Posted in dyeing, felting, felting class, tagged coffee cozy, felting, plant dyeing, tea cozy on December 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I never showed you the tea cozy I made during my summer class in Germany in action. While I prefer tea most of the time, I don’t mind a cup of coffee in between, and the cozy fits perfectly on top of my Bodum French Press – bought about 20 years ago at Bewley’s Cafe in Dublin, Ireland…this old French Press has traveled quite a bit in the meantime.
Posted in family life, felting, general inspiration, tagged creativity, felting, play dough on November 26, 2012 | 4 Comments »
After I set up for felting at the dining room table, my youngest son seemed to be inspired to start making things, too. He got his play dough out, set up the old CD-player and speakers with his favorite music and got to work. I love working together like that, where everybody is absorbed in what they are doing, but still sharing the same creative space.
I am wondering: is creativity inherent, is it imitated or is it inherited? In my case I tend to believe it is a bit of all three. I grew up in a household and with an extended family that made things, always. Knitting, sewing, all other needlework, crafts, art, music…it was nearly frowned upon, if you just sat there, idly. Any television I watched growing up (and to an extent today still) was accompanied by knitting. My mother, my two sisters and I, all knitting on some project. Only my father was exempt. My grandmother was a master dressmaker and my mother sewed most all of our clothes until we were well into our teens. A trip to the fabric store to find something for the next dress you wanted was always exciting – the opposite of instant gratification, since after the fabric purchase you had to wait until your dress was next in line and sewed. It seemed normal to me.
So I watched (many hours I spent sitting next to my mother’s sewing machine, chatting, while she worked) and I copied, I was taught the techniques. I wanted to make things and find my own interpretation. It feels like I am carrying on a tradition and I am part of a bigger picture that way.
Posted in crafts with children, felting, school projects, Tuesday Craft, tagged acorn caps, cat toy, easy crafts with children, felting, paper craft, wool roving on November 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
We are on Thanksgiving break from school this week, so there is no new Tuesday craft happening today. Instead I want to show you some of the crafts the children have worked on over the last weeks.
The instructions can be found when you click on the picture.
Lovely donations for our school event, don’t you think?
Posted in crafts with children, felting, Tuesday Craft, tagged easy crafts with children, felting on November 8, 2012 | 1 Comment »
This is the point in time where the magic felting trick is performed: place a handful of fluffed up wool roving into a round container (plastic or glass), add a little bit of warm water with a tiny drop of dishwashing soap of your choice (good old Dawn works pretty well), close the lid tightly and shake, shake, shake. 29 second graders had quite a lot of fun, dancing around to their teacher’s very lively guitar-playing and singing while shaking their containers to their hearts’ delight.
And then, after the contents sound more solid and you have peaked in a few times, maybe removed too much liquid and soap, you open the lid – and there is your felted ball. Magic!
I am waiting for all the felted balls to dry, before I will glue them into their acorn hats. Without the string I also like the acorns with colorful felt as a decoration for the mantle or nature table, or added to a fall wreath.
Posted in crafts with children, felting, school projects, Tuesday Craft, Waldorf crafts, tagged crafts with acorns, easy crafts with children, felting, wool roving on October 16, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Welcome to Tuesday Craft! I couldn’t resist one more picture of the Red Gnome = Tuesday Gnome. I promise, I won’t start every future post with a picture like this…
Today in second grade we are going to make sweet ornaments to hang from a branch, a potted plant or a Christmas tree.
It is an easy craft, yet you have to be quite careful to get things just right: proportions and handling the fine wisps of wool roving. The children will have to take their time and work slowly.
You need:
huge acorn caps* (the one in front is a regular-size one); roving (tiny bits) in different colors: green for padding the nest/bed; white for the body; a color for the “suit” and some yarn to be able to hang it up. Oh, and also a little bit of soapy water (it doesn’t really need to be soapy, you will be using just a very little bit) and a strong needle.
Roll the white roving up into an oblong shape, moisten your hands (moisten, not wet) and roll the oblong shape between your hands in a motion as if you are rubbing your hands, because they are cold. There is no need to felt this piece of roving much, just a little, so it holds together.
Next take the roving you picked for the baby’s suit and wrap it carefully around the white shape, so it looks like a bodysuit with a hood and a white face peeking out. Pad the acorn cap with the green roving.
Thread your needle and attach the yarn, securing it with a knot on both sides.
That’s it!
