Chesney made a polar bear!

I met Chesney at the Kingston Needle Arts Show and she just fell in love with Needle Felting (as I knew she would:)
So with her permission, I'm sharing her finished Polar Bear!

Way to go Chesney!!  Now all this little guy needs is a name!!

Needle Arts Fair

Join me at this wonderful show in Kingston!

I'm in the gym...come say hi!

ETSY Made in Canada is Here!!

I'm excited!  ETSY Made in Canada is back and it's THIS weekend!!  Come on down to the Bell Sensplex in Kanata and Meet the Makers!  And that includes me!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1622665521394252/?active_tab=posts

Fibre Fest is here again!

Come on down and see me on Saturday from 10 - 5 and Sunday from 10 - 4 at the arena in  Almonte...The show is also at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum.  Apparently there will be about 100 vendors!  As usual there will be something for everyone!  So hope you can make it to this great show!

Fibre Fest!

I'm thrilled to be a part of the Textile Museum's Fibrefest again this year!
Come down and see me along with all the other fabulous vendors!

Sept 10-11, 2016

Mississippi Valley Textile Museum Fibre Festival, Almonte ON

At two locations — the Museum, and the Almonte Arena—visitors will find demonstrations, vendors, and exhibits. Local guilds will demonstrate spinning, knitting, weaving, rug hooking, lace making, smocking and quilting. Vendors include spinners, weavers, and fibre artists from across the province, as well as quilt shops and alpaca farms.

This two-day festival of the fibre arts ends with the Lamb Race. At 4 pm on September 11th, hundreds of wooden lambs will be thrown over the falls in downtown Almonte, and the owners of the first three to reach the finish line will win fabulous prizes.

The Friends of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum will provide a tea room, featuring homemade goodies, beverages and sandwiches.

Admission to Fibrefest is $5.00 per day, which includes access to all sites.

Twist!

I'm excited to say Twist is finally here again!!  I'll be in the arena again this year.  Check out all the workshops and vendors by clicking on the link below....Hope to see you there!

http://festivaltwist.org/fr/accueil/

Fantasy in the Forest Art and Craft show

Come see me at Fantasy in the Forest July 16 and 17!

Kiwi Gardens Art in the Garden

Today was a fabulous summer day in the most beautiful setting!  I'm in the best spot...under a giant tree with a lovely breeze.  It was HOT!  Come on down and see me tomorrow!

These crazy critters are made with a fabulous clay-like medium called "Skratch"
Check out their facebook page for more cool ways to use this medium.
https://www.facebook.com/Skratchworks

Toronto Knitters Frolic

I'll be at the Toronto Knitters Frolic this Saturday April 30, 2016.  I'll have my kits and lots of peace fleece fibre for sale.  This fibre is perfect for all things needle felting....it's got so much bulk that it's so much easier to felt 3 dimensional objects.
Come say hi!  I'll be in the Heritage Hall Booth 44

Navan Fine Arts Exhibition

Join me at the Navan Fine Arts Exhibition and Sale this weekend....

April 22-23

and the Navan Curling Club

Come see me at the Kitchissippi United Church tomorrow and Saturday.  The Out of the Box group of Fibre Artist is a fabulous bunch of women who create amazing things out of all things fibre...

Anatomy of a Kit

I thought it might be interesting to show my thought processes when creating a new needle felting kit.....
First I think about all the kits I SHOULD be making...People are always asking me if I make dog kits and frog kits, for example...so I decided to make a Golden Labrador puppy kit....

So this is how I began:

I went to Goggle Images and found this little guy....  I don't want to steal any images so I'll add that
greenfieldpuppies.com posted this   with the title:  Rocky, Yellow Lab pupple for sale from Leola,PA

I'm sure Rocky will find a good home very quickly!  He's adorable!!

Now...I did a preliminary drawing of Rocky:

He's been drawn in red because of my animation back ground....we drew in red and then went over it in lead....red didn't show on film...now of course it had to be a certain KIND of red....Carmine Red was in demand for years in the 90's!  Scarlet red just didn't cut it :)

I scanned him into my computer again and I cleaned him up with my photoshop eraser tool and darkened the lines

I found him to be too sad and dejected so I made a few changes:

I also wanted him to be looking at us.

I'm getting there!  I wanted him to be tucked snug in a blanket....

Then I added shadows to his face where, when needle felting this guy, you put a darket colour

 And here is the finished piece.  I used my drawing almost as a paint by number kit.  He's not looking at you like I intended, but I like him anyway!

ArtFelting!

I've finally been able to play with this fabulous medium!

I decided to try a large piece....I want to do a life size zebra.  So I created this "skin" out of ArtFelt ....

 Millsy had to join in the fun!  Can you see her?

 I had no room to dunk the piece in water so I went outside on the back porch....I know now that Artfelt freezes and sticks to surfaces.....always handy to know in the future:)

 Soaked it down and wrapped it up in plastic

 Rolled up the legs first and then rolled up the body....




It was HEAVY!!!  I had to surround it with loads of towels to keep it from banging the dryer to bits during the cycle!

Below is the piece after I put it in the dryer three times for 10 minutes each time.
After drying it, I unrolled it and rerolled it in another direction.  The final time, I took the surrounding plastic off and left it loose in the outer plastic bag.....In hindsight, I think I went too far this final drying time.  It shrank quite a bit.
I've put the beginning of the felting process beside it so you can see how much it shrinks....it really does shrink alot!

Next time I think I'll make different sections of the zebra and sew them together....this guy may just become a wool carpet!

New Needle Felting Kits available!

Now that the craziness of the Christmas season is behind us (feels like months ago:)  I can concentrate on making new Needle Felting Kits.

These african animals are so striking and I love the graphic nature of them.  

The Tiger is 6" x 8" when finished and is a little more at $28.00

And the Zebra is 5"x 7" and costs $25.00