Scoring BIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I 'met" Gillian Hunt of FB and fell in love with her incredible photography...the two nature photos. Gillian has agreed to trade these to photos for one of my hats...made especially for her. I am beyond DELIGHTED! I've wanted some of her art for some time, now that will happen. Happy dance all over the place!!!!! Her incredible photos will go in my green guest room. I may start a Gillian Hunt wall! I think these photos will look wonderful in the green guestroom.



The hat that Gillian wants is like the turquoise tam with the hand dyed silk, only done in purples and pinks. I am looking forward to making the hat for her...and trying to make it as special as I think her photos are. I'll try to rememeber to post it here when get it done.



This great moment in the sky happened as I was leaving my friends home a few weeks ago. the whole sky was a series of different clouds, light and shadow play...hard to take your eyes off it. I shot the cloud here from my cell phone. Wish I had had a really good camera on me. I love this photo of the clouds...so reminded me of being 8 years old and watching the clouds in new mowed grass. It was a great moment to capture and I was very happy to have my cell on me with enough charge to allow the camera to work.

This is one of the hats that I was able to complete this week. First photo is of it before felting, the second is finished. I may have to cut the resist down a bit. I used a synthetic organza on the surface. Love the texture it created!

Off to bed. Are you making felt? What are you making?

Shalom and make Happy Felt!

Suzanne

Who Is In Your Playpen?

Jim and I are well settled into our new routine with Dad, and it is going splendidly. I am accustom to "care-giving' so it does not fatigue me in the same way it does my husband Jim. He is rising to the occasion though, and I am so proud of him ... So much so that I felt I could leave them for a few days and travel to see Pam MacGregor at http://tarveycottagestudio.com/
It was just what I needed. Over the past weeks/months, I felt as though I'd really lost my sense of "play" and knew that I needed a safe place to have that rekindled...no pressure, no expectations, just play...and we did.

I took a couple of things with me that I needed advisement on, and one of the things is the bag shown on this page. The bag project morphed on me during the felting process and went from vessel to bag, then back to vessel and finally to bag again. I was so confused and frustrated at the end of it I just wanted to toss it. But tossing it was not an option. To start with the wool had mohair in it and I do not like hairy felt...at all, so the more I fulled the felt, the hairier it became, even after shaving it. Grrrrrrrrr! Second, I had used some of the organically dyed over-spun silk I'd received from Vilte . So now I have to see this through. So I took it to Pam for help. We got it done and soon it will get the finishing touches. It has already sold, so all was not lost. What Pam and I did is what I would have done here at home, but I'd lost my "risk taking tools", my "play". After the time with Pam, it has all come back. Thank you Pam.

I'm currently embarking on re-working some of my old pattern as well as gathering new ones in my hat making efforts. It is sometimes so much easier to do the 'tried and true" than to push oneself to rethink, retool, dissemble, reassemble, try this, try that...and end up with a failure that that taught me much along the way. It is the felt road I travel. I am planning on being surprised along the way.

I love the black and blue hat, ('tried and true") and the "Tin Man" was an adaptation of a pattern that I like a good bit to. The eggplant purple hat is a pattern I received from Pam. Buttons need to be added and I am already thinking of the changes I'll make to it next time.

Robins are here, so are the Blue birds. It's way too early for Spring in Michigan, but it looks like it is coming anyway. Time waits for no one.. so I'd better get busy. Show Season will be here before i know it.

Shalom,
Suzanne

Cha-cha-cha-cha-changes

Life happens FAST! and with it comes changes that we sometimes see coming and others, not so much. My much respected husband Jim and I have aging parents, my Mom and Dad are still alive, traveling between FLA and MI as the weather changes, 6 months here in Michigan, 6 months there in Fla. and his Dad (Bob) is alive living a few miles from us. This week, he, Dad (Bob) informed us that he's decided to take us up on our offer to have him come live with us. He is nearly 90, alone, lonely, funny, capable, delightful, wise, loving, fussy, neat as a pin, and a bunch more stuff, and soon he will be under our roof. We are delighted, and anxious and disrupted and honored. It is a life changing event...and change can be good!
For the past 4 months, I've been working off and on at the task of de-cluttering our home. We have four grown children who use our home as a storage unit, plus both my husband and I run our businesses (yes two businesses from one home) from our home. Do you need more detail? Probably not. So the goal is " a more organized chaos". Our living room will become Dad's apartment for all practical purposes and we are scurrying around trying to move things, get rid of things, reallocate things, all in an effort to give him is own space and allow us ours as well. I need to be three people right now...and one of us seriously could use a nap!
Prior to the phone call from Dad, I was able to make a new hat and a couple of flowers. It may be a bit of time before I can get back to the felting.

