The Calm after the storm

Goodmorning,

The storm has ended and it is cold but quite calm out this morning. I just took some pictures from my porch. One of my shop sign, one of the barns across the street and one of the colonial house across the street. I was able to catch a little of the sunrise. And I love how the flag blowing in the wind from my porch got in the photo.

Have a lovely day,

Gloria

NEW Improved Little Bunny Needle Felting Kit

Needle Felting has become the new trend for 2009. I love needle felting because it is so easy, portable and relazing. I have released 7 felting kits in the last 2 years. I have a few more that I want to get designed and released. Time always seems to get in my way. My 2 Santa ornament kits and the Bunny, Peeps and Jelly beans are done the traditional way. Solid wool and no sewing required. The Polar bear, Little Bunnies , Gold E. Bear and Panda bears are needle felted over a muslin body. This method gives them a nice vintage look.

Here is a picture of my NEW revised Little Bunny Needle Felting Kit. You get color picture, step by step directions, 2 felting needles, tan muslin, pattern templates, wool stuffing and wool hand dyed wool rovings. There is more then enough supplies to make 2 bunnies.

SPECIAL: Tell me you saw this blog and you can buy the first kit at full price and buy a second kit at 30% off. Just email me after your first purchase and let me know what kit you want at 30% off. I will invoice you through pay pal or I can run your credit card. This special is only good til Feb. 6th. (my daughter's birthday).

Thanks and have a nice day. Gloria

http://www.mohairandwool.com/

http://www.folkartpatterncompany.com/

Felting Needles

Today I would to talk about a very useful tool. The felting needle. It is a needle that is approx. 3-4" long. It has tiny barbs on the end. So when poking the needle into wool roving it tangles the fibers thus felting them. It is also useful to doll makers. The primitive and folk artist use it to felt the doll's hair. It is very easy only requiring a lot of poking. It forces some of the fibers into the head of the thus securing them. No more yucky glue or stitching. Some reborn artists also use them. They carefully root one to two hairs at a time into the doll's head.

I sell felting needles on my supply pages of my websites. Hobby stores seldom carry them, so they are difficult to find.

If anyone is interested in seeing a video on needle felting Easter Eggs please email me at Glorialowell@aol.com

I will email a short video free of charge.

Have a wonderful day. Gloria

Needle Felting and Kits

I am so excited about today. I grew up 20 miles from Hartford ,Ct. It was during the 60's. The riots in Harford were a scarey time. When I was 17 our car got pelted with rocks by angry young men. There were burning garbage barels in the middle of the street. I feel this country has come a long way since then. And I am very pleased and hopeful for our country. At 17 I would never dreamed that some time in my life a black man would be president. God bless America and god bless out new president.

Well, the topic of the day is needle felting but I had to address a very historic day.

Needle felting is a fun and rewarding craft. To think that a ball of sheep's wool can become a one of a kind piece of art. It is easy and only requires wool roving and a felting needle. Poking the needle into the wool roving over and over felts the wool, thus felting it. If you were to look at wool under a microscope you would see that each fiber has microscopic little scales. When applying heat or pressure to the fibers they tangle around each other. The tangling is known as felting.

I love the fact that needle felting is very portable. You can take it on vacation or to the drs. office. No sewing machines. And each finished piece is differnt and they are good conversation pieces. My needle felting kits can be found on http://www.mohairandwool.com/ Extra rovings and supplies can also be found on that site. Also on my pattern site. www.folkartpatterncompany.com

Have a wonderful day. Gloria

Carding Wool for Needle Felting

Good Sunday morning. It is snowing in Vt. It is really a pretty snow.

Today I would like to talk about my wonderful carding machine. A carding machine combs wool fibers into soft wonderful rovings. Once it is nicely carded then it can be dyed. Wool, mohair and alpaca take dye nicely.

I have a Louet Jr. It is perfect for my needs. It is a hand crank so it is a bit of work.

I am epecially fond of Romney and Cormo sheep's wool for my rovings. It is soft and has a nice luster and felts beautifully. Check out my roving page on www.mohairandwool.com and check out my needle felting kits on the the kit page. Felting needles and core wool can be found on the supply page. Have a great day,Gloria

A Time for Primitives

Another snow storm in Vt. I will take some pictures and post tomorrow. But first I would like to tell you about a wonderful website I am on. http://www.atimeforprimitives.com/

There are many lovely talented ladies on this site. Please check out the items they will have for sale. I love belonging to this group.

Candy the owner of the site posts a lovely blog everyday. http://atimeforprimitivesblog.blogspot.com/

Here is Candy's banner. If any of you prim ladies are looking for a nice place this is it!

Sunni The Alpaca

This is a picture of Sunni. He is a white Suri Alpaca. His fiber was used for the beautiful reborn dolls pictured below. Alpaca is straighter and finer then mohair. Alpaca is about 22 - 24 microns. Mohair measures 28- 30 microns in order for it to still be considered kid grade. Adult human hair is approx. 50 - 70 microns.

Suri Alpaca Fiber for Reborn dolls

Suri Alpaca fiber is the softest finest fiber there is except for an angora rabbit fur. The microns are less then angora mohair. Meaning it is finer. It is quickly gaining popularity with some very experienced reborn artist. These two dolls are white suri alpaca that was dyed black by the artist. The second picture is from Kathy Polakowski from Lil Heirlooms Nursery. And the first picture is of a beautiful doll Kelly Lynn Smith designed. She ran an on line class on this doll. Check out her classes on: http://www.angelsunawares.net/

Reborn artist's rooting mohair

Big storm here today. That is fine by me. I have been plenty of things to keep me busy, so I will spend the day inside working.

I have started a new testimonial page on my http://www.mohairandwool.com/ site. I am a folk artist but I have to say I am totally fascinated by the art of rooting mohair.

I know making up the mohair for the reborns is a ton of work. From the washing to dying to combing it out. After spend hours preparing it I then send it off to some very talented reborn artist. They spend days rooting several hairs at a time. The results looks like a real babies head. Here are some beautiful pictures that have been rooted from my mohair. The doll artists name is Kimberly Dawn from Angelic Treasures Nursery.

Tomorrow I am going to talk about rooting with Alpaca. Another spectacular fiber.

Needlefelting

Brrrrr it is cold here in Vt. A big storm is expected tomorrow.

Several years ago I fell in love with needle felting. So I set out to learn more about this 200 yr. old art. It is gaining more and more recognition and becoming a popular art form once again. I find it so relazing. This is a picture of my new customer Inez Morris. website: http://www.primitivepineapple.com/

This is her first attempt at needle felting. Aren't they wonderful!

She used my Country Santa kit.
Read her testimonial on : http://www.folkartpatterncompany.com/pages/Testimonial.php
Have a great day.

I have started a testimonial page

Good Sunday morning,
The sun is up in sunny chilly Vt. Don't worry my Christmas template will be gone after this week. Mt template gal is working on a new one for me. Sara from Graphic Pretties.
http://www.graphicpretties.com/
I have started a testimonial page on my Mohair and Wool website. Here is the link:

http://www.mohairandwool.com/pages/Testimonial.php
I so enjoy seeing your dolls and Santa pictures. It is so much fun for me to see what is done with my wool,mohair and alpaca. It makes all the hard work of preparing it so worth it.
Have a great day,
Gloria