Funky Feel and Felt!

Nuno Felt Brooch Combo,
originally uploaded by scarfitup.

Mmmmmmmmm! I LOVE fiber! I guess that's why I'm a fiber artist and not some other kind!

Nuno felt is a wonderful thing! It's soft, pliable, delicate-looking but not delicate, and it allows the artist to create diverse pieces of wearable art.
This piece was made from two separate small pieces of nuno samples, folded and wired together, pin attached, and VOILA! it's a brooch!

But not so simple, really! The process is awesome and awe-inspiring, requiring a full day of felting and fulling in a process that is far too long to explain right now. If interested, there is much to learn and lots of examples to see. Go to Etsy and do a search for "nuno felt." You'll be awed too!



And do you love the FEEL of fiber? Do you love funky? OK! so here is Smokey Cachecol, the latest from my collection of scarflettes or cachecols - for that lightweight warmth for your neck. This one pulls together all sorts of greys (grays) with black, cream, and silver accents. It's finished with funky knots and a large swirly vintage button (thanks, Karen!)

Felt Day IS Labor Day!

I wrote the other day about laboring on Labor Day, forgetting how laborious a day of nuno felting is. I spent today (mostly ALL of today) creating 4 rather small pieces of nuno felt. Well, two of the pieces are actually scarves and the other two are smaller pieces to make in to brooches. It is not such a fun process, because it is so time-consuming and quite literally very HARD work, but it is indeed an interesting one. And I learned a few things through the process today:

• I need a bigger variety of wool roving in many more colors!
• I like the effect of felting both sides of the silk chiffon better than just one side.
• But both sides have to use a light touch when applying the wool
• Cover ALL edges with wool - lightly, so the cut edge is "finished"

So here are the results of my day of laboring with silk and wool, soap and water, plastic sheeting, solar pool covering, and a pool noodle - and a HUGE amount of elbow grease!

Combining Mediums and Revisiting Artwork!

Recently I've dabbled in creating funky, wired, button and bead jewelry using both vintage and new materials! They've been fun to make and quite successful! I also recently learned and continue to experiment with nuno felt, designing brooches with the samples I've made to date. Some of those have already sold, and the interest in them seems to be excellent! So.....the natural progression seems to be to combine mediums to create brooches to be worn as an embellishment to a hat, purse, jacket, coat, or whatever - even your coffee table as a conversation piece. You know....some people have large, attractive and engaging books on their coffee tables. Who's to say you can't have a large pin or brooch sitting there on its own or in a beautiful bowl?

Last night I finished two such creations! One of them had a former iteration, called Freeform Frenzy that had been listed on Etsy in my Etsy shop. But now it has a new life, combined with nuno felt. It's on the right.

The other one combines vintage and new buttons, beads, copper wire, and crocheted fiber along with a nuno felted sample - all wrapped up into one fabulous brooch! It now resides at aMuse Artisanal Finery in Wilmington, where I have developed (as of TODAY!!!) a lovely professional relationship with Jan Wutkowski. I left 14 of my pieces at her adorable shop - so here's hoping they are successful for me and for Jan!

I think I really LOVE multimedia work and hope to continue producing other pieces to please every taste!