Happy New Year 2013!

Today is New Year's Eve - I hope the new year brings unexpected delights to all!
I have spent my vacation week knitting and felting to replenish my shop. Mostly I have listed new mittens but I have also added two new items-Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite sleeves and am currently working on a pattern for future iPad Mini sleeves.

Kindle Keyboard/ Kindle Fire Sleeve

When I haven't been working on shop items, I have been needle felting little creatures onto the little feet I made last month. Here are the first three results.

The first one I made, and my personal favorite, is the owl.  I call him Harvey Hoots. He stands 5 inches not including his head feathers.

Harvey Hoots

 I would have just made a few more owls but I only had one set of large size eyes so it was either stop needle felting altogether or think of a different creature that had smaller eyes. I decided to try a rabbit.

I call him Henry Hops. He stands 5 1/2 inches tall, just a bit taller than Harvey. I think he has a very sweet somewhat befuddled expression.

I have been watching Sons of Anarchy on Netflix all week so I think it influenced my final character choice- Biker Chick. She sports a genuine black leather jacket with a Born To Ride patch. She also has black leather accents on her shoes and a lovely chain necklace.

Biker Chick

Who Is Your Favorite Pixar Character?

Last May, on Mother's Day, we were having a"Collins' Family Breakfast" when I asked each of my children which Pixar character was their all-time favorite. The amazing thing is that of the six people I asked, none of them hesitated- they all had a favorite. My oldest son, Neil choose Woody from Toy Story. Carla, his wife, immediately picked Nemo. My daughter Kathleen chose Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. Her husband, Mike had two favorites, but his first response was Guido the little guy in Cars that changed Lightening McQueen's tires in record speed during the big race. Their son, my darling grandson, immediately piped in with Lightening McQueen. And finally, my youngest son, Mike, chose Wall-E. A psychologist would probably have fun analyzing their choices...even I have thought about that a bit... but I wanted the challenge of trying  to create a surprise Christmas ornament for each of them. At first I wasn't sure if I would be sewing or felting but in the end I needle felted them all. I started right away making the first three.

                                May I introduce.....

Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.  
5 1/2  inches tall- Needle Felted Wool

Nemo
4 inches long- Needle Felted Wool

Wall-E
4 1/2 inches tall-  Needle Felted Wool with Button Eyes

After completing these first three, I became distracted by other projects and let them sit in my workroom for months before getting back to them. Now I find it is just a few short weeks before Christmas and I am only half done. Plus, I had put off making the most difficult one- Woody! I find it very difficult to needle felt small people. Getting defined facial features on a head that is not much more than an inch long is quite a challenge. But if I was going to have an ornament for everyone I had to get back to it.
     
                     Here are the last three.....

Woody from Toy Story
6 1/2 inches tall  Needle Felted Wool

Guido from Cars
3 inches tall- Needle Felted Wool with button Wheels

Lightning McQueen from Cars
3 3/4 inches long- Needle Felted Wool with Button Wheels

And finally a group shot....

Finished just in time for Christmas Day!

Christmas Elf

Here is the first of three elves that I hope to have completed before Christmas. Recognize the feet? He is made of stuffed felt with a needle-felted face and pom pom on his hat. He is holding a tiny ornament. From head to toe he is only 6 inches tall but add in that big hat and he is 11 inches tall.

Pretty Feet

I finished the little feet! The next step is to figure out who they belong to!

Obviously Christmas Elves

Lots of Feet

 Every year for the past few years I have made an ornament for my children for Christmas as a stocking stuffer. It started with the stars, last year I made mice, so I am now working on something new. Yesterday I actually had time to myself again (I'm not doing anything on the "to do" list) and decided to mess around with an idea... I ended up making these little feet. I drew a template for the sole and traced it onto cardboard 16 times. Cut dowels 3 inches long and adhered them to the soles using glue and a bit of apoxy sculpt. When that was somewhat dry I created the shoe using paper clay and let them dry overnight. This is what they looked like this morning.

 

                                                           

Step #1 Apoxy Dowels to Template

Step #2  Add Paper Clay

                                              

                                                       A Different Style

                                                                

Here are 8 of the dozen I made waiting for Step #3- Sanding, Painting, Finishing

Today I plan on sanding them, painting them, felting the soles, painting the legs, and adding socks and laces. I still haven't decided who's legs they actually are but that will come in time- I have a few ideas about that too. Nine have rounded toes and three have elf toes so there are options for different "people". Each little shoe is about 1 1/2  inches long. I hope this works out. 

My Tart's Ornament

I just finished my ornament- What do you think?
I ended up combining  essence of Sally Mavor with Waldorf style and created this little heart fairy.  She has a lot of reflective elements so she should really shine on a tree. Her legs are made from icicles that are very glittery, her dress is the metal cornucopia, her wings are tin, and the little heart is gold color metal so there is a lot of shiny stuff going on here. In contrast to that she has a plaid country bow, acorn hat, yarn hair and a needle felt featureless face. I used pipe cleaners for her arms with beads on her wrists. I think she is cute and I hope whoever picks my bag is happy with her as well.

Textitle Tart Ornament 2012

Today I am going to make the ornament that I need for our holiday party. The Tart's decided to make ornaments this year at our June pot-luck gathering. I have had months to do this but as usual I am now just a short two weeks away from the event and I haven't even started it yet. How does that happen? 

Fortunately, I have two ideas dancing around in my head. I think I can create an angel or fairy from this small mesh cornucopia. That will be my first attempt. If that bombs, I will needle felt some more polar bears and string them to a festive ribbon maybe add a bell or two.... 

I'm hoping the fairy/angel will work out. I was thinking of using Sally Mavor's dolls as inspiration for the design or if that doesn't work I will probably needle felt in a Waldorf style. It always amazes me how my initial idea seems to transform during construction to produce a surprise in the end.