Santa Claus is coming to town

So it turns out that the holidays are a busy time, and I have not been able to felt each day. Today, however, I was able to carve out some time to make something fun, felted and festive.

Meet Nick.

My idea was to make a ball like Santa. He came out less ball-like and more like a Santa who has lost his legs. But in today's culture where Santa and snowman come in every shape, size and design I figure that he will fit in.

Anyone who needle felts will tell you that claws and fingers are really hard to do. My solution? Mittens! I only had to do two fingers.

His Hair, beard and fur trimmed was made out of some fleece I carded. The fleece has a very fine micron count and in the carder developed a lot of noils (tangles). Noils in needle felting are just great for texture.

His arms are raised to invite a kiddie in for a hug.

Even though it is cloudy today I was able get some good photos of him thanks to my brand new 5 in 1 reflector and my 50mm lens. My husband also just order a big book about digital photography I am hoping to study. It is in Spanish so I suppose I will be studying two things at once.

I hope everyone's December is jolly so far.

Inspired to stitch - Mr X Stitch

If you do not know about the Mr X Stitch blog you should go over and have a look. 

The blog showcases the unexpected side of needle craft. The images can be shocking, evocative and thought provoking. It is like going to a museum from the comfort of your armchair. If you want a 5 minute tour of what you can expect on the blog, they put together this great video, which I got off the FB page:

I have been honored to have my work showcased on this blog twice now. The first time was a look at the portrait of a cat I made last year in a feature called Too Cute for Tuesday. (Click to enlarge.) He is my sister-in-laws cat, and is, indeed, cute.

Today's Mr X Stitch post is about location, and here is the question I had to answer. 

My question: Tell me about a time the inspiration to create a stitched piece came to you from a sense of place. This could be a physical location in the world or an experience of internal geography. (A city, a bus stop, a room, a journey, a particular experience in the world, etc.) What was the location and what did you make? Tell me about your process.

 I choose to talk about my sunset pieces. To find out for yourself how they were inspired by location click here and find out for yourself.

Two of the three sunsets are available in my Etsy shop, if you are inspired to own one.

Creativa Madrid 2013

Last year about this time I went to the very first Creativa Madrid and you can read about it here. When I went last year it was over-crowed and mostly full of sewing booths. Since I really should not get a sewing machine until we know what country we are going to settle down in, sewing booths are off limits for me, for fear that the desire to sew will be all consuming. It is very hard not to fall down that rabbit hole as I past by the Singer store almost every day.

Anyway, this year I was not going to go. But a friend offered me a ticket, so I offered to help in her booth and went on the first day (Thursday). This fair runs until Sunday so there is still time to go, if you want to.

Basically there is a lot of craft stores with booths from around Spain and even some from outside the country this year (I heard both a French and a British accent among the vendors). This fair is vastly different from the craft fairs that I am used to in the US, and some of the things they were selling seemed odd to me (animal figures to decoupage, and day-glow t-shirt yarn for some examples). I did not take a lot of pictures, because it is frowned upon to take pictures of the various booths (at least it was last year). 

I also forgot to take a picture of the booth I briefly volunteered in, Indigo estudio Textil run by my friend and master weaver Lala and her husband Enrique. Lala brought wool to sell (in all it's forms), spindles, looms, books in Spanish about all sorts of crafts, and needle felting supplies. Below is what I bought from her booth. Those are felting needle holders, a single and a 4 prong. The single needle holder is a genius invention of simplicity and design. The yarn was made right here in Spain by a company, which is unfortunately, closed. Right now I am planning on using it to be the arms for a Ribbi Cardi. Last, but not least, the book! A book where I can study the terminology of needle felting is worth it's weight in gold to me! The projects are not too exciting, but I have a feeling that I will be reading this cover to cover.

Working at the booth while Lala was off teaching was an interesting experience. I have worked craft fairs and similar kinds of things before, and that is why I volunteered. What I did not remember, until the day before, was the potential language difficulties. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I am tired of my Spanish holding me back from experiencing the life I want. There is a disheartening moment as an immigrant when you realize that you will never know the language like a native. No matter how long you live somewhere there will always be a phrase you don't know or someone will mutter and because you did not hear what they said, based on your accent they will think that you do not understand. It is disheartening. But I have a working knowledge of the vocabulary I can get by, I need to get out there and have the confidence to speak more freely. All-in-all I am very proud of myself for being able to do it and I am glad that I did.

