Dear Little Dog Gone

Here is a very small needlefelted West Highland Terrier. I made him from corriedale, in memory of my dear Aunty Kay's little companion. He has turned out quite cute, which of course, he was in real life. The other photo is of a mermaid I made for an order a while ago. I prefer corriedale for needlefelting as it goes together quicker. She has mohair for tresses and beautiful Japanese seed beads for her embellished tail. Not a great photo I know. Maybe I should have some photography lessons. Then again, if I just read a few photography lessons then I am sure I could improve.
Feel free to ask any questions you wish about needlefelting. It is a very restful way to felt, not as physically demanding as wet felting that is for sure.

Dye another day

I love dyeing wool. I buy the wool, fine merino and use landscape dyes to make up whatever colours I like. It is great fun. I try to have a dyeing day, so I can get everything out and spend the whole day making a huge colourful mess. The photo on the left is the landscape dyes, obviously, the one in the middle is my Mum, she likes to dye too. The one on the far right is only some of the colours you can create.
The landscape dyes are very easy to use. You don't require mordants or any other chemicals, and they will also dye silk. So I use them to dye the silk chiffon I use in the nuno felt shawls I like to make.
I find I get the best colours when I don't think too hard about what I am doing. I like a sprinkle of this and a teaspoon of that, putting together green, yellow and a pinky red is one of my best.
I attended the local spinners and weavers group the other day and one of the girls had recently attended a natural dyeing workshop in Sydney. I was sooo jealous. The colours she had produced were lovely. I didn't realise you can get such variety. Of course it is a lot of work. But I am tempted. I have a lovely garden with heaps of plants, I would love to see what they turn out like.
You also need to use something as a mordant, so I think I will look into it a bit more first.