Needle Felt at Midwest Felting Symposium

Leslie Sampson needle felted "painting" is jaw-dropping. She brought two to the event, and this one was in the gallery. Just incredible attention to detail....you can almost smell the water and the autumn in the air. This is an uncommon beauty in needle felt works, in my opinion. It stands at perhaps 4 foot high by 3.5 foot wide. It is framed. It's all wool. Isn't it yummy? Click on the photo to enlarge. It's so worth it!

More Felts from Symposium

The cream colored shawl was done by one of the Scottish felters that contributed to our gallery at the Midwest Felting Symposium. It was so simply stunning, I had to share it with you. It was felted with antique cotton lace. It is elegance to me.

The scarf is again by Judy McDowell. I love her uses of silk fabric. They are simple in design, extremely feminine, beautifully executed. Judy has become one of my new favorites. She also did the purse in the blog entry from yesterday.

There was a jacket by Mary Wallace I wish I could share with you too. Sadly the battery in my camera was nearly dead, so the photo turned out "not so good". I love Mary's work both in design and quality. I'm feeling bad that I cannot share that photo with you. If anyone does have a photo of the jacket, could you share it with me?

Felts from the Midwest Felting Symposium Gallery

Beautiful bag by Judy McDowell and jazzed hatz by Ewa Kuniczak, of www.feltheadtotoe.co.uk.

Midwest Felting Symposium photos

Ewa and Deborah enjoying an after dinner giggle. Suzanne (Sue) Pufpaff relaxing with some after dinner knitting.

Midwest Felting Symposium 2008

Annemie and Carol Cypher together as new friends, Pat Spark and I hugging goodbye for another year. Have I mentioned that I love this woman? She has so much knowledge, so much skill, and a great heart full of good will. Pat is an amazing resource about feltmaking, fiber, what to do, what not to do. Her passion for this medium makes her sparkle. Personally, I think it is great that Pat's last name is Spark! She strikes a spark in me each time I see her, her work, her warmth.

Susan McFarland and staff did an outstanding job for the instructors, the students, and vendors. This was a wonderful, felt-filled event. The gallery was so well done, elegant contributions from so mamny and many far away. Great blessing and inspiration to see them all. Each year, the organization gets better and better. There are a lot of balls to juggle, not all of them felt! Susan manages to keep them all in rotation without missing a beat! How does she do that?????

I love going to the events that she plans, they are so much fun! MFS is no exception. It really is my favorite though. Being in the air conditioning helps so much. Working on felt making in sweltering heat is no fun. The venue was great!!!

If you've not made plans to be there for 2009, let me encourage you to start saving 10-15.00 a week toward the event. It is worth every single penny, and then some.

Oh, my photos of Ewa will be up soon.

Shalom,
Suzanne

Accommodations--OPEN ARMS

I have the great pleasure of staying at the home of Ruth Walkers' parents while I am attending the Midwest Felting Symposium. Each time I am there, I am welcomed with open arms, as though we are family. Their hospitality and great kindness toward me is much appreciated Each time I leave there is sadness. I always look forward to my time with them. Ruth. oh my, I always look forward to my time with her. She is amazing, beautiful, talented, kind, open woman who plays well with others. I am just happy to be among them!

Midwest Felting Symposium, YAHOO!

It is my favorite event all year long, the Midwest Felting Symposium in Madison Wisconsin. The Alliance Center is lovely, the classes are great, the air is passionately filled with the magic of making felt. While felt making is my passion, it's the people that I'll meet, or get to know better that make it so wonderful. They really are treasures. To see all of the talents, all of the designs, all of the colors, the laughter, the foods, the joy of being around other felters...I can hardly wait! I'll be leaving in about 3 hours for Madison. It's going to be great! I'll tell you about it when I get back.

Make great felt!
Shalom,
Suzanne

Lanadeflor, Again!!! Still!!! More!!!!

I love this gals work. Just had to show off more of her talents. Isn't she amazing!?!

I think she will be at the Midwest Felting Symposium. I hope you'll get to meet her there! Be sure to check out her etsy site: www.lanadeflor.etsy.com
Simply beautiful stuff, excellent colorways!
Shalom,
Suzanne

Lanadeflor and Hookedonfelt

Lanadeflor is an etsy/business name of a fantastic felter in Ohio. I've not asked her if I could use her full name, so I will not as of this writing, so we'll just go by Debora. I first saw her work on Etsy several years ago and loved the delicate-ness of her work. The jewelry she makes is sooo very beautiful, very classy/artful stuff.