That's all for now, got to get back to rearranging my home and then pack up his large, two-bedroom, filled to the brim apartment. He moves in within weeks. Please wish me luck!

Shalom and Happy Felting!
Suzanne

Simply Red...

A simple red hat to share today. I've had a very busy week of dyeing silk, felting, making a lot of nuno,...and there is so much to get done before the Michigan Fiber Festival, which is August 17-21 in Allegan, Michigan.

I'll be teaching at the Michigan Fiber Festival. I was informed by the workshop committee that I have some openings remaining in the multiple resist bag class. The details are on the Michigan Fiber Festival website,if you are interested. The other classes have filled. I will not be teaching any nuno classes at this event, but nuno will be incorporated into the bags if desired.

So much to do, so this is all for today.
Be Happy and touch others with your gifts,
Shalom,
Suzanne

Mama Pod

My beloved mother returned home from her 6 month stay in sunny FLA. On her way home, she stopped here to spend three incredible days with me and Jim. It was a precious time together. We walked a lot, worked in the woods clearing dead wood, started a fire...that almost got out of control and made felt together. This is her first pod. It is made out of llama fiber. She is totally impressed with herself and I love what she did with the fibers! She is a "birder" too, so I'll be anxious to hear about who nests in her pod.
Yeah Mom! Nicely done.
Just thought I'd share it with you all here too.
Shalom,
Suzanne

4 Days of WOW...

I've just come home from 4 incredible days with Jone Rakoski and Pam MacGregor at Pam's studio in Ohio. I am overwhelmed with the information shared. We did things like Goodwill shopping, looking at hardware, going out to lunch, going to garage sales, hypnotizing chickens, talking late into the night, and felting. There is no way I can share all of it---this entry would be a book, but I can share some.

In the first photo there are several items that might be of interest. The green scarf and book Pam gave to me, as well as "Bad Girls of the Bible", a battery operated dremmel and sea shells. I've long loved Pam's books made of felt. This one is made of some of the hand dyed merino silk that I'd given to Pam last spring. The scarf we did some discharge on to our happy delight.

Jone laughs at me because I drink instant coffee...life moves fast around here, so it's become convenient for me. She picked up this two cup coffee maker, some coffee, sweet sticks with lavender, and made the soda cover. I'm drinking "fresh ground coffee" as I write this. YES! She would be so proud of me...and that way I'll have it available when she is here.

Being with other felt makers is joyous. Being with these two incredible felt makers was fantastically joyous. I nearly cried when I left. It was I was filled to over flowing.

Are there those people in your life who fill you up? I hope so!

Happy Felting and Good Sabbath,
Suzanne

Monoliths, Cappuccino, and Four Dreaded Women

It's a quiet Saturday morning, gray skies, bits of clutter that needs attending to, a hot cup of cappuccino at my ready, and am compelled to blog a bit.

This week Sharon Costello, of Black Sheep Designs, announced the Felter's Fling line up on her website. So many talented felters will be there, teaching, sharing, making memories. I'd like to go. Will have to see about that. Here is the link.
http://www.blacksheepdesigns.com/fling2011.html

I think you'll be impressed with the line up she has provided this year.

So while I 'm reading through the list of folks who will be at Felter's Fling, I come upon the YURT Guy link and begin anew, my search on line for monolithic or dome or yurt living units. I love them. My ideal living space has become the dome. For those of you who read this blog often, you know of my passion for monolithic structures. There is something in the simplicity, the womb or earth shape, the safety, the unusual, to be sure, that attracts me to the shape; finding them rather comforting. However, there are some things that make them look rather stark as well, and that I find less attractive. However, while looking on line for monolithic homes, I found the one that combined so many features that I like, mixing the traditional with the unusual--creating beauty and balance. If you are interested, here is the link:
http://www.monolithic.com/stories/feature-home-emerson
I could so live there!