OK, on to yarn. I found my favorite yarn store in Spain. This is huge, no only do I hardly ever buy yarn in Spain because of the selection and the materials available. I know of several other ex-pats that buy out-of-country so I know I am not alone. I love supporting local shops. So, the name of this store? Vega knits. Based in Malaga they are an online shop (although I have heard rumors of them looking for a brick and mortar store). They are the only store in Spain (that I know of) that carries MadelineTosh (the two skeins on the left are MadelineTosh, aren't they gorgeous? Click to enlarge.) They also carry Blue Sky Alpaca, Spud and Chloë, and last but not least, Avril, a Japanese yarn company. Avril has some really neat yarns. I wish that I could have bought them all, but I did buy three different kinds. The yellow one looks and feels like paper yarn, but it is cotton! It is almost like a ribbon yarn, if the ribbon yarn was made out of paper. The small red skien is a beautiful lace weight tweed silk. And the small little cone is wool and stainless steel in an olive color. I have always wanted to try a wool and stainless steel combo. The woman who ran the store was very nice, and bonus for all of you, spoke English (wish she insisted on speaking to me) very well.

I also got roped into a presentation about Magic Crayons. I almost did not get them, until I saw that you could add oil to them and paint with them too (see the purple bit in the ballon on the lefthand piece.) I am not sure what oil that they used and the website is not super helpful, but you can see almost the same presentation that I got, only in Italian! It works on wood and glass, and they do not get your hands dirty! I love all thing new and inventive in art tools, so I had to buy them.

So tthose are my thoughts on this year's Creativa Madrid. I recommend going. The selection and the creativity of this year's show is far better than last year, Also there is more "pura lana" at Creativa than there was at Nomada Market. ;)

Sunset on a good life

I finished this piece on Friday, the same day my husband and I had to say goodbye to one of the family. Making these sunsets can be fun, and I was thinking of making it and putting it in my store, but now I think that I will keep it as a beautiful momento of a beautiful life.

I was luckily enough to know Bandit for 11 years. He was with me for five moves across three states and two countries. In him, I always had a friend to keep me company as I was looking for jobs and getting to know a new city. He and his brother were always preforming antics or being drop-dead adorable to distract me from worries or loneliness. He would always check on my every couple of hours if I was home to get a hug or to ask for food. Until the last months, he would always great me at the door.

Bandit on my handspun crochet blanket

About three years Ago I did a felt portrait of him, just to see if I could. I think I was able to capture the smile and the love in his eyes.

Needle felted portrait

Photo that the portrait was based upon

 Bandit was the other one in the household that loved wool, and things made from wool, as much as I did. He loved to huff (smell deeply) and roll in wool, be wrapped in wool blankets, and play with the wool toys I made him.

Classic sunbeam shot

 There are too many words, and none at all to describe the love we had for each other. So anything I can think to say seems, insufficient. I know that he was one of the great loves of my life, and one of the best friends I will ever have. He would come to comfort me when I was sad, cheer me up if I was angry, and celebrate with me when I was happy.

His fur was a soft as a bunny.

I know that I will miss him everyday for the rest of my life, and that I was very lucky to have known him.

Goodbye Bandit, rest in peace.

Art challenge Day 7

So I missed another day in my self imposed challenge. This was actually made, for the most part, yesterday and refined today.

I got my inspiration from this Spanish artist, who cuts designs out of leaves.

I wanted to see if I could copy it in felt.

Art Challenge Day 6

I started this piece on Saturday, and then we had a rough weekend, so I will bring you Art Challenge Day 6 today. 

I wanted to do something a little different. I was thinking about those just black and white paintings. The ones that look cartoon-eske with black for the shadows and white for everything else. I thought maybe I could do something like that. When I plugged in my request into Google, guess what came up?

A black and white photo of a merino sheep. It had to be fate, I set to work.

Of course I used it as an inspiration.

I am not sure how I feel about this piece. However, trying different techniques and keeping my mind of of the family illness was the point.

What do you think?

Should there be changes? If so, what would you change? OR how would you interpret this sheep?

Art Challenge Day 4 and 5

Yesterday was a very busy and emotional day, so nothing got done on the challenge. 

However today I'll bring you two things. We will call this first one Day 4's project.

This is a project that I have been working on for a while. It is my first felt piece with a wire armature inside, and I have to say that I will probably never do that again. I kept hitting the wire inside as I was felting it, also the armature does not move as smoothly as I was hoping for.

Because working with the armature was uncomfortable, this guy sat for a long time. When I first covered the armature around 3 years ago (I still lived in the US) I thought that he was going to be a bear. Then about 3 months ago I got it out again and decided to make something dinosaur-eske, but in fun colors.

Then the blue was too boring, so I added polka dots, three shades of blue and tusks.

There he is walking away. Since I am not used to an armature inside I keep thinking that I misjudged that length of the legs, when really, they are only bent outwards. 

This little guy I will call Day 5's piece.

He started out as just a head many months ago. At the time I was thinking "monster head broach". 

Today I decided to give him a body, not worrying too much about the shape of it, keeping the focus mainly on the head.

Then I tried making the arms 2D for a change. Sure he is a little strange, but that is exactly the point of a monster: to stretch your imagination. To try to make something unique and never seen before.

If anyone is wondering my kitty is doing better today, fingers crossed that he keeps improving.

Art challenge - Day 3

I decided to do a mixed-media piece. Really playing with contrasts, bright colors and negative space.

