Betz White Birdhouse Workshop: A Review and Results

“Virginia Springtime”

I just finished a really fabulous online workshop with Betz White.  She taught me how to make one of her darling felted birdhouses complete with resident bird.  I have to tell you that I loved every minute of this course.  Betz posted new instructions, with video and lots of beautiful inspiration, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two weeks.  I could hardly wait until the next set of instructions arrived.  Each day when Betz’s post would arrive I would drop everything and work on my birdhouse.  I found this project rewarding for lots of reasons:  felt is so lovely and forgiving to work with, the time and materials commitment was small, the creative possibilities were endless, the end result so darned cute! 

Here are a few things I learned along the way.  I hope some of these ideas will help you think and problem-solve creatively in whatever project you are working on.

I had plenty of raw materials to work with, seeing as how I hoard fabric including felted wool and sweaters.  But while I was working on the embroidery using some silk ribbon, I discovered I didn’t have the color I wanted. I thought about taking a piece of white ribbon and coloring it with a marker but then I had the better idea of dyeing it with koolaid. I’ve done this quite a bit and it works really great for both silk and wool. And it is safe and super easy. From the time the idea came into my head to completion took me (literally) less than 5 minutes. I took a small glass jar and put about ½ cup water in it and added roughly ½ packet of lemonade (unsweetened) koolaid powder. I submerged the ribbon and put it in my microwave. It took less than 2 minutes of cooking to achieve the shade I wanted (wool usually takes a little longer). I rinsed and hung the ribbon up to dry. This is a bit of a random science so you might need to experiment (NOTE: start with a small amount of koolaid powder and work up; the yellow I used required quite a bit for a darker color but most DON'T!) Here are a couple of links that will show you the various colors you can achieve with different koolaid flavors:  knitty and wrappedrocks.  The ribbon embroidered flowers with blue beading on the sides of the house were inspired by this photo, taken in my yard.

The next challenge presented itself with the fabric I wanted to use for the leaves on the roof.   I had previously over-dyed some black and white wool pieces with green dye in various colors.  During the dyeing process the wool did not felt very much and I was concerned that it would ravel when I cut it.  I first thought of edging each leaf with Fray Block (that would have been tedious).  Instead, I used my needle felting embellisher to felt each little piece more fully (no pun intended).  This worked great and had the added bonus of adding a soft, fuzzy quality to the pieces of wool.  So, if you’ve got a piece of wool that just won’t felt using conventional methods, try some needle felting.

The stitching on the bird’s wing represents forsythia, spring’s harbinger.  When I discovered that the back side of the stitched wing was going to be visible once applied to the bird, I fused another fabric on the back, and ended up loving that little print peaking out.

But the most joy I got from this project was the realization, toward the end, that I have really “loosened up” with my creativity.  There was a time when I would have cut each leaf for the roof with a pattern.  This time I free-hand cut each one; after all, nature’s variety is what makes it so special.  I also free-hand stitched all of the elements and embraced any and all diversity.  Each stitch in this project was made by hand, something I am turning to more and more these days.  Working by hand really allows me to feel what needs to be done to a project, something I think is missing when I sit at the machine. 

I’ve already sketched out and made notes on three other birdhouse ideas, each celebrating a different season.  This really was one of the most rewarding projects I’ve done in a long time.  I really recommend trying one of Betz’s workshops if you get the chance.  She has such a nurturing and kind teaching style, and all of her projects are so appealing.  Since she lives locally to me I am hoping that one day I can attend a live workshop; I’m betting she is even better in person.