Halloween reminiscing

As we completed Halloween costumes tonight, Solomon asked what his costume was when he was a baby. The truth is that he was brand new and tiny at his first Halloween, lying in a little light-up bed fighting jaundice and the billirubin count. I don't think that counts as a costume, but we have a photo of him in a bear hat next to a jack-o-lantern. He is yellow. The pumpkin is orange.

I love making costumes for my kids. I love that they make costumes themselves now, too. And, of course, we use a lot of felt.

Here are a few of my favorites from over the years, in no particular order.

Video from Mongolia

I wish I had video to share of the artists creating Satch & Sol slippers. I do not. However, I found this video of the making of felted ger walls on youtube. The heavy felted walls are MUCH bigger than slippers, so they are beaten down by dragging on horse back. Horses are not used in the felting of Satch & Sol slippers, hats and mittens, all of which are felted around a mold to be seamless. The similarities in the processes are the lack of electricity to beat the wool into felt, the small group work, and the fact that many of the artists live in gers themselves.

Someday, I'll record a video, if the artists will allow me to. Until then, I noticed several youtube videos about felting process and found them all to be very informative, espcially the ones showing Mongolia specifically.

Ebjoy!