the wonderful world of blogging

yes, i know, it can be a huge time vampire if you're not careful, but then there are so many wonderful things about blogging such as meeting lovely, inspiring, creative folk from around the world that you otherwise wouldn't have had the chance to get to know. folk such as the wonderful heather who writes the wool love - functional fiberart blog.

a little while ago, heather and i agreed to make a swap for each other. we had been lamenting the fact that, while we both enjoyed making gifts for other people we never seemed to have the time to make anything for ourselves. so a swap was duly suggested and agreed to be the best solution as we both love making for other people and this way we would both have a lovely gift to exchange/receive.

this was the first time i had taken part in a swap like this and i really enjoyed finding out a little more about each other to make sure we made the perfect gift. it was such good fun to plan the goodies i would send. in fact, i got so much out of the planning and gifting part of the swap that it was a double bonus to receive this wonderfully gorgeous bag as my gift from heather.
the photos really don't do it justice, the handle and front flap are made from the most gorgeous mix of blues/greens with a silky sheen and there's an internal pocket in the same lovely mix of colours.

i just adore the texture created by these locks on the back of the purse.

heather blogged about the creation of my lovely bag here: silk wool and dyed blue locks bag part 1 and here: silk wool and dyed blue locks bag part 2

my package also contained a lovely hand lotion, scented with an orange and ginger energy-giving zingy scent and perfect for feltmaker's hands! i don't have it here to take a pic as i took it to my day job, to cheer myself up through the day.

thanks so much heather, every time i use my bag and enjoy my handcream i think of you and the care and love you put into creating the perfect gift.

meet a maker monday

being the inquisitive little feltmaker that i am, i thought it might be interesting to hear about other maker's stories. so a little while ago i asked if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for my blog. i was hoping to make it a monthly feature but have been so overwhelmed by responses that it will now be a weekly feature!

so, grab a cuppa, put your feet up and lets meet susan bonnar from dottie designs.

Please introduce yourself … I am Susan Bonnar, I live in Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire beside the sea. My maiden name was Cotton and I spent 20 years in the Royal Navy being called Dot - hence Dottie Designs.

How would you describe your work / style? My work is quite simple, hand decorating photo albums, guest books and keepsake boxes with simple, stylish designs. I have a slight obsession for butterflies!

Who, or what, inspires you?I am inspired by all sorts of things. The album I am working on designing now has a heart of seashells as its main feature and is tied up with raffia. I live by the beach, so my inspiration for this was just a winters walk along the beach with my 3 children.

Do you sell your work? If so, what helped you decide to start selling your work? I do sell my work. Initially I made cards and sold them to family, friends and colleagues. This gave me the confidence to do Craft Fairs and eventually to approach retail shops.

Where can I buy your work? My work can bought primarily on line at my website: dottie designs website
my ebay shop: dottie designs ebay
and my Folksy shop: dottie designs folksy

Do you have a website or blog I can visit? See above! I also have a blog: dottie designs blog that is very new!

How did you learn your particular craft? How long have you been creating? Just picked it up and have been creating for about 5 years.

Is there any other craft skill you would like to learn? I would love to learn to knit as I'm hopeless. I'm really envious of people that can draw too.

Anything exciting planned for 2010 you’d like to share? Nothing as yet!

Have you had any work featured in magazines/books/galleries? Featured in the Navy News! How to survive life on the outside by working for yourself!

Has your work won any prizes/competitions? Not yet!

If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be … Working as an Air Traffic Controller....

I couldn’t do this if it wasn’t for … An understanding husband as my craft has taken over the house!

Any funny stories you’d like to share? I sold a large photo album last week and was very proud of how it looked so took a photo of it. As the cover slants down slightly without photos in, I put in some socks (clean/odd) to hold it up. Photo done, parcel posted, ahhh feeling good. 2 hours later I gasped with horror, I’d posted out the odd socks inside the album…Tweenies, Star Wars etc!! Nightmare!

Describe your perfect day. Happy kids (no fighting) somebody else cleaning my house, doing the ironing, a couple of proper hours to myself (very rare) to work on new ideas.

Describe your proudest moment. When my 2 sons (6 &9) won a trophy for a duet they did at the Portsmouth Music Festival. The looks on their faces as they collected it were unforgettable. They had worked really hard and deserved it. I was also happy that they hadn't fought over who had the most stool to sit on!

What do you do to relax? What's relaxing?

Marmite … love it or hate it? Love love love it!

What animal would you be, and why? An eagle. Power, freedom....

What’s your weakness? Chocolate, red wine, chocolate, red wine, chocolate, red wine....

How do you keep motivated? Try to picture the end result

What do you wish you’d known when you first started out? How thick skinned I would need to be for knock backs!

What advice would you give to someone just starting out? Follow your instinct, stay focussed and keep proper accounts!


What question did you hope to be asked but weren’t? What would I like to be when I grow up?

What would your answer have been? A Zoo Keeper!!!

thanks to susan for a really interesting chat, i would have loved to have seen the face of the person who opened their lovely new photo album to find tweenies socks!

please pop back next monday when we meet amanda robbins from chicita

for me ... really? how kind :)

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, i'm so chuffed to receive a sunshine blog award from claire at black cats whiskers (my first ever blog award!), thanks claire for making my day :)

the sunshine award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world.

the rules for accepting the sunshine award are:
(and i'm also going to add a rule of my own: please feel free to ignore these rules and just enjoy the award!)

