Peace Felt gifts

For anybody not involved with PeaceFelt heres a lil` bit about what its all about...

To celebrate the International Day of Peace, 21st September, and nurture new friendships across the globe the folks at Living Felt started the PeaceFelt circle of giving. Everybody who signed up was paired with 2 others; a giving partner from who you receive a gift & a receiving partner for whom you make a gift.

Earlier this week I received a lovely gift from Mary one of my PeaceFelt partners. Over the course of our emails back & forth it turns out that Marys ancestors lived about 7 miles from here in Kidderminster, UK. They emigrated in the late 1800s... hows that for coincidence?! We share a love of history & the connection we feel, through our fibre crafts, with the generations who have gone before us (as well as both loving dogs & being on & by water) :)

Mary made a beautiful necklace for me...

In colours reminiscent of the Atlantic Ocean which lies between our 2 countries. Each bead is beautifully crafted, between each felt bead is a sea glass bead (luuuurve!). Its hand knotted, and there is a sweet little peace charm dangle by the clasp.

Its lovely to of made new felting friends.

And I posted my gift to SAM. Sam is 17 and lives in the USA. I had thought long & hard about the design... and knew early on what I wanted to do. But what was it going to be... a wall hanging? A bag? I finally decided to make a journal cover, as I think this is likely to be most usefel. I felted it over a resist and used inlays to create the picture. Ive not felted a book cover before, so this was a new experience for me & I almost shrunk it too much... I forgot to allow `give` so the book could close! Rather silly of me, Im glad I noticed before it was too late.

On the Tree of Life is a pewter Goddess... The moon and stars which look down on us all, in this the constelation is a triskel - the Celtic symbol for balance & unity (also symbolises trinities; the triple Goddess, cycles of life, land sea and sky), its quite a complicated little symbol - but fits well with how I feel about peace, love, life & this earth. Sam also loves nature so Im hoping that she will like the design & also find a journal useful. I did hold off publishing this post, cos I didnt want to spoil the suprise as Sam opens her gift... It should be nearly there now though :)

Ive really enjoyed being part of the PeaceFelt movement. And looking at the work that so many felters have created to give freely & unconditionally to people they have only just `met` is quite wonderful. Lots of beautiful gifts have been posted on the Facebook Fan page. One thing that has struck me is that so many of us connect the same images to peace... moon, stars, trees, seas - how alike we are.

The primary school workshop yesterday went very well... I was shattered at the end of the day, but it was good fun! And the kids have produced some lovely felt, which is now drying over the hotplate on my stove.

Tomorow Im felting at the farm charity fundraiser. Its supposed to go very cold for tomorow (hope its dry) so we might have cold fingers.

Whatever you have planned, hope you all have a wonderful weekend x

A busy week ahead

This is a busy & exciting week for me!

Thursday I am working in my local primary school on a felting workshop. The teacher was so impressed with Rachaels felted gifts last term that she JUMPED at the offer of a felting workshop. Year 5/6 have an `under the sea` topic this term, so we are going to felt sea creatures, using blue, green & yellow; the FeltUnited 2010 colours. I shall assemble them (at home) into a mobile. Im hoping to exhibit the finished piece at Haden Hill House, the closest of our local museum buildings, on Sat 2nd October... we are just sorting out the logistics of exactly where it can hang; Im really hoping that works out, I think it would be a big boost for the kids to have their work publicly exhibited.

Saturday 25th is the charity day on the farm (details on the right) I am SO looking forward to this. It sounds like a lot of fun & if the sun shines for us it will be wonderful! Anybody in the Midlands area, if you fancy an afternoon out why not drop by? If you do please introduce yourself, be nice to meet you. Im doing a very simple felt workshop there... using some of the farms jacob fleece to felt beeds. Im thinking if folks felt 1, or as many as they want, I can string them onto ribbon & they can wear it home as a bracelet... or whatever. Might take a little colourful Icelandic wool too... just incase. Clare is going to be spinning, so it should be a nice afternoon submerged in wooly farmy wholesome goodness :)

AND I have to ship my Peacefelt to my lovely PeacePartner Sam... I shall post about that next time...

xx