All posts tagged: craft workshop

flower garden crowns.

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I taught an expanded version of my felt flower crown workshop earlier this month. It was a special class because it was the first time in Feed the Fish co history that my Mommy and Niece were able to attend one of my events. They live in Southern California and all of my events so far have been in Northern California. Yay for virtual crafting! For this class I picked out a Boho Garden color palette from Benzie Design. It is by far my favorite color palette of felt. If you haven’t already discovered Benzie Design, here is your introduction. It’s like the butter of felt in all the dreamy colors. This was the sample I made for class, as modeled by Panda. See all these floral beauties in their floral beauties! Plus some sweet sentiments. I’m so happy everyone enjoyed class! My friend was inspired to create local flowers for her crown! If I could, I would make grand flower crowns all day. Felt flower crowns for all!

friendship.

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I’ve been teaching crafty workshops all summer, and I finally participated in one as a student! I attended The Neon Tea Party‘s heart pattern friendship bracelet virtual workshop and it was the most fun! Marisa, owner and creative everything of The Neon Tea Party, taught us two friendship bracelet knots, we created the heart pattern together, and at the end of class she reviewed how to read a friendship bracelet pattern. My mind is blown. I don’t think I made friendship bracelets as a kid; not this kind at least (I remember lots of bead bracelets…), so it was fun to learn as a grown up. Also, shout out to all the kids in the class with their friendship bracelet making skills and bravery for showing face on Zoom. (It seemed like most of the adults were hiding. :)). For this craft we only needed minimal supplies – two yarn colors, a pair of scissors, a ruler or tape measure, and tape or a safety pin to hold your project in place. You can make …

clover weave.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I thought today would be an appropriate day to share these Clover brand weaving looms. See what I did there? I was suppose to teach two weaving workshops (sponsored by Clover!) at Craftcation 2020 in April, but unfortunately, Craftcation has been cancelled given the latest COVID-19 developments. I thought I’d share anyway because these tools are so fun! Thank you to Nicole of Craftcation (and Dear Handmade Life) for sending me a Clover mini weaving loom to play with! It’s such a nice portable craft tool. I particularly like the ‘lift’ it gives you when you’re working on your piece. Also a plus – the tines are removable so you can weave until the very top and still take your piece off the loom (versus leaving some warp blank for tying). Here are a few samples I’ve been working on, made with three basic stitches: tabby/basic stitch, rya/tassels, and soumak. Mixing up colors, yarn textures, and size of your tapestry can add so much variation. With this tool you can also …

winter wreath.

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Happy first day of winter! To celebrate, I’m sharing a winter wreath I created in Haia Sophia’s most recent wreath workshop at Rare Bird. Haia reviewed materials and basic wreath construction. We used 12-inch metal hoops, 24 gauge floral wire, and an assortment of foliage – some fresh and some dried. It was a pokey class so we wore gardening gloves. It was so fun working with all the materials – acacia, fir, straw flowers, pinecones, …; it smelled so fresh in the classroom. Haia helped me create my dream giant wreath! It might be a little too big for my front door, but I love it! Thank you to our winter wreath guide Haia of Canopy Floral – check out her amazing work! Do you adorn your home with winter wreaths? Share your favorite door decor below!

holiday wreaths.

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For my last Feed the Fish co crafty workshop of the year, I taught my felt flower class, holiday wreath style, at Mischief. All set up for the holiday fun! My students: three generations of crafters – My good friend Angel, her mom, and her daughters. They made such beautiful creations! The youngest made a wreath for a mouse. And now they are holiday ready! Thank you to Mischief for hosting! It’s always a fun time getting into crafty mischief. Hope you can come craft with me sometime in 2020! Keep posted on all of my crafty workshops on my crafty biz page.

weave.

