Thursday, December 17, 2009

Felted Mirror with Owl Charm

Design and handcrafted by Kim Buchheit. © Kim Buchheit
I wanted to make a special gift for someone this holiday season, so I hand-felted a pocket mirror and attached a sweet little woolly-bee charm to its side. I thought it turned out so (ahem) charming, that I decided to make a few with owl charms for my Etsy shop. It's so fun to have new gifties in my shop all ready for the new year!

Monday, November 23, 2009

HeartFelt Stones

Heart-shaped and palm-sized, these felted stones are sure to please. Made from actual stones and nested in hand-felted merino wool and llama hair... this set makes the perfect gift for the nature-lover on your gift list! Available now in my Etsy shop. [UPDATE: Sold.]
Design © Kim Buchheit

Monday, November 16, 2009

Felted Don't-Worry-Stones®

I'm so excited to be offering these hand-felted stones in my Etsy shop as of today! I owe a big thanks to my e-sista, Linda Lanese (thanks, Lin), for all her great input and support. Each unique "Don't Worry Stone"® is an actual stone nested snuggly in a colorful felted wool cozy. Each cozy is both needle- and wet-felted by hand with care.
Design and product name © Kim Buchheit

Friday, November 13, 2009

Felted Owl Brooch

Need a small gift under $25? Here's just the thing: Hand-felted owl brooches! These sweet little fellas are just 1 1/2" tall, and would look oh-so-cute pinned to your favorite cuddly sweater, scarf, or woolly hat this winter! I've needled-felted up just a few and they're sure to fly off the shelves... so grab yours today!
Designed and crafted by Kim Buchheit

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Felted Owl Bowl

This charming charcoal-grey owl bowl flew into my Etsy shop today — he is one-of-a-kind and kinda wonderful! The "feathers" surrounding his big striped eyes, plus his handsome felted ears, add a nice 3-dimensionality to this functional art piece. I will make more if I get lots of requests :) UPDATE: This item has sold.
Felted sculpture © Kim Buchheit

Etsy Front Page & Treasury


What a great week it's been, and it's only Tuesday! The reason for the excitement is that Ollie Owlie made it into Etsy's holiday Gift Guide, another Etsy Treasury (thank you, Ligia Rocha), and onto Etsy's home page of handpicked items... woot woot :D I'm very grateful to all who made this happen — thank you!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Felted Owl


Look who-who landed in my Etsy shop today: 1-inch teeny-tall Ollie Owlie! Available in a variety of heathered-spice colors, he comes in a custom designed pillow box with a tiny adoption certificate and hang tag. Ollie makes the perfect ready-to-give handmade gift (if you can possibly bear to part with him)! UPDATE: This little curry-colored owl has sold; but other colors are still available.
Felted sculpture © Kim Buchheit

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Remake, Restyle, Recycle, Renew...


... that's the subtitle of Garth Johnson's fabby new book, "1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse" from Quarry Books. Available for pre-order at Amazon for a steal at just $16.50 (that's less than 2 cents per idea!) For those of you who don't know, Garth is an incredible hipster crafter, amazing studio artist, writer, and educator! Check out his crazy-fun and inspiring blog — extremecraft.com— when you have the chance.

A bit-o-bragging: I'm so pleased that some of my felted cosmetics were included in this book (thanks, Garth) — it really is an honor, considering some of the blow-your-mind creativity featured between its covers! Go buy this book right now — then pass it on, or remake, restyle, recycle, or otherwise renew it :)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Etsy Front Page!

How delightful to discover that Jane's (thedoghouse) gorgeous Adventures in Aubergine treasury recently made the front page of Etsy... and, what a thrill to have my felted bowl included in this lovely collection. Thank you, Jane!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Felted Bowl Set

Felted bowls © Kim Buchheit
This new summer bowl set looks as if it was plucked fresh from a watermelon patch... on sale now in my Etsy shop ($65 for two). The pods on both bowls were made from my Kool-aid dyed roving — black cherry and a cool yummy lime! They are almost edible :) ~ Kim

Friday, July 10, 2009

Felted Stones with Tentacles

Felted stones © Kim Buchheit and Mother Nature
I recently finished needle felting some very large stones using Kool-Aid dyed roving. Dying the wool was lots of fun and the neon powder made my kitchen smell like summers from years gone by! Perhaps my next video tutorial should be on dying with Kool-Aid... would you like that?

