The Etsy Shop

This post isn't much to look at, but it is big news!!
Little brown badger has an Etsy shop. Indeed, now there are two places to catch the latest in LBB happenings and crafty outpourings. For the moment the Etsy shop is focused on bags and purses, wet felted merino wool and re-purposed leather goods. Come on over and check it out. There are still many things to be ironed out and many more items yet to be listed so keep checking back!!

Felted wall hangings

I am participating in an art fair this December. It's the second time I've done this fair and I really enjoyed doing it last year. Since it's in a gallery they make you go through the whole application procedure. I think it's worthwhile just to keep up practice jumping through gallery hoops. I re-wrote my bio and justified my practices on paper. Being forced to think that way about what you make is dull but usefull.
This is one of the felted wall hangings I made for the show. I used some of the new techniques I learned this summer from Jessica at her excellent felting workshop. I also went out and invested in a darning foot for my sewing machine and spent two afternoons trying to make the thing work (it came with no instructions and my sewing machine manual was no help at all). It was worth it though. That is a fun attatchment. I can burn through the thread in no time.
My mom and dad were up for a visit and Bad Babs photographed nearly the whole procedure on her camera from roving to rolling and cutting. She had to leave before it was dry so she missed the sewing machine part but it looks like she has the makings of an excellent documentary on the fabulous skills of her daughter. I expect nothing could be more rivetting than an expose on felting.

The latest pins and hair clips

My stove cratered last week. I would set it at 250 and it would suddenly rocket up to 450. Not awesome. So we started to hunt around for a used stove. We found one. And how. We found a couple who were downsizing and moving to follow their grand-babies east. They had both a fridge and stove for sale. Since our fridge is of the same vintage as the newly deceased stove, we thought we should pick up both to be on the safe side.

Lets just say I made these hair clips because I need to go to the farmers market to make back some of the cash we dropped on the appliances. A fridge and stove are purchases I don't want to make very often. So the ones we found are only four years old and are pretty much 120 times fancier than the ones now resting in the garage. My fridge makes me feel unworthy. It is a beast. It is the clear focus of our diminutive kitchen. The stove has two separate ovens and, though it is certainly fancier than what I had in mind, I am rapidly rationalizing it's presence here by way of it's superior efficiency. I am an appliance slut it seems.

I'm Back

I have been a bad blogger, I know. And I didn't make this cup either. But, I'm sure you'll agree it is lovely (if you don't then maybe holding it in real life would change things). It was made by Cathi Jefferson. I bought it last weekend at Creative Chaos, apparently the largest craft show and sale in Western Canada. I have some issue with the name of the show implying that the art/craft just happens in a whirlwind of unstoppable creativity rather than by the blood and sweat of persons so inclined to work themselves ragged for nearly no money. Maybe it's just me, but I think the lousy name sets the tone for the whole show. And not a good tone generally.

How excited was I when I found Cathi Jefferson and her amazing pottery there? So excited I bought a whiskey cup! I spent last winter trying to cultivate a taste for whiskey in the cold evenings after the kids went to bed so, obviously, I needed a whiskey cup anyway. And what a lovely one this is. All covered with silver dollars. Mmm. Lovely. Almost makes me want to drag out my clay and reclaim my title as 'potter' but.....

yeah, it gets better. Dearest Boss Hog really came through for my birthday this year and organized a felting workshop for me here at my house with Postmodern Hausfrau. Jessica from Funk Shui is actually coming to my house for a whole weekend of wool. Pretty great. I am so looking forward to PH coming with wee Fritz and Liesl. Eden and Arlo are going to go bananas when they realize that we are having a whole week of sleepovers!!

As for my absence here recently. I agreed to do the concession for Susan Paisley's dance school recital two weeks ago. It was five shows of amazing dance, Eden is going to get signed up for ballet come fall, but it totally taxed the ability of me and my kitchen to mass produce cupcakes and caramel corn. As a result, I have been spending most of my time since then proving to my family that I still love them and am capable of producing delicious dinners, not just special treats that they are not allowed to taste. How cruel am I, making dozens of cupcakes and not giving the girls any? Just ask either of them and they will tell you. Not sharing is mean. I have taught them well.

Felted Cuffs

I felted and felted and felted and when I was done I still had pieces of unused felt left over. You know the little pieces that are too small for most anything. But still you feel that all the work it took to make that felt should not be thrown away. So I thought a minute and came up with felt and fabric cuffs. I love cuffs. I usually love leather cuffs and can't afford the truly great ones. Not to mention the tiny town factor. I am not a fan of driving for two hours to browse in shops in nearby towns. If I have a spare two hours I would rather spend it solving problems and finding new ways to do things than driving. Call me crazy.

I made about ten different cuffs with different fabric and felt colours and decided to wear this one. It is subdued for me ( I have to work not to leave the house looking like an Easter egg) but I like it and have been wearing it a lot. Yeah!

