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purveyor of handmade felty goodness

I live on a mountain in wales with 3 kids, my partner chris, 2 dogs, 9 cats, fish, ferrets, chickens and a revolving assortment of injured wild birds.

thats the short version, the longer one starts here! ......

If someone could have told me what I would be doing now last year I would have dismissed it right away - (a rant)..

FELT LIKE RAINBOWS·WEDNESDAY, 27 JUNE 2018

If someone could have told me what I would be doing now last year I would have dismissed it right away - (a rant)..

...not just the felt, and the essential jumping into this social media online presence nonsense (I hold more than just a smattering of disdain and unwillingness to interact with - does this mean I actually have to check my messages regularly!) in the name of such feltedness, but I also got unexpectedly knocked up last year (yes I do know how it happens just don’t know how it happened!), bringing the total to three (offspring No1’s (Spike age 13) response “I was supposed to be an only child!” me “I know, I am supposed to be a carpenter!”). This was a bit of a curveball as I was finishing setting up the workshop and working on a prototype hexagonal ferret run/aviary and planning a couple of furniture pieces to make and sell and enrolling in the second year bench joinery and planning lots of beautiful stuff and a selection of unusual doors and animal houses I fancied making for the house and to sell.

Anyway - my response to the 2 blue lines, after the initial freak out was to mission on sorting out the house. I knocked down walls, designed and built a kitchen (not made by me as originally planned) green of course, sorted out hallways, made a craft room and generally went crackers on the house (I did have to source a lovely Andy to help me as laying floors got tricky when 6 months pregnant). Then it was Christmas and I surrendered to being too big to do anything apart from whinge, complain and knit, and Jan 16th 2018 Elijah was born at home much to Violets delight who went to school and told everyone all about it in detail (there may have been impressions also).

Skip to March 2018, I have ventured out the house consumed by the usual new baby no sleep wearing multiple deposits of sick and plagued by mental fog, popped to the furniture recycling wood store place for a rummage (I struggle happily with a furniture addiction, they know me well there) and they have a sewing etc corner and there was the republished vintage 1948 felt shoe pattern in the pic above. My little brain started firing ideas though the fog and Sammy synapses started sparking again (I do rather like shoes as well as furniture). I kept the pattern pack on the sideboard in the kitchen as a visual to do and about a month later order some felt and made the first pair of shoes at start of April (the yellow and grey moccasins). In usual Sammy way, made some changes to the design straight away to improve it and decorated it completely differently. Anyone who knows me knows I am not very good at doing what I am told and I think instructions are superfluous! As I found time over the next month I made the other two pairs (there is three types of shoes in the pattern) and showed them to a couple of people and started to naively think (lets give it a year to see if I am completely wrong or not) that I might actually be able to make a portion of my income from making pretty shoes, so made some more. This coincided with me feeling regularly a bit nauseous and anxious about having to go backwards to work in an office environment again as the carpentry and college would have to wait for another year or so and financial needs dictate income must be sought. I also really realised that knowing I get scratchy and dissatisfied if I have not made something, anything in a few days isn’t enough, I need to actually facilitate and prioritise this.

So we are now in May, Kelly says - “there’s a school fete in June” I sign up for it to put a bit of pressure on myself, realise I need to make some cheaper items for the fete and then proceed to get completely carried away and make bags, hairclips, purses, got the sequins and beads out and now I have a whole load of stock that it would be rude not to do something with (took weeks and lots of caffeine and late nights). I have now worked out what felt, techniques, glue, etc etc to use, designed a basic unisex shoe, and have a whole folder of ideas and patterns queued ready to make, and that brings us to this point.

I am kinda getting organised, itching to get on with the felt oxfords, brogues and big versions of the baby shoes for adult slippers, whilst grudgingly figuring out the ins and outs of social media (still no idea if this will post rather that just include as content on my page, I do hope the latter as not doing photos until tomorrow, but we shall all know shortly if the former!)

I have signed up to multiple fetes and craft fayres before Christmas but I envisage and hope that I will be able to eventually to mainly make lots of shoes and take commissions primarily with the odd fayre. I would love to do more detailed embroidered and beaded/sequinned work (it takes a while so not so suitable for off the peg stock), maybe for weddings, namings, special presents etc. We shall see if anyone would like to spend a bit more for me to make them something super special to order (just get in touch for a chat, even if you have a small budget or just want some baby shoes made to match an outfit).

I will get back to the wood, once the impractical combination of babies and powertools isn’t so much of an issue, (there is currently a dove with a bad wing living free range in the workshop and its a bit of a mess!) and if you lot like buying felty goodness, and I still like making shoes and stuff I shall continue with both. There is also my drawing ideas book shouting at me from the next room containing amongst many other things an art nouveau front door, a gothic wendyhouse, a treehouse and some stickler furniture I am desperate to make. I never run out of ideas, just time.

update - 15/17/18

actually I am proper loving this making things out of soft materials thing! maybe the felt can co-exist with the felt when the time comes!

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