Fiber artist working in felt, silk and other fabrics. One of a kind millinery.
This year’s stockings look a little bit different from past years. I found a bit of embroidery and tiny bells add quite a bit of sparkle to the mini stockings which would be fun to fill with sweet treats. While the larger (7.7″ – 9″) stockings are decorated with stripes for a cheery, country look.
It seems that life demands have only allowed small works for quite some time. Mom lives with us and turned 95 this summer. Our grand twins live next door so we are blessed to see them frequently. My little projects seem to satisfy my creative urges for the time being. These little lavender felt sachets seem to fly out the door at 4 ravens gallery in Missoula.
After two online classes with master hat maker Zofia Marx, my hat making is going through some changes. Still not sure where it will end up, but I loved the new methods I learned from this excellent teacher.
Well, where did the winter go? After a warm spell the last few weeks we had lost all our snow, March definitely came in like a lamb. However, last night winter decided to come back and we awoke to 3 inches of new snow and more coming down.
I have kept busy this winter taking several online classes to learn new techniques. I have taken several different classes with #Yaroslava Troynich, a very talented Russian felter who lives in Finland. I can see more hand puppets and flowers in my future.
Working on a little forest of trees for the holiday season. I think I am liking the extra texture from the hand dyed Bluefaced Leicester lamb ringlets. I also incorporated a layer of Thai Kozo paper into the layout for added structure.
I generally use 4 layers of wool for my ornaments, adding a loop to hang the stocking from. Stockings are so simple and you can make any size from tiny to large.
Next I selection the fabrics and fiber I will use for embellishment. For this stocking I chose some green merino wool, cotton scrim and hand dyed red silk gauze.
Below is the final layout of the first side. I just had to flip it over, embellish the second side and then I was ready to start felting. I generally start with gentle massaging by hand and once I feel that the fibers are beginning to entangle with each other I roll in bubble wrap from every direction. After that I continue adding hot water and soap and massage by hand, rolling the felt more and occasionally throwing it on a hard surface to further shock and shrink the fibers. It’s a lively process and a great way to keep moving.
And here’s the finished Stocking. Not quite dry yet. The fabric I created from fine hand dyed wool and silk fabric is very dry but also very strong. Ready to fill with all sorts of little treasures for the holiday.
As usual, I seem to be running a bit behind, but definitely focused on finishing up more handmade felt ornaments for the holiday season. Mini felt christmas stockings, approximately 6 inches tall and ready to fill with little treats, will be heading to 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula this week.
This year I grew my first Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers. As seen by the photo below they did quite well. I started harvesting the heads when I noticed the birds were starting to go after the seed. I cut the stems about a foot from the head and bundled them together to hang upside down in the garage. I continued harvesting for several weeks as some of the seeds really didn’t look ready. Today I brought the biggest head in and removed the seeds. They do not come out easily. If anyone has tips on how to remove them I am eager to learn. The largest head produced 131 grams of seeds. I have a lot more heads to work on.
The sunflowers have inspired me to invite some fiber friends for a dye day so hopefully it won’t be too cold next week as we gather with our seeds and plants to experiment with various fibers and mordants.
I found this post from June 28, 2012 on an old blog that I didn’t know was still in existence. So fun to read about my sheep as I’ve been sheepless for a number of years now.
Thought I’d better post something or I’ll have missed the whole month of June. Are summers crazy or what? The top photo is a pretty little colored purebred ewe lamb. Photo #2 is BFL ewe Cara with her triplet ewe lambs. The last photo is either Gem or Bella, they look so much alike. 50%BFL-50% Gotland – nice ewes with super luster and hold their condition well raising lambs on just grass. We lambed late this year and I just weaned my first lambs. My biggest lamb is a purebred BFL ram that I’ll be keeping for breeding this year. Thor was born March 31st and weighted 103 lbs at weaning two days ago. He knows he’s special. We didn’t weigh all the lambs but the Gotland crosses seemed to average 73.5 lbs. which I thought was good for lambs born in April and raised with just mom and the pasture. No grain or pellets.
Two more wool and silk felt collage scarves delivered to 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula this week.
Judith Colvin Designs