Living in the Northern Latitudes

Good Evening,

Well more and more beautiful decorations are appearing around my neighborhood.  I love it!  I only wish it would snow!!!  It seems to be a dirty word to locals here, but I see no advantage to living this far north and freezing when I go outside but missing out on the beauty of a white Christmas.  I know, I know, I don't have to report to work elsewhere or shuttle my children to and fro all their various activities in the sloppy, slippery wet mess that snow can present, but winter has a beauty all its own and I miss it!  Therefore I am finding it hard to get into the spirit of Christmas, so I am happy that at least my neighbors are showing some spirit by putting up sparkly decorations....still I Ho-Hum through my days.  One good thing has been the colorful sunsets like this one:


I have completed one project that I have been struggling to finish for a few weeks now.  A custom handbag that is going off to California tomorrow.  Whew! Finally!! Finished!!!

Tomorrow I hope to finish a few quick items that I can sell on Saturday.  Have a great day everyone!
Janet

Some Days!

Howdy,

Well some days it just doesn't pay to get up and try...it is nearly 3 am and the rolled leather straps I am making for a custom ordered handbag are giving me fits!  Maybe the third time will be the charm?!  So tomorrow I try again.

Goodnight all,
Janet

Christmas Sale

Hi!

I'm not a runner and I can only imagine what it must be like to run a marathon...but I feel like that is what we just got done doing!  There is so much involved in getting through a show!!!

We started months ago by purchasing more grid wall for a larger booth; ordered more mannequins and sign holders from Phoenix, Arizona; and I got busy creating new treasures...  Then there was set-up day...lifting all those grid wall panels into our van and back out again...ugh!...next they all need to be held in place and fastened together...and now we have so much 'stuff' we can't make it all fit in one load...Yikes!!!...so all of that was followed by and extra early morning to bring the second load which was all of the fun stuff we had for sale...so after a very late night finishing last minute pricing and inventory duties, 6 am found us crawling through the dark for food and clothes and heading to the fairgrounds with our van of goodies which we hung or placed somewhere in our booth for viewing...and a day of meeting and greeting all of our followers and potential clients...and finally the end of day two is take-down load and unload (again!) Whew!!!  So that is why I say that it felt like we had just run a marathon!  We crashed and slept for over 12 hours which is what I hear marathoner's say they do too.

For those of you that were not able to make it personally to say hello, here are a couple of quick snaps of our booth.  New items not yet on our website for sale are table runners, drapes (the ones pictured are samples...I make these all custom to specifications), pillows, felpture (table lamp) and several scarves.  Unfortunately, I failed to get a picture of the other wall which had lots of new scarves on it... look for all of the new goodies to show up on the website in the coming week. http://www.sapphire-art.com/

This is a holiday scarf that I made for this past Saturday's Market. It wraps around several times and ties at the shoulder. There are two points in front and two points in back. Black silk with red merino wool and sparkle yarn. $78 Can also be draped over each shoulder and allowed to twirl down the front...great look both ways!



Have a great Monday everyone!  I am off to work on the custom orders I took and need to fill.  Thanks everyone!!!
Janet

A while back we were living in our motor home in Las Vegas.  I met a wonderful bunch of ladies and a couple gents that were all knitters and crocheters while there.  We had some fabulous discussions, workshops and potlucks at a shop called Wooly Wonders on Tropicana Avenue.

One thing led to another and I received an autographed book by Prudence Mapstone of Australia called Coat of Many Scrumbles.  The entire book is about free form knit and crochet.  One small piece of free form work is referred to as a scrumble.  This particular book documents the work of many artists from around the world that worked together to make a coat.  Wonderful work!

