more functional felt swap greatness!

i couldn’t be happier with the caliber of work, and the enthusiasm of the participants. thank you sooo much! anna and i wanted this to be fun, and the feedback we’ve received has been positive and appreciative. we hope that this has been a good experience for all.

a few notes:

• if you have not finished, and you think it may be a while before you do, please contact us. we understand that life can take unexpected turns.
• we have participants in asia, europe, canada, united states, and australia. please note that international shipping can take a while, and packages can get stuck in customs. if you have not received your swap item by mid-june, send us an email and we’ll check in with your swap partner.
• if you’d like to thank your partner, send us an email and we’ll put you in touch.
• to contact us for any of the above issues, send an email to functionalfeltswap {at} gmail {dot} com.

again, thank you to all that joined us. i’m already thinking about functional felt swap 2009!

xxxooo, jen

wow. i cannot say how happy and excited i am with how the functional felt swap well, functioned! the participants are an amazing bunch of creatives, and everything that was made is functional. pieces were knitted then felted. traditional felt was sewn and woven. sweaters were up-cycled into new creations. roving was transformed into shapes and sheets. i’ve put together a little mosaic of some of the work. i’ll post another one tomorrow. you can also check out the functional felt swap flickr pool to see more great work.

anna and i couldn’t be more ecstatic! it’s the first swap we’ve organized (and the 2nd one i’ve participated in), and all of you that joined us really made it rock. we hope it’s been a fun experience for you, and we’ve made new friends that we hope to keep in touch with!

ooops, i almost forgot! i put the names of those that have confirmed they have finished and posted their item into a bowl, and drew 3 last night. the lucky winners of the soaps are:

- jackie c in california
- sarah c in alabama
- abby b in minnesota

congratulations, the soaps are going out in the mail today!

xxxooo, jen

today is the last day of the functional felt swap! your items should be done, and in the mail!

i honestly wasn’t sure i’d make the deadline myself. my preferred medium is paper, so why in the world did i co-organize a swap that involved fibers? i can’t sew and my knitting skills are pretty basic… after coming up with a few ideas, i finally settled on the challenge of knitting a bowl.

the bowl is a bit bigger than i had expected it to be, but it’ll hold more stuff! it’s still a bit damp, so i actually will wait until tomorrow to send it off…

tomorrow i’ll announce the winners of the 3 felted soaps, which will be sent to 3 random swappers that have confirmed they are done (if you haven’t sent your confirmation via comments, flickr, or email, you can leave a comment on this post to be eligible!). yay, swappers! pat yourselves on the back! i know i am!

i just love everything in the paperiaarre etsy shop. (paperiaarre is finnish for paper treasure.) frankly, i am jealous of kaija’s talent and work… her color palette is beautiful, and i love the gocco printing on book cloth.

to go along with the matchbox mondays theme, a matchbook-style book, a book of good things. and i just discovered a recent project of kaija’s: matchbox a day. they’re gorgeous.

photo credit: paperiaarre etsy shop

i recently realized i collect matchboxes, which was a little surprise. i don’t think i ever consciously meant to collect them, but i am drawn to tiny things that have great design.

so for june, mondays will be matchbox monday. if you’ve got a few matchboxes, join me! i’ve set up a flickr group where you can upload your photos on each monday this month. or, leave a comment if you’re thinking of participating via your blog. don’t forget to tell me/us why you have that particular matchbox: why do you have it? where is it from?

at the end of the month, a lucky participant* will be sent the above säkerhets tändstickor matchbox. purchased purely for it’s wonderful design, it’s made in sweden, but i bought a couple of them in amsterdam in april. so start digging thru your drawers and random bowls around the house for your matchboxes! or go out and buy some! have fun!

