Oooo...fun! A Giveaway!

So, usually this Friday spot is occupied by a wonderful fiber artist. I decided to shake things up a little bit and do a giveaway instead. I highly doubt there will be any complaints!

You might be asking, "Who is the illustrious fiber artist that is sponsoring the giveaway?"

Well, I decided to hit up someone I know very well and have been following her work for years. O.K., it's me!

Your next question is probably, "What's the loot?"

The 'loot' is one of Desert Dyeworks Starburst Mandala Playsilks. Specifically, this one.

Your child can become whatever they imagine using a playsilks. The silk will transform your child into a butterfly, a wizard, a princess, or anything they dream. There is no limit to a child's imagination!

This is a hand dyed play silk. The silk is a large 45" x45" 8mm habatoi(china silk) square. It is dyed using high quality Procion dyes that will last a lifetime.

So, how does one enter to win this playsilk. It's pretty simple. Leave a comment below, making sure you add your email address in the appropriate box so that I can contact you if you're the winner. Don't worry, I won't use it to spam you, I prefer Bacon! The giveaway ends at Midnight(12:00a.m.) PST on Friday April 30th, 2010. Winners will be chosen at random. I will get in touch with the winner within 24hrs. of the contest ending and the winner will have an additional 72hrs. to get in touch or a new winner will be chosen.

Speaking of Bacon! A second chance to enter the giveaway is to head over to Esty's Team Bacon! blog, check out one of my team members shops, and leave a second comment here with a link to your favorite item from that team member's shop. Gotta give my team member's props because they are the bacony best!

Alrighty then, get to it!

Friday's Fiber Artist(s) - Bacon!

O.k. so Bacon! isn't the name of the fiber artist, and I don't have an individual fiber artist to feature but a few. I have been a little distracted this week by, you guessed it, Bacon! So, I will quickly plug (again) the newest Etsy Street Team, Team Bacon! and move on to featuring some Bacon! inspired fiber artists.

First off, I am going to show you how Bacon! and needle felting find a happy place together. Here at the Dyeworks aka my house, we have just started to explore needle felting. My daughter has really taken to it. So much so that I have barely gotten a chance to do any. She currently working on making a little Easter egg.

Needle felting has been in industrial use since the mid-1800's but wasn't put into use as a handcraft until the 1980's. This is when David and Eleanor Stanwood transferred the needle from an industrial needle felting loom for use as a hand held tool.

The felting is done by the repeated action of 'poking' the fiber with specially designed needles. The needles come in different gauges and the tips are barbed so that the fibers are pulled and pushed together.

Needle felting is very useful to create sculpted and detailed felted pieces, such as these Bacon! bookmarks from Felt Like Helping on Etsy.

Bacon Bookmarks by FeltLikeHelping

Although being a Bacon!ite inspires her work, Felt Like Helping also creates some beautiful needle felted flowers. I definitely appreciate her flowers as my first needle felting project was a flower that went monstrously wrong. I will not post a picture of my monstrosity as I fear the needle felting police would come and repossess my felting supplies! Instead, please bask in one of her flower creations.

Oxeye Daisy Bookmark by FeltLikeHelping

Of course, people still wet felt, which is useful in creating pieces on a larger scale. In this process, the fibers are 'tangled' together by using moisture, heat, and agitation. Some of you may have inadvertently wet felted a nice wool sweater when you tossed it in the washer (oopps!). Welt felting can be done using either a previously knitted/crocheted item or using loose roving.

Chris Chunski has created this awesome Bacon! scarf by wet felting loose wool roving.

We Felted Bacon Scarf by Chris Chunski

Speaking of scarves, here are a couple of Bacon!y creations using a fiber art medium close to my heart, silk and dye. The first is from an fiber artist we have already gotten to know here, TeeGee.

Bubble Silk Bacon Scarf by TeeGee

This scarf, handpainted by Crrysstall on Etsy, is a light and whimsical take on wearing your favorite food.

Hand Painted Silk Bacon Scarf by Crrysstall

O.K. (looks out the window to check outside), the Universe hasn't gone haywire because I've  combined two of my favorite things in one blog post! All is good. Go forth, eat Bacon! and create!

Friday's Fiber Artist - Cactus Bloom Fibers

Ooo..how exciting and luscious! This week's featured artist is Cactus Bloom Fibers.

CoreSpun Recycled Silk Yarn by Cactus Bloom Fibers

 

As exemplified by the above silk yarn spun from a recycled silk, Patricia of Cactus Bloom Fibers has given a modern twist to the ancient art of fiber spinning. It is also a wonderful example of her versatility; dyeing and spinning traditional fibers AND transferring this process to non-traditional spinning materials from the world around her. Just take a look at this scarf!

Handspun Wool and Recycled Silk Tie Scarf by Cactus Bloom Fibers

The spinning of fibers into yarn is a fiber art form that dates back to prehistoric times. It evolved from rolling tufts of fiber along the leg, to attaching fiber to a stone and twirling, to a spindle and distaff, and the "revolutionary" spinning wheel. Modern industrial spinning techniques make use of high-speed rotary and open-ended spinning.

Hand-dyed Fiber by Cactus Bloom Fibers

 Though there are many varieties of spun fiber at the big name craft stores, it is artists like Patricia that keep the medium alive and fresh. It is the individual artistic whim that gives handdyed roving and handspun yarns the perfect touch for yarn and needle crafts. The ability to create unique items from the yarn and fiber at Cactus Bloom Fibers is abundant!

Handspun Thick and Thin Worsted Merino Wool Yarn by Cactus Boom Fibers

Plumberry Handspun Art Yarn by Cactus Bloom Fibers

Let's hear from Patricia about how her love of color and interest in spinning came to be:

"Cactus Bloom Fibers is a name I chose for my business because I consider myself a desert transplant.  I currently live in Springfield, Missouri but grew up in Arizona.  When I was coming up with ideas for a name, I kept coming back to cactus blooms.  In Arizona, my brother and I used to explore the desert and mountains around us.  My family used to take us on hiking trips around the state, as well.  To me, the desert is beautiful - and one of the most beautiful things you can see are cactus in bloom with bright luscious yellows, pinks or reds.  Those seem to be the colors I use most in my dyeing, including large amounts of green.
 
I have a passion for color, but texture is wonderful, too.  I love working with natural fibers such as wool and silk. I enjoy dying & blending my own fibers and spinning them into interesting & beautiful yarn.
 
I've dabbled in a lot of creative fields, such as silversmithing & jewelry making, quilting, sewing, knitting and needlework.  Lately, I've been designing felt brooches/baubles to coordinate with my handspun yarn.  I've noticed that my best creative moments come when there is no pressure to create - and I'm just living in the moment, enjoying the process.

A few years ago, I became intensely interested in the process of dyeing yarn and fiber. I did quite a bit of online research, read online tutorials (there's tons of them online), checked out books at the library, bought books and also watched any program on TV that had anything to do with spinning or dyeing fiber that I could find. The only thing I didn't do was take a class. I'm just not a class-taker. I like learning independently and and some classes can move at a pace that puts me to sleep!

If someone were to ask me why I love spinning colorful fibers into yarn, I would say that it's the tactile quality that is so appealing. I bet that is why most women who spin yarn like it, too. What's really wonderful to me about dyeing fibers and spinning them into yarn is that I get to use my creativity to make fiber art, but in turn, that fiber art is something that can be made into something useful and beautiful.  It's a 2-in-1 process that I just find amazing.  I would also say that wool is my all-time favorite fiber (as is probably for many spinners). When someone asks me why I love wool so much, I usually say "There's just something about wool..." because I don't want to lecture them on all the wonderful attributes it has - and some people get the glassy-eyed look that tells me I'm being too educational.

I stay busy working full-time at an office job during the day, winning bread, etc. for my family...The most positive thing I can say about the office job is it gets any need for structure and orginazation out of my system.  When I am home working on the fiber arts, I can just let go and let the creativity kick in.  Of course, there's kids to deal with, pets to feed, dinner to be fixed and hopefully (if I'm being really good - 20 minutes of exercise to fit in somewhere).  The weekends are my big creative-outlet time.  
I would love to work as a full-time fiber artist some day and maybe fill any needs for structure or organization in other ways."

Thank you Patricia for sharing a little bit about yourself and Cactus Bloom Fibers. By the way, my daughter has suggested that the roving below would be a perfect choice for me to buy her for her next needle felting project!

Garden Flow Falkland Wool Roving by Cactus Bloom Fibers

Friday's Fiber Artist - TeeGee

Hello fiber arts lovers! I am very excited to be featuring this weeks artist, TeeGee.