Saturday, June 6, 2009

2009 Flagstaff Wool Festival

Photos © Mike Buchheit
I spent the morning at the 18th Annual Wool Festival in Flagstaff, AZ. A fabulous event despite the unseasonably chilly weather. Shearing, carding, dyeing, spinning, and more were demonstrated by experts; llamas, alpacas, and Churro sheep mugged for the cameras; luxurious fibers of all stripes, as well as handmade knitted and felted items, were on sale at amazingly-low prices. I picked up some beautiful Cormo wool roving and a few tips on dyeing it myself using Kool-Aid — that alone was worth the $1 price of admission! If you're in the area tomorrow, you won't want to miss this. ~Kim

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Felted Stones

Felted stones © Kim Buchheit
I experimented with felting these smooth black stones today. When I went outside to photograph them, I literally tripped over a very large and glorious horned toad!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

How-to-Felt Video :: Felted Acorn Ornaments

How-to Felting Video © Kim Buchheit
Wildly Woolly's on YouTube with our first video tutorial! Feedback welcome ;)
Update: Here's a new time-saving tip I discovered that's not in the video. While visiting my Facebook page, please consider liking Wildly Woolly to continue learning along with me about all things wool... thanks!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Felted Sculpture :: Chocolate Tentacled Pod

© Felted sculpture by Kim Buchheit (100% merino wool; 6" x 36")
Finished this tentacled pod today and hung it from a nearby Juniper tree to photograph, as thunder boomed all around. The tree's shaggy silver bark is so gorgeous, and the dark brown Welsh wool sculpture, with pink and orange shades of felted balls inside, delighted there. If the rain wasn't headed our way, I would have let it spend the afternoon outside. :) ~ Kim

Sunday, May 10, 2009

We <3 Press...


Felted bowl by Kim Buchheit
One of my felted bowls was featured in the beautiful Summer 2009 issue of Interiors Magazine under the heading of "Eco Friendly Finds"... how nice! This bowl and others available in Kim's Etsy Boutique.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Felted Bowl Give-Away

Felted bowl by Kim Buchheit
During the month of April, Craftbits is doing a promotion and giving away one of my hand-felted bowls (the one shown above). Click here to enter. I hope you win ;)
[Update: Contest has ended. Congratulations Sonya Keller of Park Forest, IL.]

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Felted Footed Bowl in Etsy Treasury

What a nice Sunday surprise to hear that Jennifer, of Friendly Fairies, has included my magenta felted bowl in her darling Etsy Treasury. Thank you, Jennifer! 

Monday, February 9, 2009

Felted Pod with Tentacles


Felted sculpture © Kim Buchheit
A friend of mine, René, took me out of the trees and put me in the ocean — while she herself was developing mermaids and sea urchins in her studio. The result: a tentacled pod. (see René Westbrook's fabulous work here) ~ Kim

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Felted Bowl with Applique


Felted Bowl © Kim Buchheit
In an effort to cut down on the time it takes to make my felted bowls, I created this style above which has no pre-felting design done to it. In other words, the decorative work (the hot pink and popsicle-orange spirals made of roving) were applied by needle felting after the bowl was wet-felted by machine. I was pleased with the results; hope you are too! Bowl available through my Etsy shop. ~ Kim
UPDATE: This bowl has SOLD.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Giant Felted Acorn Ornaments

Giant felted acorn ornaments © Kim Buchheit
A sweet friend from Texas sent me a dozen bur acorn caps over the holidays (thank you, Joanie!) and I just couldn't wait to tuck hand-felted "nuts" into these oversized caps. The caps are a whopping 2 inches + in diameter... so fabby! These ornaments are available through my Etsy store

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Anchored Felt Sculpture


Felt Sculpture © Kim Buchheit
This felted piece is anchored on two ends to a juniper branch (torn from a felled tree) so that the branch is truly integrated with the work. I drilled a small hole in the branch and secured it to the wall with a nail. A crown of feathers lines the opening of this needle-felted pod. ~ Kim

Needle Felted Sculpture :: Nest

nest_sculpture_KimBuchheitfelt_sculpture_kbuchheitFelt sculpture © Kim Buchheit
This pod decided to transform itself completely into a nest — replete with a wet-felted blue egg on a nest of raffia, and a few decorative feathers for good measure. While generally preferring more abstract work, I was not unhappy with this piece. I loved working with the dirty pale green roving. It was a terrible wonderful mess to work with — full of vegetal matter and all — which just made me feel more connected to the source materials and the natural world during the process. ~ Kim