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Hooray, huzzah! I’m so excited that my weaving workshop has been picking up. The Fall/Winter is the perfect time for this cozy craft! I absolutely love teaching this workshop. Also, I really, really love creating yarn rainbow displays! Here are a few snaps from my last two classes – @ Craft + Work In my workshop I review all the tools (we use my brand loom and tools!) and materials needed to create a tapestry weaving, how to prep a loom, variations on the tabby/basic stitch and rya/tassels, and how to finish a weaving. Everyone leaves with a finished (or nearly finished!) piece. @ Mischief It’s always fun to see what everyone creates with just two weaving stitches and a rainbow of colors! Are you a be-weaver? Share below!

melon basketry.

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Get this – all woven baskets are handmade. Mind blown. So the next time I pick up a woven basket I’ll think about all the work and care that was put into making that piece! And that brings me to my latest obsession: melon basketry! Melon basketry is one of those skills I didn’t know I wanted to learn until I saw the Handcraft Studio School workshop offering. When there was a date that worked for me, I signed up right away and waited with much anticipation! Our instructor, Michele Hament, creates baskets with natural materials like reed (what we used in class), pine needles, and kelp. I arrived as she was setting up… She brought some samples, too. For this class we learned how to make a melon shape, but there’s also an egg basket (aka butt basket), and options to create smaller or larger basket bases. First things first, a refresher on how to create a god’s eye weaving. This is the technique we used to attach the handle to the rim of …

chandeliers!

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My window display at Mischief inspired a new workshop series: pajaki (pah-yong-kee) chandeliers with a modern twist! Pajaki chandeliers are a traditional Polish folk craft designed to brighten up the home with bold spring blooms during the long winter. They are made with natural straw and paper is used to create pom pons and flowers. For my workshop series I’m teaching how to construct the chandeliers with paper straws and decorate them with felt flowers (the modern twist!) instead. Here are some snaps from the last workshop! I begin class with pajaki construction. We pick out straws and coordinating paper and build the chandeliers together. Then a brief lesson in felt flower making and a show-and-tell of different ways to complete the chandeliers. Shop owner Julien constructed rope hangers in the studio space specifically for this class so our chandeliers could hang as we build them. Sweet! Student work! 🙂 I’ll be back at Mischief at the end of the month to teach a yarn pom pon and tassel version of this workshop. You’re invited, …

everybody gets a pennant.

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I was invited to lead a community group social at Square HQ! Everyone got to decorate a pennant with their community group name and extra goodies like gems and tassels. I precut all the letters and mini Square logos, and matched them up with a coordinating pennant. At the event, I laid out the pennants and envelopes with phrases on a welcome table. It made it feel like a fancy dinner party with name cards. I set up each table with all the things to get crafty – hot glue, gems, felt, yarn, scissors, tassel makers, fabric markers, and safety pins. Everything they needed to create their pennant was in the envelope, but if they were feeling extra, they could create tassels, cut out felt (some made mini flowers!), color their pennants, decorate the back, anything! All the fun creations and all the fun people! Yay! Thank you to Kelly of Square for inviting me and organizing the event, and to all the community group reps for getting crafty with me!

succulent wreaths.

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I debuted a new class at Rare Bird this year: felt succulent wreaths! I gotta say, this has got to be my favorite iteration of my felt succulent class. Here are some recaps from the first two workshops Set up: each station gets a grapevine wreath, a stack of practice felt, instructions to keep, a pair of scissors, a hot glue gun, and a surprise goodie envelope (it’s got a lil Feed the Fish co keychain!). Plus there’s community felt, stencils, fabric markers, and samples. Inaugural class! Such beautiful creations! While they made their wreaths, I made a special request miniature wreath. In class two I had a sister trio join, and then it turned out that they knew the fourth student, too. It’s a small crafty world! So many gorgeous succulents! In this class, while students were busy crafting, I made a sample wreath for a quicker (smaller) version of the workshop. I’m obsessed! I’m hoping to teach this workshop again in the Fall/Winter. I’m also planning to create a few smaller wreaths to …