The scarf shown on the blog is made from wool and my hand-dyed merino silk. I love what she did with it and had to show it off for those of you who do not know of her work. Rare is it that one gets to see the final results of a hand dyed fiber. This one is just stunning, IMO. For more of Debora's works, please visit her etsy shop. Write in Lanadeflor in the search. You'll be so glad that you did!

Guilt can motivate too!

OK, so I blogged about making felt yesterday, then got to feeling so guilty about having a blog about felt-making, with little or no felt-making on it. So guilty in fact, that I decided ( or had a stronger than sleep desire) to make a felt hat. It is merino, merino silk, and silk. I love the way it turned out and I may have found my "felt grove thing" again. Whooooo-hoooooo!

(Sometimes, guilt just works! If it is painful enough, it does bring about change...and in this case, a felt hat too.)

Finally, a felt!

Finally, a felt. This is a small piece of traditional wet felt that was originally a multi-colored piece of felt. I was not content with the colors so it went for a dive into the dye pot. Many of the other previous colors have left their mark on the felt and added another dimension to the finished piece. Once the wet felt was done, I added a bit of sequenced fabric, cover it with hand dyed Wensleydale locks by needle felting them into place, then covered all of the locks and fabric with a thin, ultra-thin layer of silk from a hand-dyed silk hankie. I hope to get it in a frame at some time, but for now, this is what it looks like.

I a so anxious to get back to making felt. I have too many ideas going through my head and not nearly enough time to get them all done. Isn't this a common concern for so many of us???? I have perhaps spent too much time with with dye pots, but that is so much fun too. Seems that I plan to felt nearly everyday, then suddenly I am asleep and there is no felt fairy that has shown up to make my ideas a reality while I sleep! (What's up with that?) Still, I will take the time to draw out the felts and put them on my mental shelf of things to do. To everything, there is a season....making felt too I suppose.

God is in the details, Acts of God, Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival

An amazing fiber event at Hoosier Hills. Amazing amounts of courage of both vendors and customers, amazing teamwork among vendors, amazing about of rain...9 inches fell Friday night alone. More and more rain fell throughout the day on Sat. By 3:30, roads were being closed, water rising in rivers, roads impassable, booths filling with water, or in a state of drying out...slowly. Was the fiber event the best I've ever attended? No! Was it the most memorable? Yes, Yes Yes!

Ya know, we go to the events to meet people, connect with customers, see what's new, teach, learn, touch and to be visually stimulated. As a vendors, we also hope to make our expenses, and make some money. Did that all happen? Slightly. Met some cool people, made my expenses, but mostly, we got home safe ...in more pouring rain.

I suppose I could be upset, sad, frustrated, angry, and a whole bunch of other unhealthy feelings. Rather, I've decided to be grateful, thankful, delighted, happy, content, and am simply mindful that God is in the details, including and not limited to, the rain! My God Reigns! My God Rains!

There will be other fiber event, but I doubt that there will be others as memorable as 2008 Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. I'm still glad that I was there for the event. It will be one that we'll talk about for years to come.

Sweet Needle Felts--Jenn Dockerty

Several weeks ago, Chris sent me a couple of photos of a new book she'd picked up. She called and told me that my form, needle felting tools and needles were all listed in the new book that had just been released. How cool is that. There are several other photos in the book that I'll try to get posted for you. I was delighted to learn that he products we created 8 years ago continue to impact the creative lives of others. Very exciting indeed!

In this book, she uses our small doll form to make a woven/needle felted bowl. The photos in this book are really great, nice illustrations, good tutorials.

I'll be leaving again this next week to go to Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival in Franklin, IN. I'll be teaching there this year. I'll be teaching on Friday if you are interested in taking the felt flower class. This is a wet felt class. Each flower takes about an hour to make. We're going to make three. Class runs from 12-3 on opening day. This show is a Fri-Sat show. It was wonderful last year and I anticipate that it will be even better this year. Cannot imagine the work that goes into putting a festival together. So I've got a lot of work to get done before I go....lots of dyeing, lots of carding, and I should make some felt! If I get a hat or two put together, I'll post them for you to see.
Shalom,
Suzanne

I'll be posting some of these hand-dyed 50/50 merino/silk rovings on my etsy shop: www.hookedonfelt.etsy.com Featured here is a 2 ounce roving. I am spending too much time in my dye pots and need to stop and get making felt! This stuff felts so beautifully. Hmmmm, maybe I won't put it up for sale, perhaps I'll use it myself.

It is Wrap-really!