Savo namams

 

 Šeimos namuose svarbiausia vieta - stalas. Sukūriau ir jam drabužėlį:

 

Kūriau būriau:

 

Galutinis variantas gavosi toks:

Crochet slippers

I can't stop using felt. It is too good for feet :) This time - felted insoles, used as soles for crochet slippers

Shoemakers

Shoemaking is an old craft, but industrial massproduction supersedes it. Still crafty enthusiasts revives it :)
Local oldshool factories of shoe lasts and soles are tethering on the brink of closure. Feltmakers are a great support for them nowadays as their creations are getting more and more popular in all over the world. I joint to this by selling production of these factories in My Etsy shop Rasae . Through this I meet a lot of interesting people, who are my customers in supplies shop section. One of them is Sharon Raymond from US, she says: "I think every village needs a shoemaker, I hope you'll be the one for yours!" Visit her blog with lots of tips and ideas of shoemaking: http://simpleshoemaking.com/wp/ and her Etsy shop with shoemaking tutorials: https://www.etsy.com/shop/simpleshoemaking and her youtube chanel. This is her tutorial to show how to make leather shoes using my soles:

Thank you Sharon!

Shoe sole stitching masterclass

Today I delivered a lesson on stitching soles to the felted shoes.

Short masterclass for feltmakers, they usually make felt slippers and here we discussed how to make outdoor shoes. We met in Kaunas (UAB Partis, thanks for the meeting space).
Meeting, greeting, fingering tools and materials:

During our Summer camp Danguole have made felted shoes. Today we took them as an example and added outdoor rubber soles. Shoes were felted on the flat sole shoe lasts, so we've chosen flat rubber shoe soles for these shoes. We cutted special cellulose board to be put between the shoe and the sole. It covers the grids of the sole, they won't emboss through the wool felt.

Carefully marked the place of the soles. Applied the adhesive for shoemaking. This adhesive usually is very volatile and it is necessary to work in well ventilated place. We worked at the window. Layers of adhesive must dry before putting parts together.

Cardboard will be used to cover grids in the heel of the sole.

Moment of attentiveness - soles must be glued in the right place.

I stitch the soles with speedy stitcher sewing awl. It tightens the stitches by itself and saves your fingers from doing it :)

Me - shoemaker?! :)))

Next pair of the shoes:

And the result after few hours of work:

So soft and so warm and so made by hands:)

Supplies for felt shoe soling you can find here

Good luck with your projects!

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All guests of this masterclass made their fish for the Museum of Fishing in Moletai to support an artistic campaign "Fish pendants"

How to make and add rubber soles to the slippers

I get a lot of requests to teach how to make shoes. Here is short lesson, how to make, glue and stitch soles to the bottoms of the felt slippers.

1. If you want to make slippers with the hard soles, you should make them on the shoe lasts. Put your slippers  tightly on the shoe lasts and only then add the soles. bottoms of the slippers must be stretched while doing this.

2. Circle your slippers and make the pattern of the soles. This paper pattern will be used to mark the place of the soles on the slippers and to cut soles of the soling material. This time I use yellow micro-porous rubber for the heel and beige natural rubber for the bottom of the sole:

Heel is not neccesary, but this time I was making slippers for my daughter Leda for her kindergarten and footwear had to comply with the requirements of orthopedic (small heel, hard counter).

You can use any soling materials - rubber sheets for soles, thick leather, cork, recycled tire rubber etc...

Heel is 1/2 length of the sole. Mark place of the soles very accurately on the both slippers - this kind of footwear doesn't have seems, so only your accuracy will guarantee, that soles will be in correct place.
3. Grind the detail of the heel with the sandpaper:

4. Apply contact adhesives on the bottoms of the slippers, let it dry. Apply second layer of contact adhesives on the heel area and on the detail of the heel. Use adhesives according to its instruction. Usually surfaces must dry for 10-20 minutes. Then accurately put parts together.
If you glue just one layer of the soles skip part 4 . 

