Wool + Soap and Water

Wool + soap and water = beads.

 Wool yarn + soap and water = vessels.

Still playing with wool.

What have you been up to?

Karen

Busy Making Felt

For the past several days I've been experimenting with wet felting wool and silk.

I've been making felted beads for my jewelry for some time now...

but I wanted to learn how to make large sheets of felt for bag making...

and other craft projects.

It's quite a workout. I feel like I've been to the gym.

I've never worked with silk bells before. I love how it shines.

I had a few failures in the beginning...

but I think I'm getting better with each piece.

Now, if someone would just come and clean my house and do my laundry...

I'm off to buy more wool.

See you soon.

Karen Ann



Handmade Market Bag

Doing a little sewing lately and made myself a market bag from some scraps of batik fabric.

I couldn't make up my mind which fabric to use...

so I pieced together a little of everything.

I used a handmade ceramic button and beads...

and lined it with some gold linen.

Love the way it turned out.

Karen Ann



Shabby Bohemian

Last month I bought a headband simply because I loved the fabric.

I never wear headbands...they look awful on me, but I had to have this fabric.

I found it in a little hippie shop in Freeport Maine and try as I might to find a scarf or something bigger than a headband in the same fabric, it didn't happen.

So, here is what I came up with using these beautiful bits of fabric...

I made tiny lavender sachet pillows and combined them with recycled wooden beads and handmade glass beads.

I hung them from an old chair spindle and added a shabby reclaimed silk rose.

I know it's a bit quirky and unusual, but hey, that's me.

I was thinking that this idea in a larger version would be cool as a window treatment or a room divider.

The fragrance from the lavender is heavenly!

See ya soon.

karen ann



Royal Birds

Hi all!

This is the 2nd project for this weekend using antique grain sacks.

The first was my experiment with a jewelry dress form, as seen in my last post.

I also made these birds from a grain sack.

The crowns and beaks I made from polymer clay.

I've been working on a few other projects as well using reclaimed fabric.

I'll be posting those at a later time.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya soon.

Karen Ann



Jewelry Dress Form

I finally got around to making a few things from the antique grain sacks I've been gathering.

This is the first jewelry dress form of many I think.

I was playing around with some ideas and I think I know how I want to make these, but for now, this is the practice model.

It's very primitive...

but I think I have the kinks worked out so...

the next ones...

will be...

perfect.

At least in my head, they're perfect.

Can't wait to get started on them.

See ya soon.

Karen Ann

Crocheted Basket

Early Saturday morning my husband and I took off for the Hazen Flea Market.

While I was there searching for treasure I came upon a little old man selling rolls of fabric that had already been cut for making rugs and such.

He told me how he had designed a mechanism that he used to cut bolts of fabric into long continuous strips so that he and his wife could crochet the strips into rugs.



Since they were no longer making rugs they had decided to sell the rolls that they had left.

I purchased this 3 pound roll and wish now that I had bought all that he had.

Instead of a rug, I crocheted this Shabby Chic basket.

I've made baskets before with fabric strips that I had torn from recycled sheets, but this was so much easier because I didn't need to connect all the pieces together first.

I was a bit disappointed at the lack of antiques at the flea market this time and also at the attitude of some of the vendors. There were more booths with socks, T shirts and cheap tools than there were vintage and antique booths, and there were people who had no prices on their items who barked at me when I tried to deal with them. I was also disappointed at the amount of people trying to pass off their items as being handmade when the tags clearly stated "made in china".

I did find a few things worth buying and a few people who were pleasant to deal with, like the little old man who crochets rugs. Over all it was worth the trip.

See ya soon.

Karen Ann



Handmade Doll

I once had a passion for making soft sculpture dolls.

Recently I purchased some reclaimed fabric and

I was inspired once more to make a doll.

I lost count of how many dolls I made and sold over the years.

This one I made for myself.

She's not perfect, but I love her anyway.

Her hair is needle felted wool...

and she is wearing a pink crocheted flower on her apron.

Her little pink shoes were made from bits of a recycled linen dress.

I really enjoyed making her and plan to make a few more.

See you soon.

Karen Ann