Miscellaneous Views at BSG

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Robin

The last three blog posts have been about Black Sheep Gathering but, wait! There is more!

Camping-tent

My tent.I have had this tent for 35 years and wasn’t sure that the rainfly was waterproof. I don’t think I’d want to be in a major storm, but it was adequate for the light rain the first night of camping.

I spent some time on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning watching the wool show. Martin judging

Martin Dally is entertaining as well as knowledgable. He explained what he was doing throughout the show and even let the audience come up to see and feel the fleeces after he finished with a class.

Merino fleece

Colored Merino fleece.

Merino fleece-2

White Merino fleece.

Corriedale fleece

Corriedale fleece that won the overall best white fleece.

Then to the vendor hall where I took shots of color, texture, and other things that caught my eye.

Art yarn

Hooked rug

Mohair locks

Horn helmet

Reindeer pelt

These are reindeer hides.

There is also a Fiber Arts contest.

Moo-shoe pork

This one is called Moo-Shoe Pork. Look closely at the feet.

Back in the barn, this felted banner was made by Jackie, Farm Club member and friend who’s business is Sheep to Shop.

Mt-2

I got a late start home on Sunday (the next post) but made my ritual stop at the Mt. Shasta overlook just before dark. I love that mountain…and I love California.

Close to Home…Post #13 Felt

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Robin

In my fiber pursuits I consider myself first a weaver. That’s the predominant technique for the pieces in the show, Close to Home, at the Artery which, by the way is up through December 1. (If you’re just tuning in to this blog you can read here about the concept behind the show.) There are over 140 pieces in the show and most are woven. However, one end wall is devoted to felt.Felt, according to the dictionary, is a nonwoven fabric of wool, fur, or hair, matted together by heat, moisture, and great pressure. “Nonwoven fabric” is the key here. Most of the felt in the show is “matted together” by needle felting instead of the heat and moisture part.

Just in case you are picturing me with a felting needle and a pile of wool I want you to know that there is a shortcut–thanks to a friend of mine who has a felting “loom”. That’s what they call it.You feed a carded batt of wool in one side (over a light table)……and out the other. The action of hundreds of barbed needles turns the wool into felt.I fed each thin batt of wool in once and then layered them together to become a thicker piece.The final piece went through the needle loom about a dozen times. For several of my pieces I “wove” strips of roving and applied those to the felt part way through the process. I ended up with lots of placemats, trivets (the thick ones could double as stadium seats), and coasters.

After cutting out the placemats and other items I had felt strips left over. I wove those into wall hangings.

There was one piece of felt that my friends convinced me to leave alone and not cut up. I hung it on the wall at the Artery and it sold as a wall hanging.I did use the soap and hot water method in addition to needle felting to create these balls. They are sold as dryer balls (3 in the dryer help reduce drying time and soften clothes), or juggling balls, or cat toys, or therapeutic aids (at least that’s why one friend bought some).

By the way, the wool for all of the felt items comes from either the Suffolk sheep on the Phillips Farm (see Blog Post #9) or the coarser britch wool of my own Jacob sheep.

Felting Field Trip

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Robin

Today I hosted a field trip of 4-Hers led by Carol of Joshua Farm Shetlands. They came to talk about Jacob sheep, pasture management and the fiber business and to do a felting project. The morning started in the pasture. Most people that come to see the farm want to spend time with sheep, but it is very important to understand that we should think of ourselves as “grass farmers” first. I couldn’t possibly have the number of sheep that I do without irrigated pasture and intensive grazing management.We discussed sheep, facilities and ended the livestock part of the tour by looking at the Dead Zone (I just thought of that name). There are ram skulls in that fence in various stages of decomposition. As we explained to the kids, we want to sell every part of the animal we can. We came back to the shop for lunch and then a felting workshop. The idea was to felt a sheep. Some of the sheep had morphed significantly into other life forms: Snail. Duck.Aren’t these cool?