The Four Dreaded Women are pins that have been ordered and they will be on the way today. They are time consuming to make. I've enjoyed making them, but am unsure if it is something I want to add to my product line. Maybe they will be what I do on those days when my arms have fallen off and I can finger felt only.

Cappuccino is gone, time for me to get moving. Blessing surround you....look!
Shalom,
Suzanne

Fiber Expo

I'm off to the Fiber Expo here in Michigan in a few short hours. Since getting back from Rhinebeck, NY it's been busy here, dyeing and felting, mostly scarves. These are just some photos of the pieces that I did. I didn't get a chance to photograph them in their wearable state. Hopefully I'll get to do that this weekend.

Have a blessed weekend and happy felting!
Oh, did you see the moon the past few days/nights? Outstanding!
Suzanne

Fab Feltmaking Day with incredible women!

Allison, Megan, Terry, Betty, Heather, Dena, Sue, Christee, Pam, Evelyn, and Chris, shared in a day long event to make felt. These gals were nearly all first timers! I am so impressed with their results, hard work, colors choices and designs. I have so few photos to share because I was more tired then I knew and there were some seriously "shaky" photos taken. In the last photo, you'll see that Terry got dye all over her. I don't know why that color bled out, but it did. Still, she has a brilliantly colored bag. (I covet that bag. The color is yummy to me!)
I am so proud of their hard work and accomplishments. I hope they are too!

Fascinating Felt, Felt Fabulous Workshop Date Set

These are just some hanks of the yarns I spin while Jim and I watch TV at night. Though I'd love to, I can't be felting all the time. These will go off to a local shop.

Since I closed the shop some years ago, it's been very difficult for me to teach more than one or two people at a time, and usually at my dining room table, surrounded by a house that needs to be cleaned, desperately! However, I have 5 women who have asked me to teach them at one time, so I had to search for a place to do a workshop. I've found the perfect place and a wonderful group of folks to work with. I am opening the class room up to additional students, so if you are interested, please do contact me and pre-register for the workshop.

*Felt Fabulous Making Workshop*

Pre-registration is required

First Come, First In


What: Flat resist one of a kind hat or a multi-resist felt bag-students choice


Where : Otsego Area Historic Museum, 218 N. Farmer Street in Otsego, MI

air conditioned! Large work area


When: August 7th , 2010, from 9am-5pm


Cost of class: $65.00


I will supply everything you need to make your project.


Students need to bring:

2 large bath towels

Apron if desired

Calculator, design ideas, black magic marker, sharp scissors

Something to drink—especially water

Sack Lunch and snack

Wear clothes that can get wet, be very comfortable in your clothing choices.

If you have any questions, please call Suzanne at 269-685-6189 or on cell 269-330-0115

Construction Zone

Seems as though I'll be making pods for a good bit. Have orders for them and am enjoying the randomness of designing in my head!

This one is very much like the first in shape and design. I am planning others that will be more abstract in shape. I'm tempted to hang is outdoors, but knowing how fast the birds moved in last time, I'll not chance it. I am however very, and pleasantly surprised at how natural they look hanging from a tree limb. It doesn't look showy nor peculiar, simply interesting. I can imagine a whole backyard filled with lots of different color, shaped and designed pods, filled with feathered friends from many places. It would be nice to become "their summer home" stop.

The fact that these are like wombs to me and that there is life in them...it's good enough.
Much Peace to you,
Suzanne

Mandolin Pod

It's been a bit since I've spent any time here, and it is likely to be a good bit more before I get back here. I am getting ready for the upcoming show season, teaching, and studying for the state boards every moment I can. I've missed blogging and sharing, but somethings got to give and it is my time with you all right now.

