Underwater Movement

Staying in the water theme (we are in the wet season in Far North Queensland), here is another new felt art work, "Underwater Movement", a totally intuitive creation.
I used many different textile techniques in here: felting, crochet, embroidery, sculpting, fabric manipulation... and the freeform, free everything spirit.

Read more about it here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40345319

Water and Fire - Felt Art Poncho

This Water and Fire Felt Art Poncho tells a story. Water and Fire, two of the four basic elements, interact and create lots of sparks and splutter. To express this, I used organic merino wool, silk threads, silk fabric and wool yarn, dyed with natural dyes.

Have a look at the beautiful play of the orange red, purple, brown and green.

The movement of the flames is enhanced by hand and machine embroidery.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40200471

Treasury: SHE knows her BARGAINS

Here is a lovely treasury made by allthesethings for those who are looking for sales. I have a few items on sale in my etsy shop and just found out that my Blue Curled Short Sleeved Jacket is in it.

Check out the treasury here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=85836&show_panel=true

Be quick because it expires on February 9.

Sunshine Blog Award

I thank Sara so much for nominating me for this blog award on her blog: http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com/

This is very inspiring for me and was a nice surprise!

The idea of the Sunshine Award is that it is awarded to bloggers whose positivity creativity inspires others in the blog world.

The rules for accepting this award are;

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

2. Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I found so many good blogs that this is really going to be a challenge. Here are some of my favorite fibre blogs:

http://andrea-graham.blogspot.com/

http://artforthebody.blogspot.com/

http://byhandgallery.blogspot.com/

http://ecoetsy.blogspot.com/

http://feltnalaska.blogspot.com/

http://feltbyzed.blogspot.com/

http://karensfeltworks.blogspot.com/

http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/

http://pamdegroot.blogspot.com/

http://sachi-designs.blogspot.com/

http://spunoutpost.blogspot.com/

http://whatdoesthegoldenmean.blogspot.com/

Dyeing with onion skins

Dyeing with onion skins is very rewarding, it yields beautiful golds and yellows. Onion skins are often used for dyeing, because they are easy to find, almost everyone uses onion on a regular basis.

I like to show you how I use them, which is one of the many different ways to dye with onion skins.

I keep all the skins when we use onions and put them in a little fruitnet or in a paper bag, so that the air can get to them and they dry in the bag. When I have collected enough onion skins, minimum 100g of onion skins for 100g of dry weigth of fibres, I get some wool or silk together and prepare it for dyeing. See my previous post:

http://lizetfrijters.blogspot.com/2010/01/introduction-to-natural-dyeing-scouring.html

A mordant is needed for the dye to fix well to the fibres. Mordants will help the fibres to absorb the dye and make them colour fast.

I use alum (aluminium potassium sulphate). You can find this salt in many pharmacies. If you are lucky like me, you might be able to find the natural rock alum. I am very happy with that and I use it in the same way.

After washing the fibres well, I fill my dye pot with enough water, so that the fibres can move loosely. ( you can use a pot in any material, it will though affect the end result; stainless steel is neutral and will not react with the fibres).

I weigh the alum; 10% of the dry weight of the fibres, if you are going to dye wool and 20% for silk; and dissolve into the water.

Time to put the fibres in the pot and heat them to just under boiling temperature. I leave it at that temperature for about an hour and than let it cool down slowly.

You can let it go to boiling temperature and simmer it for an hour.

I avoid that for the following reasons:

-silk looses some of its lustre when boiled.

-I often dye wool slivers for feltmaking and if I would simmer them, they are more prone to start felting already in the dyepot, which makes felting harder later on.

I turn off the heat source and let the fibres cool down in the pot. I usually leave them in the alum solution overnight, so that the alum can more penetrate into the fibres.

Meanwhile, I soak the onion skins in water overnight and bring to just under boiling temperature the next day. When the solution is cooled down, I pass it through a sieve, even through a cloth, so that no little pieces stay in the water and dirty the wool. I dry the onion skins and use them for a later dye bath, they will give off less colour though.

