Re: [needlefelters] Sorry/What's Up?

[Celti...@aol.com]

Well I for one think we should keep using it, if anything just to keep in touch and talk about what's going on in our artwork.  How are all of you doing with the holidays coming up?  Any plans for special things you are going to make?

 

Nancy

 

In a message dated 10/25/2009 7:30:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, draig...@gmail.com writes:

I guess I thought we weren't supposed to use the email list anymore! I actually love email lists, just because that's how everyone did everything back when I was first on the internet, heh. All these fancy new forums and things are all very cool, but somehow I never keep up with them as well as plain old email in my inbox. :)

Nice to see all of you pop up to brighten my day!

Amy

On Oct 25, 2009, at 4:13 PM, RoseThis...@aol.com wrote:

Yes, there's the silver lining, Nancy!  I was so surprised to see names I recognized coming back at me.  Sweeeeet!!!  I miss the ole days where we talked all time.  I know we'll all get back to that at some point.  There's a ton of transitions happening in a ton of our teammates lives right now, like moving, selling houses, school, medical situations, but our warm fuzzy love is always there. :)  I love you guys!

[Bettina Groh]

I agree... maybe we should go back to emailing! I certainly keep better contact through emails! I don't always check out other things..

as for holiday stuff.... I am beginning to do some things.  I've turned off the Halloween button and am shifting to winter/Christmas/holiday things.

Do have a question for the group.... I bought some lovely alpaca to needle felt. But I can't seem to get all the dirt out of it. I washed it several times in the sink but the tips are still matted. I hesitate to put it in the washing machine since I am afraid that it will get felted. 
Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Bettina Groh
GlassDragonBears

[RoseThis...@aol.com]

I am SO happy to be in the loop and see you all this way.  If this group works, then let's keep doing it! :D

 

I have to admit, this IS much easier to keep up with and the conversations just seem to flow better than complicated forum set ups.  I think the main problem we had was trying to organize different conversations to look up later for reference.  If anyone has any google group tips on organizing threads or anything, please pass those along.  I am not known for being extremely organized . . . LOL.  You've probably gathered that by now. ha ha ha

 

I don't have any tips for getting the dirt out of alpaca. Is it huacaya or suri?  Suri is much more different than the huacaya.  Is it VM or is it just dirt?  If it's just dirt, after it dries, can you shake it out outside or something?  Is it a full fleece?  I went to a fleece skirting class once where they made a table out of snow fencing mesh and pvc pipes.  The pipes made the frame and the mesh was the table top.  The mesh allows debris to fall through.  Good skirting seems to really help with all future processes.  I am pretty sure that if you do not use hot water, you can run the fiber through a cycle in the washing machine with cold water.  Can you pull out the center plunger thing in your washing machine?   

 

The whole cleaning, carding process can be fun, but when I have a needlefelt project in mind, I really just want to get to work on it.  So, I generally use or buy fiber already in roving form all ready to go.  Although, it's my dream to have a mini mill here someday.  There was a company in Canada that sold mini mill equipment, but it appears they may be having problems or something?

 

(((HUGS)))

Take care,

Gina

Shops

http://RoseThistleArtworks.etsy.com

http://RoseThistleArtworks.artfire.com

Gallery of Art and Ranch photos
http://www.flickr.com/RoseThistleArtworks

Blog of a Contemporary Needle Felt Artist
http://RoseThistleArtworks.blogspot.com

[Anika Kanter]

Hello All,

Hope you all are well

Everything fine from my side.  I have been felting in  the little time I have besides my webdesigning. Soon I want to organize a workshop needlefelting here in the north of Israel where felt is becoming more and more popular too. Once a week I do art therapy with a retarded woman and her care taker who comes along got the hang of needlefelting, very cute. So I have good hope I will get a few one-time works shops together where people can get familiar with the technique and these will result in prolonged get-to-gethers.

Any advise in this matter is very welcome.

About www.needlefelters.com :

We are now more than 40 participants  in this site which presents an additional marketing venue for needlefelting Etsy shop owners.

Very soon I will send out payment requests for the next round ($3) for the ones that joined more than 1 year ago. Not everyone has at the moment an active Etsy shop so maybe we will loose some people but it is still a nice venue which I only want to expand. There will be You Tube tutorials embedded and also the frame work of a forum is there.

All I need is time.

Please link from your blogs and sites to http://www.needlefelters.com

New members are welcome! Its only $3 a year.

 

Warm greetings from the north of Israel (really warm, where is the rain??)

 

Anika - Orchidee

 

 

::::::::::::: Skype www.skype.com: username: earthmandala :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hilah & Anika crafts: orchidee.etsy.com
www.needlefelters.com
www.missing-identity.net

Stock photo's: www.istockphoto.com/earthmandala

[Amy L. Rawson]

Could you let it dry, card it once, and then try washing it again? Do you think that'd help at all?

