I'm very proud to now be a part of 1000Markets!

If you are an artist or crafter, you may have already heard of the online site 1000Markets. It is an extraordinary online sales venue for high quality, handcrafted items from art to jewelry to wearables to food, and so on. It is also a juried site with an amazing design layout that represents top quality artists. I am beyond thrilled to have been accepted there as one of their artisans! My new 1000Markets shop just opened today. It will house my couture lines of hand felted scarves, jewelry, and other wearable pieces. I have great expectations for 1000Markets and am extremely excited to be part of the site and the community there. Please visit my new shop often as I will be adding handcrafted products weekly.

My Latest Nuno Felted Scarf Creations & A New Dress Form Display

I just wanted to share my latest batch of handmade felted nuno scarves and my new dress from display. The scarves are a combination of silk and wool. I hand dyed most of the silk scarves myself with the exception of the fringed scarves. And, of course, I hand felted each of the scarves to create their distinct one-of-a-kind look. These are now available in my Etsy shop. There are also more photos of them on flickr. And, I will be adding more listings of this style scarf to my Etsy shop and more photos to flickr as the weeks go by. It seems that I'm focused on making these for now as I really enjoy the process and results.

The lovely new dress form was a recent online purchase that arrived late last week in the mail. I do really like my mannequin head display, but I wanted to try a dress form display and be able to take photos outdoors as well as give a different perspective. I think that so far so good with the dress form. I look forward to taking more photos with it. I had thought about using a live model which seems to be the route that many fashion and accessory designers are going, but I'm going to concentrate on using my mannequin head and dress form as displays for the time being. They don't charge fee for each photo shoot and never talk back.

Hand felted wool hats now available!

Well, I've been in a felt making frenzy when it comes to my new wool hats. I just love making felted wool hats now. I use a combination of traditional and modern felt making techniques, including both needle felting and wet felting, to create my one-of-a-kind hats. Due to the nature of their creations, all of my hats are seamless (no sewing involved). Their soft wool base is lightweight, durable, and comfortable to wear. It is also somewhat waterproof. Some of my hats also have detachable flower brooches to match, and some are even reversible for several different looks in one. Although I consider my hats to be unique pieces of wearable fiber art, they are also very functional and will definitely keep your head warm on a cool Fall or Winter day.



From now throughout the Fall and Winter months to come, I'll be listing these felted wool hats in my Etsy shop for sale. I'll also be selling them at upcoming scheduled art festivals so please be sure to check my shop and my schedule of events. You may also check my flickr account for many more photos of my hand felted wool hats.

My Hand Felted Wool Hats and Scarves

Since I plan to sell at a few public venues this Fall, I'm expanding my felt making work. This expansion includes hats and scarves among other things. I recently took some new promotional photos of my work for advertising and my artist portfolio. I just wanted to share a photo of one of my handmade felt hats and scarves. You can see all six promotional photos on my flickr account.

It's a hatstravaganza - needle and wet felted hats!

So my latest craze is learning to make felted hats. I'm trying several methods to find out what I like best and what produces the nicest results. This includes needle felting and wet felting techniques. Thus far, I've found that a combination of methods seem to produce the best quality hat while allowing for the most controlled design.

Reversible hats is also another goal of mine. I would like to make hats that can be worn inside-out or outside-in to give the buyer more options for their wardrobe. Of course, this means that not all styles of hats will work well as a reversible hat, but a form of the simplest cloche style hat seems to do quite well and be very versatile. It is also a little easier to make than a brimmed hat which is good since I am still very much learning. I do plan to make non-reversible hats as well. Really, I'll just be making whatever style of hat suits my fancy at the time and that I have the courage to attempt.



I'm posting some photos of two different hats that I've made over the last couple of weeks. You can also see more individual photos on my flickr account. The light blue and white hat is 100% Merino wool and soft as a baby's bootie. I think that it is also quite feminine and stylish - almost reminiscent of the 1920's and 30's cloche style hats. It was created through a combination of needle and wet felting. The decorative trim around its base is actually some yarn that I had spun on my drop spindle.



The yellow and blue-green hat should look somewhat familiar to those of you that have read some previous blog posts. It is made from 100% Romney wool that I hand dyed myself. You can see it here. I've also previously posted photos of it in its needle felted stage, before the finished wet felting stage as seen here. Partially due to the type of wool used, it is a thicker, more rugged hat, but I still think that it has a feminine charm about it. Depending on how the brim is shaped, it can be more casual or stylish. It would be a nice hat to go with a coat and wear all Fall and Winter long.

So there are two of the six hats that I've made in the last two weeks. I would like to try making some men's hats and children's hats as well. I'd love to know your suggestions for hat styles and colors that I could try. Any links or photo examples would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to post them as a comment or email me via my website. I'm also working on other things besides hats so stay tuned. I'll reveal some of that work later on in the summer. Right now, I'm a little hat crazy!