Heart tea cozy

A whole week passed and I barely touched the computer. Well, I did, but too late when I was too tired so making sentences was a colossal task. I just read...

So, here we are... I talked about a tea cozy and hearts and an overdose of pink? well, some time ago, when I first opened my little online shop, someone asked me if I could make a tea cozy. It was my first custom order... first order actually. And I really liked the challenge because I had never made a tea cozy before. I was a newbie so I started doing it and when I was almost done with it, the customer informed me that she actually wasn't interested anymore. Since I was new at this, I hadn't charged anything before hand and I was left with a tea cozy full of pink hearts. Im not a big pinky, hearty person myself so I was left wondering what to do with it. Sure, I could have put it on the shop anyways but... you know when you do something but you are not completely satisfied with it... you just think... there is something missing here... and I dont like puting for sell something that doesnt convince me...
Months later I walked in a shop... one of those very old ones that seem to have been there for ever, with tons of bits and pieces all over the place. I found a bunch of little buttons shaped like hearts in different shades of pink and different sizes and bought them thinking of this cozy. Sew them up, added a little ball on the top for easy grabbing... and... taddaaaaaaaaa....



I tried it -to see if it worked- and it keept my tea warm for 3 hours!!!! Actually, I forgot it on the table and 5 hours later the tea was still warm, only... not drinkable warm...well, for me. I like my tea warm. Not luke warm but... warm!
Well, I really hope it finds a home soon because it deserves being used. Im not very pink myself so it doesn't match my cups and pots (as if everything had to match, right?).. So off to keep someone elses tea warm in this coming winter!

It's in my shop now!

On other news...I've been teaching myself how to sew a zipper to a wristlet... I feel so clumsy sometimes!

I know, not perfect... but now I know how to do it! I just need practice!

And I also taught myself how to put one of those magnetic snaps on a bag... I confused myself a bit what with the lining and the right side, the wrong side... I swear sometimes it feels easier for me to read a philosophy book than sewing instructions... my brain melts! How dumb am I.
Not really...:)
Well, you can't see the snap, but the bag itself is quite comfortable. It's linen with a nice Amy Butler fabric on top.

Anyway, it's saturday and the inlaws are coming over ... I better start cleaning up the house a bit. Just today the sun decides to come out and you can see all the dirt in the windows... damn! Now Im going to have to clean them......... whyyyyy?! Can you tell I am not a fan of household chores?

I hope everyone is doing ok!
Have a nice weekend!

Wallhangings

For a while now I've been working on some wall hangings. Mostly experimenting with shapes, fibers and embellishments.
Making a perfectly square piece of handfelted fabric is not as easy as it may seem. Keeping all those fibers straight is quite difficult. They tend to... 'disperse'.
After hours with my hands in soapy water, I did find my own way (which probably is no discovery really) of making perfectly square pieces. And then... I figured they were boring. See, they are not me. I am a firm believer that what you make, if you let your juices flow instead of "copying"; will be a reflection of your personality. Which means that if in life you are a bit messy, loud, spontaneous... your art will probably be too. And I am messy.... and loud... and spontaneous. Exotic they call me here ...which is too funny. Let's bare in mind that I live in The Netherlands and I come from a latin country. Latin culture by definition is all 3 of those adjetives, and more!. (nononono, doesnt mean that the dutch can not be messy. but it is quite unusual! ).

Anyway...
I have this Milschschaf flees which I got some time ago, which is super soft (and still smells like sheep) and used it as the base. I then used merino wool to' draw' the shapes on it. I used silk to give some light to the petals too. But that was not it. I used chenille to needlefelt the contorne of a flower, some rainbow yarn to make stems and leaves (also needlefelted) and I hand embroidered some details as well. Wait! almost forgot! there are some linen fibers as well! pheeewwww... lots uh? Yeah.
I like them. And no, they are not perfect squares. And you know what, better. They remind me of these old mexican paintings made on leather that were always hanging on the walls of my dad's study. Very ethnic!

My husband added a piece of wood on the back for support and then a little hook so they can be hanged (otherwise they wouldn't be wall hangings, right? ).





There are a couple more to come!
Since I am not a good photographer I know the picture do no justice to the actual piece. But... one works with what one has, uh?
These two are listed on my etsy shop. In a few days, some more.

Brooches

I admit this is a very free interpretation of what an orchid looks like... I know. Botanists are coming after my head! I know.
I like them a lot. I found, a few days ago, this beautiful rainbow dyed silk which I applied to the top of a mount of soft orange merino wool. YUM! I hand sew some black beads to one, and the second one, a bit smaller, has black, transparent and orange beads. They reflect the light and kinda glow a bit.
To my own surprise, I'm falling in love with orange! I've always been partial to very fiery red...my favorite color. However, I'm giving orange a chance. Must be because the dutch football team is winning like crazy (so far) and the streets of this country are full with orange flags. It's contagious.

I use this type of hand felted brooches to embellish just about anything My own clothes (on those days that I just look too boring, the brooches add that extra something), curtains, bags... they same style of flower (without the pin in th back) can be attached to pillows and things like that... just use your imagination!

They are now on both my shops: Florcita Dawanda and Florcita Etsy

While it rains

Well, that was it for spring apparently. For the last couple of days we have had nothing but rain, rain and...yes, more rain.
Gloomy weather means to me staying home and trying to do something creative. I had some wool laying around, bits and pieces from other stuff I made some time ago, so I had to transform the raw materials into something new.

These are much easier, faster hand felted bowls. Smaller in size and rougher the shape. I like them. My friend Reya taught me how to make them in our first felting day a few months back. I decided to experiment a bit with adding yarn to it like chenille and some hand spawn two colored yarn I brought from Argentina a few years ago (to work with in a loom).

My mom sent me a bag of goodies full of (candy and) buttons. Hand made buttons: wood, leather, hand painted ones. So I used a hardened leather brown leaf button for one of the bowls, and some wooden and matching green buttons for the other one.



...that is just a beautiful yellow poppy from my garden!




Here, the leaf button (made of hardened leather) sent by my Mom (which means that this bowl then, is international! :P )


They are both now for sale at my Etsy shop: www.florcita.etsy.com (there is something going on with blogger and is messing up all my links, so please, copy and paste on your navigation bar!).


Thanks for coming by!

Bowls spree!

Yesterday a company came over to work in our house. This is a very old house which, when we bought it, had been left untouch since it was built in 1948. It was fun and a challenge for us to bring it to these days and age, and we are still busy ... but everything has been done with our own hands which takes longer. There are certain things, like insulating your walls, that one just can't do. We dont have the equipment. So, these people came, drilled 150 holes on the outside walls of our house and then, through them, filled the gap between the outside and inner wall ( each wall is formed by two single brick walls. In the middle, air...till today) with terlgopor little balls.

While this was taking place, I couldn't leave the house. So I took out my wool, water and soap... and worked on some stuff.

I've been meaning to do some felted bowls for the etsy shop I'm setting up (I don't want to have the same items on both Dawanda and etsy's shop). I just grabbed 3 different wools: La Plata broken white, red merino (love it!!) and some Gotland Island grey. I added to the mix some red linen fibers and some cotton yarn I had laying around.

Making bowls is an experiment in itself... adding stuff, shaping it...and then hanging it to dry. This is what I came up with:



Individually:

Crossroads bowl



Dots bowl:



Nerves bowl:


Red melting bowl:



So, what do you think?
By the way, they are now for sale at my etsy shop: www. florcita.etsy.com