The mandolin pod is made out of hand dyed Lincoln/Teeswater cross with a silk cap overlay and seed beading at the orifice. I made it so that it could be hung from a tree with a loop handle. If I were a squirrel, I think I'd like to live in this pod. It would be soft, quiet, comfortable. Not being a squirrel, I can only imagine that it might be kind of nice in there...almost womb like.

Upcoming classes and pretty little things

A bit back, I was asked to be part of The Rose Gazebo art shop on Mackinaw Island. I think she is going to have about 50+ artist there, including my dear friend, Dawn Edwards of Felt So Right. (see side bar for her website) Jodie, the gal who is opening the shop, has asked me to supply her with many things...most of which I'll be lucky to get done! We talked a good deal about price points and how she needed to have some of the smaller items that walk out of the door easily. I decided to dye up a bunch of merino silk in some wonderful water colors (she is opening the shop on an island after all) and made up 50 felted soaps for her. I hope these soaps will grow feet and will walk out the door for her. She also wants 30 pin cushions, 30 bags and 30 nuno wraps! ...all by the end of the month, YIKES! I am confident that I'll be working into the wee hours of the morning trying to accomplish all that she wants for her shop, plus get ready for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival at the end of the month.

The teaching schedule is filling fast this year. I am so pleased to be introducing or furthering felting for so many. I will be teaching at Barb Marr's in Allegan, MI this next weekend for a group coming up from Chicago, have 5 women for a class in July at my home, Michigan Fiber Festival, two classes at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, and will likely hold another class in October.

I've also been asked to teach at our local library, children and adults next month. It is always great fun to be with the children. They are not programed to think a certain way, thus they listen to their hearts and beauty is created. They are my favorites to show how to felt, then stand back and let them discover what their hands can do. Children are amazing! If you are interested in taking a class from me, please feel free to contact me. I do teach privately if that is what you need.

We are anticipating a very large group here for dinner tomorrow at our Sabbath Group. I think there may be 20 people. I better get "the studio" turned back into a dining room as soon as I can.

Have a blessed weekend and remember to rest. It refreshes your soul.
Shalom
Suzanne

Trying to Keep it Simple

Ah yes, another bag....and that may be it for a bit on the bag making. Have huge orders to fill for nuno/laminate felts, vessels, felted soaps, bags, and hats. I've been working on the nuno felts for the past few days and will try to get a photo up at the end of the week to show the weeks work. Since there is much to be done, I'll not be posting much this week.

Have joy in your days, peace in your sleep.
Shalom, Suzanne

PS:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/avivaschwarz
This gal has some really lovely things, no blog, but I did want to share her shop.

With No Particular Place to Go

For the past several months I've been working on this piece very sporadically. I think it is because I've no particular place to go with it. It is just a piece that I am working on that may or may not be functional. I simply have no end goal in mind.

It is hand dyed silk gauze, measures about 40 inches wide and about 96 inches long. After I dyed it, I thought I would just put wisps of wool, in many colors all over the piece, in my usual random fashion. These photos are not showing the finished product, just what I've accomplished (as pitiful as it is!) so far. The first photo shows the wool colors I've used, the second and third show the reverse side. There is something very sensual about piece to me. I something think it would be a great shawl, or an over dress with a black slip under it, or....help me out. Got ideas? I'm wide open to anything right now, so if you have an idea, please share.

I'll be working on this today as I can do it in small bits. My gall bladder is killing me and I am doing to a cleanse/purge. Need to keep it simple today.

Shalom,
Suzanne












Suzanne's late entry: It turned into a wrap! Who knew? I did finish applying the fibers to the silk, slowly, small area at a time. I wanted to keep the look very random both in color and texture. After is was well felted together into the silk, I rinsed completely and placed it in my dryer on "air only" for about 20 minutes to further bind it together and give it deeper, more complex texture. I love it!

Two Days in the Bag

This is a bag that I am uncertain about, love the color, love the handles, took two days to make it. I used a resist that was too large for the shrinkage that I should have figured into the bag. I think it is the shape that is throwing me off a bit on the bag, there is something about the asymmetrical and the symmetrical that is not working for me. I think the flap needs to be longer, the do-dad shortened. But I learned a lot making this bag. This wool was from an older sheep, and was full of spinning oil. It made the felting process much longer than it needed to be and the rinsing long. It did take the dye very well though. I used Jacquard Dyes in the crock pot. It was a combination of Aztec Gold and Burnt Orange. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the bag. I just wish I like it more than I do.

