Our giveaway, washcloth & eco soap nuts! #etsycraftparty

Here is another great giveaway by Nataliya (NataliyaMalik ) ! This great set of felted washcloth & eco soap nuts is all about natural materials! 

The washcloth is made of wool. The soap nuts contains saponin, a natural alternative to chemical laundry detergent and cleansers. When in contact with water, it creates mild suds, which is similar to soap.

Please do any (or all) steps below to enter. The more you do, the more chances to win!

Leave a separate comment on each entry and don't forget to leave your email address here in comments or send it to us throughconversations on Etsy so that we can contact you if you win! 

The entry period for this giveaway is from June 17 through the June 19th. The lucky winner will be announced on June 20th. This giveaway is for US residents only.

1. Visit and heart  NataliyaMalik shop, browse her collection and leave a comment here on what you like the best (1 entry)
2. Follow / subscribe Nataliya's blog (1 entry)

3. Like Nataliya's page on Facebook (1 entry)
4. Follow/ subscribe this blog (Russian Artists blog) (1 entry)
5. Share this giveaway on your social medias ( pinterest, twitter, facebook, instagram, your blog) - 2 entries

Good luck, everyone!

Felted brooch to give away! Etsy Craft Party 2016

This lovely felted brooch can be yours if you will participate in our giveaway! It is handmade by Nataliya (NataliyaMalik ) and kindly offered for our virtual Etsy craft Party.

This aqua blue and apricot brooch made of soft wool, fiber silk and cat eye beads and is approximately 8" in diameter. A lovely accessory for a coat, jacket, scarf or handbag embellishment!

The entry period for this giveaway is from June 17 through the June 19th. The lucky winner will be announced on June 20th. This giveaway is for US residents only.

Please do any (or all) steps below to enter. The more you do, the more chances to win!

Leave a separate comment on each entry and don't forget to leave your email address here in comments or send it to us through conversations on Etsy so that we can contact you if you win!

1. Visit and heart  NataliyaMalik shop, browse her collection and leave a comment here on what you like the best (1 entry)
2. Follow / subscribe Nataliya's blog (1 entry)

3. Like Nataliya's page on Facebook (1 entry)
4. Follow/ subscribe Russian Artists blog (1 entry)
5. Share this giveaway on your social medias ( pinterest, twitter, facebook, instagram, your blog) - 2 entries

Good luck, everyone!

Featured artist: Anna Ryasnova, AnnaRyasnova. Felted miniature

We love our pets so we were happy to see  almost identical figurines of our dog's breeds at AnnaRyasnova shop. There are so many interesting items there. Anna, the owner of the shop, works in a needle felting technique and reached a high level in what she does. 

She loves to make miniature pets figurines, especially dogs and every one of them is unique. A happy customer's reaction is what inspires her to create new figurines. She loves the challenge of working with miniatures and trying to make her work even smaller every time. What a great artistic approach!

 

Anna's works can be seen during Miniaturitalia Exhibition in Milan, Italy, on February 7-8, 2016 or visit her shop to see if there is anything that touches you.

Here is what Anna is telling about herself and her creative vision.

"It fills me with gratitude and pride that by today my creations have reached people from such diverse countries as the United States, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Thailand, Singapore, Israel, Bulgaria, Russia, Germany, Ireland, England, France, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Spain. I take inspiration from my three beautiful sons, from nature as a whole and the animal world in particular.
Furthermore I consider it a special honor that so many clients have trusted me with orders to portray their dearest companion animals.

I firmly believe we all can be creators of happiness, for ourselves and for others, if only we allow love and affection to guide us. Everybody can create something, so can make a difference, and help to turn our world in a better place! I hope you will enjoy my works as much as I did making them."

 Interview by Tanya agardencottage

How to make a felted ghost for Halloween

Some of us will most probably decorate our homes for Halloween. I would like to share an idea of a DIY project of making felted ghosts for Halloween.



We will need white and black felting wool, a glass to use as a form, soap, water and a piece of bubbled wrap paper.