If you can’t find any big acorn caps*, you could make this on a miniature scale with regular acorn caps, or find other options, like walnut shells, snail houses, pieces of bark, … Happy Crafting!
(*Tip for locals: you can find this type of oak tree around Sutter’s Fort)
Posted in Waldorf crafts, tagged craft class, embroidery, felting, knitting, paper craft, sewing, wool felt on October 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
…is what the main organizer of our winter school event said yesterday after posting the schedule for the next six weeks of crafting get-togethers. These are pictures from last year and these are just my (and my daughter’s) private donations. Can you imagine the wealth of good things when you add so many other families’ donated gifts? To see all the (often unexpected) talent and commitment when people drop of boxes after boxes of beautiful items – I love it every time.
Posted in felting, knitting, wool felt, tagged baby gift, felt baby boots, felting, wool felt, yarn on October 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »
A gift of for a special baby born to very close friends of ours in Germany. The booties are wet-felted; to keep baby’s feet happy I used a very soft merino wool on the inside. I added a cuff knitted with a cashmere/wool blend to keep the boots on the feet.
Welcome to this life, little one!
Posted in embroidery, felting, home improvement, wool felt, tagged embroidery, felting, wool felt on October 5, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Finally I can reveal the secret project that I worked on in July. As I said, the request was to come up with something that would make the banister in my sister’s house a little prettier (they had to take off a wooden railing, so that a closet would fit into a space on top of the stairs). See what I mean?
You know what I like best about this? Every time my sister, or a member of her lovely family, walks past these felted objects they are bound to think of me!
Posted in dyeing, felting, felting class, wool felt, tagged felting, plant dyeing, teaching, wool felt on September 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
During our stay in Germany I took a day off and spent it with two of my dearest friends – felting! I had read about this day in the German felting magazine FUN a few weeks before heading over to Europe and both my friends spontaneously agreed to share the day with me.
The workshop was entitled “Felting and Plant Dyeing” and run by Barbara Eichhorn and Ute Gellenthien in Barbara’s beautiful home. Everybody could make whatever they wished to try out, dye it or not, dye it beforehand or after. Help (uncomplicated, unjudgmental, humorous, pragmatic help!) was offered to make any idea a reality.
the felted and felting yurt
our teacher Barbara
some of the finished objects (I made the purple tea cosy, top left of the picture…)
…which went into the dye pot looking like this!
If you are ever in the neighborhood, I can recommend taking a class with Barbara, she clearly loves teaching and has an abundance of experience to share. I really enjoyed seeing other felters in action, their approach, their shortcuts – learnt a lot – and had a great day with my friends. Perfect!
Posted in crochet, dyeing, family life, felting, linen, sewing, tagged Alabama Chanin, crochet, crochet jewelry, felting, Guetermann thread, Habu Textiles, jewelry, sewing, Shibori on July 10, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Everything here has slowed down as the weeks off school are progressing, leaving us all in an increasingly relaxed state. It feels good! To interrupt the lazy summer mood, though, I started trying out a few things with the aim of coming up with attractive and wearable jewelry pieces – bracelets, wrist wraps, pendants, necklaces – made out of yarn, felt and added beads, wire, metal pieces. I have a lot of ideas going around in my head.
NB: Click on the picture below to get to Habu Textiles’ website and be prepared to be amazed at their highly innovative products of outstanding quality – and the beautiful photography. Truly mouthwatering, if you ask me. Did I mention that I love Japanese design?
Apart from that, my Alabama Chanin skirt has stalled. I got as far as sewing the basic skirt and dyeing* (shibori, tie-dye, whatever you want to call it) a piece of the leftover fabric. I am going to cut out circles and appliqué them to the lower part of the skirt, using my favorite red craft thread. This will have to wait until after traveling (see below).
(*In small print: I didn’t exactly dye the fabric, I tied it with rubber bands and put it in Chlorox household bleach – although I hate the smell and toxicity of the product. But it does produce a very lovely washed-out hue, I must say.)
My secret project is finished and ready to be packed. It will all be revealed once it has reached its final destination, adorning my sister’s staircase bannister. I promise to take pictures!
In a few days we are off on our travels to the far-away shores of home to visit families and friends in both our countries of origin – Ireland and Germany. Many a thing has to be considered and put into place before six people can set off with everything they need with them, and everything in order behind them.
It will be (even) quieter here for a while, although I will try to get access to computer and internet while traveling to keep you posted. In the meantime I want to thank you all out there for following me so far along my crafty way, and look forward to reconnecting after my return!
Eva
