Last year summary and a new Fish

Hi all!
I left behind my blog again being busy (lazy?) and with all this hectic holiday season... Shame on me!
I hope to be back to normal now and here is a new fish for those of you who missed my fish!

Felted Tropical Fish

  

I used a lot of viscose to create a texture and shine.


I'd like to make a summary of the last year even if it's a bit late at the end of January! Let's call it a summary of the last 12 months then!

It's all about felting of course!


Positive points first!
★ I worked a lot and tried to make it more regular, to define some goals and ways to achieve them. Not easy actually, you need to focus and not go astray trying new materials and techniques all the time!

★ I've improved a lot in quality if I may say so myself.

★ I've met a new people and make new friends like Cathy Needham, an amazing artist and a lovely person.

★ I took part in a couple of craft fairs - as YFM member in Tockwith Show and on my own. To do my first Craft Fair was a good experience!

★ I've tried new materials and found new suppliers which is always good!

★ I've made a few new designs and one of them is very successful, sells very well.

★ I've attended a couple of very good workshops here and here but not using these techniques much... Apparently scarves and garments are not for me! But I'm looking forward to workshop of Bridget Bernadette Karn in May. I saw her pictures in a gallery and they are fantastic!

★ It was a good year on ETSY for me and I am going to write a separate post about it later.

Not that good though...
★ I waste too much time browsing Internet and just slacking... I need to work on it!
★ My pictures of felted items are not good unfortunately! But I'm going to workshop on that subject, hope it helps!
★ My personal blog, YFM blog and forums are a bit neglected sorry!..
 
I am sure I've missed smth, especially in the second part...
The main point is clear - to focus, work hard and have fun!

Xmas Boot

I wanted to make a small Xmas boot, smth like this Xmas stocking. Here is a template/resist:

 To make a decor I found this silk scarf with very appropriate design - baubles and ribbons. No idea where I've got it from!

 I wanted to decorate the cuff only:

 I cut out the design to make a border and used a rather coarse carded wool as the top layer because the silk was quite densely weaved, it's not a fine chiffon or ponge silk:

 The final size:

Oops!..Could you see any bauble here? Neither could I...

 Never mind, it'll serve its purpose! Next time (if!) I will do it differently.

                            Merry Christmas everyone!

New Design

I started to slow down last week, too late to make and sell smth for Xmas... But it's never too late just to try and make smth new!

Dandelion Flowers Kindle Case

I've tried a new design with images of spent dandelions. New colour scheme as well, very bright and cheerful!   And I use a new wool (very thin pensil roving) for stems, it worked quite well.

Kindle Paperwhite Cover

I'm going to keep this desing, changing and improving. 

Dandelions close-up

Xmas Exchange

This autumn I was invited to take part in Craft Christmas Exchange between Russian speaking crafting ladies in Europe. And here we are! I've got not one but two boxes with Xmas presents! I am keeping the first one to be opened at Xmas Day with my grandaughters but the second one which was a comlete surpise for me we opened yesterday and there is a report below! As the most parties involved are Russian speaking, all details are in Russian but my joy is obvious never mind language!
                                                   Thank you very much!
End of Part 1!

Милые девочки, Надя, Лена и все участвующие в обмене! Спасибо всем большое, за идею, за подарки и участие!
Может быть, не все знают, но я получила не один, а целых два подарка к Рождеству, второй полным сюрпризом! Видимо, я действительно хорошо вела себя в уходящем году...
Я берегу первую посылку для Рождества, когда к нам приедут внучки и я смогу показать им и свой подарок от Деда Мороза, а вот вторая, "сюрприз", не долежала и вчера мы ее вскрыли, совершенно неожиданно для себя, полным сюрпризом.
Итак - праздничная коробка, "Surprise!", чтобы не было сомнений:

 

Вскрываем! А внутри - во-первых,  рукотворная поздравительня открытка. Спасибо, Лена за открытку и за идею! Шампанское на заднем плане - не бутафория, мы его потом открыли и выпили за разные приятные события, в том числе и за чудесную посылку.

 После открытки достаем пакетики, а в них - мыльные сокровища! Нас, особенно мужа, поразил список ингедиентов в каждом, муж сразу спросил - а это, правда, мыло или это едят? Особенно "нуга с орехами"! Посмотрите сами!

 Лена, огромное спасибо! И ведь это только присказка, сказка впереди....

Chrismas Craft Fayre. Some afterthoughts

I took part in my first Craft Fair last Saturday. I mean - as a felter and on my own. I've left it rather late so when this village fair came up (it was their first year) I grabbed the palce immediately.
In general it was a good and pleasant experience. Venue was warm, light and suitable decorated, stuff was very helpful and everything was arranged nicely. (Thank you, Ruth!). Fellow crafters were very friendly and quite a lot of local people turned up. Here are the pictures of my stall. Unfortunately my camera is out of order at the moment so I'd to use the old one hence poor quality pictures, sorry!

Chrismas Craft Fayre - Getting ready

Chrismas Craft Fayre - In process

I've sold quite a few items so it was fine from this side too. But still there were some disappointing things and it seems they are general and regular for practically every fair or show which are not large scale craft shows:
- the buyers of my staff were mainly friends, friends of friends, members of stuff and other makers. General publc - very few.
- people attending were not ready to pay more than ...The most of my items were out of that range even if I was selling them cheaper than usually in the shop.
- the majority of visitors had no idea about felt, what was this "fabric" and so on... I am thinking about doing demonstration next time!
All this is quite understandable, but still frustrating. I need to think it over and learn the lesson.
Hope you have nice time with your fairs if you are taking part in any!

Sometning new

I can't resist Christmas! I just feel I need to make something Xmassy! And here we are - white snow, dark night, red birds!

Kindle Case "Christmas night"

What is new apart from the theme? New type of closure, with elastic loop and wooden button. I like it, need to use it more...

My new storage system

Sounds a bit too grand for a few boxes of wool and yet...
These are "Before" and "After" pictures - a small bureau and stack of plastic boxes (a lot more plastic boxes throughout the house). I don't have a working room and work in the kitchen - light coming from two sides, water always at hand and wooden (not carpet!) floor. I like it there but I didn't like running through the house collecting all wool I need at the moment. So my husband decided to organise my stuff a little bit. Now it's a large unit with variety of boxes. The thing is IKEA. I am not a great fan of IKEA's stuff but we could get all boxes in matching sizes and many colours. Now all my wool is in one place.

Before

After

I even have a few drawers! And some holes to put my papers and smaller boxes in.



If you look carefully you can see that one of the top boxes stores a lot of juice cartons! All my Kap merino wool colours are in them:






Not very glamorous but very convenient if you (like myself) need a lot of colours at the same time and amounts are small.