Update- Florida Felt is no more

The Florida Felt website has expired and I'm not renewing it. Once I moved to the Asheville area, and found so much more opportunity here, I have been keeping the Florida site on just to allow folks to find me in case they still had the old site address. 

My website is http://web.mac.com/leslieowens

I hope you all will update your links and let me know how you are doing!

Happy felting!

Looking backwards, looking forwards

So, it's been 5 months since I posted here and so much has happened that I haven't known where to start. To try to get a sense of that, I looked back at the past entries in this blog and was really surprised to see that I had been fairly conscientious in keeping up with the posts. Even more surprised to see I had been blogging since February 2005 on my River Daughters blog page which is still there. (oops, forgot to take it down.)

So 5 months is pretty long, even by my standards. It's great to look back and see how excited I was doing my first samples and classes, and I am still really excited by what I am doing. Moving to North Carolina has shifted everything and in the right direction, so it was definitely the right thing to do, however arduous.

There are several feltmakers here, so I have a little competition but their work is different from mine, so it's all good. The house/studio I've moved into is incredibly perfect for felting and giving classes. I have many "connections" here and they are already paying off in opportunities. And, the weather is perfect for felt. Even today, mid-May, the temperature was in the 60's and chilly.

So while my time in Tampa was fun and I'll miss the winters! It's obvious that I am here in North Carolina to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. I would be very open to coming down for a group class (especially during the winter), but no more informal drop-in classes, I'm afraid.

I am, however, far closer to Atlanta now, so I will continue to offer felting classes in North Atlanta at Spruill Center for the Arts, and please check their website for the updated class list, http://www.spruillarts.org.

Will I be keeping the company name, Florida Felt? For the time being, I'll keep it but the only site I will be updating regularly will be my gallery site, so be sure to bookmark it for class and show updates there.

Will I be keeping this blog? The answer is yes, for the time being as well. I'll probably change the name though :)

New Year's news

Happy New Year to all! Here's hoping that 2008 is better than 2007, wishful thinking that it is!

I had a great time with the Christmas Open Studio, and some fun projects came out of those sessions! Thanks to all of my friends who came by to roll with me!

I've been working on some new pieces and have applied to the Gasparilla Arts Festival as an emerging artist; cross your fingers! I made some cute capelets in alpaca that I just love, in my Atlanta Sunset series. One is shown here, and the others will be posted as made and photographed, in the Gallery section.

And now for the biggest news: I will be moving my studio up to the Asheville, NC area in March. There are countless opportunities to have my work seen in Asheville, as it is a fiber arts mecca in the Southeast. I still expect to travel to Georgia and Florida regularly to do shows and classes, however, and I will keep you all informed about future events, never fear.

I will host one more Introduction to Felting class in my South Tampa studio on February 2nd & 3rd, and I hope that all of you who have expressed interest in learning felting will be able to come. The specifics are on my website in the Classes section

Because of the move, I have cancelled my March classes at Spruill Arts Center in North Atlanta, but I have two classes scheduled in May and June, and then, starting in the fall, I'll be close enough to do weekly classes there. I'll keep you posted, or you can check the Spruill website.

Thanks for your interest in the feltosphere! I'll stay in touch, and let me hear from you!

December is here, time to party!

Wow, this fall has just zipped by! I last posted in October, just before I went to SAFF in Asheville for classes with Chad Alice Hagen. The event was great! I bought lotsa goodies and the classes were wonderful. It was great to see another set of tools and techniques for felting, and I learned a few tricks as well. I'll apply a few of these in upcoming classes, so you'll get an idea of how valuable it is to take classes with other artists!

November held family responsibilities, so other than a weekend low-key craft show here in Tampa, I haven't done much since then... til this week. The studio is all set up for my Christmas Open Studio sessions (if you're in Tampa, come by! come by!) and even better, you can just drop in for one or several 4 hour sessions. (Thurs nights, 5-9, Saturdays Noon to 4. see the website for more info.) Music! Munchies! Making things! For me, Christmas has always been about making things, ornaments, decorations, gifts. We made sequin balls for the tree, still have some. Didn't everyone grow up like that?


To continue that tradition, I have some prefelts and patterns that will make 8-10 tree ornaments (also great as pins or strung on ribbon as garland) that are really cute and fast to do, and especially great for complete beginners. I've also developed some "ready to roll" projects, based on Chad's seamless techniques. I've got 4 patterns ( see three of them below) with the fleece already laid out and they are ready to decorate and wet down and roll! All you felters know that laying out the fleece takes most the time, so I am keeping your busy holiday schedules in mind. These are good for experienced felters and beginners who want to try more than small items. And of course, hats, purses, and a variety of other patterns and wools await those who like to start from scratch.





I met several new Tampa folks at the show in November (Made by Hand, put on by the City of Tampa) that didn't give me email addresses but expressed interest in classes next year. I might be able to schedule a weekend workshop for beginners at Taylor Art Studio in Seminole Heights in February, or I might schedule one at my studio in South Tampa. Please get in touch if you are interested, or keep an eye on this blog or my website for class announcements.

Where have all the felters gone?

I have to admit, I'm kinda bummed. None of the next-step classes at Spruill seem to be "making" and the Intro class is also barely filling to minimum -Are there 2 more of you in Atlanta? Come on, please register! Let me come up and share this great craft with you!

I am hoping that this is just due to a busy fall season for all of you, but I am feeling profoundly unloved right now! I had pictured this as being the best of all possible times for a felting class - those chilly days just beg for a felt hat or scarf, and felted items are great for Christmas presents. But, ah well, live and learn. Maybe my spring classes will be overflowing with fiber lovers and I'll just look forward to that.

I am still coming up (in hope that a miracle will happen!) and I'm still going to SAFF to revel in wool-love and take a hat class from Chad Alice Hagen. Get in touch if you are planning to also go to SAFF or thinking about taking a class.

Spruill Center class - great stuff!

The class in Atlanta was great! Again, wonderful hats and purses and decorative pieces. I hope all the participants had as great a time as I did! I have just uploaded the photos to a felting class gallery so please visit the page and enjoy! The piece shown on the left was made by a student in that class.

Also, whether you are a former student in one of my classes, interested in taking a class, or just interested in felting, please visit the Fabulous Felters Google group. The group is there to provide a community of support for the students to continue their felting exploits at home. There should be some new photos and questions and tips coming (Nudge, Nudge) from past students and I will continue to post patterns, tips and class schedules.

A few new pieces

I have a gallery page started to show the pieces I am making this summer. I will be adding more pieces in September as I start to make pieces for fall, so bookmark that page and check it often.


If you visited earlier, and read the entry about my experiments with alpaca, you can see the cocoon I made with a similar design approach to an earlier piece I made. Very different - softer, and lacier, but also a little furry, which was not planned. Not so much a summer fiber then. But still nice. I had been trying to replace the long-staple Icelandic which was my first try at a cocoon, and miraculously turned out well. But Icelandic fleece is a little wiry, which is why I have been trying to find replacement. So, more trials, not that it isn't fun to play with different fibers! I still haven't done anything with the cashmere yet. More fun to come!