a life of felt

Archive for May, 2010

Shot silk

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

I decided to try doing some dyeing in the microwave and got out my equipment with a light heart. As usual with me and dyeing it didn’t go quite to plan. I had to put one piece through a second time because it was too pale and the scarlet dye didn’t dissolve properly leading to spotting on the silk. However, I was in too good a mood to let this bother me and carried on, although I was tiring and was happy to see I was reaching the end.

That was when it happened. I’d mixed up a dye, caught the edge of the bowl with my hand and sent it spinning through the air to land on top of the cat’s food bowl by the wall. It splashed up the wall, on the door, into the kitchen and began to run across the floor. Why is it that liquid always seems ten times more when spilt?

At least I had the presence of mind to mop some of it up with a piece of silk. It was running down the wall, staining the paint and creeping across the floor to me. And the colour? Red of course. It looked like a scene from a massacre. As it ran down the wall it appeared to be staining the wall so I cleared it up as quickly as possible. On hearing about it my husband quipped, “shot silk” and so you have todays title. He seemed surprised that I hadn’t taken a photo but I would have had to step in the dye to get to a camera!

Don’t they look lovely and bright? I thought I’d try a few bits of lace in the yellow/green and see what happened. They weren’t soaked first, I just put them in dry and watched. Interesting that they’re mainly the same colour as the silk except for the one which has taken more blue and is distinctly green. A good way to use up dye and they’ll no doubt appear in a piece of felt later.

Tags: dye, felt, silk
Posted in Felting | 2 Comments »

In need of a name

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

When I first decided to create a website I couldn’t find a name that I liked for it and in the end decided on using my name to trade under. I sometimes think it’s a little pretentious to use my name after all I’m not a top designer (yet), but if it’s good enough for other people in all walks of business, it’s good enough for me. I’m from Yorkshire and I am who I am right? So far everything tickety boo.

Then, last year, I decided to add a blog to my website. I’m using wordpress to power it but it’s embedded in my site so it all fits together. The problem comes when people link to my site and I often get listed as Angela’s blog. Now I’m not complaining, it’s absolutely fantastic that people want to link to me and I thank them all. It’s just that Angela’s blog seems a little lame and definitely doesn’t say anything about what you’ll find here.

So, your mission should you choose to accept it, is to suggest a name for my blog. I’d probably like the word felt in it and it mustn’t be too long. Can you help? In return for comments with suggestions I will work my way round and feature each of your blogs / shops in return. It’s the least I can do. I do hope we can find something interesting.

My husband has a way with words and comes up with little quips. His suggestions are “Felt mutterings”, “Felt better”, “FeltQuirks”, “Feltorama”, “A matter of felt”. “A mutter of felt”, “Strange felting lady”, “Felting yorkshirewoman”, “Feltwoman (faster than a speeding plane)”, “ThinkFelt”,” hmm…

Tags: blog, help, name
Posted in Felting | 12 Comments »

Thinking about online marketplaces

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

I’ve had an online shop at folksy for quite some time and although I’ve sold a few items I just don’t think it’s the right place for me. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to put a shop on my website, I was paying for the site anyway so why not try to sell from it. Which is fine and I have made sales but it doesn’t get the traffic that a marketplace would get.

Obviously etsy is the leader, with thousands of designers / makers/ suppliers and millions of visitors each year. The problem I’ve found with etsy is that as a customer you’re overwhelmed with choices and it’s hard to find what I’m looking for. As a seller I find it intimidating and don’t see how I could get noticed amongst the crowd. Most people don’t realise but I have repetitive strain injuries and can’t stay on the computer for long periods. I’m terrified that I’d have to spend a long time promoting myself on etsy.

dawanda looks quite good and has sites in French and German as well. It doesn’t have a very big following yet so number of visitors is less than 50,000 a month. It’s free to open a shop and then you pay 5% commission on anything sold. It’s the lower number of visitors making me hesitate.

misi is also free to open a shop. Then it’s 20p to list each item and 3% commission on sales. It is another small site and it gives me the impression of being too much like folksy so I’m not really tempted to go on here.

artfire is a site which seems to be growing quite quickly and is second only to etsy. It’s free to set up a shop but you pay for a pro shop which gives your listings a preference. Quite tempted by this but still al little worried about whether or not it’s the right place for me. Is it worth a pro account? will I have to spend oodles of time online?

zibbet looks nice and clean but every time I visit it seems to take an age to load each page. With speed issues like this there’s no way I’ll browse on here and I can’t imagine that anyone else will either. So this is a no-no.

It’s not looking good folks. artfire seems to be the only real alternative to etsy. If you have any other suggestions of places for me to go online and sell then I’d love to hear it. If you have an opinion on where my items would be best placed the I’d love to hear that too.

Tags: felt, online marketing, selling
Posted in Felting | 4 Comments »

Who likes net curtains?

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

I really don’t like net curtains but it’s essential for the sake of decency, to have something in our toilet. Surprising really that, not liking it, I’ve actually had the same net curtain up for ten years (I do wash it!) One of my many beach finds was a number of mussel shells and it was the lovely blue colour of the shells that inspired me to make a felt curtain and eradicate the net forever.

I began by trying to drill holes into the shells so that I could attach them to the finished curtain. All the small shells shattered but I successfully drilled into the larger ones which were surprisingly tough. I didn’t have a special drill bit, I just used the smallest one I could find. My idea was to create a curtain with shells hanging from the top, some colour of the mussels in the felt and mussel shell shapes cut into the bottom of the curtain for added detail.

Cobweb felt is traditionally made using just one layer of fibre. As I needed to make sure no holes appeared in the felt I decided to make a very fine felt using two layers of fibre. The shells would be quite heavy on such a fine felt so I made an extra strip of three layers for the top from which to hang the shells.

The main colour is obviously white with added splashes of blue silk fibres and ramie fibres for extra shine plus wool pebbles and curly kid mohair for texture. I cut the shapes into the bottom of the curtain when it was finished. If I’d cut them out earlier I think they would probably have been distorted during felting due to the fineness of the felt and the number of holes.

I’m really pleased with this curtain but still surprised every time I see it, I’m still expecting to see the net. Both my daughter and husband have said how much they like it so it’s a winner all round. Now I just need an idea for the other toilet and the net will be banished forever.