It so inspired me that I made a handbag from free form myself.  It is a very time consuming process, yet quite rewarding when you come up with a finished item at the end.  Maybe you would like to give it a try yourself!  For the book: ISBN 978-0-9580443-4-9 
For the guild: http://www.freeformcrochet.com/ 
And for Prudence Mapstone: http://www.knotjustknitting.com/

For a look at my free form handbag on our new biz website:
http://www.sapphire-art.com/shop-wearable-art/handbags-a-purses/item/free-form-knitted-and-crocheted-handbag.html

The shop in Las Vegas does not have a website that I know of but it does have a presence on http://www.ravelry.com/ or you can just visit Joyce at her store the next time you are in town!
Wooly Wonders (702) 570-0268 · 3421 E Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89121

Enjoy!
Janet

I often work late into the night.  There is just something so peaceful about the quiet of the world once all the traffic dies down on the streets, the people have all gone indoors, and everything goes to sleep.  I feel so much peace and contentment...and still something more...and energy that allows me to produce so much more than I can ever get done during daylight hours.  It is because of this that I rarely am up to see the sunrise.  As a young child I was a morning person...even as a young adult I suppose, but definitely not now.

However, I  am familiar with the beauty of the world first waking up...the first rays across the frosted grass...the thin ice sheets over puddles...the reflection of the light on the lake water...and the warmth of the sun that finally begins to warm the world.  I created this handbag with Sunrise in mind...though in all honesty I guess it could reflect the beauty of the sun setting as well.  Either way...

Hope you enjoy it!
Janet

We Go For an Adventure Today

Hello,

So today was a very interesting day.  It started out so well...one of those days you can just feel are going to be good.  After all hubby and I had spent numerous hours these past weeks getting ready for it...so it just had to be a good day, right?!  I was well rested having finally gotten a full 8 hours of sleep and everything for the shop Blue Flag Handweaving Studio, in Sandpoint was tagged and ready to be loaded.  Whew!!

So after a leisurely breakfast and loading of merchandise and dog (yes, the puppy got to go for a ride today) we were off!  It is about 40 miles from home to Kristie's shop.  And about 5 miles from there this crazy truck driver tried to run us down...only he wasn't crazy he was trying to let us know we had a flat rear tire.  Wished I could thank him.  For some reason neither of us had been able to feel it - rather strange - never happened before.  Anyway an hour later and we had our spare tire - The Dreaded Donut Tire - on and we were back on the road to deliver all the cool felted stuff I had made.  And on the plus side all the time sitting and waiting allowed me to get some knitting done!

This is one of the small, fun-loving bags we took up there today.  I made the beads out of tyvek, paint and wire.  Almost too cute to part with!  Hope you enjoy seeing it.  And if you want to purchase it you can do so through Kristie at http://www.blueflagweaving.com/

Now we are back home and I am off to devour some of the yummy brownies I just baked...from scratch!  Yum...I'll try to save some for you :)
Janet

Hand-Felted Handbag and Technology!

Well wonders will never cease...my husband has amazed me yet again with the technology available to us in this modern world.  My husband installed a program called PhotoBucket.  Now when I snap a photo or two of my work with my phone it will automatically send it to a website for storage until I need it.  Then I can simply and easily put it into my blog.  Whew!  What a relief.  I have been emailing to myself; then downloading the attachment and then uploading them to my blog.  Long process that often failed to work. So...!  Tonight we test it...

Tonight I finished lining and putting a leather strap onto the autumn colored "Circles" handbag I felted last week.


 That's all for tonight,
Janet

New Handbag - Just Felted!

Hi Everyone!

At long last, I have finished felting my handbag!  I started this with the piece I hope to make into a coat, but then set it aside.  The motif on this is made of circles from the prefelt of greens and browns I made last week.  I also added some circles of dupioni silk in bright orange.  Again I used brown batt that I have had on hand for awhile.  It seems to have been thick enough in most places.  However, I added some merino where I could feel that it was thin.  Then that led to adding more merino to blend colors better...and one thing always leads to many others ( :) and so as I said it seems like "at long last" I have finished this!




New Handbag Using Prefelts



Circles Well Felted onto Flap Front



Sparkle 'fiber' that I bought from Kristie at Blue Flag Hand Weaving Studio

 Night All!  Tomorrow I'm off to show-and-tell with my two latest creations.

