July 12 Felting Workshop at Beach CITE Studios

Photos from the July 12 workshop at Beach CITE Studios. Six ladies learned how to create nuno felted collage scarves.

 Laying out the fibers...

Almost finished with the design...

Wonderful facility to work in!

 Great models!

 

 Wetting down...

As you can see, they did a terrific job! Each and every scarf was beautiful and unique, reflecting the personality of its creator. I loved watching them create!

Thank you, Jim and Linda for bringing Beach CITE Studios to our community. It is a wonderful learning center for the arts.

Fluffy Fiber Cookies!

Actually, they will become felted flowers and cuffs. Wool and hand painted silk fibers have are laid out.

  Fibers have been wet down with warm soapy water. 

They remind me of Dale Chihuly's glass flowers at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in the photo above, taken by my mother, Anna Marie Miazga.

The bands and and flowers have been felted....
 

and will be made into a felted cuff like this...

Custom Order!

A necklace that drapes like a scarf! It certainly is eye catching and lightweight for summer. This was a custom order. The dyes used on the silk fabric combined to create such a pretty colors.

I am honored when someone asks me to make a custom item. Creating for a person is very different than creating out of the blue. I try to get a sense of the person as I create. And hope I get it right!

Sign Up for Some Creative Fun

Come out for creative fun and learn to make a nuno felted collage scarf at my workshop on Wednesday, June 30 from 9-4 pm. You will transform layers of silk and wool roving into gorgeous flowing fabric. We will cover layout, felting, fulling and finishing as you create your own wearable work of art! No felting experience necessary. A second nuno workshop will be offered on July 10. Sign up at Beach CITE Studios.

Felted Soap Dispensers

While watching a video about making felted bracelets, How to Make Felt Bracelets : Wet Felting Tips, I noticed the presenter was using a felted soap dispenser. So, I paused the video and scurried off to felt the soap dispenser in the kitchen. Next, I felted the one in my bathroom. Pretty cool. They are easy to make and easy to clean, just soap them up and rinse off. Great gift idea!

Hmmm... what can I felt next?

Nuno Felting Demo

I gave a nuno felting demo at the fabulous Beach CITE Studios' open house last Saturday. "CITE" stands for "community interactive teaching experience" and the facility is dedicated to teaching the arts to the community. Here I am, laying out a scarf, "Cherry Blossoms." About 30 people came through and there were lots of questions. Nuno felting isn't a process that is easy to understand - it took me a while to really understand it, and this was after I had been doing it a few months. Wool fibers tangle with silk to create a new fabric.

Nuno Felting Demo, April 17 at Beach CITE Studios

Come out for an open tour of the studios at Beach CITE at SanRoc Cay on Saturday evening, April 17th. I will be in an upper studio giving a demonstration of nuno felting from 5-6:30 pm, so stop by and say hello. Also, Brent Burns will be giving a concert from 7-9:30. Tickets for the concert are $10.00 and can be purchased by calling Sharon at 251.948.8863

Make a Scarf!

Join my nuno felting workshop on April 24 at the brand new Beach CITE Studios at San Roc Cay in Orange Beach. Come on out for a fun day of felting and go home with fabulous scarf. Space is limited so register early. Click on the link below for details.
http://beachcitestudios.org/learn_explore.html

Featured on a Fashion Blog!

Read the whimsical story about "Violet Vivelo" as she sets off on a new adventure, and a new life with my scarf, "Easter Basket." Here's the link:
http://buriedinbetsyscloset.typepad.com/my-blog/2010/02/page/2/

Thank you, Marianna for noticing my work on Etsy!

Busy Dyeing

Colorful swashes of silk gauze. I hand painted the dye on each piece of fabric and then steamed them for 20 minutes so the colors develop. As with felting, the dyeing process also ends with a delightful surprise as the colors deepen and merge to create new colors. These will be used as the bases for the scarves. Can't decide on which one I like best!

"Mosaic" Felted Table Runner

Alison Byers, the creative director at the the brand new, magnificent Beach CITE Studios in Orange Beach, mentioned "mermaid colors" in conversation the other day, so blues, greens, teals, turquoise, purple and gold began to swirl around in my head. I rushed home and immediately laid the fibers out...


and worked until it was finished at 1:30 a.m. Such is the life of a crazed feltmaker!



I really let go of all logical planning with this one and had a great time creating it. There are a dozen little experiments, and all of them came out successfully. Here's an example of one: little flakes of gold composition leaf are captured among the fibers. Oh, yeah, you'll be seeing more of this.

Fun Felted Collars

Made these felted collars from wool and strips of silk chiffon and gauze that I had hand dyed. When they were felted, I added beads. They really add pizazz to a plain, inexpensive t-shirt!

New Work - Blazing Azaleas

Last spring I was in awe of the riot of color from the azaleas where I live along the Gulf Coast of Alabama. So, I went on colorlovers.com and created this pallet and saved it to my account.


This spring, in anticipation of the azaleas blooming again, I looked up the palette I had saved and hand dyed this swath of silk gauze.


Next, I blended some fibers - bottle green merino wool with golden bamboo on a drum carder. See the shimmering bamboo? I am hooked on bamboo because it adds loft, softness and SHIMMER!


Then I made some prefelts.


Fibers were laid out. Petals and leaves were cut from the prefelts.


The scarf is rolled up, ready to felt.



Finished...