I am taking the next few days to work in the flower beds, getting them cleaned out of old leaves, removing the myrtle that has over grown every where, just enjoying the wonderful weather that we are having here in southwest Michigan. It has been wonderful

A Long Time Ago, In A Place far Away ...

A long time ago, in a place far (well actually only three hours away) lived a much younger girl than I am, who had an eight acre hobby farm , where she raise milking goats, her favorite was named Peggy, rabbits, chicken and geese. The girl was supremely happy milking goats, feeding chicken and geese and rabbits. Each Spring, that girl would order the chicken catalog. When it arrived, she would sit down at her kitchen table with a full cup of coffee and begin the joyous task of selecting baby chicks. Now, this was no easy task, to be sure. Several cups of coffee might be needed before the final selection was made. This girl ordered only two chicken from about 50 different birds of the hundreds of breeds available in the catalog. Within two weeks after the selection was completed, 100 baby chicks, Sweet Peeps, as her daughter called them, arrived. All of them looking exactly alike, yellow puffs of peeps. They were looked after with loving eyes, a warming lamp, feed, grit, water and lots of snuggles. Slowly, the peeps grew into young chicks and were moved from the garage to the small barn. There they learned many new things, like bugs are fun to eat! Now, all of the chicks began to look very different from each other, different coloring, different feathering, different sizes, different temperaments...and they all lived very happily together.............. until the boy chickens decided to be cocky and attack the much loved daughter because she was wearing a bright pink jacket. Then, that very day, all of the boys all became food for the mother and daughter ...who indeed, did live happily ever after. (...even after another boy named Jim showed up to court the mother, who she loved very much, married and moved away from her much loved farm, but, that's another story.)
************************************************************************************
These photos are not of that much loved farm. These photos are of Christee's farm where I picked up lamb for the freezer. I got to feed the lambs that required bottle feeding, shovel some manure , smell the barn, hang with Christee. The beautiful rooster prompted the hobby farm reminiscence . He was not cocky and did not attack anyone. I like him a lot!

Have a wonderful day!
Shalom,
Suzanne

Finishing Touches + Touching the Future

Ms. Allison came over the play Thursday and we had great fun making felt together. She took one of the batts shown below in a previous post, and created a wonderful, light and airy felt. It turned out so nice. The white on it is from silk roving that was carded into the top layer of the batt. She is uncertain of what she'll make of the felt, but I for one, am sure that it will be wonderful.

After the felt making, we both work on some of the beading that we wanted to complete on several bags. I didn't get a photo of the one Allison was working on, but I did of mine. Allison's was all neatly planned out, well executed, mine a bit more random, of course. All in all, a great day in the adventures of felt making!

(Allison's beaded bag-late photo entry)





My sweet friend Suzanne Morgan, http://www.learnedlately.blogspot.com/ sent me an email about a blog post concerning blog posts. The writer spoke much about sharing 100%, not to hold back, to give details, hints, helps, etc. This is just such wonderful advise, and speaks so much to what my heart feels more and more these days. I recall early in my felting that I didn't want people to "copy" my work, but with some maturity, I soon realized that no one can copy someone else. If I teach a class of 10 people how to make a hat, and all of them will turn out different from each other. It is the technique that we teach, not how to create their own piece. That will come from within each individual person. As a teacher, to me, it is important to guide a person to successful understanding of what they are learning, to encourage them, assist them and encourage play, experimentation within the project. I so hope that I do that when I am teaching.

As a blogger, I think I fall sorely short in the giving it all away. I'm asking you to help me in that effort. Ask questions, leave comments, and I will do my very best to answer thoroughly, honestly, and to give my best advise. It is one of the best ways to touch the future of felt making. We all build on the expertise of someone else, the lessons we've learned through our own failures and success's. There is nothing new under the sun, it is only new to us when we first learn it. We set it free when we share it, teach it, explore it, love it, and watch it grow.

Off to explore!
Shalom,
Suzanne