5. I did it outside my studio, as contact adhesives for shoemakers are very toxic.
When parts are put together, struck with a hammer. Apply next layer of the glue - on the whole bottom of the slippers and on the soles. Let them dry and put together, struck with a hammer.  
If you won't be stitching your soles, our slippers are finished.
Soling material must be very elastic if you will glue it without stitching. Otherwise it will peel off while wearing.

6. Usually I stitch soles from the inside through the slipper and sole. But this time the size is too small. My stitching tool don't fit into the slipper, so I made an outer seem:

I use The speedy stitcher sewing awl. It is very useful as it tense stitches and I don't have to make it heard with the fingers. Use waxed thread for shoemaking.

Slippers are finished. 
Moccasins are similar "free form shoes" as the felted shoes, so most of the ideas, how to make soles I found in the tutorials of how to make moccasins :) 

Good luck with your projects!

Supplies for shoemaking you can find in my Etsy shop

Shoemaking

My son had to tell about is his mothers profession during his English lesson last week. He tried to describe what I am doing. Together with his teacher they decided that I am a shoemaker:) OK let it be so :)
In recent couple of years I really focused in studying the secrets of shoemaking. Reading history, studying materials, communicating and cooperating with creative shoemakers and shoe designers. The most helpful for me were practical advices of an old shoemaker. He explained what are the most important things for a comfortable shoes. Height of counter, sole deflection, durability of materials etc. Combined these tips with my knowledge of the possibilities of felt my felted wool footwear was be made into very warm comfortable shoes. And now a lot of wearers are enjoying my felt boots in all over the world.

With proper materials, tools and skills feltmakers can make comfortable shoes. Here are few tips about how to do it:
1. Proper materials . Felted wool should hold the shape very well and not loose it after months of wearing. I use rough robust wool, which structure is not damaged with chemicals it is not carbonized and dyed. If you use dyed thin wools, then your shoes will need additional heel and toe supports.
Soles for the felt boots should be deep with an edges for stitching. Such soles gives additional support to the shape of the boot and can be stitched to the felt boots.
When glueing special cardboard heel pad or leather is necessary between the felted shoe and the soles
2. Tools. One of the most important tools for a proper shoes are the shoe lasts. They should fit the soles perfectly. If you want to have comfortable flexible shoes, shape of the sole should repeat the shape of the shoe which is stitched to it. I ordered few new models of the shoe lasts. They were designed especially for the soles which I found very suitable for felt boots:

One more important thing - strong stitches. This is easy, when soles repeat the shape of the shoe lasts. Felted footwear made on them fits perfectly - no empty spaces, no bended rubber edges appear. Well, this part of the job - glueing and stitching - I give to do to a real shoemaker, because it requires strong fingers. If you want to make it by yourself - use adhesive for shoes and leather stitching needles.

Supplies for shoemaking you can find in my Etsy shop

Baby blanket "Sea"

Nuno felted sea-themed baby blanket is pastel very light and soft.
I made it out of hand-dyed cotton gauze, silk and merino wool. There is description of the blanket felting in my earlier blogpost. This blanket is easier to make than felted silk patchwork, as cotton gauze is very rare weaved fabric and felts in easily. Just small tufts of wool should be layed under the silk ponge (the gulls). It makes easier to felt in the silk.


I dyed cotton in rare blue "clouds", when white wool felts through the cotton it becomes even lighter. Only waves, made of cotton panniers are brighter.

You can order this nuno felted baby blanket in my Etsy shop:

Happy felting and warm up your little ones with softest cute blankets:)

This felt wool blanket you can order inmy Etsy shop.

Nuno felted quilt tutorial

Nuno felt technika velto pleduko video pamokėlė skirta visiems, norintiems savo rankomis suglostyti švelnutį šilko-vilnos rankdarbį savo mažyliui. 
Jei naudositės šia ar kitomis mano pamokėlėmis gamindamos rankdarbius pardavimui - prašau prie savo parduodamo kūrinio įdėti tiesioginę nuorodą į mano pamokėlę. Taip pat prašau,kad pasisėmusios idėjų iš mano sukurtų rankdarbių, paminėtumėte idėjos šaltinį:)

This tutorial based projects you can sell online, but you must give me credit for the tutorial with a direct link to it or other my creations, which inspired you:) (found in my Etsy, Facebook, promoted/discussed on the blog or personal website).

