In Memory of Sharon Janda

Now on to the future. We have all lost the most creative person I believe I have ever known: Sharon Janda who died suddenly the end of December. Sharon was the leader of my felting group, a study subgroup of the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild, Washington DC area. Sharon opened her studio for our meetings and arranged for many wonderful teachers to come in and inspire us. Life is precious. Sharon has impacted a legacy on all of us.

Daughters of Genghis Khan: The best group of friends I have ever had.

Diane Christian Landscape felting workshop

I just attended a felted landscape workshop by Diane Christian.  Here are 2 of Diane's felted landscapes:

I choose a simpler subject for my landscape: rows of cultivated plants backed by mountains.

First is laying out the dry wool roving.

Then wetting down the wool.

 The dried wet felted base.

Beginning the needle felting stage

 Finalizing with needle felting.

It was great fun and Diane had great insight into working with the development of distance. Coupled with an on line color course I recently took from Carol McIntyre, also very worth while, I feel I have expanded my ability to manipulate color in wool, thread and/or paint to enhance perspective and distance in my works. Joanne

Hybrid Felting

 I just returned from a wonderful workshop on Hybrid Felting given by Anne Vickery Evans as part of the SDA (surface Design Association)/SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) conference in Philadelphia, PA. Hybrid Felt also sometimes known as Nuno Felt is the bonding together of wool fibers with other fibers and/or fabrics. This is me using a thin layer of wool roving to attach small squares of colored silk charmeuse to a background fabric of hand dyed silk gauze.

Felting Wool Boas 2+New Beadwork

I have been remiss in not including in the felt boa shots my own example. I did mine in all white expecting to dye the entire scarf after felting. However, it turned out so Victorian in white that I am loath to mess with it. I am toying with the idea of lightly tea dying it for an antique look.

I have also included my latest beadwork ventures. My love in beadwork is using brick stitch to actually draw figures or motifs. I am including "Swingtime" a brooch I did a while ago based on  a Fred and Ginger partnership. I just completed "Top Hat" and "Putt'n On The Ritz", brooches after a sole Fred.

I have also purchased several stoneware pendants from Artbeads and used the motif etched and painted in the pendant to create a surround for the focal bead.

Photos Felting Wool Boas

Here are the photos of us felting wool boas on a center strip of silk chiffon:

                                          

More Artists Community Service

Continuing on with the felting warm innersoles for homeless and needy people. We felted and cut over 80 pairs on warm innersoles:

Happy Holidays to all, Joanne

Artists Community Service

My felting study group (a subgroup of the Potomac Fiberarts Guild) decided for our December meeting to apply ourselves to a community service project. We all decided that we had failed felted projects such as purses, wall hangings, etc that just didn't come out right but would be perfect for cutting up into innersoles that would provide warmth for the feet of the homeless or otherwise needy people. So we organized shoe patterns in various sizes and began by cutting up items that we had already felted. We continued by making more felt from odds and ends of wool to provide more felt for soles. We ended up with over 80 pairs of warm wool innersoles to be distributed by local charities.

Cutting soles out of previously felted failed projects:

 Laying out wool for new felt:

A quick trip through the needlefelting machine:

 Wetting down the wool:


 Rolling for wet felting:




Wetting and rolling the needlefelted piece:

Unrolling and rerolling in the opposite direction:

  

 Some help from the rolling machine:

Hand Fulling:

More Cutting:

Organizing the soles by size: