Playing with Pins

Tags

fiber art, millinery, pins, trim

Punk rockers are credited with being the first to use safety pins to embellish clothing (and more). It’s an idea that’s been repeated and admired ever since. I was very inspired by the 1987 safety pin covered mini dress and shawl designed by Stephen Sprouse in the 2012 IMA exhibition An American Legacy: Norell, Blass, Halston, and Sprouse.

Fulled Wool Hat

Tags

felt, fulling, hat, millinery, wool yarn

Fulling is a variation of felting that uses knit or woven fibers rather than loose fibers. For this hat, I knitted 2 strands of worsted weight wool with eyelash and feather yarns. The decorative yarns were used to create interesting surface variation in texture, color change, and reflection of light.

Dye Your Wool with Kool-aid

Tags

dye, felt, wool batt

kool-aid dyed wool for felting

Dying wool with Kool-aid is non-toxic, fun, and smells great. You can find a variety of detailed instructions on the internet for dying wool yarn and wool batts in your microwave and on the stove. I especially like the information and color charts at dyeyouryarn.com. Above are sample pieces of corriedale wool I dyed with Kool-aid on my stove top.

Seed Fringe

Tags

fiber art, seeds as beads, white ash

I’ve been hand stitching thread to the white ash seeds to form a loop on each seed to allow me to attach them to fabric. I want the seeds to hang in the same direction they do when in clusters on the tree, and to be able to swing freely like a fringe. 

White Ash Tree

Tags

emerald ash borer, fiber art, white ash

I have a very large White Ash tree in the center of my backyard that is dying from Emerald Ash Borers. The diminishing leaves and shade and impending loss of this once majestic tree has been a source of great sadness and loss for me.

Sticking My Toe In

Tags

emerald ash borer, white ash

I’ve found it really hard to make myself get started blogging. I’m ashamed to think of how many days, weeks, months I kept thinking I’d get going but didn’t.