Scarves for summer and winter

and more scarves in my etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/lizetfrijters?section_id=5771466

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

Freeform Lace shawls

This shawl is sold

These Freeform Lace, Felt Art Shawls are made from hand felted organic merino wool pieces and nuno felted pieces, sewn together with recycled fabric ribbons.

The ribbons are cut offs from industrial weaving.

They are a nice addition to your evening outfit.

Purple freeform lace felt art shawl:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27660641

Really FAST - Only a few of the Etsy Fiber Arts Street Team

In this etsy treasury MyLab features some of the Etsy Fiber Arts Street Team. My poncho "Forest Walk" is included.

Another treasury - Just amazing Talent from Etsy Fast

My yellow dream patches top was featured in this beautiful treasury made by SachiDesigns

Just Ducky - April Challenge of the EtsyFast Street Team

This yellow dream patches felt art top is my April challenge “just ducky” for the etsyfast team (etsy fibre arts street team). This is one of the many teams on etsy.

Patches of this and patches of that, and never the same.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8413150

This is what it is: knitting, felting, crochet, sewing and needlework, all in one. I love mixing up different textile techniques and materials and combining them in one piece.

It takes a lot of time to find the right place for each piece, making sure that it matches all the surrounding pieces.

It is gorgeous, worn over a singlet and with your favourite skirt.

I used certified organic merino wool, silk, cotton and some wool yarn and everything is dyed with mango leaves, except the yarn.

If you like to find more items in the challenge search for etsyfast team april challenge on etsy.com.

Butterfly Flight - Felt Art Shawl

Butterfly flight in my etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23480730

This felt art shawl in purples is my latest addition to my etsy shop.
I have carefully pieced different nuno felt fabrics together. This made me think of a graceful butterfly in flight.
All the wool is organic merino wool and the wool and the fabrics are dyed with natural dyes.

Reverse Circles-Felt Art Shawl

For this shawl I attached pieces of handmade felt by crocheting them together. The crochet is very open.

This wonderful shawl would give you an interesting addition to your outfit.

Have a look in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23332694

Coral, a textile mixture,

In this wall hanging “coral” I experimented with different textile techniques, ( as usual) to express the feel and the look of the coral.

I started with dyeing the wool with fiber reactive dyes and than felted the main image, fishes, starfish and some of the coral included. I did use a bit of needle felting to secure some of the pieces in place and the rest was done with wet felting.

I wanted to add some more coral, so I tried some crochet until I was satisfied with the texture.

Quilting was a good way to give the whole piece a bit of relief. When I was happy with the result, I did sew the crochet pieces onto the rest.

I than hang up the whole panel onto a beautiful piece drift wood.

This wall hanging would look lovely in your beach home.

See more detailed pictures of coral, a felt wall hanging in my etsy shop.

More sales

The pink felt art handbag "Find the Centre"has been sold yesterday. This lovely handbag will be sent to the UK today.

This nuno felted shawl, "Intense Love", was my februarychallenge for the Fibre Art Etsy Street Team. The monthly team was emotions.
The shawl will go to a lucky owner in California.

You can find more februarychallenges by going on www.etsy.com and search for februarychallenge.

Three beautiful felt art pieces found a new owner.

This 3 pieces, Maroon Silky Poncho, Green Royal Shawl and Romantic Neckpiece in old pinks and reds, will leave tomorrow on a journey to meet their new owner in Turkey.
I loved making them and am happy that someone is going to enjoy wearing them.

Handy handbag gone

This handbag was sold in my etsy shop a few days ago and will be on her way to meet her new owner.

The handbag is made in hand felted wool on a background of recycled cotton fabric.

The cotton was a mustard yellow and has been overdyed with natural indigo dyeing.

New Shawls

After some serious struggling with internet access, I finally could add some pieces to my etsy shop.

I have been making some shawls that I'm really proud of.

OCEAN SHAWL.

I liked to picture the foaming waves in the ocean near the beach. I used silk chiffon and also some knitted white cotton to achieve that. I wanted the silk to ruffle so that there would me more life into it. This happened naturally during the felting process.

go to ocean scarf on etsy

COLOURS OF THE REEF.

This shawl was really playing at good luck and see what the outcome would be. I used silk for this nuno felted piece and 2 thin layers of wool, one on each side. I played with colours and added some fabrics and lace. This is the outcome.

This shawl has been sold.

ROYAL GRACE GREEN SHAWL.

This time I took my leftovers from other projects and felted them all together in this one shawl. It was very experiental and totally unpredictable, as every part reacted differently to the felting process.

go to royal grace shawl on etsy

Magic Yellow Cosmos

The flowers of yellow cosmos are not only a beauty in the garden, they also yield a variety of vibrant colours.

I'll give a short overview of a few colours you can achieve with this wonderful flowers.

The yellow and orange flowers both give the same results. I haven't tried other cosmos.

The wool is first mordanted with alum. A mordant is needed to fix the dye to the fibers. I use the natural rock alum, I am lucky to have a supplier in this area.

After boiling the flowers in water, I put the wool in the dyebath and let it boil until desired colour intensity. This will give a yellow colour.

Now the fun starts. We can modify the yellow colour in many different ways:

-soak in water with vinegar: the colour will turn more into a lemon yellow.

-soak in water with soda: this yields a bright orange.

-soak in rusted nail water (this is obtained by putting rusted nails in water and vinegar for at least a few days): you'll get an olive green.

-soak in rested nail water, rinse and soak in soda water: the wool becomes rust brown to dark warm brown.

I only use natural and non toxic ingredients in my natural dye techniques. This keeps it safe for me and for the planet.

One of my result with yellow cosmos dyes:

brown and orange vest

Silence

This work is a sunset at the sea with a few coconut palms in the foreground.

I felted this wall panel to depict the silence and peace on a quiet evening on the beach with the only sound the waves and the wind in the palm leaves.

The wool has been dyed with onion skins and yellow cosmos flowers, both mordanted with alum and some have been treated afterwards with soda or iron water (rusted nails in water) or a combination of the 2 methods to give a range of different yellows, oranges and browns. The finishing touch was done with stitching.

silence detail

Seasonal Dilemma

It is getting hotter here, in the tropics of Far North Queensland and working with wool makes it even warmer.

Visitors at the market tell me that it is too hot to even look at wool.

So, I started to list winter items in my etsy shop, hoping they will find a new owner in a cold country, while focusing on other local projects.

Time for a change! I am ready to change direction with my business, so it's all fitting in perfectly.

I will still be making felt clothing and also extend my creativity in other areas, something I have been willing to do for years.

I will upload some photos of my wall hangings that I made in the past in a next post.

The challenge with clothing is often the sizes. And because I make mainly one off pieces, I need the right person with the right size who likes the right colour and in in the right season and possibly in the right mood!....

Sno Globe, the spirit of winter.

Isn't this piece amazing!

Hand crafted by Karina of The SecretNest it is definitely a one off sculpture, using mixed media.

It brings a warm feeling, right what you need if you're experiencing winter on the moment.

Karina likes making sculptures that invoke the spirit of different seasons and/or geographical locations. This one is of course all about winter. She is very drawn to color, but sometimes She just loves using an all-white palette.

Find out more about Sno Globe.

Etsy shop going again

Here are some of the pieces that are in my etsy shop:



http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8606103




http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8432857














http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8036436

Back again...

Now that I am catching up with my orders, I have time to write again. I am slowly filling up my etsy shop and also started a newsletter for those who like to know more about my work and arts and crafts in general. You can sign up at this blog or at my site, http://lizetfrijters.com

WEARABLES WITH CHARACTER - Handwoven by Kristin Kelley

Featuring Kristin from SKIINGWEAVER

I can see that Kristin loves her weaving. She uses her own intricate designs to transform lovely eco-friendly yarn into scarves with their own identity.

Check out her beautiful work:

This handwoven bamboo scarf is soft and very drapable, this scarf would suit either a man or a woman.

It is woven in a structure that is not commonly available in commercial fabrics, which makes it a unique piece.

This scarf is made in bamboo yarn.

The bamboo plant is the fastest growing woody plant on earth. Bamboo groves are planted and harvested within three years, and no pesticides or chemicals are used on the plants, making this fiber not only ecologically sound but also sustainable.

The process of spinning the yarn from the bamboo creates a lovely sheen in the yarn, which has the softness of silk or cashmere and wonderful drapability. Textiles created from bamboo yarn are lightweight enough to be cool in the summer but also warm in the winter. They even have antibacterial properties that last through several wash cycles!

For further description of this scarf: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8692462

Please visit her shop for more pieces: www.skiingweaver.etsy.com

And her blog: http://skiingweaver.blogspot.com/