Of late, the focus for my newsletter has been mostly related to my hand-dyed yarn. This week, though, I thought I would focus instead on the other goodies in my shop–things I have made that would make wonderful gifts for your friends and family or special treats for you, my fellow fiber artists.

Fiber Paintings

First off, let’s take a look at my fiber paintings. I started making these right about this time last year. It was one of those ideas that woke me up in the middle of the night and was followed by lots of experimentation as I came up with something unique. They are made using all the wonderful fibers I use for my art batts along with vintage frames. Recently, I had someone who owned an art gallery buy several of them, so who knows?

I actually do not have plans to make more of these right now just because a girl can only do so many things at once, but I’ll show you a few of the ones I have available as I write this.

This one is very small and would make a lovely stocking stuffer. It was inspired by Raphael’s “Madonna of the Chair.”

Here’s a medium-sized one that was inspired by the view of Sedona out my front windows:

Here’s one that’s a bit larger. This one was inspired by the beautiful little Australian bird, the Gouldian Finch:

Here is a photo of the bird I used for my inspiration:

You can find these and several more in the Fiber Paintings section of my shop.

Hand-Dyed Silk Scarves

Now, I’d like to show you some of the silk scarves I’ve been busily dyeing. These are great to use just as they are–and I freely admit that my daughter and I have both added a few favorites to our closets. They are also good for nuno felting, and I have felting fiber kits to go along with them here.

Dyeing these has been such a delight because each one is unique and unrepeatable, and sometimes even I have been quite surprised by the results.

I have both regular long scarves made of silk chiffon and infinity scarves made of habotai silk. The silk chiffon is great because they are so light weight and don’t really need ironing. The habotai silk is lovely because it has wonderful sheen and silky crispness, and I personally love infinity scarves because they are so easy to wear.

Here are a few of both types that I have in stock now:

 

This is my West Fork in Autumn colorway “translated” into a silk infinity scarf. I love how these turned out!

Here’s the same colorway on the Silk Chiffon Scarves:

I also dyed my Black Butterfly colorway as silk chiffon scarves:

I saved my very favorite for last. I named it Stargazing, and this one was a complete surprise and turned out quite differently than I expected:

I only have one more of these available.

I have quite a few other silk scarf colorways available as well. My one frustration with all of these is that I feel like my photography skills aren’t equal to the scarves themselves, but that just means I have more to learn, right?

Silk Hankies

I did also want to mention that I have lots of silk hankies for spinners in stock right now. These have become difficult to obtain, so I got a lot when they were last available from my wholesaler. I just finished dyeing up the last of them this week. These are not hankies for noses. Rather, they are stacks of silk cocoons that can be spun and also used as an embellishment in felting. Here are the latest ones drying:

If you are a spinner but have never used these, they are so much fun to spin and make it really easy to spin fine lace. If you are not a spinner, I should mention that you can actually knit or crochet directly from these without spinning them because silk is so very strong and has such a long staple length. I have a tutorial on spinning these here, and here’s a tutorial on knitting directly from them here.

You can see all the ones I have in stock in the Fiber to Spin and Felt section of my shop along with my art batts and hand-dyed top.

Tempe Yarn Shop

This Saturday I will be taking part in Tempe Yarn’s local artist day, so if you live in the Phoenix area, please stop by my table and say hello. I did want to let you know that I’ll be closing down my online shop for the day to avoid selling the same item twice, but I’ll have the shop up and running again by Monday at the latest.

Until next week, happy fiber artistry!