Friday, October 30, 2009

Happy Halloween!

As is typical with our kids (most kids?), ideas for Halloween costumes come at the very last minute. This morning found me fashioning a beard for Robert's costume for school. He's dressed as a "famous" hobo that used to frequent our small town, I'm told.



The beard is not of alpaca, but some BFL (Blue-faced Leiceister sheep's wool) that I got from my friend, Dianne. It is beautiful fiber and I still plan to do "something" with it... this is the something for now!

I have spent the last while scouring my photo files for a picture of the time that Robert had to dress up as a President- he was George Washington and we made a wig together out of white alpaca rovings, it was a hoot!



I needle-felted these pumpkins out of hand-dyed alpaca fiber.
Everyone have a Happy Halloween, and remember to use what you have on hand!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Felting Class Fun

Things have been going much more smoothly on the farm lately, with the recent felting class being one of the highlights. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures since I was teaching, but here are a few.
The best part was the fun and energetic attendees, which included an artist, an alpaca breeder wanna-be, and some current alpaca breeders with varied backgrounds in working with fiber. Planning the timing for a 4-hour class which included several demos and hands-on was a bit tricky the first time, especially considering what a chatty group we had! All in all, everything worked out fine and I think everyone had a good time. Each participant took home a few small finished projects as well as some door prizes.
One of the husbands had to try it, too, when he came to pick up his wife and I think he enjoyed the needle felting immensely!

You can be sure that I'll be scheduling more classes in the near future- let me know what you'd like to see the most! This was a beginner's overview class (of which I'll offer another) but future topics will include Felting a Hat, Nuno-felting, and a specialized needle felting course.
Thank you very to each person who attended, and I hope to see you at future classes!