Sunset Goblin

There is a little guy I finished today. He came together really fast. Again I used my own batch of wool I bought from a farm up Island. Dyed with Orange Kool Aid. I took scraps of merino I had and carded the made on my drum carder. I added lemon Angelina Sparkle to the mane, and Peach to the tummy fur. I love the detail. It really is like painting to me, but with a needle instead of a brush. It helps to have all the colors on hand, then I can have a huge range when designing these little guys. My husband wants me to come up with a series of Flower Goblins. Basically same concept, but with petals around the face. Snap Dragon Goblin, Pansy Goblin...etc, etc. Good idea for sure, although I have so many more ideas to hash out before I can start a series. Plus, I want to start my wonderland series. I am really excited to start doing some darker Alice Characters. Stay Tooned!



Sunset Goblin is available on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27104892

Lime Green Goblin & Rainbow Flower

This is my most recent project which is now basically completed. Lime Green Woolie Wog Goblin and his Rainbow Flower Creature. I started off with the batch of Lime Green Kool-Aid Dyed wool I made on Father's Day. My intentions were to make him smaller then my last few Goblins, since I had received a few Etsy requests for "more affordable priced" Goblins.  What I came up with in the end was a 9" from sitting postion tall Goblin. Which makes him my second biggest creation. Yikes! Oh well, he is really cute. George then wanted me to have him hold a flower. I came up with the face and we both decided that it should have rainbow petals. Every color came from my own batch of Kool-Aid dyed wool. The best part for me making this little guy was working with the super soft Merino which I bought from Aurelia Wool located in Merrit BC.  I love using this stuff for the mane and tummy. It is so fine and silky. The colors are fun too! I did the horns a few different colors and then ended up with the pink candy striped ones you see in the picture. I wanted wings on him, but was worried he would look like a Dragon, so I just used a spray of Fantasy Fiber, unfortunaly you can not tell from the pictures, but it does add amazing glitz and sparkle. I did one toe yellow and orange stipped. I had intentions on doing all the toes, but in the end liked the quirky look of only having one strippey "Lucky" toe. I finished this Goblin in record time too. What usually took  me a week only took me about two nights. This I attribute to not having a wire armature, pipe cleaners or jointed limbs. I liked it way better with out the mechanics on the inside. I was still able to attach the flower to his hand, and keep one hand free to pose. My favorite Goblin Yet!

These two are available on Etsy!




www.tanglewoodthicket.etsy.com

Adventures with Kool-Aid and Wool

I thought I would show off my first attempt at dying wool. As I had mentioned before in a previous post, my Mother in Law sent me a pound of really fluffy wool from a farm in her area near the Arrow Lakes. I thought I would take a stab at dying it myself.  I really like the idea of making goblins and other soft creatures that are non toxic and 100% safe for kids and I suppose even pets.  I went out and bought a few choice packs of Kool-Aid, and took out my collection of Wilton's Cake Icing Dye. I was able to get my husband George to set up his propane burner in which he has for crafting his own beer. I set it up on my deck along with a small utility table for setting up my dye, a scale, a bowl, turkey baster and mixing spoon. I put a large pot on the burner and started the Dye Adventure with Red. I find that if I am doing anything with color, I have to do it according to the rainbow, and according to proper gradation. I started with red and worked my way to dark purple. As noted on other Blogs, the Wilton's Violet and Blue dye goes  a little wonky. I ended up with a purple, blue and magenta tie dye effect from one  squirt of blue in clean water and a splash of vinegar. I think the dye may have separated in the pot. No idea how else I could have managed the effect. I used the turkey baster to try and add darker splashes of color. I also sprinkled Kool-Aid crystals on the wet roving to see what would happen. With the Orange it made this really cool sunset effect. It's so pretty! If I had more time and more colors to play with I would have tried every possible combination. Oh well, next time. What the pictures are showing is about 1.5 pounds of roving hanging in my back yard trying to dry. Although it was a little hard today. I am too close to the Ocean here in Fairfield to get enough warmth to dry them fast. I used my clothes line to hang dry my rainbow for a couple of hours before bringing them into my sun room to dry a bit more.

I can't wait to card all these colors!

