Off to Taos!

Last year I went to the Taos Wool Festival, in Taos New Mexico, with my friend Zaynab from Anchorage. She had been there before but it was my first time and I loved it! This year I am taking my husband Burt, and we are going on a road trip. I'm so excited! Taos is wool heaven during the festival. The actual event is held on the grass at Kit Carson Park in the center of this charming Southwestern town. Here is a video from a past wool festival. There are workshops and the vendors are mostly small producers offering unique roving, yarn, and finished work as well. I must confess that the New Mexico food is as enticing to me as the wool offerings. It is delicious. Can't wait to have a big bowl of pezole!

On the way back home to San Diego we will wend our way through Gallup, New Mexico, Sedona, Prescott, and Jerome Arizona. Gallup is the best place to buy Native American art and handcrafts. The artists bring their work there to sell in the pawn shops. Being in Gallup is like going back in time to the 1950's. Jerome is an old mining town that clings to the edge of rocky hills. The big Jerome attraction for me is a store called Knit One Bead Two, where I have found great bead and fiber treasures on past visits. I will have lots to blog about when I return in mid October.

Marcia's Scarf

My friend Marcia is one talented girl. In addition to being a fabulous beader, published in fact, she is a knitter extraordinaire. I love to knit, but sweat and fret when it comes to sewing the thing together. So Marcia and I struck a deal. She agreed, bless her, to assemble the sweater I made for my daughter in exchange for a nuno felt scarf. You might notice by the date of the sweater post, the exchange was long overdue, so today Marcia came over to choose her scarf. As she perused my rack of scarves, she was, by her own admission, love struck by one of my "Chunky Monkeys" . Our 83 degree weather was no issue for Marcia who left with the scarf artistically arranged around her neck, pausing just long enough for me to snap this photo. And wouldn't you know the Gail Crossman Moore earrings she had on matched perfectly!

Felted Soap

I felted bars of soap for my husband and myself, using our favorite pachouli soap. They work so well in the shower because they are not slippery like regular bars of soap. I decided to make some to sell. I found it a good way to play with color combinations. Don't they look delicious drying in the sun?

Scented with Jasmine, Lavender, lemon and other delightful aromas, each soap has a jewel like quality and so needed a special presentation. After wrapping each one like a gift with yarn or ribbon I put it in it's own gift/trinket box. On the lid of the box I attached a piece of nuno felt to match the colors of the gift inside. The soap and box are two gifts in one. Well, three really. The wool wrapped soap is a wash cloth and soap in one, and the nuno topped gift/trinket box can be re-used and recycled.

Felted soaps drying in the sun

Felt Without Borders

There's not much of a nuno felt community where I live. Not like painting or pottery where you can check out local galleries that show and sell those pieces. But good fiber art galleries are hard to find locally, which is why I so appreciate Etsy and the opportunity it offers me, as a nuno felt artist, to see what others are doing with the medium, as well as building friendships and sharing ideas with like minded felters. For me, this all goes under the heading, "Can't get enough felt!"

So a couple of months ago on a visit to other "Etsyans", that is Felt making Etsyans, I came across Joni Cornell, and her Etsy shop. I love the way Joni blends the colors on her scarves, the simple details and spikey fringe. In particular I fell in love with an avocado green, brown and black number. I had already sent Joni an email telling her how much I liked her work and in the course of our back and forth art chat , we hit on the idea of an exchange, the scarf I had fallen in love with in her Etsy Shop for one from my Etsy shop .

Kirstin models the scarf that Joni chose.

I love holding Joni's piece in my hand and knowing it came all the way to me from Melbourne, Austrailia, where I have a friend in felt.

I have used Joni's scarf as a runner so I can spread it out and enjoy all the beautiful colors

From one end to the other.