Vinyl - the next frontier

Look what people are doing with vinyl : these are all different designers : how cool!

Basically, these are stickers. Be sure that where you place it is truly its final resting position. Removal involves scraping it off, so your best bet is porcelain, or tile, or stone. On paint? That takes dedication!

-Carolyn

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Big News

We're moving!!! Yes, our lease is up and we're tired of the parking issues, the temperature issues and the "can't find you after driving around for an hour" issues. We think Main street is more our vibe anyway, so we hope you'll follow us to our new location in the historic Edgemar building. 2433 Main street to be exact, with a Pete's coffee, Ben and Jerry's, and Urth cafe right outside our door. And have I mentioned the abundant parking?

To celebrate the move we're throwing a free craft party! Friday, May 30th from 6 pm onwards-bring your favorite project, your favorite friends, and your favorite drinks and craft the night away with us. We'll have door prizes and felting and craft projects out on the tables-so come and help us kiss this place goodbye!

Angharad

PS-visit our website and sign up for our newsletter to receive updates, special coupons and to find out when our grand reopening will be!

the story of three little piggies

I've been inspired by the zakka felting books that we have in our extensive library. At first I was just going to make a white felt sheet to make little coasters but then..it started to look a like a pig to me...so I grabbed the little grab bag of felt bits and before I knew it...I had a pig with two little orange birth marks....then I decided to add a mustache. Not a complete hit but I like it. Then I decided...well, I like things in sets. And I made two more.

It reminds me of the needle felted Christmas tree that I made when I was a student here a while ago...
that grew tentacles...
and then became a squid.



-Jamie

Polymer Clay Bowl

-Carolyn

Hand embroidered wares:

Jan Constantine of the UK sells beautiful hand-embroidered pillows:

-Carolyn

(actually it's the trout pillow I really want)

Finally finished with my wet felt!

It's a cosy for a tiny....tiny teapot.


Here's my wet felted wool sheet. More to come soon!


-Jamie

tribble...what is this???? A little vibrating plushie that I made at Makerfaire

My little tribble which I made at makerfaire was originally going to b this little cuddly bunny...that turned into this shapeless rounded rectangle. It's called a tribble because we added a little cell phone motor that turns when you press the little silver button. Rachael and Annie, our instructors, taught us how to create these little plushes from scratch....and you can make one too! Just follow these instructions [link].


Tribbles are apparently supposed to be hugable heart pillows...not shapeless blobs...but it was fun! It's also featured in this quarter's craftzine if you subscribe to it.


- Jamie

knitting drummer from Maker faire

Useless but cool....performance art?

-Jamie

Lace Tatting

So pretty & fun - but time consuming!

I really enjoyed Billie Dyer's workshop!

-Carolyn


It takes quite a bit of practice....notice the rings on the left are slightly irregular, and the rings on the right are more uniform.


(p.s. I can roll a flower round out in about half an hour now...learning is the hard part...after that...a breeze!)

Norwegian Folk Throw....

-Carolyn




.....ok....I cheated........


(thank you Kelly for sharing your Jacquard Textile Color with me!)

More thrifted sweaters:

Here's another cool thing you can do with thrifted sweaters (from the same site), done by Alicia Paulson.

I looooove this bag!

-Carolyn

'Thrifted Sweaters & Vintage Threads'

We have a collection of thrifted sweaters that we are always adding to, and are often felting.

Here's an example Jamie showed me (here) of what one artist/or group of artists at Cocoon Designs is using them for:

-Carolyn

The Felted Female

Absolutely amazing!

Stephanie Metz makes these intricate felted female figures. The fact that these pieces are formed from wool somehow enhances that certain organic grace and ease which reflects true feminine beauty.

Jamie directed me to this site. Thanks, James!

-Carolyn

Highlights from Makerfaire

Hola everyone. Makerfaire was great fun and I was so happy to see some of the people from Craft Con (xoxo Shana!). You can see all the pixs on our flickr site here [link].

Hightlights included:
- Meeting the crafty peeps from Craft Con...
- Creating my own little vibrating pillow...thanks Rachel!
- Meeting Lauren from goody goody and Missy from Crafty Carnival
- Watching a glass bead demo from the amazing Jenine (look at her necklace...ten years in the making and counting)...
- Making a little notebook with rub-ons at the Hambly screen prints booth
- Watching robots fight to the death! Poor Pleo :(
- Seeing random things go on fire and people rushing to see it...
- Meeting Teresa from Tall Wheat...your batik stuff is so cool!
- Walking around the Howl's Moving Castle caravan and drinking irish coffee with the steam punk folks
- See a father and his little baby zooming about in a mobile cupcake with pills as topping

-Jamie

Successes, Failures, & UFOs : Following Up!

Ok. Following up on previous posts...we have finished with the final stages of 2 projects. One was a success and the other was unfortunately a failure.

We were successful with our wet felted pieces. Scroll down to see them mid-process:

Jamie's & mine

We tried firing our PMC pieces. We have never used this type of open kiln before and it got too hot, too quickly. My 'C' charm completely melted. The backs of the smaller ones got imprinted by the wire mesh:

And I just thought I'd show you my embroidery progress. I've always got about a million other projects on at the same time- so it is slow-going!

-Carolyn

Pyrography - my new addiction!

AKA - woodburning

...just for that ski lodge smell alone.

-Carolyn

More Gocco fun

I <3 spinning

While I'm just a spinning neophyte as you can see below....

Ugh...look at those knots!! I'm in complete awe of the Ashley of the lone knitta...



and Tiffany of Noddy Boom.



I really hope that we have another spinning class soon. I love spinning...it's a wonderful way to destress....thank you Angharad for teaching me this addiction! I think I need a wheel.

-Jamie

Instructional videos:

Check out this site if you're interested in working with resin. I wanted to inspire you on other things you can do with resin, as we have the "Little Windows" workshop coming up this Saturday:

http://design.hgtv.com/kitchen/video_detail.aspx?id=790



And one of our members mentioned that she is interested in tie-dyeing a t-shirt. Remember that? I made quite a few tie-dyed items in junior high and in high school. I wanted to post this for her:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl7mOF4ZJo8



-Carolyn

Going to Maker Faire

I'll be going to Maker Faire in SF this weekend and I am excited at the line up of folks that will be there. Will be sharing highlights next weeks.

-Jamie