Needle Felting Betty Heppner's Creations

 Soft Forest

My name is Betty Heppner, I am 62 years old and a grandmother.  I have been married for 37 years to husband Ron. I live in a small rural area near the town of Edgewood where I was born.

My mother taught me to crochet and to knit, I remember her washing her own wool and spinning it to make homespun socks and mittens which she sold to local loggers. I get most of my creative spirit from her.  About four years ago my daughter-in-law got me interested in learning to needle felt. 

Where to purchase

Needle felting is a very specialized form of sculpture that uses a barbed needle and wool. The wool is stabbed many times with the needle to felt or bind it together.  She bought me my first set of needles and some nice roving or wool to use, and a great beginner’s book called Little Felted Animals, I was totally hooked! 

 It is one of the most fascinating things I have ever learned to do and I discovered that I have a real knack for sculpting animals!  Over the years I have seen deer, bears and even a raccoon in my yard, as well as squirrels and skunks. I love to browse through magazines and books for pictures to work from. There is always a new animal out there to create!

OOAK Mama Polar Bear

One of the more fun things about working with raw wool is the dyeing, my daughter-in-law once again was my guide, we were visiting them in Victoria when she was dyeing her wool with Kool-Aid, I watched and learned from her, then went home and purchased a whole unwashed fleece that weighed 9 pounds. I washed my first batch and dyed it with orange, green, blue and red and hung it out on a drying rack on the porch.   

 

OOAK Little Gold Lion

Since then I have experimented with dying wool with beet juice, red spinach juice and even powdered sage and turmeric.  I have had a few disasters along the way, gotten some pretty hideous colours but always have used them in some way never throw anything out I say!

I have also learned how to wet felt from a book, I like to use some wet felted pieces on my sculptures like wings and horns.

Over the past few years I have had some interesting commissions, one was for a red FarmAll tractor, and this was something very different from animals and dragons and gnomes! Once again I discovered I had a knack for designing machinery in wool. 

My next commission was for a small school bus, the lady was a bus driver and was in visiting, she saw me in the process of creating a yellow John Deere bulldozer that my husband thought I should do - he owns a 1958 John Deere dozer! She asked me if I could do her bus that she drives, so once again I said yes and she sent me pictures to work from.

    I have a small shop on Etsy called SoftForest. You can visit it here 

Click here to visit Betty's Etsy Store

I first saw Betty’s creations on Pinterest and immediately fell in love with her Magical creatures.  Thank you Betty for sharing your journey as a crafter with us.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls

January is Soup Month Bean & Kale Soup

  Beans and Kale Soup

I arrived home from a busy day at work to find the house cold and empty.  Where was Paul?  A quick call to his cell phone located him at mother’s house where he and Great John (Green) were making soup.

I had picked up Sustainable You Spirituality & Health 2013 and when I arrived at mother’s house Paul and Great John were preparing an adapted version of Portuguese White Bean & Kale Soup from page 39.  

Paul and Great John added garbanzo beans and celery and tomatoe paste.  They did not add the sun-dried tomatoes.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 ½ cups chopped onions
• 1 1/2 cups celery
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons ground fennel seeds
• 1 small kohlrabi bulb, diced
• 1 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 1 ½ cups diced potatoes
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1 small can tomatoe paste
• 3 cups cooked white beans
• 2 cups garbanzo beans
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• 5 cups loosely packed chopped Kale
• The juice of one fresh lemon juice

Direction:

1. 1) Chop all the vegetables
2. 2) Sauté your garlic, celery and onions in the oil and salt until tender.  Then add the chopped fennel and fennel seed and cook for a few minutes.
3. 3)  In your soup pot add the vegetable broth and cook your carrots and potatoes until tender
4. 4) In a separate pot cook your kale and tomatoes until the kale is wilted and then add this to your soup pot
5. 5) Once carrots and potatoes are tender add all of the other ingredients, to the soup pot and cook for about 10 minutes and serve.

From our table to yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

Wordless Wednesday

January 22, 2014

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls