My Good Deed for the Day...

My Good Deed for the Day...

Last year I was so happy to get a huge amount of Navajo churo for only $75.  It was 2 garbage bags full of unwashed fleeces that I was so excited for.  I was a new fiber artist, just getting back into it.  I crochet and learned to spin ages ago. 

I was so excited but somehow the churo did not capture my heart like the merino did.  I had ordered some jacob, merino and shetland from The Woolery and fell in love with merino!  I also really liked their jacob too!

So, that is how I began my nuno felting lifestyle, through Navajo churo, strange as that seems now!  But decided I am not going to use it anytime soon so told my daughters who work at the hospital to post it on the message board for free to someone who will use it and not just resale it...

So, woot, my good deed for the day!  It is 2 lawn garbage bags full, it will keep someone busy and happy for weeks!  It lifts my heart to know someone will enjoy it and frees up space for me as well!

hugs,

~Sea

One step closer to my fiber art studio!

One step closer to my fiber art studio!

I am very excited, I placed my orders for my new spinning wheel and for my art batt drum carder!  It will most likely be a few weeks before I get them but I am so excited about it!

I have been wanting to spin for ages and finally ordered a spinning wheel.  I had a hard time choosing because I could not decide between the Cassandra spinning wheel at $300 or the Lady bug at $600.  What finally made me choose the ladybug was more how quickly I would get it then anything else.  The Cassandra is hand made and I love that idea so much since it is what I do too.  It is why I wanted one so bad.  But the wait would be almost 3 months instead of a few weeks.  So that is what made me decide to order the Lady bug by Schacht.

That is the little cutie I am getting!  Woot!  There is a lady bug on each one that is part of the fun of getting one too.  My daughter is looking forward to finding it!  You can see the one is right there behind the wheel, that little red dot is the sticker. 

So many plans with this wheel.  First is to spin all the Navajo Churo I have in my stash.  I was lucky enough to find someone selling their stash so now have about 5 pounds of it to spin!!  I have been using it in felting, people seem to love it as felted soap!  I was thinking I might put some in my etsy shop...

I ordered a braid of wool to spin and think I will make it my first episode of my new "Spin Weekly with zee Lady" on my Youtube channel!  Isnt this so pretty.  one of my daughters loves blue so this is perfect!  The Etsy shop is called A Star is Shorn.

I have been dying to make art batts but my little Louet Jr. roving drum carder is small size to create a roving instead of a batt.  It was such a hard choice!  I could not decide between the Stauch Mad Batt'r, the Fancy Kitty carder or the Brother drum carder.  All 3 are great machines and I have heard good things about all 3.  It seemed that each person who had one loved it and also recommended it too.  I finally decided on the Fancy Kitty Little Tom XL!! I think my fiber stash will disappear into these art batts!!  :p   What I really love about it is that you can turn the handle without it being at the edge of the table like my little Louet Jr.  That will be nice, sit on the rug with the fiber baskets around me and creating a batt...  I know several I want to create already!!    

So excited and plan to get some ideas for episodes ready!  I know I have not been on my Youtube much lately but that will change soon!  I also love the names, weird as that sounds.  "Lady Bug" is so cute and shortened to just Lady they will wonder if I am meaning me or my spinning wheel  :p    And how can you beat a name like "Fancy kitty"!! 

So an almost complete fiber studio now!!!  so excited!  Next will be a weaving loom!  Not sure which one yet... love the idea of the Saori loom, perfection in imperfection ~meaning enjoy it and it does not need to look as if it was spun on a computerized one!  But sort of want either the Julia by Glimakra at The Woolery: 

I would get it as the 8x8 counter march loom.  It seems to be able to do what I want in a loom.  The other choice is a bit more compact:  Laila by Toika:

Or this one because i just love the way it looks:  Dorothy table loom by Leclerc

So for everyone who dreams of getting back into the fiber arts but hate how expensive it is, dont give up!!  It has taken me a few years but now I just need a loom to complete my dream studio!!   I am excited and want to encourage everyone to go for your dreams, no matter how impossible it can seem at times!  Work hard and you will get there!

take care

~Sea


#spinning #drumcarder #Fancykitty #LadyBug #handmadewithlove

Fiber Processing

Fiber Processing

I wonder if I will get any takers…  I placed a classified ad for fiber processing in an Alaskan Native newspaper online.  

Fiber processing ad

Lol, I am so willing to work for fiber at this point in my fiber artist life!  Pictured is the Navaho Churro I got from a lady who had moved up here with it but found she had no time to do it so sold it to me.  It was a great haul of 5 garbage bags full of wool!  It was fleeces from many different navaho churro and a few mixed or second cuts that she got for free to play around with.  I am currently drying some tunis/east friesian (spelling??) cross second cuts and plan to work them into a batt once I get a drum carder!  Or I might not have the patience and try to hand card them!  I think the second cuts will be ok for felting, maybe as decoration instead of main material...

Navaho churro washed and drying on rack

I am trying to get the film stuff together for this summer but so love felting and playing with wool!  I am expecting my 16 pounds of unwashed merino fleeces to arrive by this weekend!  I look forward to showing it before and after the washing!  I am not sure if I will try to hand card it or wait a bit.  I guess it depends on if I get any takers who need their fiber processed for them.  I am hoping there are a lot of people who love fiber but don't have the time to process  it themselves and need someone who believes in quality and loves fiber!

It feels like time is flying by!  where are the weeks going?  I guess I get lost in trying to hand card the navaho churro and other stuff that I lose track of days!  But this month has flown by so fast I think I am in a time warp!  You ever feel like that?  

But I plan to try to get some lanolin from the merino that is coming soon!  last time I was too impatient to wait for it to separate and float to the top  :p  But this time I plan to do it and film bits and pieces of it for a BTS episode on my channel!

If only I had been born rich!!  :p   Love you all and please take care of yourself and each other!

hugs,

~Sea

Felt Inspirations

Felt Inspirations

There are so many amazing fiber artists out there!  I hope to get something going as a co-op for the alaskan #indigenous, imagine being able to stay in your village, live as you want and make $$$$!!!  Not that it is about the money, at least not until 'America' came and took over…  So now we are forced to change our lifestyles and driven out of our villages so they can more easily steal our natural resources…  We need to stop that and turn the tide back!

I plan to do my part, I hope to get my first feature film out this summer!  It is on schedule and is a low budget one and I will soon be holding auditions for it…  but mainly the idea is to show we can do a film, start to finish!  Hopefully that gets us some recognition and some funding so we can begin working with bigger groups of indigenous.  If they are not into film and acting, there is costuming, set building, etc.  If that does not interest them there is the crafting/felting to learn and do!

I am planning to get some merino sheep this next summer!  this summer we are buying some land in Kenai Peninsula area.  If I cant interest an #indigenous corporation to let us lease their land for grazing then we will start small and buy our own plot!  

But it is easy to get inspired by it.  It is "traditional" skills updated to modern tastes!  Using the same sort of techniques but changing the design or adding labor saving tools.  

I watched this video and just think it will help explain my desire to get us our own sheep/goats/alpacas/musk oxen!!!!

Maybe once we get better established we can work with this group to learn skills!  Ladies from Peru keeping knowledge and skills alive, so inspiring!  Either send some down to learn or bring some up to teach :p  

I hope to get an outfit completed in time to enter the local spinners guild fashion show!  it will be fun to try!  I went to my first meeting and really liked it, I plan to get more involved, but been so busy trying to get all this stuff done!  I made some wrist warmers today, my "post apocalyptic" ones are almost dry and I will get pics of them.  I made some today for my daughter.  I used some left over merino from other projects and used them as the base layer then over that I did stripes of navaho churro, Cheviot, and alpaca.  They are drying but I will get pics of them up sometime.  I think they came out cute!  I remembered to do the pattern the right way so it came out even when cut in half  :p   

But I think my "Post Apocalypse" outfit will be good!  I love the dark purples and blacks of it!  I ordered some more merino that had purples and black and one with more black and greys to make the rest of it.   I plan to dye some of the merino I am getting from Australia black.  It might not get here until the end of the month though, but here's hoping the flight connections work and it comes quick!  I ordered some merino yarn (a bulk purchase from a person who is trying to help make it affordable to fiber artists:  poundOwool on Etsy   I ordered his pound of sport weight yarn since one of my daughters is getting into crochet, got a pound of her and one for me  :p   With mine I plan to make the top of it, creating a criss cross pattern and using some roving to cover it but I think it will help create the shape and keep it's form better using the yarn.

I am so excited, ever feel your life is finally on the right path?  that you finally found what you were always meant to do?  I am so glad I got the courage to go for my dreams!  It is easy to remain too timid after a lifetime of abuse, but you need to let all that go and decide to thrive not just survive!!  the courage of it seems so impossible to muster but one big push and you are free!  and then free to do what you like!  It wont be easy, fighting the bad thoughts and feelings that do not disappear overnight, though you wish they would!  but it is such a great feeling to get away from the bad and work toward the good!  

go for your dreams!  it is worth the risk and the hard work and all the sweat and tears and drive!  

hugs,

~Sea

Post Apocalyptic Outfit

Post Apocalyptic Outfit

I am having fun creating an outfit that I think will end up looking great!  It was one of those turn your "mistake" into a gem kind of inspirations!  I was practicing the wrist warmers as I plan to offer them as a reward in my next Kickstarter campaign…

So, I had some purple and some black rovings and divided it in half for each side.  I used the same resist a few times before so felt comfortable with it and began laying out the wool.  Lol, but I forgot I cut it in half and should have done the pattern along it instead of down it!  Realized one would be mostly purple and one would be mostly black  :p

Oh man, but they looked good and it came to me, this whole outfit I would make from it:  post apocalyptic outfit!!  Where you have to wear what you find in the future and maybe she found these unmatched pairs left in some home or maybe that was all she had to make her own… 

But I will create a big top to go with it that has built in holes and a scarf with some holes too…

What is driving me crazy is the hat!  I want maybe a cyber punk dreads coming down from a beret look but then think maybe steampunk instead with the aviator hat and goggles…  leg warmers to match too…   then just some dark leggings and maybe nuno felt a top to go under the big wool one with holes  :p  I am sure layers would be worn so it would look good…  

I am getting 16 pounds of fleece from a lady in Australia!!  I cant wait!  I am going to try to extract the lanolin from it!  You think 16 pounds of fleece would make maybe a pound of lanolin at least…  I just ordered it so who knows how long to get here…

I plan to video it, the stack of them just 4 fleeces but 16 pounds of them, washing 1 of them and trying to get the lanolin, then maybe carding it and diz into a roving…  though I usually just pull it off the carder and use it like that instead of rolling it into a rolag or diz it to roving…  

I am so behind on posting videos, I know!  My mac is incompatible with photoshop and those still!  My gaming one is out there and in use a lot so I end up moving on to something else…

Oh man, but expecting a nice order of stuff!  I figured it would count as the film budget since it will become costuming.  Except not for the werewolf one…  

I so hope I get $$ sometime soon!  things would go so much faster and smoother that way!  I want to do so much but right now I work from home and do not want to have people over so dont do filming much and so want to!  Drives me crazy some days!  But once I get the short films up then interest will grow and then maybe get some funding for the werewolf one!  

but this outfit, should be nice!  I will post pics sometime, I am not sure when I will feel like showing it…  but I did take pics of some other stuff for the kickstarter.  I am not sure when I will try again…  I want to right away but guess I need to grow a bigger following…  except so busy doing stuff that wont be posted online that it seems I am not doing anything  :p  

I am just super excited, 16 pounds of merino fleece to play with!  I love hand carding it, washing it myself is great too, control the quality best as I can that way and such good practice too!  

Just a quick update, I am very busy behind the scenes, not forgotten my writing or short films or any of it!!  

hugs,

~Sea

More on fiber Arts

More on fiber Arts

I am so ready to felt my heart out!  Lol, cant wait until I can get all the materials I need!  I am going to try my hand at a skirt and vest soon!

I am doing it all in natural colors, nothing dyed yet, just to see how that looks.  I have such pretty dreams of it, not only felting but spinning it and crochet and learning to knit…  I dont know, it will happen, I am just always wanting it yesterday!  :p

I tried my hand at a skirt, except I guess i did not wash the lanolin out of my merino enough because it has some yellow streaks in it, yikes!  But I got some roasting pans with lids so next batches will come out perfect!  Course, now I need the fleeces!  

I am ordering some soon, about 19 pounds of it, that should keep me busy a bit!  I dont know though…  I really prefer washing and hand carding it myself to buying the commercial rovings, better quality control I think.  

But with my skirt, I am searching for the right material to use as it's lacey hem! I know what I am looking for so hopefully I will have the cash when I find it!  I think that is the hardest part of it all, that desire so real yet the bank account so empty!  :p  I know what I plan to do with it, I plan to wet felt some flowers for it, my first ride was to use th beautiful mohair I have but decided to switch that around and use the mohair for a scarf I think…  So plan some flowers for the edge and then some sort of silk lace-y lining.  It is not quite a wrap-a-round one, I am planning one of those next!

Ohhh, for that one, I am waiting for the silk stuff I ordered to come in!  I ordered a bunch of the natural undyed silk hankies (mawata) and some silk noil, also undyed.  The merino has some angora mixed in by hand by me.  But it will start out waist to floor length and shrink to about knee length!  It should be an interesting piece!  the inside lining is Sheland/tunis batt I ordered from The Woolery, I peeled a layer of it off and will use that as the bottom base.  I think it then can have 2 textures!  The outside will be the silky side and the inside will be the more textured side.  I hope it comes out as I picture it!

I still want to find a place in town to rent and use as my fiber art studio!  I dont know, I am not sure if I can afford it.  but I will be able to use this table at any rate for it!  I plan to move all the electronics far away and then can wet felt it.  It will hang over the edge a bit but you use what you got, right!  

It is exciting though!  I am not forgetting the film stuff, no worries!   I am writing up my second short and plan to get them both done this coming week!  I have my first short almost done and the second should go much faster!  Dont want to spoil the surprise of it but it should be fun and short!

Follow your dreams!  It will take lots of hard work to get there but so worth it!  I used to keep my dreams safely hidden in my heart, partly because I was in bad marriage and felt worthless and partly because it was my secret strength.  It is a million times better now going for it!  It is a great state of mind to find yourself in!  I hope you show this to anyone you know who has low self esteem and needs a bit of help!  it can be so hard and so scary at first!  that first few steps are the hardest but also the best you will ever take!  the first steps to freedom in your mind!  

I hope you all are following your dreams!  Love you all and please take care of ourself and each other!  Remember the #indigenous in your prayers!


Opps just realized I forgot to mention the beautiful dream I had!  I had moved with my family out to the country and I had merino sheep and some other sheep and made my very own yurt.  Oh, it was amazing!  sort of in the style of an Unangan house, mostly underground but the yurt acted like a tented roof to it and I had areas tunneled into it for bedrooms and all…  It was so gorgeous everyone wanted to buy it from me!  It was a sweet dream!  I had a fashion show because everyone liked my texture of my clothes!  I created a sort of basic dress like the "little black dress" but in natural colored merino  :p  It was a huge hit because of the texture of it.  My crowning piece was my flower one though… my hat was the stem and my arms were the leaves and the dress was like an upside down tulip or something with the inside colored subtly so when it was folded up to create the tulip shape it had a hint of color… it was pretty!  someday…  :p  

hugs,

~Sea