Now, I can add the fibres to the onion water and bring the temperature to just under boiling point, leaving it there for about 60 to 90 minutes. If you try this, make sure all the fibres are completely immersed in the water. I do not stir too much when I am dyeing wool slivers, when dyeing with silk, I stir now and than.

I usually leave the fibres in the dye bath overnight.

Rinse and dry.

The result of the silk dyed in the first dye bath.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24137985

Onion skins give a beautiful gold colour. It is possible to dye more fibre in the leftover dye bath, it just will produce a lighter colour.

This silk is dyed in the second dye bath and shows a much lighter colour.

Here are a few possibilities to alter the colour and get different colours out of one dye bath:

1. alum mordant

2. alum mordant and put into a solution of washing soda after the dyeing.

3. alum mordant and put into iron water made with rusted nails, the colour gets more green if it is left in there for longer

4. is number 3 put into a solution of washing soda afterwards.

This shows how we can modify the colour by altering the pH. Adding lemon juice or vinegar will turn the wool more yellow. It is fun to play with these possibilities.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24137985

Updating my Dawanda Shop

I am revamping my Dawanda Shop and I am also starting to translate it in French.
Todays new item: Green Upcycled Nuno Felt Shawl


My dawanda shop: http:/lizetfrijters.dawanda.com

Queen's Beauty - White Knitted Fibre Art Shawl

This white fibre art shawl is knitted with soft thin cotton yarn using very big needles, which makes the texture extra soft.
To add to the beauty, I have sculptured the knitted fabric, using needle and thread, to give it its own identity.
You can find Queen's beauty in my etsy shop

Time to clean up

Tropical cyclone Olga is on its way. Time to clean up, no day off today.
We better put all the chickens to some higher ground, everything is soaked already and there is more rain expected.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

Dancing in the Rain

To celebrate all the heavy rain we are getting on the moment, I made this spotlight on byhand.me

From top to bottom and left to right:

1.JaeAnonyma
2.vketa
3.silkstory
4.lunalove
5.Iryna
6.BlackMothStudio
7.fairytalefibers
8.ImagineStudio
9.HoolahBoolah

Goodbye to gold and yellow

These two pieces will start their journey to the United States next week, to go to their new home. Exciting!















Sunrays, Felt Art Poncho

Yellow Dream Patches, Felt Art Top

And another jacket: Desert Walk

A stunning jacket in nuno felt, made with organic merino wool and silk, both dyed with natural dyes.
This "desert walk" jacket, in browns and purple, reflects the energy and texture of the sand in the desert.
It is lightweight, so the kind to wear on cooler summer evenings.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38760512

Flower Field Felt Art Poncho

My new work listed this week on etsy: Flower Field Felt Art Poncho.
Handmade by me in nuno felt:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38535709

Introduction to natural dyeing: scouring silk and wool.

Scouring fibres or fabrics is the term used for removing dirt or grease through scrubbing or washing them with a detergent, depending on the kind of fibre used. Scouring is needed if you want to dye the fibre afterwards, otherwise the dye will stick to the dirt instead of to the fibre and will be gradually rub off in the future.

If you buy wool slivers or yarn and you are sure that they have been cleaned thoroughly, there is no need to go through the scouring process.

If you use wool fleece, soak the wool in water overnight. The next morning remove the water (you can use it for watering your vegetables). Repeat this until most of the dirt comes out of the wool. Adding a bit of warm water makes it easier, however be very carefull not to create any sudden shock for the wool by putting it from cold straight into hot water. Most wool has felting qualities and it can start felting during the washing process if handled in a rough way or by sudden temperature changes. Next time, add wool washing liquid to the water and let the wool soak for a while. More dirt will come out, together with the grease. You might need to repeat this several times, until the water is totally clean. Rinse and dry the wool or keep it wet if you are ready to start the dyeing process.

