Pyrography Plaque from Texas

I just wanted to share this with you. I have a friend in Texas who is another etsy shop owner. We've never met but talk online and skype occasionally. Recently she has taken up pyrography (wood burning) and seems to have a natural talent for it. The postman just bought this for me.

The detail is amazing look at the zentangle inspired designs within the lettering.

In her shop she also has jewellery which she has burned designs in to and some really lovely nursery wall plaques. I think she would only be too happy to personalise anything and the nursery wall plaques would be a great gift. Go and take a look for yourself.

 https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/byRickMarsh?ref=ss_profile

By the way it's not even my birthday!

Hand Spun art yarn

 Last week when browsing Pinterest I found myself lusting after some art yarn to include in my felts. It had merino, silk, Wensleydale locks and all manner of good things in it ( a bit like chocolate cake really).  I was trying to persuade myself that this very expensive yarn would be worth the money when I realised that I already had all of the raw ingredients. I also have a spinning wheel and know how to use it!

I dug my spinning wheel out of the barn where it has been for about six years and found my Wensleydale locks.

The spinning wheel was a bit grumpy and needed a little TLC before it would work and the locks were very dirty. I coaxed the wheel in to life and washed, degreased and dyed the locks.

I  then rooted around my studio and found silks, soy bean fibres and some other goodies which I had already dyed. When I put them all together and spun them with some dyed merino this is what I ended up with 

Since then I have also dyed and spun some green yarn and here is my first felt containing it. I used the green yarn to represent the grasses and it felted in beautifully. No stitching was needed.

Spring has sprung!

In my part of the world ( Wales UK) spring has finally sprung so I made a felt to celebrate. I know I shouldn't blow my own trumpet but I was rather pleased with the way it turned out. I added lots of hand embroidery to the foreground to make the grasses and flowers pop.