Sayra Adams of Idaho, United States creates the most stunning felted hats that anyone would look dramatic wearing. Sayra not only makes hats but she makes wool art batts, and spins yarn which looks like they would be lovely to work with.  Pay a visit on her Blog “Hat Diva” or shop her charming shops “Hatdiva Hats” and “Atomicblue fiber” and tell her you saw her on Craft Gossip Felting.  You can follow her on TWITTER too.

I met Maureen Cracknell on Facebook and want to share this felting artist’s creations with you.  Check her out on Facebook and become her friend and keep up with all her new creations. She makes the most adorable “Heart Felt” dolls and “Felts Like Home” Dollhouse Ornament.  She just opened a ETSY shop called “Maureen Cracknell Handmade” and she tells me that she will be adding items daily for the holidays.   She also has started a blog called “Maureen Cracknell Handmade”.  Maureen is not new to crafting in felt.  Recently she finished up a toy line for the music duo Renee & Jeremy a unique collaboration and she thinks this is one of the coolest things she has gotten to make. All the items she created were inspired by the awesome animation for their music video for “It’s a big world” and the illustrations on their website, both done by artist Hsinping Pan. Check these exciting people and watch to the fun videos.

Maureen Cracknell Handmade is a home business she has recently started. With a desire to create and constant inspiration from her three children she began making clothing and toys and knew that if she was going to put anything out there, she wanted it to be green.

Isla Corbett Creates exquisite felted art in her home based studio in California. From Isla’s profile below you can read that she gets most of her inspiration from nature. She sells her items in her ETSY shop called “I S L A C O R B E T T”.  Everything is handmade and lovely.  She carries Bags, purses, pillows and accessories in her shop.   Do pop over and see her website and her shop. Isla is a very talented fiber arts designer, who works in our favorite media: 100% wool felt.   Isla Corbett is on Facebook and Twitter if you would like to follow her.

Isla’s Profile:

Welcome to my website! I design wool felt accessories for modern living and needle felted hair accessories, all of which is handmade by me in my home studio. My inspiration comes from my love of gardening and from nature in general. I love hunting for unfamiliar plants in our local nurseries, picking up seed pods and striking leaves etc on walks with my son. Whether it’s the shape , color or the three dimensional qualities of the treasures I find, I am so awe inspired to think that tiny seeds can emerge from the ground and produce such a diverse assortment of pleasing forms. So it’s with natures amazing palette of color and naïve elements which allow me to absorb and create products that reflect my interest.

Chrissie the shop owner of “Make Your Presents Felt” does some wonderful designs with felt.  I am totally in love with this Felt bead and wooden petal choker necklace.  Her shop has some lovely items you have to see.  I also love her Nuno felted vessel with burlap/hessian collar, it is so primitive and would make a wonderful conversation piece in your home. Sorry, I just bought both pieces.  Chrissie: “Hello and thanks for looking! I’m a time-served Scots crafter (living in England) who has for the last 30 years lovingly made gifts for friends and family, or to decorate our home. I was always getting told off for “skiddling” when I was little (that’s ‘making a mess with water’ to anyone who isn’t Scottish!) so I’m in my element wet-felting.

I bought these adorable acorns from Kim Buchheit of Wildly Woolly and I love them.  I have a small black bowl filled with them on my coffee table and people always ask where I bought them.  I always tell them where to get them but I don’t know if they buy them, but I hope they do.  Now Kim is offering a video tutorial on just how to make these darlings and the process is clear and doable.  If you are not into making them you can always buy them from Kim’s ETSY shop “Kim’s ETSY Boutique” along with some of her other fabulous felted art.  Thanks Kim, for the wonderful video tutorial.

