Spring Muses Russian Artists Team Contest

Spring is all about blooming trees and amazing flowers, first warm sunny days and positive attitudes. One of Russian Artists team members Lena Baymut came up with an idea of yet another team spring contest. The main idea of this spring content is to feature not only amazing items hand crafted by Russian Artists team members but to actually present the artists themselves. Every team member could submit a listing from his or her store featuring his or her muse.

We all love hand crafting and are always eager to share our new ideas and designs with the Intrenet community. Creating hand made items for spring is especially rewarding as spring is all about beautiful colors, flowers, rebirth and happiness!

All the submissions were available on Russian Artists Facebook Page for voting. It was again a tough choice to vote for one or another of our beautiful artists.

Russian Artists team is somewhat unique. We are all united by a common mother tongue that is Russia but we all live in different parts of the world. This contest was actually a great opportunity for us to meet each other in person. We now know the artists who create unique and inspiring art pieces in our team.

Every item submitted collected a great number of votes. Below are four who got the most votes.

1. Hand painted silk scarf Fishes by WoolGemArt


2. White mohair shawl by CozySeason


3. Medieval Style Dress by Katrinshine


4. Felted white scarf by LenaBaymut


Congratulations to our amazing winners!!!

You can check out all of the contest entries in our Team treasury.

posted by TonyaUtkina

How to make a felted wool flower brooch

It's a perfect time to create a felted wool flower brooch. It will be a great addition to any party dress or holiday outfit. A felted flower brooch is not hard to make and it can be created at home using just soap and water.

First of all we will need felting wool in different colors. It can be purchased at either Ben Franklin or on-line at AshlandBay.


For a flower brooch I normally create a few layers of felt to make the brooch soft and fluffy. To create a layer we will need to lay wool flat on a plastic surface and wet if with warm water and soap. It makes sense to mix different colors of wool to create interesting combinations of new colors. Hand felting is a little bit like painting. You mix colors and get something amazing at the end!

For the wool to felt we will need to press and stroke it gently with our palms adding water and soap if needed. It will take a good 15 minutes for each layer to felt. When we cannot separate wool fiber any more and our layer is more or less intact it’s time to stop. Our wool has felted.

Let's rinse our layers with water and squeeze them gently so that all the water gets out. Now it's time to take a break and let our layers dry. I normally leave my hand felted pieces overnight to dry well.

Once our layers of felt are dry and soft we can start creating an actual brooch. For our brooch to be beautiful and unique we can use beads, felted balls, buttons, wood pieces and pretty much anything we can find in our home. I personally like to attach big buttons in the middle of my brooches to make them look more like flowers. Don't forget to attach either a safe pin or a special brooch pin in the back of the brooch. They could be purchased at Ben Franklin as well.

Felted flower brooches are great accessories. They add style and color to any outfit. I promise people will turn their heads when you wear a hand made flower brooch. It's so great to know that this pretty and chic brooch was actually created with your own hands!

As a member of Russian Artists Team I'm proud to present my amazing fellow artisans who create wonderful wool felted items:
AleksandraRoo
allmadewithlove
Beautyland
CityCrochet
dalmmar
frenchfelt
FunEmbroidery
galafilc
JaneBoFelt
jezek
JuliaFelt
manonknits
SilkMagic
soroka
Svetusha
VitalTemptation
YanArt
woolsolution

This post was written by TonyaUtkina at CityCrochet. You can read more about felting on my blog.

Your summer essentials for less!

Summer is here and we have a lot of sales going on right now at the Russian Etsy Team stores. Take a look and have fun shopping!

Cozy hand knit socks, gloves and market totes at socksandmittens!

Cute jewelery and felted accessories at daimblond shop!

10% off on lovely jewelery at beautyspot - conditions apply to get a
discount - see store for details!

20% off on everything in a store at katrinshine shop - conditions
apply to get a discount, see store for details - gorgeous dresses,
corsets and quilted bags!

Jewelry for any occasion at Mywaytosay - free shipping on every purchase!

Colorful summer jewelry at Beautyland - free shipping on every purchase for USA customers until August 31, 2010!

Clearance sale on selected pieces at Arctida's store - fabulous jewelry!

Chocolates Etsy Front Page Treasury

Our team's Chocolates treasury created by TonyaUtkina was featured on Etsy' Front Page. Soft and warm dark and milk chocolate colors and amazingly beautiful items hand crafted by our talented Etsy fellow team mates made a great Etsy Front Page!


The following unique and beautiful Etsy artists were featured in my Chocolates treasury: allmadewithlove, daimblond, TomBjornDesigns, RosemaryManufacture, TonyaUtkina, kpersonboutique, JaneBoFelt, YuliaKazansky, YuliyaArt, lanadearg, Arctida, MyWayToSay, VitalTemptation, BlueberryCream, beautyspot, herbolution