Cigar box and gifts

A couple of weeks ago my friend Mary gave all of us in our creativity group (we call our group Stitch 'n Bitch, or S&B in polite company) a cigar box and issued a challenge to alter it any way we wanted. We all revealed our creations at our weekly meeting on Tuesday.  You can see the other boxes on our group blog  Fox on the Run Arts

 
I'm going to show you my box here.  I forgot to take pictures of my process, dumb me.  First I collaged colored tissue papers and some music sheets on the box, and painted a glaze over all.  I glued some colored cheesecloth around the sides and brushed a little gold paint on it.  I made all the mosaic pieces out of polymer clay by stamping into it with rubber stamps, then painting the pieces after they were baked.  

I glued the mosaic pieces down with regular gel medium. 

I used painted wooden beads for the feet. I am quite happy with the results and want to do more of this type of construction.  I have more boxes and some cans that would be fun to alter.  Maybe they would be good Christmas gifts.  Hummmm, that is an idea.

This week I received in the mail an ATC from my friend Audrey at http://magicmiraclesjoy.blogspot.com/.  Isn't it beautiful?  She painted it and added little seed beads around and stitched faceted bugle beads for the eyes.  They glimmer rather like real dragonfly eyes might.  Sorry the photo doesn't do justice to this piece, too many shadows.  It is lovely, thanks Audrey!  She also gifted me with a cute framed vintage postcard that shows little sunbonnet type children raking in a hay field.  She said it reminded her of me after she read my Making Hay blog post last summer.  It is very nice, sorry I forgot to take a picture, maybe I will show it later. I feel very special that Audrey thought enough of me to gift me spontaneously with these gifts.  Thank you, Audrey!  I'm so glad we have gotten to know each other.  I believe Audrey was my first follower.

I was very fortunate to win a fabulous giveaway from Cameron at http://cameronsthreads-tammy.blogspot.com/

She gifted me with this stunning nuno felted scarf!  It is large enough to be a shawl on me.  I am in awe of it!  It is a very beautiful and generous gift.  She asked for a picture of me wearing it.  I was so shy to honor that request that I put off blogging about this gift.  I finally realized that was why I wasn't blogging so I bit the bullet and snapped this photo in front of my studio.

Below is a better photo of the scarf.  You can see the reverse side a bit there at the top of the photo.  Look at those gorgeous colors!  Looking at this photo now, I think they are a bit too bright, the actual scarf is more subtly colored.

Here is a close up showing how she added bits of lace and machine stitching.  It is a very special scarf, and warm too.  I am using it more as a shawl, really.  Thank you Cameron!  She lives in Oregon too, perhaps we will meet IRL someday.  Be sure and check out her blog, she makes wonderful unique felted garments.

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After receiving these generous and lovely gifts, and several other wonderful gifts I have previously blogged about, I am feeling a desire to have another giveaway myself.  Stay tuned for that, it will be for one of my beaded hearts.  Until then, be well.

 

More Nuno felting

Finally I got the results I was looking for. This time I took two very light little silk scarves, each about 34"x 5" (see below) and put some colorful roving on them, and rolled them up and felted. Above is a close up with the finished scarf hanging in the window with the sun shining through it.

Above are the two silk scarves before I laid the roving on and wet it all down, slightly felting enough so it would stick together. Then I laid the two scarves end to end with some extra roving on the overlap before I rolled the whole shebang up in my bamboo mat to do the final felting. I wanted a longer scarf than just one of the silk pieces would have made.

This is more like what I was striving for in the first place. I love the other two pieces I made but this one is more wearable. I want to do something with that gorgeous first piece I made a couple weeks ago, but it is too thick and stiff to wear as a scarf. This is a very lightweight decorative scarf, drapes beautifully.

This is our last day of expected sun. It has been so wonderful to have this spring respite from the cold dark wet winter. The daffodils have begun blooming, the robins flocked to the freshly mown lawn, and the birds have been singing joyfully. Tomorrow we expect to be back to rain.

Listening to Greg Brown today.

Be well.

Blue nuno felting

I had to jump in and make another scarf with this nuno felting technique. This time I used a smaller piece of rayon fabric and less roving. This one measures about 45" X 6" and is much less thick. I decided to add a bit of embellishment to the ends with some fluffy yarns, that put a nice finishing touch on it. I have sent it off to my SIL as a birthday gift. I hope she likes it.

I got a tip from Ro Bruhn over at http://robruhn.blogspot.com/ . She has done nuno felting before but has only put the roving on one side of the fabric. I will try that next, making sure I have a piece of fabric that I really like and want to see as it would definitely show. The fabric in these two pieces of mine does not show at all.
Be well.

Nuno Felting

Oh my goodness! I am so excited about this new thing I have made! Talk about feeding my color-a-holic needs! I have wanted to try Nuno Felting for awhile and yesterday turned out to be the day to begin. I looked up on the internet some instructions and found these at the Dharma site: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/7519337-AA.shtml I laid out some long narrow grass mat, put nylon netting over that, then began layering my colorful roving. I wasn't sure how much of the roving was proper to lay down, this was my first attempt with limited instructions. I laid it down enough so that the colors would be able to felt well.

Then I put my piece of fabric on top of that. This was a fairly loosely woven piece of rayon that I cut off of a too long summer dress I bought at a garage sale last summer. On top of the fabric I layered more roving, following approximately the same design and thickness I had on the other side. I then folded the nylon netting over the top, effectively enveloping the whole business inside the netting. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to do that or not but I did.

Then I rolled everything up tightly inside the grass mat, took it up to the house to wet it down in warm soapy water and began rolling it. I rolled it for about 5 minutes, then opened it up. It didn't seem finished so I rolled it back up but this time I didn't replace the netting on the top. The netting was still underneath though. Then I rolled it for another 5 minutes, opened again and this time it seemed finished so I removed the felted piece from all the netting and mat. This is so gorgeous! I totally love it! It is thicker than I would like, and probably wider too, but the colors are so zippy and bright! I wanted it to be a scarf, and it will work for that use, although it will definitely be warm. It's finished size is about 52" X 10".

Back to the design table, I'm going to make another, thinner one

in different colors. I'll post my results of that one later. Gotta go felt!
Be well.