I am a lucky beneficiary

I am currently working on some felted pieces for the Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts show in september.  I wil post a few of them as I get a chance to take some photos. 

fluff

yesterday I was immersed in fluff:

the poplars around our house were 'fluffing' more intensely than they ever have in the 10 years we've lived here.  it looked like a blizzard (look at the white blurry splotches on front of the tree!  Maybe the photo doesn't read well, but trust me, it's crazy!!)

and

I washed the raw sheep fleece I was given from the farm-

an enormous task (more on that later)

lily pads for Lily

My friend Willow's daughter Lily turned 1 recently- I made this piece for her.  (Thanks for the photos Willow!)

I am moving away from making sweaters .
 
I realize that I never wanted to be in the fashion world, or even a children's clothing designer.  I used the sweaters as a canvas, really.  Making sweaters was an important step for me: it allowed me to get into doing something creative without activating my inner critical voice - it was just a child's sweater I was working on- not an important piece of "art." 

I feel comfortable calling myself (even just to myself!) a textile artist (albeit one who doesn't have a heck of a lot of time to make art- this too shall pass) because making sweaters over the past few years allowed me to develop a creative practice.  I love the place in between art and craft.  It feels like a great fit for me. 

I have big dreams...