- put the logo on your blog or within your post
- pass the award onto 12 bloggers
- link the nominees within your post
- let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
- share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award

my 12 nominees (in no particular order) are:

angela barrow
fabulous threads
aileen clarke crafts
the bunny maker
fibrespace
permutations in fibre
noodlebubble
feltbug
filzfrosch
karens felt works
atelier kiki
fibrefrolics

would you like to feature on my little blog ... ?

i’d like to have a monthly interview with fellow designer/makers on my blog so if you’re interested in being featured, please let me know and i’ll send you some nosey-parker style questions! you'll also be able to send me a selection of photos if you would like your work featured.

you can either leave me a message in the comments section here or email me: fatcatfelt 'at' hotmail 'dot' co 'uk'

don't be shy, it'll be great fun!

textile directory newsletter

another great discovery from a recent newsletter was richard saja who is a new york based embroiderer. richard creates wonderful embroideries which he describes as “a cheeky and irreverent take on classic textile history.”

richard was recently featured in the new york times and has been awarded a searchlight fellowship by the american craft council, which allowed him to show his work at their annual show in baltimore in february. much deserved i say!

more details about richard's exibition in vermont, from may 17th to october 25th, 2009 here.

and you can visit richard's blog here.

here's a detail from one of richard's 'birdmen' cushions which i think is fantastic :)

loose threads by kay haskins

if you are in or around manchester any time between 4th april and 1st may, pop along to the turnpike gallery (civic square, leigh, greater manchester) to see 'loose threads' by kay. the gallery is open mon to fri 10am to 6pm and saturday 9.30am to 3.30pm and admission is free.

the exhibition is based around an installation kay produced while at university. kay explains, “the piece consists of two drawers that have been lined and filled with handcrafted treasures to represent two very different generations, mine and my grandparents. the installation depicts the debate surrounding alzheimer’s disease and the loss of memory.”

alongside this will be a selection of kay’s handcrafted treasures, which are all available for purchase. items available include brooches, door hangers, gift tags and purses.

for more information, here's the link to the textile directory article.

and you can find kay's blog here.

atlt 34 of 365

thanks to a post by donna clement i learnt what a petroglyph is and also discovered cryptobiotic crust - every day's a learning day :)

one of my favourite little sayings is that nothing worthwhile ever came easy

right now this blog feels like a catalogue of excuses! but there is a lot happening in the background (honest) and all will be revealed soon.

so, as of september 1st i moved to part-time hours at work - how fantastic is that?! and how fantastic is my lovely o-h for making it possible?! i now go out to work three days a week and that leaves four whole days for creative pursuits :))))

but then ...

our laptop became infected with a virus - why, why, why would people spend time, effort and what is undoubtedly a 'skill' to create something so vile?! our laptop spent nearly two weeks in the repair shop and now that we are trying to connect again, our firewall and our broadband provider's software aren't talking to each other - which means that our laptop is still out of commission. i'm hoping that all the photos, blog updates and bookmarks i have saved are still in existence.

then, following a full day of what was probably excessively over doing it in the garden - i had a hairline fracture and tendon damage in my right wrist (of course i'm right handed!). this meant a plaster cast from my knuckles to my elbow along with a sling followed by a splint for six weeks and not much in the way of felting!

now that the splint is finally off i'm busily felting away, with a mixture of excitement and total terror at the thought my first stall! i have a stall at a festive fair at the end of november and am now frantically trying to catch up, i have most of my ideas on paper and i'm in the process of turning them into reality.

once i have everything finalised my next priority is to get this poorly neglected blog up to date - pics coming soon!

back with renewed ...

everything!

i haven't been making much recently, but it does seem to be a common theme right now from some of the other blogs i'm reading, as other folk also seem to be going through a similar phase.

too many other things are vying for my time and attention, some welcome like friends, family and loved ones and some not so, like work and housework!

narkeymarkey has officially stalled ...

so, i finally get it together to start this blog and then everything comes to a grinding halt!

the blog was something i'd been thinking about for a while. i then spent ages gathering up all the things i'd made, trying out new techniques and ideas, making new test pieces, taking photos of them all, loading the pics onto this page and then i looked, and i looked at what i had created on the screen.

it was quite surreal to see these pieces actually on the page, and i felt and thought differently about them, almost like seeing them on the page changed them, validated them in some way.

but there is also the creative shyness - the reluctance to put my work 'out there', afraid of criticism or of looking foolish, feeling inadequate in the face of all the creativity i discovered in the blogosphere.

cue a period of lots of thinking (aka procrastination if i'm being honest!) and a creative vaccuum.

but then i return to the blog ... which is actually quite a good means of thinking out loud and working through my thoughts, probably in a way i hadn't done previously.

thanks to a post on lisa call's blog (http://blog.lisacall.com/2008/03/making-forward-progress-in-my-art-career.html) i have been putting some thought into the purpose of this blog and also into defining the direction i want to take.

i have just ordered a load of text books and am starting to plan my time for this month so i can have a mixture of theory and practice and i'm going to start putting my blog out there, to hell with the shyness and the fear!

i hope i'm at the start of a journey and if i stall here then i've hardly taken the first few steps.

nothing worthwhile ever came easy :)

ooooh, scary ...

well, i have finally taken the first small step of creating this blog! i'm hoping that this will help me focus on the craft stuff i make, motivate me to make more and hopefully develop enough to start selling :)

so, now all i need to do is start taking pics of my recent makes and get them posted up here, now, where's that camera ...