Sunday, December 27, 2009

New Classes at the Craft Guild

Made it through Christmas -- here is a picture of my sister and I with our two dogs on Christmas Eve. We had fun. Even though this fall was a whirlwind, I love all of the new people that doing this work brings into my life. Thank you all for being there and for your support!


I am busy making samples for the many new classes I will be teaching in the winter/spring session at the Craft Guild of Dallas. There will be needle felting where we will explore types of wool to use, how to make a 3d shape (see the cute round shapes and the nest -- good for making jewelry), and some flat needle felting
techniques; nuno felting scarves both basic and advanced (we will learn to make fringes and ruffles), and also my beloved nuvo felting in which we combine the needles and wet felting and make a small highly embellished piece. I taught both the basic scarves class and the nuvo class in December and they were both so much fun!

I will also be exploring some new territory by co-teaching with David Lawrence. David is a master bookbinder. We will be playing with some new surfaces for bookbinding including silk paper, lutradur, a book with a cloth/tissue paper cover and using felt to make a cover for a small photo album. Very fun altered books and lots of techniques covered in this class!

Later in the spring I will be offering an art quilting class (with some help from my friends of course!)

You can check out the new classes at the Craft Guild on their new website (way to go guys!) at http://www.craftguildofdallas.com/fiber_arts.php There are pictures there and I will try to post pictures here as I get things completed.

Cheers! Let me know if you have questions, I love to help.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Why it's Called Nuno Felting

I've been so busy this fall. I had a wonderful show (Southeastern Animal and Fiber Fair) in Asheville, NC and survived many mishaps (missed flights, lost keys, lost cell phone) because of all of the wonderful people I met along the way. Many thanks to all of you! I came back to do a show of finished pieces at the Craft Guild of Dallas -- another great show and many thanks everyone who helped and has had patience with me in this very busy time! I was appointed Fiber Arts Chair for the Guild during the show. I can't tell you how much this means to me. It is a life long dream come true! Teaching and coming up with new ideas are the things I have always loved best. I just love the camaraderie that sharing the creative process brings.
So, I have much to do to prepare for classes in the winter/spring term. Class schedules will be mailed soon.

On to today's subject about Nuno. I was searching for information about textile traditions and found an article about a Japanese Company called Nuno. They are known for creating innovative and cutting edge fabrics (Their fabrics are on display currently at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC -- here is the link:http://www.textilemuseum.org/exhibitions/current/Nuno.html .)  Somehow the name got entwined with the wonderfully innovative technique of combining wool and other fabrics. Nuno actually means cloth in Japanese. The nuno felting technique was actually invented by Polly Sterling in the mid 1990's. I tink it was sometimes called laminated felting in the early days, but the more innovative name nuno appears to be the one that people use more todau.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for a wonderful year! Here is a picture of part of a shawl I created this weekend. Fun texture and warm and soft as well.

Oh, and I am running a customer appreciation sale -- 15% off in December for repeat customers (some exclusions apply). Not too late to buy some Christmas Gifts! Or make a shawl and keep someone you love warm this winter.

Cheers!