I’ve been branching out into sewn felt toys.  I made this play mat to display my toys, but if someone buys it I will make more to sell.

I’ve made some horses…

and rabbits,

and people.

And here’s the whole gang so far!

Here are a few of my felt balls I’ve turned into ornaments for the Holiday Handspinners’s Fair on November 26th.  The photo doesn’t show it well, but I’ve mixed in some synthetic sparkly fibers.  I’ve added them on a few other projects including children’s crowns, candle holders and a scarf.  

If you are able please come to the sale and support local artisans this holiday season.  If you are not able to make this sale, think about how you could fulfill your holiday shopping list with local products.  When you support a local business you are supporting more than just that person, you are also supporting everyone they buy goods and services from.   This keeps more you your money in your community.

I’ve also updated my Etsy store.  Did you know that you can search for local products on Etsy? 

For SCA people coming to the Holiday sale, know that I will not be bringing most of the SCA specific items like hats and belt pouches, but I will also have a few things not listed on Etsy, like balls and cat nip mice.  However if you see a hat  you would like to try on let me know and I’ll bring it along.

I made this hat for my husband.  It is knitted from llama hair that I bought at Pennsic.  I spun it on a drop spindle, single ply.

In these dolls you don’t see the wool, but they are stuffed with it, which creates a doll that holds some of the warmth of the child holding it.   These dolls are called Waldorf dolls because they are used in Waldorf Schools, a style of education that values simple, open ended toys made from natural materials.

I also made a Three Billy Goats Gruff story set, entirely made from felt scraps.  Young children love to tell this favorite story over and over. 

While I had the photography equipment set up I did a whole photo shoot of the hats I have at the moment.

This has been my latest artistic endeavor. Ever since I started felting I wanted to make one of these.  In Kyrgyzystan they are called Shyrdak, in Kazakstan there is also a similar product. These rugs are cut, pieced and quilted from plain sheets of felt, which seriously increases the amount of work hours need to create them as opposed to rugs with felted in designs.  Shyrdaks are a traditional art that has been passed down for generations.  Like many traditional arts these days, it is being kept alive by a few conscientious artisans.  Here is a video of women from the Altyn Kol Women’s Handicraft Cooperative in Kyrgyzystan  making shyrdaks.

shrydak making video

My shyrdak began a while ago when I experimented with and indigo dye pot and dipped half a sheet of Icelandic felt into it. 

Indigo is a magical dye that is green when you pull it out of the pot and as it hits the air turns to blue before your eyes.

My next step was to cut a design from paper and cut the same design from both the white and the blue felt.

Pieces are then swapped into the opposite color blocks.  The felt is then sewn back together. 

And then two oppositely spun cords are couched down to hide the seam.

The two blocks are then sewn together and the whole thing is then quilted to another layer of felt.

It has been an amazing experience making a small sample of shyrdak.  The craft reminds me of the level of work that goes into a traditional American quilt.  Both crafts are passed from mother to daughter, usually done in community, and have a rich history of meaning associated with the traditional patterns.  The design I chose represents a ram’s horn.  Great atention is given to creating a design that has ballence in its possitive and negative images.  In mine the blue design creates an almost identical design in the white and vice versa. 

This is a dear friend’s heraldry.  Can you guess what he loves to do?  Now he can hang it on his tent to signal where he is camping and set his pavilion apart from the sea of white canvas at Pennsic.  He can say, ”Stop by my camp sometime.  Its the one with the felt banner with the scissors and needle in green and yellow.”

Today there are few opportunities for artisans of traditional arts to make a living.  Yet until recently the opposite was true.  Civilizations thrived on artisans and the trade of their work.  

Wandering Sheep is my tribute to this tradition.  I do not depend on Wandering Sheep as my livelihood, but as an integral part of my SCA game.  As well as studying and practicing the craft of felting in the SCA time period, I am studying and practicing the art of business in the SCA time period.  I have chosen a craft that requires some amount of specialization, and likely would have been produced by specialized artisans.  Through “playing store” at SCA events I enhance the medieval feeling of my SCA experience and, I hope the experience of others.  I strive to create quality products that are useful, beautiful, and enhance the medieval look and feel of the wearer.  I hope my merchant booth is more than a fun place to shop, but also a place other felt artists can come to learn and be inspired.

As I progress in my studies, I am trying to be more authentic in my choice of materials.  This has led me to buy wool from local farmers who breed period sheep, experiment with natural dyes and fiber preparations, and utilize local fiber mills for processing.  Ironically my studies of medieval felt making fit well into the modern sustainability movement.  In addition to the support of my local economy and small businesses, felt and other wool products are inherently eco-friendly. Just another example of how keeping past knowledge alive can help us in the future.

The thin white felt is made using the resist method, then molded around pint and half pint mason jars.  This is my first attempt at what could be considered cobweb felt, felt so thin that the structure of the hairs becomes visible and part of the art of the piece.  It is difficult to photograph with cameras available to me how these look with a lit candle inside.  The light shines through the thin spots in the felt, showing the crimp of the wool.  Each one is unique.

Here is a group of them before I sewed the holly and berries on.  I plan on making some in different colors for different seasons.  I expect that dark colors will block too much light, but may be used as accent colors.

Here is a close-up.  Notice the authentic “vegetable matter.”

If you would like to purchase some of these visit my Etsy store.  Or if you are in the Ann Arbor area we can make the hand off here and save on shipping charges.

In the week prior to the event the children helped me make prefelts.  I chose fall colors from my stash.  All in different kinds of wool. 

Then I asked festival participants to cut leaf shapes from the prefelt and throw it on the felting mat.   Small children cut mostly confetti shapes while adults made more leaf like shapes.  It did not matter as we wanted it to look like leaves on the ground, some of which will be broken.

When we had enough leaves the design was covered in three thin layers of Icelandic batting.  We then sprinkled it with soapy water, and rolled it up.

We took turns kicking the roll back and forth.  Since this was an event for little kids, we didn’t have time to finish the felting, but I took it home and finished rolling it in about an hour, thanks to the lovely fast felting nature of the Icelandic wool.

The result surprised me in that I didn’t think some of the wools would felt as well as the Icelandic.  I don’t tend to mix wool types as they will not felt at the same rate.  However all the colors seems to be fully felted into the base.  I think the Icelandic was good at reaching through the other wools and pulling them in fast.  I also may have helped that we used prefelts, so all the colors had a head start on the Icelandic.  This project has made me reconsider mixing a few wools now and then to see how it turns out.