Monthly Archives: January 2013

Daily Dose of Fiber – Day One

Posted on by under Daily Dose of Fiber
I’m working today but when I get a few spare moments and no one is in need of me at the store, I do a little stitching. Today I worked on a beaded book that is a homework assignment for my stitch class. I was not particularly excited about beading before I started this book. Every time I have tried to add beads to my work, I don’t like them and usually end up taking them off. This book has been different though, it’s been fun and I actually like the results. I think this is because the book is so small. The pages are 4″x 4″ and therefore the beads aren’t lost on the page. It takes a lot of seed beads to fill up large spaces and even the 4″x 4″ seems big with seed beads.

Here’s the page before I started working today. It’s in a tray to keep the beads contained. I am using Silamide thread which I really like. I tried a cheap thread from JoAnn’s and it was awful compared to the Silamide.

Here’s my tub of beading stuff that I have been taking to work each day. There are some finished pages in the bag that I’ll show you later.

This is the second book page I have done with examples of fringe. The top row is long bugle beads, the second row is “spiral” fringe and the third row which I did today is branched fringe that has been stitched down to the page. I have already done regular branched fringe and I wanted to try out this other method.

The fun thing about this one (it really isn’t fringe) is that you can make it stand up off the page to give extra texture.

I then added a row of looped fringe below that. I think the looped fringe would look better longer but I didn’t have much room left on the page. I started the edging for this page but didn’t get very far. I suddenly got swamped with shoppers down from the ski slopes. Luckily the boss is a nice woman and lets me do what I want. I’ll probably work on this page further at home tonight. I’ll show you the results tomorrow.

What did you do today that is creative? I’d love to hear what you’re working on. If you want more information about A Daily Dose of Fiber check out my post over at The Felting and Fiber Studio.

Building a New Year

Posted on by under word for the year
Happy New Year! I am excited about my plans for 2013. Each year for the past three years, I have chosen a word for the year as explained on Christine Kane’s website. Here is a link if you would like to check out her worksheet for picking a word for the year. This year I picked the word “Build”. This word actually came to me because I want to concentrate on felting a yurt this year. Build seemed the natural choice. Then I looked up the word and found other meanings I hadn’t considered but work well with my intentions.

To build means the following:

As a noun: the physical structure or form – body, constitution or habit

As a verb:

  1. to initiate or found – base, begin, establish
  2. to increase or accelerate – amplify, augment, boost, develop, expand, improve, strengthen
  3. to help or enhance – advance, aid or assist
  4. plan on – aim, anticipate, intend
  5. recommend or praise – acclaim, advocate, applaud, support
It always amazes me when I do look up a word how many different meanings a word can have. All these definitions will work for me this year. One of the first things I have planned for this year is “A Daily Dose of Fiber”. I have explained what that means in a post today on The Felting and Fiber Studio blog. I’d love for you to join in the fun so do go take a look at the post. I will be blogging my progress with being creative every day here. This will really be a stretch as I do creative things related to fiber art nearly every day but I rarely post more than once a week. I want to change that habit so we’ll see how it goes. I’m sure the posts will be relatively short but I promise lots of photos!
Here are my goals/intentions for 2013:
  1. Build a yurt/ger.
  2. Be creative every day.
  3. Build a body of artwork.
  4. Continue to develop the new fiber arts organization “Tangled – A Fiber Arts Collective”.
  5. Build on what I learned in my Level 2 Stitch Class.
  6. Develop further classes and teaching opportunities.
  7. Build a video tutorial library.
  8. Take Level 1 Color Studies class from Gail Harker.
Since number one on the list is going to be a monster project, I’m not sure how much of this list will get done. But I have found that the busier I am, the more I get completed. If you have any plans for travel to Montana, do drop in as I’d love some assistance in yurt building. 
What are your plans for 2013? I’d love to hear what you’d like to accomplish in the new year. Do consider joining the Daily Dose of Fiber challenge over at The Felting and Fiber Studio, joining our forum and having a creative 2013.