Leah Adams of SpiderFelt is generously offering one of my readers a chance to win her lovely Verbena Felt Soap Kit, so fragrant and pretty. Leah is a talented felt designer who evolves daily in creating exquisite felted items to wear, hold, as well as kits for those who want to make their own felt items. She is an artist who has taken her felting art into brilliant realms. Her knowledge of felt is amazing and we are so lucky to be a part of her world. We would like you to become a fan of Leah’s SpiderFelt on Facebook. If you do not have an account, please think about signing up and joining us on Facebook. The giveaway will run for 10 days, from October 23, 2009 through November 1, 2009. To enter, simply go to Leah’s SpiderFelt Shop and select an item you like, then come back here and post about the item you love in the comment section here. This giveaway will end at midnight EST November 1st. Good luck to everyone.

Leah Adams of Spider Felt is offering some wonderful felting kits.  The soap making kits comes with three bars of Green Tea and Olive Oil Soap, three colors of roving and instructions. Leah is an amazing felting artist and is giving us everything we need to make soap or give a kit as gifts to someone who love crafting and has never tried felting.  She also has other felting kits, so pop on over and take a look at her lovely art felting and kits.

Leah enlightens:

“Why would I want a felt soap?” you ask. Have you ever dropped a sliver of soap in the shower and watched it slip down the drain? Never again. As you use your felt soap, the bar inside the felt package dissolves slowly leaving a hollow ball. Typically lasting three times as long as your average bar of soap, every last suds is used in this efficient conveyance. Plus, the felt gently exfoliates your skin as you wash.

Discover this amazing felting and fiber artist’s ETSY shop call pillowhappy.  She make the most lovely pillows and other wonderful felted items.  Maybe her shop will offer you some ideas for holiday gift giving or to dress up your own home.  Take a look and you will not be disappointed.  Shop owners profile: One day I was sewing a slipcover for my couch. One day turned into a week as I went a little “slipcover happy” and slip covered virtually everything in my house. In the meantime, I needed to get some ideas of mine on “pillow”, and this shop was created! I’ve gone pillowhappy people! I hope you do too.

Taffy Knit’s has a very charming ETSY shop filled with enjoyable items to decorate with, wear or just for fun.  I love the witches brewing kettle, pumpkins and apples as they are all seasonal for the fall.  Check out this stay at home mother of four ETSY shop and offer some comments.  Her designs are unique, fun and practical. She offers felted knitted items because she feels that felted wool is such an efficient fabric for our busy lives. She also loves the fun and the shrinking process because it always brings the element of surprise.

We all love our pets and taking pictures of them is always a family favorite.  Pets are a treasured part of our lives and now you can have your pet sculptured into a lifelike miniature by artist Amelia Santiago.  Taken from Inhabitots:  Amelia takes up to 20 hours to create each sculpture by hand, poking thousands of strands of felt into the finished piece, perfecting the animal’s markings and making subtle adjustments to capture character. The result is an immortal keepsake and sentimental homage to a cherished pet.

Chrissy, the proprietor of the Felted Chicken is making the most incredible needle felted Angler Fish and it is a must see. She is journaling her day-by-day process with visuals of what she has done and it is fun to see heaps of fiber evolve into a remarkable piece of art.  Chrissy’s blog is Felted Chicken and her ETSY shop carries the same name.

Chrissy:

“I’m in love with the process of creating things. It doesn’t matter what I am making, as long as my hands are busy. It could be Christmas presents for my family, large foam scenic sculptures for movie sets, hand-made needle-felted sushi, or the daily To-Do & Grocery lists I am constantly making. Currently I am making many things out of felt. I love the fabric; it reminds me of craft projects I did as a child. My sculptures are 100% hand-felted wool made by Needle-felting. Needle-felting is the process of matting and compressing animal fibers into felt by stabbing a barbed needle into the fibers over and over and over and over again. It is very time-consuming, but also amazingly fulfilling. It allows me to hand sculpt fabric without having to use a sewing machine. It combines many of my favorite things – sculpting & stuffed animals – fine art & toys – innocence & craftsmanship”.

This is such a clever idea for having a felt doll turn out perfect every time. 