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In this video tutorial you will see, how to make an unusual patchwork using nunofelt technique. You can find such  baby quilts of silk and merino wool here in my shop.

Necessary materials - natural silk fabric patches and soft merino wool (16-18 mic). I use silk ponge, silk chiffon also can be used and chiffon is easier to felt into the wool, but it makes a bit diferent surface (smaller wrinkles and I love wrinkles:)).

1. Prepare patches, better with frayed edges - that is why it is better to rip the fabric instead of cutting.

3. Lay the paches "face down" - match colors, shapes, sizes. It is an interesting part - like a puzzle:)

4. Lay the wool, one layer along and second across.

5. Gently squeeze the wool with dry hands and pour soapy water. Cover your project with a buble wrap and squeeze the wool,until all gets wet. Stroke, squeeze, use tools for gently rolling if you have.

6. Flip your project on the other side. Carefully fix the patches if needed. and begin to roll. Gently roll 50 times from one side, and 50 from the other - without squeezing. Unroll, fix the patches if needed. Fibers of the wool went through the fabric it is your last chance to fix the patches. When you do it, roll again - 100-150 times from each side of the blanket. This time squeeze while rolling.

7. When fabric is felted in, you can begin fulling - stroking, washing, throwing - all these actions helps fibers to get through the fabric, surface of the silk side of your blanket becomes wrinkled,felted wool shrinks.

8. Rinse, dry and iron with a steam.

Thin but warm quilt of softest wool and natural silk - these natural and fine materials are so pleasant to touch, they are perfect for a baby:)

I wish you happy felting and great results!

Pasidaryk pats / Do it yourself

Planšetinio kompiuterio dėklo vėlimo pamokėlė. Naudota plonytė merino vilna, viršutinis sluoksnis - vilna maišyta su įvairiais, daugiausiai šilko, pluoštais.










Lesson (tutorial) of felted wool tablet sleeve. I made the sleeve of merino wool. Outside layer is made of batt made by me - merino wool mixed with mulberry silk, tussah silk and other fibres. If you like this sleeve, you can get it here .

Various handmade wool batts are now available in my ETSY store .

Kurpaliai / Foam lasts

Ką tik baigiau vieną eksperimentą - pasidariau kurpalius vėlimui pati :)
Ieškodama pirkti, aptikau nemažai pardavinėjamų putplasčio kurpalių, tačiau jis man pasirodė pertrapus. Vat kietasis (ekstrudinis) putplastis sunkiai sutrupinamas. Kaimynystėje vykstančiose statybose pamačiau, kad tokį naudoja pamatų šiltinimui - storą storutėlį! Gavau atraižų ir įgyvendinau sumanymą:

I have just finished an experiment - made lasts for felting by myself:)
Looking for to buy shoe lasts (moldings), I found a lot of foam lasts, but they seemed so fragile. I wondered about lasts of solid (extruded) hard foam. I saw that in neighborhood construction workers use hard foam  for foundation insulation - thick and hard! I got the strips and implement my idea:

Lengvai pjaustosi medžio pjūklu, paskui dailinau peiliu su dantukais, galiausiai pašlifavau stambiu, paskui smulkiu švitriniu popieriumi:

Hard foam is quite easy to cut with wood saw, then knife and finally to polish with large, then fine sandpaper:

Turiu 41 dydžio kurpalius! Užtrukau kelias valandas.

I have foam lasts for felting, size 41! It took me a few hours to make them.

In my Etsy shop you can find supplies for shoemaking and make your own shoes!

Coming up Christmas

For now - mail still will manage to carry up untill Christmas - WoolenClogs shop
Clogs of my favourite local Lithuanian or European wool.

Photo/video tutorial of such clogs will be ready soon... Make warmest gifts by your own hands!

Promises promises... And after 2 years Felted wool clogs tutorial video and pdf