I have been making something new with an idea to combine wool with wood. The tops of the wood are capped with hand dyed wool curls felted with a base of Merino. I felt the Merino into little cup like nests and add the curly wool to the outside. The felting process is slower when adding the curls, but the result of the wool texture and wood combined is a great contrast.

Summer fun made from wool and vintage beads were a theme for these charms created for a Christmas Market. I am attaching lobster claw hooks for those who want them for a backpacks or purses. I am hoping to get them listed on Etsy by Friday. I call them woolly pops©!

Renewing fiber can mean completely destructing or radically altering clothing. For any fiber piece, I wash it if it is wool in the hottest water and detergent. For cotton items, such as plaid, I wash gently in cool water and detergent. The drying process is important too. Wool gets dried on the hottest setting and I air dry cotton. Plaid is left in the full garment state and then prepared for bleach spray or drip methods. The wool stays in its original form until I am ready to cut it. This bowtie is cut and rolled from 2 different pieces of a wool sweater.

One of my favorite new items are the wooly carrots. I started making them in March and love the cashmere feel and color. Fruit and veg are so fun to make in fiber because of the wool properties and each pice is unique because it is reclaimed. Jalapenos and avacados are next! There are more new items like the wooly popsicles and lollies which I made into charms. The wristlets and cozies continue to be popular.

All types of wool are cut for these wristlets making dogwood blossoms, leaves, roses, sunflowers, rosebuds, succulents and cactus blossoms, daisies, and poppies. Young customers use these for coffee cozies, wrists, and water bottles. Children love to wear them on their wrists. One customer used them for her formal dining glasses at Christmas. Each one is so different. This is one of our most popular items.

The coffee cozies I make are from an idea for an owl looking out from a cup of tea or coffee. They began of course with reclaimed wool and vintage buttons, which are some of our main materials. I began decorating around the eyes and using vintage rhinestone buttons. Then I added flowers or wings. I also was making mushroom scarves. The mushroom cozies became this little piece of forest which contained fungi, moss, and some little fern fronds. I use a lot of cashmere for the mushrooms because of the smooth velvetiness if an actual mushroom. These cozies are sooo soft and fun to hold with a warm or cold drink.

Stepping back in time to an older fiber work is this 1970’s felted mohair sweater. It was a lovely sky blue. I wanted to use the whole sweater instead of cutting it up. It felted to a child size of 3-5 yrs. old. I kept thinking about my grandparent’s cherry tree and the blackbirds that would eat from that tree. I designed the birds and cherries to wrap all the way around the sweater. It sold within the first hour of Holiday Market, but it was a very fuzzy, tactile, creative experience because of the mohair. I am planning blackbird and cherry mittens on a pink angora wool.

Small pieces of wool can be used for almost anything – leaves, flowers, beaks, birds, eyes, and small shapes. I use almost every piece of a sweater. In the style of medals and badges similar to those that are awarded to people, I began to work with small shapes cut from larger projects to make brooches and pins. I started using the square cross and made hundreds of stitches to create the small symbol. I added birds to stand on top of the cross. I especially liked using cream and off-white cashmere and angora. Sometimes, I added tiny mother of pearl buttons or a stitched cross. These little stitches turned into small but very different jewelry for any jacket, sweater, or coat.

The needle felted birds crafted in all kinds of colors of roving wool are so fun on jackets and coats or even sweaters. The labels and buttons have added a vintage look to the design. I have enjoyed the process of sketching, painting, and felting through the creation process of wool bird pins.

This symbol appears in a lot of my hand embroidery. This section is a prototype for sampler stitched sachets. The front is cashmere and the back may be linen. The idea is to be playful with stitches and use animal shapes.