Before they left the 4-H group was gracious enough to help my son out with his photography assignment. He is supposed to submit an interpretation of Social Awareness and decided to stage a family picnic in which it is obvious that everyone is more involved in their electronic devices than each other.

No one seemed to mind the time for this, but the girls crowded around the iPad kept asking for the password.

A Shopping Weekend

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Robin

TNNA is The National Needlearts Association. The annual winter trade show was in Long Beach and I spent the weekend there with my friend, Irene, from Cotton Clouds and thousands of other yarn store owners, designers, and fiber lovers. This kind of a show has a different feel than the typical shows where I go as a vendor. Part of that is certainly because I’m on the fun (buying) side of the table instead of the work (selling) side. But it is also because this is where the manufacturers and producers go to sell their fiber, yarns, patterns and accessories to yarn stores and other retailers.

Irene and I always look forward to this weekend because, although we collaborate on the phone and by e-mail all year its nice to be face-to-face (and share a room at the hotel). There are a classes offered and I had fun making this needle felted bird. It’s good to find out how other people teach topics that you already offer.This is a crocheted coral reef in the lobby.There are autograph sessions for authors with new books. Mom wrote this book, but it features Ava (aka Annie), who knitted the scarf, and also signed every book.

Isn’t she adorable? Reminds me of Katie.

For the most part photography is not allowed on the show floor, but usually vendors don’t mind if you are going to buy their things. Here is a glimpse of some of what UPS will be delivering soon.

Are you as excited as I am? Make sure you sign up for my e-newsletter so you will know when these new items (and more) arrive!

What’s happening in the studio

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Robin

I taught a v-shawl class last week.

The second day of the class was Sunday. On that day the weavers were ready to weave the “v” part of the shawl. These shawls are woven in 2 layers up to the “v” where the fronts join to create the back.

Here is what the shawls looked like when they came off the looms. (The fringes will be trimmed later.)

I think they are happy because they survived this class!

I’ve been doing my own work in the shop as well.

Red chenille scarves.

More chenille scarves.

These are samples of needlefelted ornaments that we will make this weekend at our Holiday Market Open House. These will also be available as kits.

Holiday Open House

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Robin

Does it bother you when people call an event the “First Annual…”? Well, we had such a good time today, that I can say that we had our First Annual Holiday Open House. We WILL do it again. Two friends joined me with their wares. Jackie’s business is Jack’s Wool/Isabelle’s Items.

This is one of Jackie’s signature paw-print felted bowls and a felted sheep.

How about a felted hot-pad?

or felted ornaments?

Diane’s family are commercial bee-keepers. She has recently explored local marketing of their honey and beeswax products.

Diane had sage, wild-flower, and clover honey. We sampled them and there are definite differences in the flavors.

Jackie and Shelby taught visitors needle-felting throughout the day and everyone took home a needle-felted ornament.

One of the best things about the day is that my shop is clean and orderly.

Thanks to Jackie and Diane for helping me with that. It is such a relief to have that done. What a pleasant place with Christmas lights sparkling and Christmas music playing. This was our big advertised day, but I plan to be open again next weekend even though Diane and Jackie won’t be here. I really love my shop and it’s a great place to spend the day!

Trip to Santa Barbara – Part 1

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Robin

There has been plenty to blog about but not enough hours in the day. I keep meaning to share photos I took in Santa Barbara when I made a quick sheep-delivery trip. People from San Diego met me to pick up sheep and then I spent the rest of the weekend visiting with my friend, Kenna. We crammed a lot into Sunday of that weekend.

Double checking before I left that I had the important things–my dog and my spinning wheel.

We had breakfast and a walk on the beach with my cousin, William, who lives in Santa Barbara.

Next stop was the Santa Barbara Mission where it was the date of the annual I Madonarri festival, a fund raiser for the mission. This is based on the tradition of Italian street painting. Local businesses pay for spaces in the parking lot and then fill the spaces with chalk art. Look at the incredible detail in this design.

