Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Happy Holidaysay, fiberart

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I hope everyone has had a happy holiday season and is preparing for a momentous new year. As artists, our work never ceases. Once one show is juried, the preparation for the next begins. Our next jury day at the Potomac Fiberarts Gallery is January 9 and will feature silk, lustrous silk. Have a great new year's celebration and think silk! Joanne

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

More on Artists Community Service

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Continuing on in the Saga os the Soles, members of the Potomac Fiberarts Guild Felting Study Group felted innersoles to warm the feet of the homeless and otherwise needy.

Hand felling new felt to be cut into inner soles for shoes:





More cutting:


Organizing the soles by size:



82 pairs of soles, ready to go:

The delivery was today to the Homeless Center in Rockville, MD. Happy Holidays to all. Joanne

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Artists Community Service Continued

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My felting study group (a subgroup of the Potomac Fiberarts Guild) decided for our December meeting to apply ourselves to a community service project. We all decided that we had failed felted projects such as purses, wall hangings, etc that just didn't come out right but would be perfect for cutting up into innersoles that would provide warmth for the feet of the homeless or otherwise needy people. So we organized shoe patterns in various sizes and began by cutting up items that we had already felted. We continued by making more felt from odds and ends of wool to provide more felt for soles. We ended up with over 80 pairs of warm wool innersoles to be distributed by local charities.

Cutting soles out of previously felted failed projects:





Laying out wool for new felt:


A quick trip through the needlefelting machine:


Wetting down the wool:

Rolling for wet felting:


Wetting and rolling the needlefelted piece:



Unrolling and rolling in the opposite direction:




Some help from the rolling machine:

The Saga of the Soles will continue with the next post. So long for now, Joanne

Monday, December 19, 2011

Artists Community Service

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On Dec 15, 2011 the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild Felting Study group gathered at a member's home to create felted soles for the homeless. Most of the members of the study group are also members of the Potomac FiberArt Gallery. Nine women worked for nine hours, using already felted fabrics (basically failed projects they donated to recycle into insoles) as well as creating new fabrics. We had a cutting table where three women cut patterns and soles; a layout table where fibers were added to wool batts; another station had two women creating needled fabric using the FeltLoom, which were then felted in the rolling machine, fulled by hand, dried, then ultimately cut into more insoles. By the end of the evening, 82 pairs of wool insoles were made. On Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011, these soles will be delivered for distribution to the homeless. The wonderful women of our felting study group who shared their talents to provide a bit of warmth to the souls of mankind left tired, but with happy hearts, knowing that we gave our time to provide a little bit of joy to the less fortunate in this season of giving. I will follow with photos. Happy Holidays to All!! Joanne