Sue Bleiweiss

Back to felting

I finished up the last project for my Wet Felting class this morning, a felted composition book cover:

This class is going to run in the Fall session at Joggles.com.  I'm not sure of the exact date just yet but I'll post that when I know.  Meanwhile, here's a look at what the class lessons will be.  This is going to be a 4 week class and will be $40:

Lesson 1:    We’ll start with some basic wet felting using layers of wool combined with water and soap to create a piece of fabric that we’ll use to make an easy cover for an inexpensive composition book.

Lesson 2:    This week’s lesson is all about nuno felting.  Using silk chiffon as a base fabric we’ll add a layer of super soft merino wool and bond it to the silk using wet felting.  Nuno felting creates a wonderfully soft and supple piece of fabric perfect for items worn next to the skin and this weeks project will be a scarf. 

Lesson 3:    We’re working with resists this week to create pockets between layers of felted wool.  I’m going to show you an easy way to make a no sew flap bag that you can easily size up or down.

Lesson 4:    For our last lesson we’re going to have a lot of fun making bowls that you can fill will felted flowers and I’ll show you how to create a spiral felted tube that when cut into discs reveals a colorful surprise!

Here's a look at all the projects in the class:

Have a great weekend everyone!

Felt flowers

I like to have a wide range of projects in my classes  so that they appeal to a wide range of students.  The last lesson of the wet felting class will be all about making these spiral beads/pincushions:

and these:

Felted flowers!  I had a blast making these and I actually made a lot more than what you see here. 

And while I had the wool out I made another bowl:

I have one more project to work out the details on and then I'll be ready to start working on another class that I hope to have ready for the fall session.  Anybody want to venture a guess on the subject?

Back to felt

Thanks to a big box of wool from Joggles that got delivered to my door on Monday I spent most of Tuesday outside in the sun knee deep in wool, water and soap working on some felting projects for my upcoming class this fall.  One of the lessons in the class will be all about nuno felting:

You would not believe the soft drape that this scarf has and it's soooo soft and light.  It's like wrapping a cloud around your neck.  I see a lot of these in my future for gifts later this year when the weather turns a bit cooler.
And I'm working on several different techniques to create bowls. 

This is a nice sturdy bowl that I think I will use on my sewing table to hold those supplies that I'm always hunting for like my seam ripper, thread trimmer and my ever elusive extra camera battery! 

I was reading in the latest Cloth Paper Scissors magazine an article on Anna Maria Horner whose work and blog I admire very much.   When asked about the ups and downs of blogging she said that "Great ideas spread like rapid fire in the blog world.  If I put out something great, I'm going to see it all over the place"  and I smiled at that because it made me think of the padfolio which has turned up in blogs all over the world.  I love it that there are so many of you who stop by and may pick up a thread of inspiration from reading my blog.   Who knew that a free project posted on Fibre&Stitch would inspire so many of you to take a new look at rust dyeing and to visit Lois' blog to see how the real master of rust dyeing works.   I'm often asked where I find inspiration for the work I do.  Well in the case of things like the teapots and other 3d work I do it's usually because I'm driven just to see if I can do it.  I love a challenge!   When it comes to class projects like the spiral pin cushions and beads I blogged about a few posts ago it's usually from just experimentation and playing with the materials at hand.  I'm careful not to buy craft books because I would not want to be influenced by what I see in them especially when it comes to developing projects for my classes.   I do confess to owning every singe one of Jan Beany and Jean Littlejohn's books though because I think their work is just brilliant and everytime I look through one I am inspired to push myself just a little bit harder.  So that's a little about where I find inspiration I'd love to hear from some of you about where you find yours.

More wool...

I am continuing to work out the projects for my new wet felting class and the latest projects are a no sew one piece flap bag:

No sewing at all needed to make this purse.

and this bowl:

Which is rather dark I know.  The darker wools are hard to photograph.  This is a large bowl about 10" across.  I filled it with some colorful paper flowers.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Felted vase and Terri's page

My page swap partner for July is Terri and her theme is nature.  Well after much stress over what to do for her page I decided I wanted to do some handstitching which for me is a huge deal.  I confess to be a lousy handstitcher.  It is definitely not one of my strong points.  But I stuck with it (ha ha pun intended and I have the poke marks in my fingers to prove it) and made this little needlepoint canvas which I mounted to linen fabric.

And meanwhile I've been continuing to experiment with felting and making 3d objects for the new wet felting class I'm working on:

This is a hand felted vase standing about 9" high at the highest point and about 7" wide.  The colors are fairly muted shades of pink and green.  The wool is a blend of coopworth wool and silk.

Felted bowls

yup you gessed it, more felting today.  I am really enjoying working with the wool fibers.  I made these two bowls yesterday:

This brown one is my favorite.  These are not colors I usually like to work in but I really like the organic earthy feel that this bowl has. 

and this one I did with a layering technique that I'm working on.  Both of these bowls are 5" to 6" in diameter and stand about the same height.

More adventures in felting

Spiral beads and pin cushions

and a little felted candy bowl:

I am definitely going to need to order some more wool...

Felted bag

Remember the nuno felt piece from the previous post?  Well now it's a bag:

I am very pleased with the way this bag came out.  It's about 10" x 1 1/2" x 8".    This project is going to be part of a new wet felting class that I'm developing that will be part of the fall class schedule at Joggles.  I'll have a lot more projects to share from this class over the next several weeks so stay tuned.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!