On a piece of bubbled wrap paper put an empty glass upside down. Slowly start to cover it with white wool. It makes sense to water the surface of the glass beforehand so that our pieces of wool could stick to it. Once the glass is all covered with wool it's time to wet our wool with soapy water. It makes sense to water it slowly so that our wool doesn't fall off the glass and stays there covering it nicely. Once white wool is wet we can start making our ghost's "face".



With a piece of black wool make an eye and attach it to our white ghost. It's much fun to experiment with sized and eye position as our ghost's face expression will change dramatically depending on what shape and size ghost's eyes will be.

Once all the wool pieces are at place we can start the felting process. Carefully wrap bubbled paper around our glass and start rubbing it. Be gentle so that our wool doesn't fall off the glass. Once wool fibers become inseparable and our white form turns into a firm piece of felted wool it's time to rinse it.

To dry it well I let it sit on a glass overnight. Thus, the original form of the glass will be preserved and whet our ghost is nice and dry it will stay firm and round. I've attached a thread on top of it so that I could hang it anywhere in my room or outside. My little white ghost turned out to be not scary at all. But it's all in your own hands. Designing the ghosts face is the most creative part of the whole process!


Story By Tonya (CityCrochet)

Galafilc feauture at the handmade tapestry exhibition in Bydgoszcz, Poland

Congratulations to our team member Gala (galafilc) being featured at the bi-annual non professional handmade tapestry exhibition in Bydgoszcz, Poland!

 Non professional weavers from all over the country submit their works. Only 120 tapestries from 200 sent were exhibited this year.

As always there are tapestries made in traditional Polish weaving style from Podlasie area. But most of the works are hand made gobelin tapestries. Those take a long time to produce. One gobelin sized 1 by 1.5 meters takes a year or even two to weave. Main yarn is wool or wool blend, but sisal, strips of textiles, small branches and herbs are used to embellish it as well.

One of the favorite inspirations and tapestry themes is of course nature. You can see flowers, trees, birds and whole landscapes on the gobelins. Every artist chooses their yarns and style of work. There is jury that takes into account not only quality of weaving but the art value of the pieces. This year first place was taken by lovely tapestry which used semi precious stones for embellishments.

High recognition is given to pieces woven from fine yarns with good color gradients and details in the picture.
This year some felted art (unwoven tapestry) were exhibited as well.

Here are some of the pieces:

 

 

 Story by Gala (galafilc)

Translated by Nadia (LuNaViFelt)

Felted Christmas angel DIY

Couple of weeks ago I was asked to prepare a small Christmas project for kids in my girl's class. I decided to make and Angel for Christmas decorating with them. Taking a look around Internet I didn't seem to find what I wanted, so here is what I came up with.

 

1. What we will need:

wool roving in white

1 inch wooden bead with large hole

needle and a thread

felting needle and mat/brush/sponge

2. separate thinner strip of roving about 10-12 inches long

and  thicker one about 5 inches

 

3. tie the thinner roving tightly in half

 

4. put the thread through the bead hole

5. pull out the torso

6. turn upside down and arrange the hair leaving the face uncovered

7. twist a little wool strand

 

8. and tie off the hair

9. if you twist the strand of wool tightly and fold in half (hold the ends) - you will get a yarn like piece like this.

 

10. two of those will be Angel's arms. Putting both arm ends and the remainder of the wool you used to tie off the hair at the back of our doll needle felt all the ends into the torso.

11. tie the shorter piece of roving in half and shape the skirt. Cut off thread ends.

12. Pull in a new piece of thread into the needle, tie a knot. Pull through the bead hole from down to up.

13. Fix with a knot.

Cut off from needle and tie another knot - now you have a loop to hang your Angel from!

Yes, I forgot to take a picture of halo - made just the same way as the arm and needle felted to hold on top of hair :)))

By Nadia Crafts2Love

Seamless Fashion style

It is always pleasant to see your fellow team members are achieving great success in their chosen field. So we were very pleased to hear that Yanina from Seamless Fashion had a wonderful response to her  Spring/Summer 2014 felted dresses and accessories show at Washington DC Fashion Week on September 28th.

Congratulations, Yanina! way to go!

