If you were a member of the product test back in June, you should begin to receive the thank-you mail art today. The deal was, if you were a participating member of the product test, I'd send a small fiber piece as a thank you.

The test was a flop, but the mail art is completed (finally) and about half have been shipped. The pieces above are needle-felted alpaca roving and scads of thread clippings with a little hand beading, mounted on a cardstock backing.

These postcards are needle-felted roving and specialty fibers on a base of pre-washed wool-blend felt. They began as a class sample of a purse from a pattern the shop owner wanted to promote. I'm not very good at following someone else's pattern and after 8 hours of needling, the purse base was only half ready to begin construction and I was SICK of stitching straight lines!! That's how they came to be repurposed (or in my opinion up-cycled) to mail art. :-)

Here are 16 of the 24 (4" x 6") postcards that were upcycled from the purse base. The base was felted with roving, specialty fibers, and FireStar (a nylon shred that looks like fine Angelina) and then hand beaded and mounted on cardstock.

If you're part of the test team. Thank you so much for being willing to work on this project with me. I'm really sorry the test results did not support the original hypothesis—but we know one more thing that doesn't work!

Initial tests indicated Fabric Magic from Earth Safe Finishes might act as a mordant for inkjet inks on fabrics. We tried various dilutions with water, but they all washed out. It was disappointing, but that's part of product development.

So, here's wishing you a fabulous new year, full of creative challenges!