Felted Flowers by Ruth Beer

From this:

To this!:

Above is a detail from a piece of Ruth Beer's stunning felt work. Ruth felted the colourful flowers from Fibrecrafts wool tops and then added stitching and sequins for a 3d effect. Here is a link to Ruth's page so that you can see the entire piece or you can take a while to browse the whole of the Gallery

Not just a Washboard...

We're so pleased with this new product that we've even put our name on it!

The washboard will make light work of the felting process. As you rub the wool on the board the ribbed surface accelerates the fulling and the curved grooves allow the soapy water to drain away.

You can also use the washboard to felt sections of knitting. Isolate an area by tying a screwed up plastic bag into it and rub the 'ball' up and down the board. The stitches will begin to shrink together creating dimples in the knitting.

The washboard is also great for getting grime out of shirt cuffs and collars and others have been known to use it as a musical instrument (send us your skiffle pics today)!

Click here to find out more about Feltmaking...

Are you an Intrepid Explorer?

FIBRECRAFTS have launched a selection of Explorer Packs designed to encourage the cautious, excite the creative and provoke the imaginative.

Each pack contains the main items needed to explore the craft by which it is named. The Knit & Crochet Explorer Pack includes a chunky crochet hook, four types of yarns and a FREE set of handmade Surina Knitting Needles. We've even included basic instructions to get you started!

The 3 other Explorer packs, which include Feltmaking, Weaving and Silk Painting can also be found in the Special Offers section of the site. Each of them contains a FREE gift - worth at least £3.30 - and all the ingredients to get you started.

Christmas Decoration Ideas

If you've got some free time between now and Christmas, here are some Christmas projects just begging to be explored....

Computer Printed Silk Organza Christmas Card

This card was designed and created by Linda Chapman. It is a relatively simple design but nonetheless very effective. Linda used a card blank, available from most stationery stores, and stuck a layer of batik decorated tissue paper in the centre. The tissue paper was wetted with a paint brush before being pulled apart to reveal a feathered edge. Find out more...

Angelina Fibre Bell

Heat bondable Angelina fibre can be used in a number of ways. Here we have discovered a fun and simple way to bind them into a three-dimensional shape. The Angelina fibres need only a very small amount of indirect heat to make them fuse, in this instance, boiling water is involved so please take care! Find out more...

Felted Santa

Felt is created by agitating wool fibres until they mat together to form a non-woven fabric. The fibres can be laid flat on a surface or molded around a former such as a hatshaper, cardboard or even a ball.This Santa was felted entirely in a washing machine. The head, body, hands and nose were created from balls while the limbs were made by shaping the fibres before rolling them and tack stitching them into J-cloth. Find out more...

Handspun, Knitted and Felted Bag

Chrissie Shepherd has sent us this photo of her hand crafted bag. It is made by first hand spinning dyed wool tops (drafting the colours at random to create the variation in colour), then knitted and finally felted. Chrissie is so happy with her experiment, that she made this comment, 'I am very pleased with the end result and am going to make lots more using themed colours.'

FIBRES: International Feltmakers Association Conference & AGM

The International Feltmakers Association Conference and AGM was held in Swansea between 29th March and 1st April 2007. FIBRECRAFTS were pleased to supply member Kirsten Hill-Nixon with 6kg of sample fibres and 20 lengths of needlefelt fabric for use in her Egyptian inspired felting competition.

We were delighted to receive her letter thanking us for our contribution and detailing the success of the competition. Along with her letter, she kindly sent us a collage of images and comments from the delegate feltmakers who used the products.

Thank you Feltmakers for such positive feedback and for the opportunity to see what you created with the fibres