Tag: savage mill

Furniture

Before & After: Sewing Stool

Jessica Smith

I’ve got some really exciting news to share today: I am starting to sell my furniture pieces at a local store in Howard County called A Slap of Paint!  #HoCoArts

A Slap of Paint is located in the Savage Mill, a historic textile mill turned into boutique shopping mall and basically one of my favorite places ever.

I cannot even express how excited I am for this opportunity. SO EXCITED! I have been a crazy lady on a mission to find pieces in need of some love and boy have I found some gems.

Take this lovely sewing stool, for example. This piece was too cool to pass up, but was a hot mess. The vinyl top was a goldenrod yellow with a big ole black stain on the top.

Here’s the before:
Stool_Before

After some white and teal paint (I mixed flat white paint with Paint Minerals for a chalk paint finish– this stuff is awesome!) and some gold fabric paint, I turned the ugly-duckling stool into this beauty.

After:

Stool

Craft Projects

Nuno Felting

Jessica Smith

Last Christmas-related post …  I swear!

For Christmas, my dad gave my stepmom a nuno felting class at the Savage Mill. He bought two classes so she could bring a buddy, so Jill invited me along.

We went to a shop called Peaknits for the class and learned all about nuno felting. I won’t give a full tutorial because I am not an expert. But here’s the jist… first, you separate the wool. Then, you place it on a piece of chiffon in the pattern you want. I went for a mostly pinky/purple shade for mine. Once your wool is where you’d like it, you can add ribbon and all sorts of other things to the scarf. Wet all of the wool, then roll it up (there’s a lot more to this step…). You roll your project a bajillion times, which is activating fibers so the wool becomes felt. Then you get to beat the crap out of your project – my favorite part. Let the project dry out, trim the edges and you are done!

OK, wow… that was a really brief and not so great “tutorial” haha. But like I said, I am not a nuno felting expert by any stretch of the imagination. Here are photos of the process.

And here is my finished product!

Scarf

I am allergic to wool, so I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to stand this on my neck for more than a picture or two. The scarf is totally unique and I am still impressive that I made it from tufts of wool!

Scarf1

Ever felted before? I want my next felting project to be some sort of animal craft. I’m not sure if and when that will ever happen, but they are so darn cute!

If you are ever in the area, make sure to check out Peaknits and all of the other unique shops at the Savage Mill. It’s one of my favorite places!