The slipper that I felted several years ago have given up the ghost. So I needed new ones.

I made these yesterday afternoon. I started with white merino, added a bit of burgundy silk on the tops. Then I dyed the bottoms with more burgundy. The dye went further than expected so the tops are a bit darker than I had wanted but they will work fine.

I have been busy working away again this week. (Keeping up with my goals so far.) I started this notebook cover before Christmas. It was going to be a collage but ended up mainly as painting. This is made with paper towels with which I wiped up dye. I glued that down and then added oil paint sticks and then a bit of stamping after that was dry. This is the notebook where I am keeping all my design work for the Traveling Pages. I am currently working on designing for “Fairy Tales” for Ann. I have several sketches, now I just have to decide which one to use.

Here’s a close up.

I embellished my last ‘wrinkled’ vessel.

I used a variety of yarns – these are attached at the ends and then wrapped.

Here’s a close up.

And another. I’m thinking of submitting these to the “500 Felt Objects” book. What do you think? Good enough to get in? I’m kind of gun shy about entering things but I guess all they can say is “No” and there’s no entry fee. I have to make sure the photos are the right size.

Here’s the vessel I made today from the same resist that I used for the one above. Here it is after laying out and wetting down. As you can see, I’ve added the same yarns I used on the one above as inclusions in the felt.

I finished “The Goddess Within” book page for Johoanna today. That’s a small peak above. I can’t show any more until Johoanna receives the page. I was pleased with how it turned out and I hope she likes it. More photos after it wings its way to Australia.

I then practiced some machine embroidery using Ken Smith’s techniques that he explained on Workshop on the Web. This is mossing stitch with optic color mixing. I used a darker blue in the bobbin and changed the tension gradually to get more dark blue as I got closer to the center. The very inside edge is a whipped stitch in which you run the machine very fast with a low bobbin tension, high top tension and move the work very slowly. Therefore the bobbin thread completely wraps and covers up the top thread.

Here’s a close up. The colors are off because it was so dark when I took the photos. The above photo is a little closer to true color but the piece is more pink with light blue and navy blue thread.

In regards to my productivity, I’ve been quite pleased with my follow through. I have done “studio” work for 13 hours this past week and worked in my journal on design practice for 2 1/2 hours. Thanks for all your encouragement and I’ll keep plugging along and see if I can keep going for more than a week or two.

Here is my vessel after a little hand stitching. At the suggestion of Carolyn of Love Stitching Red. I added embroidery and a few french knots.

Another view. What do you think, does it need more?

This is the resist I used for my second vessel. I am planning on using this same resist but will make different shaped vessels each time.

I started experimenting with 3D wet felting today. This was my resist. I had drawn a sketch of a pod looking object that sort of resembled a leaf. So this was the resist I made.

And here is the very odd looking piece that resulted.

I used red because I had a bunch of red dyed trying to get the right shade of maroon for Grizzly stuff. Although this is a very strange looking, I’m pleased with the effort. I learned a lot about shaping. I realized that I didn’t need all those bumpy out bits on the resist and I need to remember to add more length if I am doing the folds. It only took me a few hours to make and I’m excited to try some more. Next time, I’m doing a simpler resist shape.

Here’s a thank you card that I made today for my hubby to send to a business associate. He sent us three bottles of wine from his wineries. I’m not sure how we got on his gift list. This is the first time we’ve received anything from him. But we needed a card so I whipped one up from dyed papers that I had made previously and a small square of fabric that was a sample for bags that I order for the store sometimes.

I also worked on my page for the January book page swap. The theme for Johoanna’s page is “The Goddess Within”. I can’t show any photos yet as it is to be a surprise. I made it on the needle felting machine and now I’m going to add some hand stitching. Then it will be sent off to Australia.