Ready for the show!

The Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild Show starts November 5, 2010. I am busy creating little Christmas ornaments to sell. They are popular at this show. I've made some in hot colours, as well as traditional Xmas colours. I will have many of my figures as well as purses and supplies. the next week will see me dividing up wool into smaller amounts in all the colours I stock. What a mess of fluff I'm in when I'm doing that! Still, the fibre is soft and cosy to play with. It's a good chance to inspect my stash and evaluate what will need reordering after the show.

I have two closets full of wool in the basement of my studio. A rainbow of colour awaits every time I open the doors!

I have acquired some grids which I plan to use in my booth. A new look for this year. I plan to peg up my kits and samples on the grids, to make them easier for folks to see.

The show and sale is held at the Glebe Community Center in Ottawa and is always well attended, drawing many fibre type folks together.

Hours are: Friday Nov 5: 4 - 8 pm

Saturday 10 am - 5 pm

Sunday 10 am - 4 pm

Everyone is invited!

Felting fun!

A couple of weeks ago, two friends and I gathered to make some felt. We started out with some samples of nuno felting. Nuno felting is the art of combining a fabric with wool fibre, which creates a very interesting textured felt. The cloth shrinks as the wool does and the strength the fabric adds to the felt, means you can lay out very fine layers of fibre in the design.

We had a lot of fun and this is what I produced.

The first picture shows what happens when you use sari silk. The gold border is too dense to felt and wouldn't shrink anyway, so I used it as a border. We later tried this as a scarf, with very pleasing results.

The second was a satin striped silk chiffon. I laid the fibre (merino) out as a border of poppies. the flower details became merged in the felting, but it has a nice feel to it. This technique will make a nice border treatment.

The harlequin effect evolved from adding organza squares on top of the fibre. It migrates through and traps the organza, which doesn't shrink, so it puffs out. I added some black embroidery to emphasise the shapes.

The last one was fibre laid out on very lightweight silk. The fibre was variegated. I like the effect of sunset on the water. The simple blue horizon gives that effect. I plan to embroider simple lines to suggest trees and their reflections. I like the way the silk peeks through like shifts in the water.