Oak Flame Velvet Shibori Scarf by TeeGee

TeeGee is also known as Mom, Beth, and quite possibly "Hey, Lady".  Like many who love fibers and textiles, Beth has fallen for more than one medium. After focusing on quilting off and on for 8 years, she has turned her creative inquisitiveness to the Japanese art of Shibori. This is a form of pleating, folding, stitching, binding, and dyeing of fabric that can be traced back to 8th Century Japan.

Velvet Bomaki and Arashi Shibori Scarf by TeeGee

Beth utilizes various Shibori techniques to create the magnificent scarves at TeeGee's. These methods include Bomaki Shibori and Arashi Shibori. In the Bomaki method, the scarf is dyed, stiched, then compressed on a large pole. After it is compressed on the pole, the color is discharged from certain areas and then overdyed with another color. In Arashi, the scarf is stitched, then compressed and wrapped on a large pole, which creates areas of resist where the dye cannot penetrate. Then thickened dye is applied to the pole wrapped scarf.

Although anyone who knows me is familiar with my love of silk scarves(you should see my coat rack), I absolutely love the Bamboo Rainbow Socks. I love how she incorporates the use of Shibori to create these fun and colorful socks.

Hand Dyed Rainbow Socks for Little Kids by TeeGee

Here is Beth in her own words describing her creative evolution:

"As a kid and in high school I tended to gravitate away from sewing and needlework as crafts and more towards building and tactile type arts, like pottery and sculpture.

I returned to sewing as an adult, first as a utilitarian quest, making linens and so forth for our apartment and making costumes and sometimes clothes for my little ones.  Quilting caught my attention early on and I found I really enjoyed staying up till all hours after the kids were asleep designing & piecing quilt tops.  Like a lot of quilters I have come across- I seemed to have an aversion to actually finishing them.  I just like the designing & piecing. There is a shelf full of unfinished quilts- just waiting for me to get them sandwiched and quilted.

It was when I was looking for “just the right color” for a quilt I was putting together, that I tried dyeing my first fabric, just a few fat quarters, in the sink.  I loved doing it but didn’t really have enough room to go all out with a dye studio, so that hobby was shelved till about 2006 when I picked it back up again and I started dyeing gradations and full color wheels on cotton. Soon after I started doing scarves in Low Water Immersion- which I really love doing because in a way it seems so simple but can go oh so wrong if the wrong colors start blending. 

I also love playing with wax on fabric, and honestly I think the most “fun” is using splattering soy wax in random patterns. I’ve also experimented with mono-printing with thickened dye, and various kinds of resists like potato & corn starch, and even old fencing from my garden.

I’ve been reading and studying about shibori for the last few years, I love the effects of the colors on velvet, especially when discharged and overdyed a few times. It’s always a surprise, usually a good one.  It is very labor intensive, but so worth it when you unravel the threads and start rinsing – I love that moment more than any other when I’m working with dyes.

I have a bit of creative ADD- as I can’t quite always focus on one thing. Right now I’m taking advantage of a new sewing machine and finally returning to using the raw fabrics I’ve dyed. So far in the works: a quilt and several shawls & constructed scaves and a few bags.  I’ve also finally tried dyeing fiber again and hope to find a way to work it into my work with all these textiles.  I love the process of taking boring white fabrics and manipulating it texturally and with color to make something completely different. Now if I could only find the time after my day job and my family to do that on a regular basis- then I’d be golden."

Batiked Willow Branch SIlk Charmeuse Scarf by TeeGee

I want to give a big thanks to Beth for allowing me to feature her and TeeGee on Desert Dyeworks. If you have any questions about Shibori or any other techniques that Beth uses, please feel free to leave a comment with your questions.

Happy Friday!

Picture Day

What a beautiful sunny and warm Southwestern Winter's day! It was a perfect day for taking updated pictures of the Fairy Skirts. It's not that the Rainbow skirts have changed but more for the fact that the model in the original photo has grown like a weed and I have a better camera now!
Here is the old product pic...

And here is the updated picture(well, one of them at least!)



















If I remember correctly, she was about 3-years old in that first picture. I would guesstimate that she is twice as tall now as she was then, if not more. Though a few things have definitely not changed. Her curly hair and her big attitude! I love both!

This picture is a typical face. I call it the "What can I get away with while I am being extra cute"face.