This is not just your regular side-walk chalk.

Aren’t these incredible?

After this Kenna and I went to her friend’s house nearby. Hebe is an incredible person–she is a quilter, weaver, jeweler, felter, painter, and probably more. She was recovering from back surgery but was gracious enough to take her to her basement workshop and show us some of her treasures.

This is a recently completed weaving.

Hebe has completed 10 incredible felted figures and will have a show after she has finished 12. I can’t remember the names of these ladies (and men), but the figures are created with humorous themes in mind. Attention to detail is incredible. You can’t tell in this photo but the tennies are covered with sparkly red sequins.

The felted rocks alone are amazing, let alone the rest of the creation.

The afternoon’s adventures will come later.

Windy weekend

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Robin

The title implies that I dealt with the high winds that we had this weekend. I didn’t really spend much time in the wind. I was inside at the Art & Craft Holiday Fair sponsored by the Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento. I was surprised at the number of people that came through. Not as many sales as I’d hoped for, but it will be worth going back next year.

These are some of the v-shawls I had for sale.

You may recognize some of these scarves from previous blog entries. I meant to count the scarves. I think I ended up with over 50.

These are 3-D wire pieces that I liked.

And this is an example of another artist’s work that I liked. All his pictures have a time theme and are made from watch parts.

A friend visited me at the show on Saturday and look what she brought. This is a sheep from the WoolPets felt kit that I sell and she knit a scarf to go with it. I wonder if she used toothpicks for knitting needles!

So what was with the wind? It howled all weekend. We hadn’t had any significant damage from the other winds that we’ve had this fall. This wind took the top of the big tree in front of the house. Fortunately all that is damaged is a fence board.

This is upside-down and used to be…

…up there.

The tree is lopsided now–used to have 2 tops that looked like one.

Scarves and a pony

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Robin

I’m trying to get my shop ready for Shearing Day on Saturday. I’ll be spending my time in the barn, but my friend will staff the shop and I need everything organized, labeled, etc. Here are new scarves.

597-1 w

This one is rayon chenille with a supplementary warp using a ribbon called Luna.

597-2-w

Same basic warp, but a different supplementary warp.

589-w

Here is another “left-overs” warp. The blues.

591-w

Another left-overs warp. This one is deep purple, but I can’t get that color on my screen. Maybe it will show up purple on your computer.

I carded some sample batts using the Ashford drum carder and the new Wild Carder. Lots of fun! I wish I had time to do more of this.

carded fiber2-w

The top two batts are using fiber that I dyed for a Color Wheel class. Those will be fun to spin. The white batt is from Jacob wool–it is thick and soft. I have a new packer brush on the drum carder and it really lets you pack in the wool.

pony-w

Last, but not least, is a pony from the Wool Pet pony kit. I love the look on his face. I am also needle felting a donkey, but she is not finished yet.

The fox and the hare

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Robin

No, this isn’t a fairy tale. It’s more needle felting! My friend, Claire (see Kerfuffle blog to the right for entertaining reading), and her friend, JoAnn, came by this morning. The first things that caught their eyes were all the felt kits. I wanted to finish another hummingbird so they each picked out a kit and we went to work. Here are the results:

fox-bunny-w

Claire created the red fox (still needs eyes) and JoAnn felted the bunny. birds-w

I felted this hummingbird and finished the bluebird I had felted previously.

fox etc-w

Here is the complete ecosystem. Hmmm. I guess that’s a vulture size hummingbird in the fox’s world!

Following the visit and felting party I held WWW–the weekly Weaving Workshop. My friends surprised me with a birthday party! They brought cupcakes and drinks and a singing balloon. I am grateful to have good friends! I have a cute photo of Chris dancing to the balloon music, but I won’t post it without permission!

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

Tag Archives: needle felt