Amy

[Amy L. Rawson]

Just thinking ahead to this year's Santa Cthulhu, haha. It's become such a fun project that last two Christmases that I have to keep going with it this year. :)

Amy

[RoseThis...@aol.com]

Amy?  What is this?  Santa Cthulhu 

[Amy L. Rawson]

Heh, it's sort of a nerd thing. Cthulhu is a character from Lovecraft's short stories, a giant monster of sorts. He's a popular character among sci-fi geeks, sort of an inside joke whenever you need to refer to something horribly evil. Here's the wikipedia entry on Cthulhu:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu

So two winters ago, Brian and I made a Santa Cthulhu:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/draigathar/2059183215/

We sold it on eBay and got maybe $50 for it. It was fun and it made us laugh. Soon after it sold, though, pictures of it started popping up all over the internet. If you do a google image search for "santa cthulhu" you'll see it all over the place.

So last winter we made a second Santa Cthulhu, similar to the first:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/draigathar/3091648400/

After we posted it on eBay, it wound up on Neatorama, Boing Boing, and a dozen other popular blog websites. We had over 6000 hits on the eBay auction that year and I think it wound up selling for over $200. 

So this year, how could we not follow up with another Santa Cthulhu? We're hoping to go all out, though, now that I'm done with school and have more time for art. I have many ideas this year ... :)

Hey, come on, I can't make cute stuff ALL the time! :)

Amy

[RoseThis...@aol.com]

That is so awesome, Amy!!!  Needlefelt went viral!!!  You rock!  He loooooooks . . . great! lol  What a weirdo thing!  hahahahaha  I love how weird needlefelt can be.  Is there anything needlefelt can't make?  I don't think so.

 

Congratulations on that wild ride.  That must've been a blast.  I'm so interested to hear what happens this year.  The bidding war could get FIERCE.  woohooooo.

[KarenKrafts]

OK, I miss you ladies! I'm glad that we're using google groups
again. I always always always forget to check the forum... I'm
really glad to hear that you're all doing well!

I am not doing too much felting these days (sob!). Nathaniel is 1 1/2
years old now, and between him and school work, I have not had much
time for felting. I cannot wait for the winter holidays to come
around so that I can do some more (I did a bit over the summer). Next
semester is my final semester (woohoo!) and then I can really start
felting again. I think. (:

Amy, I love your Santa Cthulhus! They are FANTASTIC! Lovecraft is
one of my husband's favorite authors of all time (he's a geek, and he
grew up in Newburyport, MA so he feels a kinship to the location of
many of the stories...), and he loves Cthulhu! He has a stuffed one
that he bought online, but he does not have a needle felted one. I
may need to special order one for him, now that you have time... Maybe
you can make 2 this year? Alchemy, anyone? (:

It's lovely to hear from you all again!
-karen

[Amy L. Rawson]

Heh, well I still don't expect to make a lot of money on them, especially not considering the time we put into them each year. People still do have a limit to the max they're willing to pay for a felt figure, I think. But it sure is fun, and that's really the bottom line. Last year, the squid in the hand (as a gift for the little girl, of course!) was my idea, and I think I giggled the entire time I felted it. And a lot of people ended up commenting that the pink squid was hilarious, so that made me smile even more. 

I'll be sure to post a link to photos for you, Gina, once we get this year's Santa Cthulhu done. :)

Amy

[Jen & Peter]

I've sadly not been doing too much needlefelting this last year either, my two boys (5 and7) have been keeping me very busy. Now with the colder weather coming I hope get into it some more again! (We've had it snow 3 times here already brrrrr!) 

My little hedgehogs are still doing not too bad. Still no takers for my pincushion.. maybe the pricing is off? Its so hard, being in canada to sell anything larger, as shipping is crazy  :(   my 2 most hearted items are my baby seal and my man pin cushion. Hope they sell this fall!

[Amy L. Rawson]

Well, here it is, the felted figures I was mentioning back in
October. :)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190357889553

Amy

[Kelly Rogers]

I haven't been felting lately or really responding to much--but this woke me
up! I'm a Call of Cthulhu fan and... wow. That is awesome! Yeah for Santa
Cthulhu! I love it!
-Kelly

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[KarenKrafts]

Freaking *awesome* Amy! I hope you get TONS for them!
-karen

[Amy L. Rawson]

Thank you, Kelly! I woke up this morning to find them featured on Neatorama, so that's pretty exciting. :)

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/12/13/santa-cthulhu-2009/

Amy

[Amy L. Rawson]

Thank you Karen! I can only hope. It'd be a nice Christmas bonus. ;)

Amy

[V Dooling]

As always Amy, your stuff is awesome!!

 

Vee

[Elain...@aol.com]

Amy, over a thousand people have visited your listing!

That means your artwork has brought well over a thousand smiles!

                                                                                                : )

 

Great Job!

So fun.................*