IT'S ALL GOOD!!!!

 Hello! It's been a long time since I have had enough time to "blaaaaag" to you!! Ya know how it is....kids, work, kids, work, husband, kids, work - kinda in that order too!

I recently attended the Teton Bead Retreat! Wow, it was awesome! To have an entire week to make friends, bead, sit, visit, bead, share wine - dinner - and stories, and to bead some more - we all had an amazing time, and we all got along so well.  Mega-bonding was had by all!  Okay, truth, I started this blog post in August and now its October.  What?!!  Welcome to my life.  Hey, I still want to talk about the Teton Bead Retreat - and I have pictures!!

Let me just start this blog off by telling you all that the Teton Bead Retreat was first class all the way.  My friend, Amy Loh-Kupser, held it in Driggs, Idaho.  The view from her HUGE, HUGE studio was amazing!


Here's a photograph of the Grand Tetons from the Idaho side of the mountain range.  What a great place to take a week off.  And, the town of Driggs was so cool.  There were great restaurants, a great bead and fiber (yarn) store, an amazing grocery store (the cook in my loved this place), and so much more.  It was fabulous!  I wish I'd taken some photos of the town.  Next time.










This photo was of the moon coming up over the Teton range one of the nights we were there.  It was beautiful; there's no way the photograph does it justice - but it was gorgeous.

Okay, so moving on.  The accommodations, the food, the beading (and kits), the setting, the studio we all worked in -- all of it was great!  Better than I expected.  Not that Amy is a slouch at organizing.  She's not!  I just didn't expect what we got.  Amazing. 

So I have some photos that show Amy's studio.  The studio is over 3,000 square feet of beautiful, perfectly lit, gorgeous-ness (is that a word).  So check the photos out!

Looking to the right.

Looking to the left.

Looking down into one of the Dormers.

I'm pretty sure there were six large Dormer windows down the length of this studio.  I have Dormer-envy!  I swear!








I've never been to a bead retreat or taken a class from anyone - so I did not know what to expect.  Yep, that's right.  Besides the two how-tos my mom gave me years ago, I've not taken classes.  Self taught here --- all of it!

Anyway, the "pro" that Amy brought in for all of us (besides herself) was Jeanette Cook of Beady Eyed Women - all around beading guru, San Diego fellow resident, goddess of the artsy-fartsy, and all around cheap wine connoisseur.  God, she walked in with 6 bottles of wine and made a joke and I just knew I was going to love her!  Jeannette is funny, talented, and saucy as hell.   What a pleasure she was to get to know; and I do love her work so much.   I took a few snaps of stuff she brought with her.  Wow.

 Some of Jeanette Cook's Work!  

             More of Jeanette's Gorgeous Work!                    

And Yet a little bit more of Jeanette's work!

Oh, look, it's Jeannette - ain't she cute?!

 



Some of my fellow classmates.  I worked really hard and didn't finish any of the classes, except this medallion bracelet.  It was a gorgeous bracelet. 

 So the question really is, what do you do after a long day of beading.  Well, you decompress by helping Jeannette drink all that wine she brought with her.  God bless Jeannette!

And here we all are doing just that!

Sharing stories and laughing.

Visiting!

  My friends! Jeanette in the glasses; Amy in the tank top! 

   

 Amy's gorgeous work.  She does the best patterns in the business.  If you haven't seen her work firsthand, you need to.  Go see both Amy and Jeanette whenever and however you can.  Artistically speaking, it is so worth the time to do so.  The inspiration has been incredibly worth it for me.

This is a design Amy made for me.  I couldn't speak after she showed me the kit.  I've never had a friend "do" for me.  I'm usually the one doing all the giving.  Amy, I can't thank you enough for the love, the thought and effort that went into this surprise.  It blessed me.  Thank you so much!

Okay, everyone stay tuned for more good stuff.  More to come and hopefully (if it all goes to plan) sooner than later!  Ha!  And, I promise that if I actually finish the Jeanette swirly noodle thing she tried to teach me that I will post the results here for you! 

ENDING IT ALL!

Hey everyone! I'm here to finish the Nuno felted scarf!
(Before I get started, I just want ya'll to know that the scarf I have been working on was a kit by Pat Reisenburger of Aussie Threads & Fibers.com. She's the amazing master of my creative universe right now! (I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!) You can see her projects and crazy thoughts at: www.thecraftyretailer.blogspot.com.)

Learning a new media (for me) is not always intuitive. I ALWAYS need new ideas spoon fed to me to understand the process. (I guess I'm a visual learner.) Since there isn't anyone who Nuno felts in Casper, and seeing as how Wyoming can be a barren wasteland of creativity, I had to teach myself. So, here I am!

This kit was a two part process...for me. Mostly because I have kids. NOTHING is simple with kids!!

The project required a time commitment and......the lethargically-challenged need to stop reading now and immediately turn on the TV........I had to split that time into parts. I think I spent a total of 15 hours on this project over 4 or 5 days.

Before today, I had already spent time the month before felting the ribbons that get embellished to the top of the scarf. Now, I'm ready to finish felting the edging of the scarf and felt the ribbons to the surface of the scarf.

I laid out my project to arrange and begin "shingling" it. Shingling prepares it for the "jelly roll," which is the precursor to NUNO FELTING! Or, as Linda would say "a shit load of rolling back and forth." Entirely, too much for her, I might add.