The down side is that my sewing machine is packing it in. Too much sewing on a pretty inexpensive machine that I bought just after Eden was born. I really have my heart set on a Bernina. Postmodern Hausfrau has one and I have used and loved it. They are hard to find though unless you are willing to buy new and sadly, though I am willing, I am not able to spend that kind of cash right now. If anyone has a sewing machine recommendation to pass along I would appreciate it.

Felted Hair Bands

These hair bands were really fun to make, like little felted collages. I made five that are all roughly similar and love them immensely. However...(ominous tones) I look TERRIBLE in a hair band. I have a long, narrow face and need all the bangs I can get to not look like a forehead monster. I would like to blame this on a genetic abnormality that does not allow for head band wearing but Bad Babs is a total head band devotee.

I have never seen my dad in a hair band so maybe I can yet blame this on his side of the family? (he only has brothers and I haven't seen any of them sport a head band either, so it's possible that they all have the same problem {since neither of my uncles will ever read this, I can reveal that their actual problem is baldness which makes them de facto forehead monsters without hair bands}).

Felted Hair Clips

So here are a few of the wet felted hair clips I made for selling at the Farmer's Market in my wee town this summer. My mom (Bad Babs) and dad were up for the long weekend and Bad Babs came to the first farmer's market with me for morale. It was pretty good relative to the Mayfair market I had done the week before, but still not stellar. Even the market manager warned that all weekends would not be as busy as this long weekend so not to get my hopes up. Not too cheering.

But it was nice to see my town in a different way and meet some new people. I actually think I might have made a new felting friend that was hiding right here in my town. I don't know how else we might have met each other, so for me that connection was worth the chilly morning spent outdoors (perhaps not worth it for Bad Babs who nearly froze solid?)

And then I needed green

To offset the distress I felt dying so many things purple, I had to dye some things green. Not that green is my fave or anything but it's spring and FINALLY we are getting some buds on the trees and bulbs peeking out of the dirt. I was beginning to think I might have been relocated to Antarctica without knowing it as some part of an alien master plan to take over Earth. Seems not.
And to celebrate my being left out of such an unfortunate alien re-location plan and left alone to enjoy spring, here are some green-ish scarves. All are merino felted onto silk and then dyed with kool-aid after the felting. I find that ironing the wool after the scarves are dry really helps tame down wools natural scratchy tendencies so these have turned out nice and soft and fresh. And smelling just slightly of lime.

She had to have Purple

I am truly not a fan of purple. Eden, I think, loves only purple. Occasionally yellow if pressed, but purple is her dearest love. So I have had to re-evaluate purple and try to reconcile myself to it and this is the best I can do. I will make purple things for other people but can't bring myself to wear it. I often enough realize while out in public that I look like an Easter egg (I am not a basic black girl at all) and feel sure that if I included purple in my outfits I may be run out of town. Boss Hog would certainly have to take to drink before leaving the house with me and in a few years the girls would disown me. Forestalling all this potential strife, I will not wear purple, plum, violet, lavender etc.

But, strangely, I do like this photo of some of the purple scarves I felted in the last few weeks. They are nuno felt, merino onto silk and dyed with kool aid. I am liking the skinniness of them and the slight sheen of the silk peeking out the ladder of wool. The grid somehow mitigates the random-ness of the felt for me. I can't sit easy with total felt chaos, I like a little structure to cling to as I perch out in granola-crunching, natural-fibres-wearing, start my own sheep farm territory.

Felted Scarves

As I mentioned last post I have been hermitted away in my house for the last few weeks felting like crazy. Here are a few of the scarves I made. Above are some 'holy' scarves made by laying out a diamond grid over a very thin layer of wool fibres and then teasing the thin bottom layer apart to create slightly rounded holes rather than a more rigid, geometric grid. I like the effect but I think the next ones will have an even looser grid with larger holes and more forced irregularity in the felting process so that the grid is not as well aligned. You know, work twice as hard to make something that looks like it took half the time.
Eden is totally baffled by the brown scarf. She is aware that I have control over what colour I make things and cannot comprehend any reason good enough to make anything brown on purpose. She tells me that the brown one can be for Arlo and she will wait until I make a purple one she can wear.

Felting up a Storm

Where have I been you ask? And with good reason, it's been ages since regular posting.
I have been up to my elbows in suds felting at the kitchen table. I am part of an artisan market at The Caravan Theatre's Mayfair. It's happening May 9th (Mother's Day here in Canada) and I am, as usual, wondering what I've got myself into. Right now Arlo is trying her level best to climb onto my lap for some attention and both girls feel felting is not a worthy activity for toddlers. This leaves only nap time and night time to felt my heart out. Anyone with little kids will tell you just what you feel like doing when the kids go to bed. Fall into a coma until they wake you the next morning.
But, onward and upward. I am making some felted wool and silk scarves that I really like and will photograph them as soon as the sun comes back out. Promise.

I also joined an online felting community called Working with Felt that I am really enjoying. I can totally geek out there with a pile of felters around the planet. It's an excellent resource for anyone who's interested in learning more about felting.