Craft-eeWenches

Our aim is to bring to you a wonderful range of fibres and fleece, kits, fabrics and embellishments all at really affordable prices.

The next available workshop is Sunday September 12th 2010...now Full - but a waiting list is available

Over the next few months, you can find us at the:

Gum Leaf Third Biennial Quilt and Craft Exhibition, Monash University Auditorium, 28th & 29th August 2010
Roxby Market on the 11th September, 2010
Lardner Park Craft Market, 28th November, 2010

If you are interested in some of the technical aspects about felting with alpaca, check out our new section (has a great catchy title): Techy Stuff

Dry felting supplies at Craft-ee Wenches....Clover Felting Tools

Landscape dyes
Australian product of bright strong colours for Wool that will also dye silk & nylon and all intermix. Landscapes Dyes have been developed to give a professional colourfast result with a simple dyeing method. 100gm will dye approx. 1 kg of material. Priced at $10.40 per 100gm

Craft-ee Barr Wool
Strong robust landscape colours that can add a special zing to your felting. We have in stock reds, golds, greens, purple mix, blue mix, pink mix, multi-earth mix. Priced at $5 per 30gm.

Craft-ee Wenches is a member of: the Victorian Felters' Guild, The Australian Forum for Textile Artists, and the Australian Sewing Guild

Felting tip: When you are felting around a resist for mittens and boots, you will generally not need to include a full 30% shrinkage allowance as the alpaca fibre does not need to be overworked...unless you want a really really really firm felt, of course. My first effort at fingerless gloves, with a very full 30% allowance, became felt gauntlets as I had to work them very hard to bring up ~ or down ~ to the finished size.

A sustainable and eco-friendly craft

We try to engage with an attitude of creating a small footprint and so our felting uses alpaca fibre from our own alpacas that live on our property, there is minimal water usage and no chemical additives to clean the fibre other than soap which is added in the felting process. Generally, there is no pre-washing (other than for white) as we use the felting process itself to clean the material created.

Our participants really enjoy the hands-on connection of making a handcrafted item from a raw product straight off the animal's back...and being able to meet the animal that grew the fibre. But they don't have to work hard as alpaca fibre felts with about 80% less effort than merino requires and the results are outstandingly beautiful regardless of the skill level of the maker.

We use the natural fibre without dying ... who would want to contaminate such beautiful natural colours :) but we add colour and zing with embellishments such as silk and yarn and fabric. I like to use op-shop treasures when I find them and locally produced handcrafts (e.g. yarn).