Carolyn's Blue Morph Butterfly

Carolyn made a butterfly for her 2nd grade teacher as an end of the year present.  She looked at pictures of the Blue Morph butterfly on the internet and recreated her interpretation of the butterfly. She needle felted the body and wet felted the wings. I then sewed a barrel clasp into the back so her teacher could wear it or even pin it to a curtain in her house.  I also sewed two seed beads for eyes and, believe it or not, a black plastic broom straw for antennae. Her teacher was so touched by the gift that she cried.  Mrs. White, her teacher, loves butterflies and her favorite color is blue so this was indeed the perfect gift.  A week into summer vacation we go to the mailbox to find a thank you card from her teacher.  Carolyn just beamed!

Carolyn's Baltimore Oriole Sculpture

The Baltimore Oriole is a small bird found in North America whose colors resemble the Coat of Arms of Lord Baltimore, hence its name. It lives in trees and shrubs, and eats insects, berries, and nectar.

This sculpture was made by Carolyn  using a process called needle felting. Needle felting is the process of poking a 3 inch barbed needle in and out thousands of times into clean, dyed, unspun wool. The wool is compacted and shaped until it resembles the vision of the bird in her head. It takes many hours to finish a needle felted wool sculpture. In fact Carolyn worked on this one for a week! I am always amazed by the dedication she has for working with wool.  Way to go honey!

The sculpture measures 5.5 inches from beak to tail, 2.25 inches tall, and 3.5 inches from wing to wing.  She has it for sale in our Etsy store. http://www.etsy.com/shop/KioMade?ref=seller_info 

The money she earns from selling her wool items goes towards taking care of her chickens, angora rabbits, and leasing a horse called Sparky.
 

Opening an Etsy Store

Well here we go...the store is called Kio Made.  I know, it isn't Funkytown Furballs, but it encompasses a variety of things we make: Carolyn's scarves, Shane's feed bag wallets, and my photography.  Hopefully people will like what they see.  We are not looking to make a fortune, only to earn enough to help offset the costs associated with raising Angora rabbits, chickens, goats, etc.  Plus, there has always been a part of me that felt the need to be validated by having someone buy something of mine. 

Selling Scarves

Carolyn donated one of her felted merino, silk, and angora scarves to our school's Junior Beta Club.  They were holding an auction to raise funds for a trip to their national convention.  It was quite exciting the day the auction came.  The auctioneer asked Carolyn to bring her scarf up on stage for the audience to see.  She told them a little about how she made the scarf and then the bidding proceeded.  I thought she was going to jump through the roof when her scarf sold for $115.  The gentleman who had bought it even wanted to take her picture holding the scarf so he could show his wife the child who had made the scarf he had bought.  Wow!  Now Carolyn even has teachers at the school placing orders for scarves.  Of course she is selling them for only $30, not the $115 it brought at auction.

Getting Ready for the First Show

Carolyn is in the process of getting Lola ready for the Richmond RBA show next weekend.  Filling out the paperwork was a bit confusing and thank goodness for being able to google a lot of unfamiliar rabbit terms.  Now we will cross our fingers and hope that it was done correctly.  Today, Carolyn will trim Lola's toe nails and begin a daily process of blowing out her fur.  We usually groom her on Sunday and take a slicker brush to her fur.  Lola loves to be groomed and doesn't mind laying on her back at all.  We don't have an expensive blower.  We will be using our own blow dryer on its cool setting - I had read an article(http://www.angorarabbit.com/angora/angora-guide/index.htm) on the internet that this could be used in a pinch.  Well, whatever happens, we will enjoy a night in a hotel and the learning experience that goes along with the show.

First Scarf Ever!

Adding hot soapy water to begin the felting process.

Brushing to remove wool from Lola to use in the scarf.

Carolyn worked all afternoon yesterday to complete her first ever scarf.  She was able to use some wool from her angora rabbit, Lola, with some merino wool and silk that we got from a friend.  She had a wonderful time making it and can't wait to try again.  Next time she wants to include some bits of wool yarn as well.  I'm thinking a fun fringe would be nice also.

Rabbits have arrived!

Carolyn's long wait for rabbits is finally over.  We drove to Easton, MD last Saturday to meet Pamela Barnes (Two Oaks Farm) who was there showing some of her French Angoras.  She had brought along the two rabbits she had carefully selected for Carolyn to start her rabbitry with - a torte buck and a rew doe.  These babies were 4 months old, but wow do they look large! Their junior coat is about 3 inches.