Silk fibres, yarn or fabrics need to be degummed. Often it has been done before you purchase the silk, I tend to do the scouring anyway, just to make sure that no residues are left. Gradually heat up the silk in a solution of water and soft soap. Bring it close to boiling and keep it at that temperature for approx. an hour. Boiling takes away some of the beautiful lustre of the silk, so it is better to avoid it. Let it cool down. If the silk is still sticky, repeat the process. Otherwise rinse the fibres or fabric and dry.

Your material is now ready for mordanting, which I will explain in another post.

I am in a New Treasury - Take Your Vitamins

My Felt Necklace, " Morning Sun", is featured in this beautiful sparkly treasury, "Take Your Vitamins", made by veryverdant.

You can still see it until Monday January 11 at the following link:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=82424

How to Copy an Etsy Treasury using Gimp.

I have been asked several times how I copy treasuries into my blog, so I decided to make a post about it. It took me a long time to learn this; I searched in the etsy forums, through gimp tutorials and tried many different ways, some to the extend that it blocked my computer.

I have come up with this method that works for me, using the gimp, which is free to download from the internet by following this link:

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

TAKING A SCREENSHOT

Open the treasury you want to copy. On my computer, I can not see the whole treasury at once, so I make sure to have the top half on the screen. I will copy the treasury in 2 parts.

Open the gimp.

Go to File - Create - Screenshot

A new window will open where you can choose between:

- Grab a single window

- Grab the whole screen

I usually choose the first one, grab a single window.

Click on Grab.

Grab the crosshair and drag it to the window with the treasury.

You now have copied the top half of the treasury, it will automatically open in a new window.

Go to the web page with the treasury and place the bottom half on the screen.

Repeat the same process as with the top half.

Once you drag the crosshair to the treasury, a new file opens in gimp with the bottom part of the treasury.

You now have 2 files, each one with a part of the treasury and the rest of the webpage that comes with it. Let's clean it up and select the part we want to copy.

CROPPING

We start with the first window and we are going to crop the part of the treasury we would like to copy.

Select the crop tool from the toolbox dialog or alternatively, click on Tools - Transform Tools - Crop and the crop tool will be available.

Move the cursor over the part you want to select and draw a rectangle over it. If it isn't right from the first time, you can always have another go or stretch one of the sides with the cursor. Once you have selected the area, click on one of the squares in the corner.

Now you have cropped the image. If by chance you want to change it, you can always go to edit and undo any action, as long as you haven't saved it.

Repeat this whole process for the bottom part.

PASTING

You will have 2 partial images of the treasury now. I used to save them and paste them into blogger as 2 separate images. I will show you how you can make one image out of them:

In one of the windows click File - New :

A window pops up.

You will need to decide on the size of the image. The size that pops up is the one from the image of half the treasury. Make the width somewhat larger.

The height needs to be at least twice the size, I make it a bit longer, we can recrop that later.

Click OK.

Go to the top treasury window. Right click on the image - Edit - Copy

Now go to your new image and right click it - Edit - Paste

Click the Move Tool.

Or click Tools - Transform Tools - Move

Bring the image to the top of the template.

When it is in the right place, right click on it - Layer - Anchor Layer

Do the same with the bottom image.

You can see in the picture that the 2 images are overlapping, so move the bottom image to where you want it to be.

Make sure to anchor the layer when the image is in the right position.

If you'd like to crop the image a bit, you can do it to take away some of the white background, but it is not necessary.

the image is ready, the only thing left to do is save it on your computer.

SAVING.

Click File - Save as

a window pops up, name the file.

Choose in which folder you want to save it.

I also select jpeg as a file type in both places provided for it.

Click Save.

A new window pops up "save as jpeg": choose the quality of the image and click Save.

That's it, now you can copy it to where you want, your blog or social network, just as any other image.

This beautiful and inviting etsy treasury, "Put On Your Party Frocks N Dance" was made by SachiDesigns.

I hope this helps some of you, etsy sellers to show your treasuries on your blogs.

Feel free to comment or add links of other posts about copying treasuries.