Marbling & stenciling on wool

We had an awesome group of wool-lovers for our Friday evening class last weekend! Most people who love wool are familiar with folk-art and primitive designs, and working their magic with beautiful stitchery and hand-dyed threads. But we tried something a little different this time - marbling and stenciling on wool with water-based inks! The technique is similar to surface design on cotton fabric, but the wool adds a softness to the finished look. We also dyed pearl cotton with the same inks as well as sari silk ribbon, so each student had not only several artsy pieces of wool to use in their projects, but perfectly matching embellishments as well! And to add a special touch, we stenciled some of the marbled sections with the same inks. The girls had a good time playing with color, and got to stretch their creative skills outside of their comfort zone a bit, they really made some beautiful pieces! Here are just a few. This is the same technique I used in my "Marbling on Wool" article in the June/July 2017 issue of Quilting Arts magazine, we did add the stenciling.

 A beautifully marbled and stenciled piece, and the blue Woolfelt background will be the perfect touch!

 The red just pops on the wool here, and this artist added just the right amount of black to punch it up!

 Love this citrus-y shade of lime green, beautiful marbling also.

 This piece has such happy colors and is a great size to make a nice big project!

 Love these colorful little mini-works of art!

 These complementary colors are some of my favorites, and they played so interesting together here!

Gorgeous piece of work with the stenciled flowers, and the mulberry Woolfelt background adds the perfect enhancement!

Nuno-felting in Washington!

We had such a great time nuno-felting scarves last weekend! We had a beautiful venue, a wonderful farm in the country with lots of nature and sunshine all around. The girls chose their base, a hand-dyed silk chiffon scarf, and then cherry-picked their own embellishments to felt: hand-dyed merino wool fibers, sparkly Angelina fibers, lustrous bamboo, textural curly mohair, funky wool nepps. As they added their own personal touch, each scarf turned out unique and absolutely gorgeous! Here are a few pics from our class, they really don't do these works of art justice.

 Debby's sweet husband prepared this awesome lunch for us: veggies from their garden, fried chicken with a delicious sweet/savory sauce, homemade bread, and Kathy made 2 cakes for dessert - yum!

 Happy group taking a break from their artistic designs, this was such a nice classroom!

Beautiful finished scarves drying in the breeze on the garden gate. What a great time we had, I'm looking forward to going back and getting creative with these gals again this fall!

Felted Mini-bags

I was browsing through some older posts on Facebook, and I ran across these pictures of some of my students' amazing wet-felted works of art! The class was the Wet-felted Mini-bag, and students learned how to felt using a resist as well as how to apply different embellishments such as silk fibers, bamboo, Angelina fibers, wool nepps, curly mohair, and metallic mesh. They created beautiful small shoulder bags, just the right size for a quick trip to the store or walking around the quilt show! We had a great time felting too; here are just a few of the gorgeous bags they made that day.

 This first bag was actually created by a student at Carolina Fiber Festival this year, she felted a fireweed design on her purse front to represent her company, Fireweed Designs. In this image the wool fibers are still wet, but the design was just breathtaking even then.

 This was an abstract representation of a branch with blossoms 'n berries, just beautiful.

 I love how these pink posies pop on this citrus-y shade of chartreuse, lovely!

 This was a gorgeous painterly design this artist created from a photograph, I love the added dimension of the lines she added to the edges of the flower!

 Beautiful pansies created by this artist, and the wool nepps added just the right touch!

These were my inspiration pieces for the students with 2 handle options; a felted ropey strap with felted leaves, or a purchased silky cording.

Wet-felted Flower Class at Sawtooth

We had a fantastic time wet-felting wooly flowers at the Sawtooth School of Visual Art last weekend! The students had never felted before, and they did an amazing job creating these gorgeous works of art. Here are a few pics of the lovely wooly blossoms they created.

 I love the silk and wool accents this awesome artist showcased in her beautiful flower brooch!

Gorgeous colors and wool beads used in these gorgeous beauties, and their stitching was awesome!

Silk Scarf Dyeing at Sawtooth

It seems like each scarf-dyeing class at the Sawtooth School of Visual Art gets better and better! Last week's TOA class was no exception, what a grand time we had, and stunning scarves created too. We had a good-sized group including 2 men and a family; once I showed them the ropes, they just took off with adding their personal touch to their scarves with textures and colors. Here are a few of the beauties dyed in this fun class.

 Fresh pastel hues, perfect for summer fun!

 This clever student dyed the ends with one color/technique, and the center in a harmonizing hue.

 Love these pretty shades of pinks and lavenders!

Beautiful hand-dyed silk scarves drying gently in the breeze.

 This awesome dude was a natural dyer! We were all quite impressed with this gorgeous scarf he dyed, which his lucky wife will get to wear. Proud mom is looking on at left. :)

 The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! The lovely lady in the photo above dyed this work of art.

Awesome artist holding up her beautiful creation, I love the accents she took the time to add!

Visit to SECU House

What a blessing it is for me to visit SECU house and share my passion for wet-felting with the patients, their family and friends there. I'm so thankful for the little slot of time I'm allowed to help us all escape our reality and enjoy a relaxing creative and social activity. Last week we had a nice cozy group of gals felting wool beads and creating jewelry they wore out of our informal "class", and hopefully take their minds of their troubles for just a little while. We had a great time, and I discovered I had a special connection with one of the girls in the group, small world!

 Beautiful jewel-tone beads enhance this gal's sparkly purple wool bead!

 Pretty pastel beads accent this perfect purple bead center!

Lovely Veronica made a beautiful set to match her awesome hair!

Wool Bead Earrings at NCQS

We had a great time at symposium this year wet-felting wool beads and designing beautiful earrings and jewelry with them! The girls did an amazing job creating perfect little wool balls in a rainbow of colors, sometimes adding a touch of sparkly Angelina fibers for a little touch of bling. They coordinated these with novelty beads and findings to make beautiful earrings sets, and a few even had time to make a necklace. It was like a big felting party, I think everyone had a really good time. We definitely inspired each other - even me!

I really love Diana's purple earrings with applique embellishments, they remind me of tropical fruit!

 Wool bead set in progress of beautiful blues, greens and teal.

 So pretty, these little gems turned out just right.

 These red beauties matched this felter's apron and looked great on her!

 I love these, will be so cute with the glass bead accents and little flower appliques.

 Dawn's fun earrings were like little works of art, gorgeous!

 Love these pink beauties, she found just the right novelty beads to enhance the colors perfectly.

 Lovely lavender set.

 I loved this double-decker set of earrings, they were absolutely stunning!

 Lovely shades of rich purple with matching pearl accents.

Royal blue beauties with the perfect glass bead accents.
All the girls did an incredible job, and wore their earrings out of class!