Bat Wing Goblin

I was contacted last week from a fellow Etsy person asking if I had planned to make some goblins in the 20.00 to 30.00 range. I had thought about it, and wanted to make some smaller creations that could be affordable to everyone. I created this next little goblin with that in mind. Instead of the normal 9" I had made my other creations, I only made him 6".  Although at the last minute I wanted him to have wings, so that in it's self too me longer to complete him. This little Goblin is actually made from some Wool my Mother in Law sent me down from her neck of the woods. I had read about Kool-Aid dying and wanted to try it, so I went to the grocery store and bought the Blue and Purple Kool-aid. It was my first attempt at dying wool period! It was easy enough to figure out, but one thing I did really wrong was add way to much vinegar. When I took the wet dyed wool out of the pot..it smelt really wrong!!!! The smell of blueberry and grape mixed with vinegar is not appetizing in the least. There is only one thing I could relate with that smell which was an experience I had once at a sleep over at a friends house in high school. Apparently my friend's family was on  a well system and their water had sulfur in it which resulted in everything including all their food and beverages smelling like rotten eggs!!! Well my friend decided to make Blue Jell-O, which she of course used the tap water. To make matters worse she thought it would better to just eat the Jell-O about an hour into setting, which made me want to gag. Anyways, this was not as bad as that, but the blueberry and the vinegar smell took me back to the place I had tried to forget about! Now that he has had time to air dry, he smells "comforting" as my friend Denise described.

I gave him a very simple face, with of course the big cute eyes...I have mixed feelings over his face being multi-colored. I  Love his mane, I used a Clump of tie-dyed Merino that I got with my Drum Carder.

He can be seen on Etsy as well.

www.tanglewoodthicket.etsy.com

Baby Goblin & Rainbow Elf Rag Doll

Baby Goblin and her Rainbow Elf  Rag doll is my third completed Goblin.  I have several more before her that need to be

finished, but I had so much fun with her, it pushed me to finish her off. This sweet Goblin was inspired from my own baby, Bailey. I bought a hand carded batt of soft popcicle greens from my favorite place down on Government Street called Knotty By Nature. The girls down there have been so very helpful.  I started this Goblin one morning when Bailey was looking up at me with her big blue eyes. This time around I decided to put wire in her arms, legs and fingers. MAN!!!! What a pain in the butt that is. I can't even guess how many needles I broke. But she is bendable and I did end up jointing her arms and legs. I wanted to make her a big Mushroom rattle, but George chimed in and wanted me to make her a rag doll. Her little Rainbow Elf is what I came up with.  Oh yeah, and I stuck her in a little white felt diaper. Very sweet!

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of these two. Being bendable and jointed made for many very cute positions.

I almost could not part with her, but I put her up on Etsy anyway. She has had a lot of great feedback. I think it's those big adorable eyes!

www.tanglewoodthicket.etsy.com

Pink Lemonade Fantasy Lion

This little lion was inspired again by a carded batt I found down at Knotty By Nature on Government Street. It was a mix of Corridale, Merino and white silk. I loved that they mixed Soft lemon pale pinks, Raspberry and White. It made me think of a soft little lion.  So my little lion was born. It could not be a Tanglewood Thicket Creature without wings. So I created some glass like wings from Fantasy Film and fiber. My favourite part is his soft crazy Mane, and his white merino tummy. I have had people say he looks sad. I guess he kinda does. I may do some more lions. I just had so much fun making him! I came across a Needle Felt Contest for newbies. So I entered him. I think the contest ends this Saturday. So, we will see how he does.

He can be adopted from Etsy.

www.tanglewoodthicket.etsy.com

Rainbow Goblin

My second Goblin was inspired by the Merino I bought from Beehive here in Victoria.  It came from Aurelia Wool in Merrit BC. The twist was called Jelly Bean. It was an amazing mix of vibrant teals, pinks and blues. The main body of the color was a brilliant  Orange. I picked it because it is my husband George's favourite color is Orange. I pulled the twist apart and made the main body from the the Orange, then I used the rest to detail the mane, tail and tummy. I added a dark Magenta and Royal Purple to create a super gradation on his finger and toes. half was through I had cut his arms off and then re attached them with bamboo thread. So his arms are now fully jointed. In the end I loved him, but felt he looked more like a crazy lion.

He now lives in California.

Woolie Wog Goblins...

So, after doing about a half dozen small scale projects to learn how my needles work and what I can do to manipulate wool, I started a little blue Goblin with detailed eyes and soft fingers and toes. I really enjoyed sculpting him. I say sculpting because I basically used my needles, fingers and hands to work the wool into my desired design. It was alot like working with Polymer actually. Although without the sore hands after. I bought a two ounce braid of blue and purple dyed wool from "Fleece-Artist" down at Beehive. From one braid and a little white, I was able to complete my first Woolie Wog Goblin. Which has me making more because I love the fact that they can all look so different and I can go crazy with the colors. I can add wings, manes, horns and whatever else I can think of. How exciting!

This first Goblin took me awhile, but only because my Bailey-Bear takes up all but two hours of my time a night. (literally) since she is still waking up atleast three times a night. OMG!!!

Goblin is for sale on Etsy.

www.tanglewoodthicket.etsy.com