Beads, baubles, gems & crystals

I was sooo excited this morning to receive a package of gems & crystals from my pal Laurel living in Tucson, home of the largest gem show in North America. While I wasn’t able to make it down for the show this year, Laurel was able to pick up some goodies I requested- chunky turquoise, quartz crystals, golden pyrite, flashy labradorite, and a first for me, purple sugilite. In anticipation of the package, I’ve been inspired by southwestern arts and crafts. I couldn’t resist this pair of earrings from Tribal Impressions on Etsy, especially when I noticed that she also had sets of beading needles in her shop. I searched around and found this great tutorial for a beaded cabochon as a beginner project. In the meantime, here are a few things I have been playing around with in the studio. My favorite way to come up with new designs is to toss together materials that create an interesting dialogue of color and texture. Many of these beads and baubles come from destash parties with friends, travels, and vintage jewelry finds.It’s starting to feel like spring is around the corner! See something you like? Let me know!
I love to read your comments:)

 

Think Pink

I was starting to run low on pink wool so I decided it was time to create the color on my own with the help of the Greener Shade’s dye- Ruby Red. For a little variety I chose to add some felt beads to the dye bath that the girls and I made the other day.Before tossing in a few, I wrapped them tightly with fine rubber bands to see if I could create some dye-resistance details that would be fun to look at later. In the end, I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of my pink and only one rubber band survived the heat of the dye bath to create this tie-dyed bead, but they looked pretty rad together. So we grabbed a bit of lavender thread, a sewing needle, some seashells and whipped up a mobile that my 3 year old daughter seemed to get a kick out of.I definitely plan to dedicate more time to experimenting to achieve the colors I had envisioned. This time I didn’t really get the results I was looking for, but we ended up with a new bit of home decor in time for Valentine’s Day. For now my heart still yearns to concoct a batch of intense pink, but my little one seems quite satisfied. I’d call it a wash. Have a great weekend everyone:)

 

ETSY JEWELRY SALE

I’m always glad to see my jewelry find a new home, especially OOAK pieces that were made with a lot of love and long hours felting, trimming, wrapping and hammering. But it’s my time to say thank YOU to all of my customers and make some room in the studio- so I’m offering 25% OFF all jewelry in my shop. With COUPON CODE: 25OFF you will receive your discount at the checkout plus a gift box and FREE SHIPPING to the US & CA on all jewelry purchases until next Weds the 18th of January. Yes, I know it’s a pretty sweet deal:) Peak at all of the NEW jewelry listings here. Happy shopping!

xoxo allison

 

An ode to the Northern Lights

Snow

Flaming lights on the sky
a night of northern lights
A wedding is going on up there
among the crowd of stars
The Moon is rising
a god among sparkling goddesses.

by Knut Hamsun, Norwegian Poet (1859 – 1952)

My very first treasury to bring in the New Year! Visit any of these lovely items on Etsy or view the new Northern Lights felter’s wool sampler just added to my shop. Thanks for looking!

 

Textures of Life

Feelings of snow dusting my eyelashes, snuggling tight against my grandmother’s crocheted blankets, twisting of a brass door handle and running my fingers along the prinkly spines of a brittle pine cone all evoke sentiments reminding me of this time of the year. This season’s Fiberalley collection of flower brooches strive to invigorate your senses as you experience soft, smooth, bumpy, silky, jagged and rough: textures of life. This season you will find Fiberalley at the One of a Kind Christmas Show and Sale in Toronto from the 29th of November til the 4th of December. Reply to this posting a receive your pair of complimentary tickets for the show. See you there!

 

Happy (early) Halloween

Our 2011 Felt United pieces from the Montreal chapter!!
For the complete gallery available by the 1st of November please visit:
www.feltunited.com

 

Count down to Felt United…

We’re getting close to the return of Felt United so I decided to share some images from last year’s festivities during les Journees de la Culture from my shared studio in the Mile- End. I was impressed by the group’s willingness to participate with no reservations- a quality that I adore in students. Our multi-generational cast asked lots of questions, tired out their forearms and left with a rich experience of how it felt to work with raw wool and other mixed fibers. Here is a shot of our creations before color:
and after:

Please join in again this year at 1pm on the 30th of September at the same location:
Fiberalley Shared Studio
135 Van Horne, suite 209
Montreal, Quebec
Love to see you there!

 

Simple pleasures

“I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.” – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891, Irish dramatist, novelist, poet (1854 – 1900)

wow….it’s the middle of the afternoon and I just finished a hot bath while my little boy quietly sleeps in a warm stream of sunlight flooding through the front hallway. Playing on my speakers is a new Tony Rebel album called Rebellious that I picked up for a buck on St-Viateur during the Bon Voisins street fair. Outside I can hear children calling in the playground and leaves rustling with each passing gust of autumn air.

With the hands on the clock seeming to spin on fast forward these days….school daze blending into weekends….work blending with family…family joining in work….it feels like I rarely get a chance to stop, hear my thoughts and reflect on how it feels to watch the children grow, share my life with a “hands-on” partner and do work that I love. It feels like most of the time I’m either pinning down the baby to change a stinky diaper, sweeping the floors for the um-teenth time or hassling the girls to finish their dinner, put on pyjamas or brush their teeth. Life has handed me such a curve ball over the last 5 years that I never could’ve seen it coming! But to be honest, with the rise of chaos in my daily routine has come a sort of clarity, that has lifted me out of the haze of my early twenties and placed me on a lookout for the quiet pleasures that are all around. Sooo, I’ll keep prodding on keeping an eye out for those simple pleasures that are truly the fuel in my lifeboat.

 

Extending a hand

Over the last few weeks I’ve had helpers in the studio preparing these super long cosmic extensions for all sorts of fantastic felt functions. My latest favorite: hair wraps instead of rubberbands. I have been experimenting with this idea for some time gradually felting, testing and photographing stock for Etsy. Regretfully, I forgot to carry them to the Roxham Woolgathering last weekend and it turned out not to be the only thing I forgot. Can you believe: no camera and so no photos! I’m bummed…but at the same time Sue Heller’s farm is ever so surreal, that part of me is relieved to escape the pressure of wanting to capture the beauty and mood of her cozy cultural event in freeze frames. Special thanks to Pandora Hobby for extending a hand with all of Fiberalley logistics this weekend. It would not have been possible without her. In the next few weeks I will be extending a hand to a group of 27 Montreal school kids as they learn about the transformative powers of wool as we participate in les Journees de la Culture and We Felt United. Keep in touch for more details on these events coming soon…..

 

In my Mother’s garden

All sorts of curious creations are starting to bear in the most unexpected places! After an extended maternity break and shift in focus as I supported the new career choice of my partner Tony (Island Organix), I am finally regularly back to the studio putting my hands to work! Upcoming events include the Roxham Wool Gathering, Journees de la Culture and Felt United. Let’s kick off the season with one of my favorite events, the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts this Saturday and Sunday in Buffalo, New York in the heart of the Elmwood Village.