Wet Felting workshop

Here are my happy students, working on their newly made felted, totally originally cloth at my workshop last week at The Athenauem. 

It's quite a magical process, done with wool roving and a little rolling (photo above). In just 3 hours time, you create a piece of wool cloth. Remarkable! and I supply all the equipment (for you to keep) and materials, so that even if you never do it again, you'll have learned something and come away with a piece of original felt!
You can see more students and their work from my past wet felting workshops here.
 
From this pile of roving to this..

 
From this pile of roving to this..
 
From this pile of roving to this..
 
From this pile of roving to this..
 
And mine, from this to this. 

Here's close up of mine. I'm adding stitching and maybe some beads...
I'm teaching this  2-day workshop at Fallbrook School of the Arts (Fallbrook, CA, near San Diego) on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, 9:30-4pm both days. You can register here.

Bird inspired bag

  
 
 


 I seem to be into bags this month! These cute bags came from Discount School Supply. The adorable felt birds were from Caryl Park, and were my inspiration for the drawings. I used these fabric markers and just drew directly on the bags. (I created this bag, then did a variation of it for my after school kids art program, Mundo Lindo.)

Barbie in a Bag

I was asked to create a Barbie something for a special birthday gift calendar. Now that the gift has been given and the surprise has taken place, I can show you.
That's a Basic Barbie, and I did a little embroidery on her jeans and t-shirt. Then I made her a special personalized quilt.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the glamorous photo shot for the calendar. (Don't look to closely to see the cat food dish in the background. Like I said, soooo glamorous!)

Did you see my How to Draw Barbie Tutorial, over on the Sketchbook Challenge blog? I drew her in my sketchbook, then scanned and printed her onto fabric prepared for an inkjet printer. Then I cut her out, fused her to the quilt and to the gift bag. (See my gift bag tutorial here, for some more cool ideas with these muslin bags.)



           




Wouldn't this make a great gift? You can make one yourself, or you can buy my one-of-a kind Barbie in a Bag in my JaneVille online Esty shop.

Kids love sketchbooks too!

Thank you, dear adult students at my recent workshop at the Learning & Art Expo in Pasadena. When I mentioned the after school art program that I created and teach, Mundo Lindo, and that I'd love to buy some Strathmore Visual Journals for the kids. Many, in the class, donated some money and I bought 23 journals for the kids, and gave them to the kids on Thursday. You can see by these photos, the kids were thrilled!








With such a large class, your donation is very appreciated. The classes and materials for Mundo Lindo are free for the kids. And we're hosted by a non-profit, so your donations are tax deductible. You can donate here.





The kids were thrilled, and are creating a giant thank you note!

Bella Italia: Orvieto Sketchbook

A page from my mixed media journal (Strathmore Visual Journal for Mixed Media 9x12")






Notice the Italian book page in the background.



I'm getting excited about my week long workshop Bella Italia: Orvieto Sketchbook in  Orvieto, Italy in May 2012. Join me! I'll be teaching Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style. Oh, and we'll have time for wine tasting, cooking, sight seeing...

Sketch & Stitch Gift Bag Tutorial!

I'm having great fun sketching, stamping and stitching on these 8.5 x 11" muslin draw string bags.

I carry my camera attachments in this bag.

         
You've seen this inspiration before. I'm having eternal fun with this imagery.
I used water soluble crayon for the color on this bag.

Eucalyptus Inspired bag  

Texas Red Oak Gift Bag  

 
I drew, in pencil, on the bag. I outlined it with a permanent pen, then colored in with color pencils.
    
From the oak leaf image, I carved my own stamp. Be sure and put wax paper inside the bag, when you stamp or paint on it.
    
I stamped the bag, and some shipping tags. You can see the acorn stamp I made too.

And of course, I hand stitched, using a chain stitch and a back stitch.

You can see my stitch guide here.

France!  

   
For this bag, I stamped first, using commercial stamps. Then I printed out a fleur de lis, cut it out and traced it, using a gel roller for fabric.

And stitched!

My gift bags. 8.5 x 11 bags