Etsy Store: Up with LISTINGS!!!

Well that feels good!
At long last, after much work and anticipation, I can tell you that I've finally got items up in my Etsy Shop!

The next step will be to get some photos and descriptions from Tish so that I can get her knitting up in our "Wearable Wool Art Collective"...

In the meantime, I invite you to wander on over to :
http://wooltwogo.etsy.com and take a look at all the hand-made felt pins, necklaces and earrings that I've been working so hard on. If you feel like buying something I won't mind at all!

Mehendi: Celebrating Life

While I was up in Toronto visiting with my friend, Tish, she asked me if I would do some Mehendi on her the same night that Shelna was coming over to have her "bump" painted.

We picked up a few tubes of ready-made henna and I started while we waited for our other friend to arrive. I created spirally designs on her feet and legs and then later on her hands.

In the end, it turned out like I had vaguely remembered it would-- the sole of the feet and the palm of the hand hold the Mehendi best and go the darkest. The designs on Tish's legs and wrists didn't end up coming out as dark, but were still lovely.

Mehendi is a very old traditional body artform and is often used to help to celebrate special occasions in Life.

Tish has a lot to celebrate with the big changes that she's been making in her life over the last few years.

She has lost 136 lbs in the past year after undergoing a gastric bypass surgery (see her blog "Adventured in Gastric Bypass" in my links to read more about it) and had gotten her breasts reduced two weeks ago as part of the whole process. There are two more surgeries ahead for her and I hope that they are all successful and not *too* painful.

I came up to spend some time with her on the 2nd week of her recovery and to do some things together that we weren't able to do over the march break since I wasn't able to get up there as we had planned.

One of the things that we did this week was to put together a collective shop on Etsy called: "WoolTwoGo".

Etsy is a website where Artists can sell their own Creations directly to buyers. We're going to use our Shop to sell our fiber arts like Tish's baby booties, hats, sets and patterns, and I am going to sell my felted beads and jewellery there.
Here's a link to the shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5898522
(You can also see a link on the right side of my blog)

We're still in the process of listing items and I'm going to be doing a lot of that "clerical" work, but I have high hopes that Tish can raise a lot of money to go towards her surgeries with this shop and share with others her hand-knitting, a Creative process that gives her much pleasure.

I hope you'll come and check out our shop!

Fuzzy Gems; part two

Over the last week I've been working on creating some felt bead tutorials. Here's a group pic of more of the embellished felt beads that I've made.

The bead in the center is the one featured in the tutorial.

All of these beads feature seed-beads and embroidery (glass seed beads, delica miyuki beads, cotton, & hand-painted silk embroidery floss).I've mostly used the chain-stitch.
The little eyeball-with-eyelashes motif that I'm using is inspired by micro-organisms.

I think the lash-like cilia on paramecium are cute.
I don't know why I think single-celled organisms are cute and parasites are the most disgusting thing on earth... I guess it's a matter of scale.
I really don't want to see it unless I'm buffered by a super-powerful microscope!

I *might* be doing a bodypainting today. I'm still waiting to hear from my model...

Stitchy Goodness: Belt Pouch

I finallly finished off this linen belt pouch that I've been working on... I plan to give it away as a gift.

Never underestimate the value of having some "hand-work" to take with your for holiday family gatherings!
The knotwork is sewn with a simple chain-stitch. The edge of the opening flap is done with a blanket stitch. I even used linen thread for the embroidery. It was kind of nice, but I'll have to see how it like it when I'm doing a more extensive piece.

I'll tell you this though -- marking a design on black fabric? Not so fun. I used white coloured pencil, but some of the design rubbed off halfway through the project, so the end result is not quite as "perfect" as I'd like it to be. I suppose that will just reinforce the handmade look of the piece.

I liked how "cool and refreshing" the linen fabric felt as I was working with it. I'm intending to make up some medieval garb for the summer with some linen that I've been collecting. I know I've got some navy blue and some red somewhere in my fabric stash... the real trick will be having the discipline to pre-wash/shrink the fabric. I'm usually a bit lazy about that part (I dread all the frayed edges) but it will be worth it for peace of mind.