I get my felt backgrounds locally here in Madrid from Fieltros Olleros which has been in business since 1863 and has a huge selection on wool felt, acrylic felt, and a mix. I buy the 100% wool felt and they always seem surprised when I do. I hope that doesn't mean that they will stop making it. 

I bought a natural color piece of background felt because I thought that it would go well with my kits, but it does not because it is heathered and it makes it hard to see the stencil lines. However ,I think that it makes a nice background and negative space for this free form mixed-media piece I did yesterday.

I used: black worsted weight yarn, different colors of scrap wool, and water color crayons. I was hoping that in using similar colors of wool and crayon I would get different heights and effects. I don't think that that plan succeeded, but I do like the finished piece a lot. It is bright and vibrant and holds interest.

The I finished another monster that had been languishing in the un-finished pile. He has more detail added to him and I added front legs.

He has a head tilt that I am leaving in, because I think that it gives him personality.

Art week -Day 2 and pictures from my morning walk

Things got a little hectic yesterday so I will post yesterday's finished object for my self-imposed design challenge today. I actually worked on two things, but I think that one is still a work in progress. However, with the caveat that I do not think that it is finished I will post a picture of it too. 

Also for those of you who are hear only to see pictures of Madrid. I took a series of photos on my morning walk today. These are not tourist photos, they are photos of the "true Madrid", a working class neighborhood.

First the walk:

I crossed the M30 for my walk today and is a photo looking back over it. One thing I love about Madrid is that most of the highways have lots of greenery. There is a layer of vegetation which is not only beautiful but probably helps with noise and pollution as well. 

Across the road is Las Ventas, the bull fighting rink.

Now with Las Ventas to my right I am going to cross a road that goes over the highway.

Down a typical backstreet...

And I come to the park that was my destination.

Here I am crossing another, this time pedestrian only, bridge over the highway.

Walking back along this pleasantly tree lined street I found.

OK, Art Challenge, day two: 

I worked for a long time yesterday on this little guy. I am still not happy with the shape, and frankly I am thinking of changing the color as well.

I think that longer legs and a bigger hump on the back would help. I mean, I do not mind that he looks cartoon-eske, there is just something I am not happy about. What do you think that needs fixing?

And here is a piece that was almost finished, and I decided to call it done.

It was part of my monster series.

The goal was to make something unusual and unexpected.

New shop and Needle felting kits

Now that it is July, I am done with my teaching job and have officially opened my own store!

The idea of the store began with the fact that Spain does not have as many fiber related craft stores as I would like it to.  So seeing this as an opportunity I thought about what I would do or make to fill this gap. I thought about dyeing wool and making batts to sell to the future spinners of Spain. And while I am learning the ways of the dye pot and I hope to sell hand dyed fiber soon, I was really excited about an idea that came to me one day in February.

One of my, not so secret, passions is needle felting. One of my favorite ways to needle felt is by "painting" with the fiber on a flat surface. When I first started needle felting I really liked the idea of a fiber painting for my wall. A piece of art that showcases both my skill and my love of wool. I am a completely self-taught needle-felter so when I first started painting with fiber I did not really know what I was doing. I found out that the flat technique takes less wool than sculpting with wool does, and it is easy to move and change position and thickness of the wool, i.e. it is hard to make mistakes that are not easily fixed.  One day (May 2010) it occurred to me that I could felt with yarn too. From there it was only a matter of time before I thought of using black yarn between brilliant patches of brightly colored felt and making something that seemed like stained glass or a mosaic.

I made this:

Fast forward to February 2013 where I am thinking what products to sell in my future shop. What would people want? Maybe there is a kit that I could offer that no one else has?

I  got out a Sharpie and some colored pencils and I set to work making three designs:

I pulled out my drumcarder and set to work creating the colors. All of the colors include lowlight, a highlight and, maybe, an unexpected complementary to really make the colors glow. I needed to capture the glowing/streaked look of stained glass.

I did the first test piece to make sure that the colors complemented each other, and the whole design really came through. 

Iris

Maybe you had noticed from the color pencil mock-up of the Poinsettia above that the original colors I chose for the "frame" did not work. It is the dark blue-brown that I chose for the frame here that really makes the red of the flower "pop".

Poinsettia 

Next came the instruction booklet. I wrote it up and sent it to some lovely testers, some of whom had never needle felted before. I had great feedback. The instructions have been tested, tech edited and is also available in Spanish!

Robin on a Branch

The next part was sourcing my materials for the kit. All of the materials for the painting are 100% wool. The background felt I was even able to source here in Madrid. The creation of the kit took some time and creativity. The hardest part was figuring how to stencil my design on the background! Also black non-superwash wool is surprisingly hard to find in Europe.

Finally my boxes arrived and the kits are ready to go.

One of my testers had a ton of ideas for more designs, and I recently finished two more based on her suggestions.

Bunny

Sunflowers

If you want to, you can follow my new store on Facebook where I share my process as well as other needle felting tips I find.

I have not forgotten about more pictures form Ávila, those will come soon.