Russian Artists Team on Etsy

End of summer sale at Russian Artists

There is an end of summer sale going on right now at some of our team's shops. If you are planning ahead for the coming Holidays and looking for one of a kind gifts, it might be a great way to get them for less!

10% off every item at CasaDeGato shop - use SUMMER10 coupon at the time of checkout! 

Decorative plates, letters and stained glass painting on sale at ShimmerPlace! Please visit Stella's shop to see the selection. 

 

Natural gemstone and sterling silver bracelets at GemBracelet shop - free shipping on every item!

As the summer ends would you like to keep some of it with you? Well, head over to learn2felt shop and pick up a tutorial on how to make your own felted rose or a poppy brooch! Both tutorials are half price now.

15% off on selected items at JannasCraft shop - valid until September 15! Free gift with $50 purchase. See shop for the selection of colorful jewelry.

Great hand knit items at Socksandmittens - please see shop for details.

 

Hurry up while offers lasts!

To see more items on sale, visit Etsy and type in your search window: Rusteam, sale.

Happy shopping!

Interview with a star - Aleksa (CitrusCat)

Today, we'd like to introduce our team member Aleksa who runs CitrusCat shop on Etsy.


- Please tell us a little bit about yourself
What can I tell about myself?
I'm 23, I have a young, ambitious and full of hope for a brighter future. :)
By education I am a psychologist, but psychology does not attract me as a profession.
I'm a self taught handmade artist trying to turn my favorite hobby into life style and profession.
I create unusual jewelry. But sometimes I move in the other direction. Spontaneously I can start making greeting cards or decorative items for the home. In short, I am a creative person and quite unpredictable even to myself. I guess that's my trick.

- How long have you been creating? How did your journey in art and creativity begin?
I loved to make things since I was small. As far as I can remember as a child I drew a lot, asked my grandmother taught me to embroider. Then I wanted to make clothes and I wanted to be a designer.
My path to the creation of jewelry was long. At some point I started to sew felt brooches.


After a while I realized that I like to make jewelry and I started trying different techniques and materials.
Now I’m fond of creating resin jewelry. I chose this material and technique because it allows me to create different things without limiting the imagination.


In future I want to try to use other materials and techniques.

-What is the most important about your work?
I can identify several aspects that are important to my business. This is a good mood, inspiration, and support of my family
In my work I like the fact that I’m the owner of business and can do what I want.
No doubt, it creates a good mood which I put in my work.


One of the most important events for my business was opening a Citrus Сat shop on Etsy. This was a good incentive for me.


- What would you say makes your shop unique?
The original approach to the creation of my jewelry is making them unique.
I am a self-taught and eclectic artist, who works with a variety of techniques.
My jewelry is a world full of colors of life.
With my jewelry I want to make the world more beautiful and colorful.
I hope you enjoy my creations, as much as I enjoyed creating them!


Please come to my Citrus Cat (www.CitrusCat.etsy.com) store. And get a portion of happiness. :)

Dreaming of a White Christmas

I grew up in Siberia where every Christmas is white. By the end of November snow dresses up streets, buildings, trees, and everything around. So when the winter holidays come, the city is already decorated by Nature. Now that I have moved to California I miss that white splendor. Every Christmas season I see fabulously decorated trees, beautiful lights, cheerful Santas... but no snow.


I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know...



I always wondered how this song written by an American can express my feelings so well. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Irving Berlin who wrote this song was actually born in Siberia and left Russia to move to the US with his parents when he was a child. He must have missed the snow just like I do!



To be fair I’m not the only one who likes to dream of a white Christmas. Considering that the song became the best seller of all times, people all over the globe find something in this song that touches them. Is it nostalgia of happy childhood times? Or is it a search for innocence and simplicity in this demanding and overwhelming life? Or maybe all-white just seems more romantic?


No matter what the reason, we like to recreate a feeling of a white Christmas with handmade decor. You can find crocheted snowflakes, felted snowmen, and lots of snow white accessories created by the Russian Team on Etsy.


May your days be merry and bright,
and may all your Christmases be white!

By Yana (WineCountryLife)