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Artists In Action

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Managed to get this one poor picture of Sis at her spinning wheel. Kinko had wandered off so hers was unmanned– un-womaned –that is, when I took this. We spun and weaved and talked and in general had a pretty good time but it got hot yesterday and we were on the afternoon side of the road so we had to pack it in before the 4pm official time, tho I think it was after 3 & we were not the first to leave. Sis sold some skeins of handspun & the owner of the yarn shop we were next to took the rest of her basket of mostly single skeins on consignment, at her own request, so Sis could still make a few more bucks from the day.
We cruised the art gallery’s and I picked up the painting I’d won in a raffle to raise $ to pay for the artist’s co-op gallery lights. I’d hoped to have won my own donation back. I think it was one of my best, but it went to some lucky person! lol All in all a nice day but the heat really got to me. I was exhausted by the time we got home. Thank goodness for left-overs. Dinner was cold corned beef sandwiches and sliced tomatoes. πŸ˜€

The finished Felted 12″ tri bag.

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Which is, as I said, about the same size as the unfelted 7″ tri bag. Well, it made really nice thick felt with no sign of the weave structure. I was not getting any ideas for embellishments until I spotted the button box so here’s one side of it. I ‘buttoned’ both sides. Added the braided strap and a lining…see below.
I have an idea for some slippers that I want to try next then I may get back to a larger tri bag. If any of you do this and get good results, please email me, I’d love to see. πŸ™‚

Lining

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I’ve had this fabric for years and finally found something it goes with! Has most of the button colors, or near enough. I braided the strap around a small clothesline rope both to make it a little larger and a bit sturdier. I hope! πŸ˜€

Art for Art.

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One of the local art galleries is asking artists to make award plaques from cd’s to be awarded to the winners in the juried show in Sept. (They get a more substantial prize as well, of course) So of course I had to play! πŸ˜€ This one is 2 cd’s and a double layer dvd…the purple. I had a heck of a time getting a good picture and they are different colors in different lights so I can’t even tell you which one is the ‘true’ color, so just picked my favorite. I used my little roaster oven that I have for crafts projects to melt them a bit and they were cut on the scroll saw. This one has black beads, the name of which I cannot remember! :angry: and a bit of red foil and the glittered netting.
It was a fun project and there is already an amazing collection of Awards on display at the gallery.
There’s another one below.

After…

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Wow! It really felted. I really didn’t think it would get this small. It’s about the same size as the Pink one I wove on the 7″ loom. Well, when it dries I’ll do some embellishing and see what i come up with but I’m going to have to find a new yarn to try to get a bigger bag. The yarn I used to knit the kids purse didn’t felt all that much, so I think I’ll try that next.

But… now I know! :hehe:

Before

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This was made on the 12″ tri loom. It is handspun, but out of my stash and it’s been so long I don’t know what the black yarn is. The colored is easter egg dyed cormo and quite a bit finer than the black. I’m about to toss it in the washer with the felting pants so we’ll just have to see what happens. :O
I made another cord braider and used these yarns to weave the handle around a piece of rope to make it both stronger and larger. I’m not intending to felt it. I suppose it will eventually felt just from handling, which will be fine. I think this one may get a gusset in the sides, too, but I’ll decided that when it come out of the washer.
Wish me luck! :laugh:

My new bag!

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The Pink Glitz! This is some novelty yarn I bought at the dollar store. Lots of eyelash and glitz. It worked up nicely for this project and only took one skein. It’s Patons Glittallic, a 50 gram skein. The bag needs seven 7″ triangles and a strap. I think there was enough yarn left to have made a rope strap for the bag, but I had been playing with that oriental braiding…kumihimo… I made one of these disc’s from a plastic coffee can lid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO_jaLp5FYI ) and had this long ribbon braid that just happened to match the yarn perfectly so I used it for the strap. It had a lovely dangle of ribbon on one end and I happened to have a little gold hummingbird charm, which I threaded on one ribbon end. I think it makes nice little bag. It could be an evening bag, but glitz & glitter seem appropriate anytime these days. It’s easy to make. The pattern is one in my book Hats & Bags. πŸ™‚

More Pink Glitz

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A close up of the tassel of the strap. It is sewn to the front left corner and goes though a loop at the back, then though a loop on the right front corner and is sewn to the right back corner. I came up with this ingenious system all by myself! πŸ˜› I only had the one braid to use as a strap so had to make it work and this seems to. The lining is a found piece that was given to me with some other fabric. I think it is either rayon or silk. Gave it an iron-on backing & a little pocket and it seems to work fine. The colors matched very well, I thought.