*you don’t need to participate all 5 mondays to be eligible.

remember that w.i.p i posted about last week? well, i finally painted the 3 pieces. and oh, what a disaster. composition? exactly what i wanted. colors? pretty dang close. technique? sucks ass.

i debated showing them, as they really are bad (seriously. do not argue with me on this.). regardless, i decided that i’d share them, and share my failure. while debating on whether to post my disaster, i came up with an idea to continue working with the colors and composition, but in a different medium. i’m really excited to try it out. it’s nice to learn from failure, rather than get frustrated and just quit (which i sometimes do). stay tuned…

on to other things. yesterday i was tagged twice: miss evalynn of margins tagged me to share 7 factoids, and the lovely betsi of bee’s buzzings tagged me to share 6 things. i’ll combine the two and do 7. here goes…

1. i play hockey in the winter, and 3 years ago i ran a half marathon in 2 hours. i used to do rollerblade marathons, too. but in the last 2 years, i’ve been a bit of a slug and my exercise mostly consists of walking my dogs. it’s hard to find time to exercise when you work 50 hours a week… (plus i’m lazy.)

2. for the most part, i grew up without a tv. it broke when i was 5, and my mom decided we had better things to do with our time, so we didn’t fix it. we did end up getting a little one when i was 13, but we never had cable. i missed out on so many 80’s pop culture references!

3. i have 3 less-than-fabulous tattoos, and i used to have my eyebrow pierced. you can still see the holes.

4. i do not drink coffee, but i cannot function without a cup (or 4) of black tea. said tea must have turbinado sugar and evaporated milk (the closest substitute for dutch koffiemelk).

5. my first loves: randolph mantooth (from the show emergency! — i fell in love with him when i was 3, and told my mom that when i grew up i would break open the tv and marry him. this may be why she decided it’d be best to not have a tv.), luke skywalker, john taylor. current love: christian bale. sigh.

6. i love naps!

7. i will not walk under ladders, nor will i open an umbrella indoors. but 13 is my lucky number, and i do not fret over broken mirrors or black cats crossing my path. i guess it all evens out?

i’m supposed to tag others, but i’m going to be a poop and skip that part. instead, leave me an interesting factoid about yourself in the comments section!

happy weekend!

… i really thought you’d never arrive.

only 1 week left! it’s so fun to check the flickr group daily and see new projects popping in. the work is just amazing, and i hope that everyone is still having fun!

a little giveaway for swappers that meet the may 28 deadline: if you finish your swap item and send it out by next wednesday may 28, you are eligible to receive one of the three felted soaps pictured above. i made the soaps with an olive oil glycerin base and lavender essential oils, and felted them with roving from birdie. (i used the how to felt over a bar of soap tutorial from mielke’s fiber arts.) to enter: leave a comment here stating you’re done, leave a comment with anna’s latest update post, or send an email to functionalfeltswap {at} gmail {dot} com stating you’re done! you have until may 28!

congratulations to debbie, who will be receiving anna’s lovely felted bracelet from last week’s giveaway!

this piece, digging dog, arrived yesterday from the highlands in scotland, via etsy seller jointogether. it’s small, about 2×2 inches, and i love caroline’s illustration style and embroidery detail:

“i make my embroideries by drawing on fabric with professional crayon pencil then painting the image and embroidering the background, finally i hand embellish.”

i can’t wait to find a frame and get my little dog on a wall!

photo credit: join together etsy shop

yesterday a bunch of us drove 45 minutes west of the twin cities, to join my friend birdie for a wool dyeing party. as i mentioned in an earlier post, birdie has 8 sheep purely for their wool, and she has plenty of wool to share!

around lunch time, jackie, my sis, heather, anna, anna’s mom june, anna’s sister ellie, kathryn, kristen and i all gathered at birdie & ed’s hobby farm on a sunny but breezy day. first birdie taught us how to card the wool:

we all had the chance to card. we went through a whole pillowcase of wool, which birdie says represents only 1/10 of the fleece from one sheep. it really is amazing how much wool they carry around.

birdie and her husband ed had the fire started before everyone arrived, so it was nice and hot when we started mixing the dyes. everyone had a chance to help weigh the wool and measure dye ingredients:

once the dyes were mixed and the wool was added, the jars and pots were placed over the fire to set:

while the dye was setting we ate salads, fruit, and yummy cheese toast. birdie also made us rhubarb cobbler, with rhubarb from her garden. she told us she burned it, but don’t believe her — it was sooo good.