Janet

Another Day

From good ole' Merriam-Webster we have:
EXHAUSTION: the state of being exhausted.  EXHAUSTED: to tire extremely or completely.

That's me! I am done in...not enough sleep for three nights running did it.  Still I did manage to do a bit of work on a custom handbag order while on the road with Hubby in Spokane today.

Took a nap after returning home.  Got up for dinner and after I post this I am going back to my ever so soft and warm bed.  See ya all tomorrow!

Janet

Will it work?

You know those times when you wished you could just chunk the old alarm clock out the window?  Today just happened to be one, though luckily it improved as the day progressed!  Once I did listen to the alarm and get up and going, I found myself sitting in the doc's office, and I was reminded why I like knitting so much!  It's the one part of my fiber work that I can take with me where ever I go...well almost everywhere.  And it is relaxing. (sigh)  Try it if you haven't - you just might find you like it too!

Anyway once back home, I swapped out my needles for my scissors and finished cutting circles from my prefelt.  Recently, I read about a method I hadn't tried yet and I was anxious to give it a try. Soooooo.... I laid out my batt and then put my prefelts down for my design.  Two new things here: using batt instead of roving (loose wool) and using prefelts for my design instead of forming it out of loose wool.  Will using batt be faster?  I hope so.  Will it still produce the soft, supple yet strong felt that I desire?  I hope so!  Will my designs still be intriguing and eye catching?  I hope so!

Part of the reason I was so dreading the alarm this morning was because my mind had been swirling ideas and images all night long.  Many thoughts about what to try FIRST kept popping into my brain. Ugh!!!  I just needed to get some sleep.  Well anyway, I decided to first try a handbag - felted all in one piece.  And just because I couldn't see wasting the rest of the table space, (Gotta a big roll of bubble wrap so I may as use it right?) I also laid out a cape or maybe what will become a coat... Before leaving for my evening class, I had time to wet it all down and roll it for 20 minutes...

Beginning of a cape or coat.

Handbag using prefelt

Tomorrow is a busy day...off to Spokane for errands...so maybe no felting.  We'll see!

Janet

Colors and Textures



Fall Colors on our Tree

 Felting is all about interpreting colors and textures and so I am constantly noticing them. Today while walking my dog home I found time to snap a quick (somewhat grainy) photo of the beautiful tree in our backyard that has turned a bright crimson red.

And while working at the Bead Stampede yesterday I found all the patterns of the stones catching my attention. Shapes too make their way into my brain.



Beginning of a felt flower



I was looking back at some of my earlier handbags tonight and I have a few photos of those to post for you.  I was needle felting my bags first and then wet felting them to add durability. I made a series of these bags with an unusual shape and interesting opening.  The summer and autumn colors making their appearance again! 



Flower Felted to a Bag Flap



I call this bag my "Sunflower Bag". 

It is sold and hopefully living a happy life in another place. Tomorrow I will show you some of my newer work reflecting fall colors, stones and texture in the form of a capelet...stay tuned!

Janet





Welcome to my Fantastic Fiber Blog! I am a felter, but I dabble in all sorts of arts.

I just love those moments in some days when things come together and everything in the universe feels right. You know what I mean, right?  You're feeling so right with the world that you find yourself walking around with a smile plastered on your face. Well for me, today was one of those days.

It was a beautiful fall day with the sun out, yet a crispness in the air. People were busily putting summer things away and putting up fall decorations. Mother nature already started for us at our house...the big maple in back is already turning beautiful shades of reds. But onward - today was a super day for a road trip and that is exactly what hubby and I did.

We gased up and pointed the car north to Sandpoint to check out Blue Flag Handweaving Studio. A lovely shop full of wonderful hand made items. And soon mine will be found among them. Kristie will be receiving some of my felted handbags and felt scarves in a variety of styles by the end of this month.

Then I will begin on some new projects for her beautiful shop: nuno felt handbags, nuno felt pillows, wet felted drapes, and my very special Felptures: A metal sculpture covered with fine, sheer felts illuminated from within!  Look for them in November!

You can check it out yourself at http://www.blueflagweaving.com/