Sue McFadden has created a wonderful tutorial/pictorial to show you how to make a 2 piece plaster mold. Follow her step-by-step tutorial and you too will know how this is created.  I would think that you could use this method to make other types of felted items. I pictured a couple of Sue’s adorable dolls so you could get an idea of what amazing art she creates. Here’s what Sue had to say about her pictorial: “Finished Super Sculpey Sculpts – 3 sculpts of doll heads and torsos ready for plaster mold making! In this tutorial I will be demonstrating the 2 part mold for the smallest doll (9″ tall). This method using plastic containers works nicely for small dolls. Larger dolls will need to have a mold box built.” Get To Know The Artist/Crafter Series Interview – Sue McFadden of Sue McFadden Original Felt Dolls But sure to scroll down the page to read the interview.

J. Elizabeth is an astonishing felting artist, as you can see from the pictures above.  I love the idea of stools because this is an application that could be applied to any stool bass or chair.  What a great idea.  What new mother would not adore heartfelt Baby Booties as a gift.  J. Elizabeth has a blog titled “Sugarplum Originals” and she also has an ETSY shop called, “Sugarplum Originals”.  Check out both her shop and blog and you will find amazing felted treasures.

j.elizabeth

I am a fiber artist; I love all things wool and fuzzy (or furry)! I started off knitting when I was a very small child a Barbie in a can outfit to be exact! I also started with the whole felt thing around then also when I would make felt outfits for my troll dolls! Mom hated them, (she loved teddy bears!) thought they were ugly!!! I of course loved them. Anyway as time has progressed I was an art major in college and one of my favorite classes was wax sculpting. I have recently been working a lot with felting and handbags creating my own style with knotted embroidery and beading. I have been getting an overwhelming response with awesome letters and feedback. I just recently started the art of needle felting along with nuno felting you may notice some of my bears have clothing that looks like a child would wear. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Hope you enjoy my work because I love it!! I always welcome feedback, it helps in staying in touch with what people like or need.

Leah is such a diverse fiber artist that I could write several articles covering this gifted lady.   Today I’d like to introduce you to Leah’s the stunning wet felt flower kits. Now you will be able to create the same amazing flowers that Leah does. She is carrying them in her ETSY shop called “Spider Felt” for you to purchase for yourself or for a gift for someone who likes to try a new craft.  With the instructions and materials included in this kit, you will make three flowers and stems using wet felting techniques. You are able to choose from one of eight color ways (clockwise from top left): violet, begonia, tulip, poppy, pansy, hydrangea, geranium, rose.
Materials provided: 1.5 oz of merino, 12″ square of tulle, 12″ square of bubble-wrap, instructions with photos, link to online photo tutorial. Following is a little about how Leah developed these amazing kits. 

After months and months in development, testing, trials, comments and revisions, I’ve finally finished a Wet Felt Flower Kit. Materials included in this kit are sufficient to create three large flowers with stems: 1.5 oz merino, 12? square of tulle and 12? square of bubble wrap, photo instructions and an online photo tutorial. Thank you to the kit testers who helped enormously in the refining stages of this kit. My hat tips as I do a deep curtsy to Lora Shinn for the gorgeous photos she took on a very grey day in March. This kit will is now for sale in my ETSY shop; for crafters who have materials on hand, the tutorial is available for purchase as a PDF.

Hillary Gillick, lives in Seattle with her husband and their real-life lizard pets Kali and Salvador Mali.. Hillary contributed a project to “Feltique” the book that I reviewed a couple weeks ago. When I held the needle felted earring kit giveaway. Hillary’s adorable Cupcake Chomper was featured in the book. She tells me she gravitates towards the strange, absurd and surreal ( in craft and in life) and generally thinks that everything is better with tentacles. Hillary relates; “I love to create – and needle felting has been and continues to be an amazing way to capture and bring to life the denizens that roam through my head”.   Her needle felting is as smooth as a baby’s bottom without a fiber out of place. She also creates art depicting the Squiddy Bear, Schnoozle Doot Doot, and more. Her work is definitely strikingly unconventional and amusing.  Their caricatures definitely put a smile on anyone’s face.  Hillary can be found on Flickr and as a ETSY shop called Hillyhill that you must visit.  I’d like to thank Hillary, for bringing a little humor into our lives with your whimsical creatures.