Yet Another….. Art Fair Invite

Tammy L Deck : ArtWear from Westmont, Illinois

Hats, Purses, Scarves, Shawls, Garments & Jewelery

Felting, Handweaving, Crochet, Knitting, Fused Glass & Lampwork Beads

Invitation to another Art Fair

I was on the alternate list….just found out last night that I’m in….Come say Hi!

 

 

Tammy L Deck ~ Westmont, IL

Come See Me at my Art Fair this Weekend

 July 12th and 13th ~ Orland Park Crossing, 143rd and LaGrange Rd (rt 45), Orland Park

 

Tammy Deck / Westmont, IL

Interviews

I am asking for your help, our readers, with this as well as asking the members of the Collective.  I have a glass interview that I pretty much like and would like to keep as it is.  But we now have people who do glass but they also do PMC, Felting, wirework, jewelry making too.  I’d like to interview some of those people as the thing that they most like doing.  I can’t imagine interviewing Tammy Deck about beads.  I want to hear everything she has to say about felting because she’s awesome at it.  So help my everyone who reads this please.  Tell me what you’d like to know from people during an interview.  It can be as mundane as the kind of tacos that make them want to felt a Mexican motif.  It can be as essoteric as the art they saw over the last three weeks that all congealed in their brains and now we are going to get …this.

Please let me know what you want to know.  No question is too silly, to invasive too anything.  That’s because I have the editorial approval for them.  LOL  So wanna ask ‘that’ question…we’ll see how it can be phrased to be worked in–or we won’t.  Just give me the question, OK? 

I’d like to do an interview a week with someone.  Doesn’t have to be just glass but it does have to be with us, with outside people, with people who do other things that fit in this groups things.  If YOU’d like to be considered as the Featured Artist, let me know.  Just keep the questions coming, please. And let us know your inspiration too.  You never know what that can start!

 

 

Felting 101

Felting 101

What a great time I had yesterday! My friend Rebekah and I went to TLD Designs in Westmont and took a felting class with Tammy. Tammy makes some absolutely beautiful felted items as well as doing weaving, spinning, and other fiber arts. Her work has been highlighted in Belle Armoire magazine and she’s been on “That’s Clever” on HGTV.

I’ll just give a brief description of what we did. If you want all the details, you have to take the class. LOL I will tell you though, that you need to wear a T-shirt, not a sweater. It’s not a passive process at all. If I felted all the time, I’d definitely be in better shape!

We started the process by taking what’s basically a hunk of unspun wool, called roving. We pulled very fine fibers from it and laid them down on a sheet of muslin to form the base of our scarves.

It’s not easy to get the right amount as it needs to be very fine. Mine is almost too much!

Once we laid our fibers down then we started doing the structure of the piece. We started by laying down long strands of yarns. We wanted to use yarns that would felt well so if we added something in that wasn’t a ‘felter’, then we had to be sure that it was crossed by a piece that was. This is Rebekah starting to lay down the long strands.

Once that process was finished, we started doing our designs. We could use spirals, swirls, anything that we wanted to give structure to the design. The more structure, the sturdier the piece. When we were through with that part, we went back to fill any little areas that needed it with roving.

I was too busy working to take pictures of the rest of the process but basically we finished this part, covered it with what looked like a curtain and then got it wet. Once that was done, we started the felting process with a sander. Yep. We got to play with power tools too! The next parts of the process were the felting itself. We rolled the whole thing up, soaked it in hot water and went to work. The hardest part is the last 30 minutes, trust me on this one. My hands still hurt. After the felting is accomplished, I brought my masterpiece home and hung it to dry. And, voila, here it is…