(Okay, and something else. If you all are lucky enough to have an awesome friend with lots of extra room that you can totally dowse with water - take advantage of her and say thank you!)

You can see how I rolled back the ribbon and shingled underneath it. You will shingle wool wherever you want to "stick" together two pieces of silk, or "hem" an edge. The wool fibers will mesh together and bond to the silk. Cool, huh?!

And in the picture to the right,
I have laid out and shingled the
entire scarf.

After you shingle, you cover the entire project with mesh. The mesh prevents things from sticking together that shouldn't.

The entire project was laid out on bubble wrap, its shingled, then its covered with mesh.

After all is covered with mesh, you pour soapy hot water over all the "shingled" wool. You can vaguely see in the pic to the left the lines of soapy hot water that cover all the stuff that's getting felted. You don't have to dowse the entire scarf!
Just wet the areas you have shingled with wool.

You roll the entire thing up and tie the ends with pantyhose. Like this! Looks like a jelly roll,don't it?!! I have it sitting on top of an old towel, because now I start the rolling back and forth process, and as you roll water squishes out. So, you roll, and roll, and roll.....and roll. Actually, it's not that much. I rolled on and off for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Minus a few small steps, you end up putting the entire project into a bag for the "fulling" process. Fulling is what puts the felting process into overdrive. You do this to make sure the felting is fully "cemented" and starts to pucker the silk. Puckering is good. Puckering is what gives your project natural ruffles and adds waviness to the fabric.

Fulling is the fun part. You must wad the project into a ball and throw it against the table and knead it like dough many times. It's aggression therapy! If you don't mind soaking everything around
you, you can full without the bag. I use the bag.

You let it all dry.

Then you sew on trimmings, beads, crystals, etc. with whatever your heart desires!

And here's my finished project! Cool, huh?! I'm hooked.

I finished mine off with sequins down the light green ribbons, and I fringed the edges with seed beads and crystals. It's sparkly. Yes, it's simple. One must begin somewhere. I hope to dazzle you soon with my next project!

My Introduction to Nuno Felting

As promised, I have started Nuno Felting. Not my first attempt at wet felting, but my first ever attempt at Nuno Felting. What's the difference, you ask?! (For those wondering: Yes! I did ask myself that question! It's the hair!) With wet felting, you hand work wool roving (a squishy pile of wool fibers) into themselves with hot water and soap. With nuno felting, you work the wool fibers into silk (100% silk).

I have not explored all the ways wool fibers can be felted into silk - or what kinds of silk - but judging by today's self-taught class - I'M LOVIN' IT!!!

I started with the ribbon strips that will be felted onto my silk shawl. The ribbons are a gorgeous chartreuse silk with wool of the same color. I took a photo of the items all rolled up. Once all the materials are wet down, I roll them into a "jelly roll." I then will roll this jelly roll back and forth 300 times. I stop between every 100 rolls, realign pieces, roll it all back up and keep rolling.

My next photo is the ribbons completed and soggy. After rolling, which takes about 1/2 an hour, you unroll it all and "full" it. Fulling is the process that realigns the wool fibers and completes the felting process. Fulling is fun! It's my new "aggression" therapy because you get to whack and throw this wet soggy mess all over the place! Yeah baby! For those of you who need to play it safe (and you know who you are), you can put the soggy material into a gallon zip lock baggy. But, it's more fun the other way. Then, I hung them in a dryer to dry.

When I get back to town, I will finish felting the ribbons onto my silk shawl. Taking photos along the way. (So those are yet to come.)

Something else I started that same day, were the felted flowers for the shawl closure. These were easy. I used a much smaller jelly roll set up, but I think I could have done these by hand (without bubble wrap, etc.). But I've got a picture here of them felted and in the dryer.

My next photo is my beading mat set up.


And, finally, a photo of the finished flower. They are gorgeous - about 2 1/2 to 3 inches across. I beaded the edges, sewed a pin back on, covered that with a piece of spare felt, and beaded the centers with Swarovski crystal. Gorgeous.

Yes, the flower will be a class. The shawl will be a workshop. I have ordered the wool tops and they are on there way as we speak. I have also ordered embellishment fibers like silk tops, silk throwster's waste, craft sequins, and much more!

Stay tuned for more creative crafting, instructions for all, class and workshop offerings and new store items.

My Beading Isn't Always Great Either!

I've been working on a project recently myself! A peyote stitched flat bracelet. It's a project from the recent issue of Bead & Button. Of course, things don't always go as planned, and my plan has gone astray!

I've done everything per the letter of the article, and still it sucks! And, no, it's not the project instructions or the Article. It's me. I've done this bracelet 3 times. Because of the bugle beads I chose (a frosted multi-colored mauve bugle), I've had to restitch this project .... going on the 4th time now! I get close to the end, and then it all breaks!

But why!? I think I've finally figured it out. I think the bugles are cutting my "uncut-able" weaving line. Okay, so some things apparently cut this line.... I've just never seen it happen until now. So here's a picture of my 3rd attempt! Gorgeous, right? I thought so. Until, I was sewing on my clasp closure (the final step in my bracelet) then it breaks! Ack.

So, stay tuned. I've got many other projects coming up that I know will be more successful. Nuno Felted Shall, Needle Felted Door Hangers, Recycled Couture, and, of course, some beading too!