Another Day

And another book review! This time, in case you think I’m overly critical of every book, I’ve chosen one that I absolutely love: “How We Felt” by Carol Huber Cypher.

This is such a fabulously beautiful book! It’s even better than Carol’s first felt book, “Hand Felted Jewelry and Beads” which I also adored. This one features the work of many felt artists and covers a number of different items, from purses and hats to capes and vests with slippers and scarves and even vessels in between. I’d be happy to own almost every one of them! The techniques are wide-ranging, including felting over a ball, resists, nuno and embellishing with beads and needle-felting. The colours are delightful and each technique is quite carefully spelled out with plenty of illustrations. Each artist’s particular style and methods are discussed and there is a lot of variation in the way that they work to achieve their particular results. In the back there is a gallery section with even more eye-candy for inspiration. This book is not really for rank beginners at wet felting but there is a section in the very back on the basics and there is a list of sources for equipment and materials, both general and specific (US) companies. However, I would suggest experimenting with some basic felting first before diving into the more complex pieces described in this book. I do love to see things taken to the next level though. There are far too many beginner books out there on every subject but not enough on a more advanced level for when you have developed your skills and want to go further. Not everything needs to be “quick & easy”!

This is a short post today because I’ve just been reminded that I must take cookies to the weavers’ guild meeting tomorrow, plus extras because of my friend who’s still in hospital and who was supposed to contribute. Gotta go do that right now, assuming I can find the ingredients. I rarely eat sweets and only bake when I must. Not that I won’t eat them if they’re around! Which of course is the reason I don’t bake.