after about an hour over the fire, the dyed wool is rinsed and laid out in the sun to dry (the orange/rust/terra cotta dye is my favorite):

at the end of the day, we got to meet the sheep! they’re a bit timid, but definitely have personalities. they raced into the barn and then peeked out at us through the barn window…

outside on a sunny day, in the company of wonderful and talented women, eating good food, learning how to dye wool… the makings of a fabulous day. and we got to take some roving home! thank you so much, birdie!

in honor of bike to work week, a drawing i did of a bike (and my tea cup) while sitting in cafe krom, amsterdam. i consider this drawing unfinished, but don’t know what else i’m going to do to it yet…

and yup. i failed on the whole bike to work week thing. stuff on my mind is keeping me up late, and drinking a bit too much wine. maybe next week?

happy weekend!

this weekend is art-a-whirl! wha?

art-a-whirl is an open-studio and gallery tour of northeast minneapolis. i haven’t been able to make it every year, but it’s definitely a great option if you’re looking for something to do this weekend. days & times:

friday, may 16th - 5:00 to 10:00 pm
saturday, may 17th - 12:00 to 8:00 pm
sunday, may 18th - 12:00 to 5:00 pm

if you’re local, get a map and go!

um, yikes, i haven’t started my item yet! i did get my yarn last weekend, and new addi-turbo needles (highly recommended by anna). i want to knit, then felt a bowl, but the pattern is a little intimidating for my amateur skills… nothing like a bit of procrastination to put the pressure on!

so i hope that the rest of you are making better progress than i. we’ve got 2 more weeks to go, then your items should be shipped out on wednesday, may 28. and don’t forget to upload your finished piece to the functional felt swap flickr group! upload your progress, too — we all love to see what everyone is working on!

update: anna’s got a fun giveaway for felt swappers! all you need to do is give us an update on your progress. leave a comment here, leave a comment on anna’s post, or upload to the flickr group, by the end of the day, monday, may 19, and you’re automatically entered! see anna’s post for more details.

i came across bubbo last week via flickr. it was the bubbo-tubbo flickr avatar in a comment that caught my eye, which lead me to bubbo-tubbo flickr photos, then to the bubbo etsy shop.

i just love the print above, cat on my head. i love the colors, the illustration, the collaginess (is that a word?), and the humor… the matter-of-factness of the statement and the absurdity of walking around with a cat on one’s head… delicious!

photo credit: bubbo etsy shop

creative activity here has been at a low lately, due to the fact that i cannot say no to freelance requests. it’s not that i need the money, it’s just i am not great at saying no. and i’ve been going nuts for the last few weeks, working nights and weekends in addition to my day job. grrrrrr. but i guess i shouldn’t complain, it’s my own damn fault…

i’ve been wanting to do a series of paintings focusing around the globe lamps that hang in the bar that’s in the same building as my day job. i did have a few minutes to get started on saturday night, but i was too tired to get much further. i’m itching to work on them! but it may be another week or so before i finish them up. if they turn out as i had hoped, i will post them…

happy monday!

detail of “happyscape ix”, a watercolour painting by carina wardi

one last post before the weekend… the lovely and talented carina asked to interview me for her blog, carina’s craftblog. what an honor! she wanted to know about what i do, why, what inspires me, etc…

so if you want to read a little more about me or read me rambling on and on over the weekend, check out the interview! ooo, and check out carina’s etsy shop. i love her happy color creations!

last saturday afternoon, my friend shane and i stopped at a few studios on the lake minnetonka arts tour. we saved the best for last: visiting our friend laurie of pottery garage.

shane and i have known laurie for a few years, and i’m a huge fan of her work. my favorites are the japanese-inspired work, and i love her functional pieces, fired with natural-tone glazes (i love shino!). but laurie also does great sgraffito on porcelain. (sgraffito is a technique in which the piece is thrown, then a colored slip [slip: clay/colorant/water mixture] is added to the piece, and left to dry. then it is carved or scratched away, exposing the clay beneath before the piece is fired.) i am also soooo jealous that laurie took pottery classes, that she left her job, that she and her husband built a gorgeous studio on their property, and now she’s a full time potter!

so, in honor of blogging love week, a little giveaway: after i took the above photo of laurie in her studio with my polaroid camera, we all looked at it and wondered what the heck that red thing was she was holding. can you guess what it is? the first person to guess correctly in the comment section by sunday noon will win the sgraffito fish magnet made by laurie, pictured at the top of the post. (but not the bowl, that’s mine!)

i’ll also throw in a little goodie made by me, too. if no one guesses correctly, then i’ll draw a name at random. so what is that red thing laurie is holding? update: miss anna has guessed correctly! it is a bottle opener…

happy weekend! xxxooo

last saturday, i went to crafted together, a craft fair i haven’t been to yet. i was invited by bee, of beedazzles, and i wanted to meet her!

as i was wondering around, trying to find bee, i came across a few familiar names/faces. the first was sabrina of fox and clover (formerly green lantern glass). i had featured her old etsy shop last fall… and i’ve seen her work at gallery360, but i missed the opening reception for the last show she was featured in. so it was nice to finally meet her! sabrina does some really awesome work with glass. i didn’t get a shot of her booth, but i’ve pictured a great necklace above from her etsy shop.

then, a surprise! my friend pat (of heartstrands, new web site coming soon!) was just a few tables away from sabrina. a few days before, i had helped her set up her etsy shop, and she didn’t tell me she’d be at the craft show. so it was fun to see her again and chat a bit more about etsy and crafting. a quick shot of pat’s table:

then, finally, i found bee!

bee had left a comment on my blog a few weeks ago (hey, bee, how did you find me?), and we exchanged a few comments/emails. she told me about crafted together, and i promised to come and meet her.

and i held true to my promise! bee (betsi) is a wonderful illustrator, and applies her work to cards, pendants, magnets, prints. before i even got there, i had my eye on one of her new creations: a set of cards featuring one of her illustrations: raining cats & dogs. once i found her, i immediately stuck my hand out and said “i’m jen from painted fish studio”. i’m normally terribly shy, but since we had already “met”, i had no problem being a bit bold. how fun to finally meet her! we chatted about craft shows, etsy, her work. she threw out the idea of tag-teaming at a craft show. i met her lovely daughters. it was very fun. and she refused to let me pay for my cards. grrrr! i love them bee, thank you!

it’s amazing how many friends i’ve made via the online crafting community, and it’s so much fun to actually meet them in person! i hope to meet more of you.

xxxooo

in march, j of scissors paper glue and i exchanged a few emails about the demise of polaroid film and our need to hoard it. j suggested we do a spring polaroid swap: take 2 pictures of spring in our areas. i was excited to get some spring shots from california, but here in minnesota, spring was taking its time arriving… so we agreed to a deadline of the end of april.

last friday, a package arrived from j, and yay oh yay! 3 polaroids from the west coast:

roses outside of her daughter’s daycare/school

the beach

the first berries of the season

and, in addition to the beautiful spring shots she sent me, she also sent an ephemera packet, customized for me:

j’s and fish! i’m a big fan of her ephemera (i ordered a packet from her etsy shop in feb), and that she created one just for me gives me warm fuzzies inside. thank you so much, j!

last week was so poopy that i couldn’t find the time to finish up my package, so it didn’t get into the mail until monday. it’s on its way, j!

xxxooo

i first saw the wonderful and creative e of margins in the etsy forums. her avatar caught my eye, and when i checked out her shop i wasn’t disappointed. i love the rawness of her work, so i bought the piece pictured above, zebras and japanese, to bring some life to my desk at work. the piece is made with pages of a japanese-english dictionary collaged on a 8″x10″ wooden panel (and no, ayama-chan, i still don’t know a lick of japanese!). the zebras are stenciled over the pages, with spray paint.

after buying the piece, i became a regular reader of e’s blog. she’s so young (she recently turned 21) and creative, and struggles with wanting to create instead of focusing on her school work. she reminds me of me at her age, and while i’m not that old, i do have a good 13 years on her. i want to support her creativeness, and scream “don’t stop! don’t let go of your creativeness when you graduate! follow your dreams!”… while i don’t regret taking the career path when i left design school (it allows me to buy art!), it took me about 13 years to get back into being creative on a regular basis. i missed it.

so go e, keep it up. i’ll be your cheerleader!

xxxooo