rosiepink

Something for me, and a little experiment

Annie

I like to continually try new things because I find that's the best way to learn - embracing all successes and disasters as learning opportunities and then using that in future projects. I won't pretend I don't get upset when things go wrong though!  I can throw a good wobbly when the need arises!  

Anyway, I hadn't made a pod in a while so thought that would be a refreshing felty project to do. But I wanted a new twist to play with - so despite having safely made many many pods using resists - I realised I hadn't seen fabric set in as a 'loose' component before, only ever nuno'ed on as decoration - so thought I'd give it a go.

I started off with great zest as I envisaged a lovely flowery frilly pod - however it didn't quite turn out as I had envisaged in my mind's eye - but technically it was great. It worked perfectly with a number of resists used throughout the felt.

I started chopping in through the layers and found them all nicely separated as I had wanted. The only thing is that I think I made the inner hole too big to start with.

After the initial chop I thought it was pretty but looked maybe a bit uptight and I wanted it more free - so I got the scissors again - chop chop chop!

I like this but think it may have worked better if it was slightly larger. Will have another go though as I liked the effect.  

As it was a bit of an experiment I couldn't resist (excuse the pun!) taking the scissors to it quite severely to see how the layers had taken deeper down - the fabric had attached in all the right places so I was pleased with that.  The photo of the layers looks really pretty but the pod will now have to be placed in the "bits n pieces" felty recycling box to be used in another project as I completely killed it as a pod!

Still, it was worthwhile cos now I've got lots more ideas how to use this in other projects.

Given the cold and gloomy weather recently I decided to make a wintery inspired project. I love the cosiness of tealights and remembering a previous piece of machine embroidery I had done that looked twinkly when held up to the light I thought that would be a good place to start for inspiration.

So I made a small piece of felt then machine embroidered it in much the same way as before.

But what I forgot was that the light wouldn't be as strong from a tealight as an electric light so the tiny holes in the sewing don't show up as clearly as before so it's not quite as pretty in the same way by candlelight, but I think the felt still makes lovely cosy tealights and will endeavour to make a good selection of these for when winter comes round again (although it hasn't really left us yet has it!).  Apologies for the slightly grainy photos - I haven't quite worked out how to take effective candle photos in the dark yet!

Talking of cold - Am off to Yorkshire tomorrow morning - we had planned to do a few days walking. But given the weather it might end up being 3 days sat in a selection of nice warm bars and restaurants! Hey ho, it's a hard life! :-)

Don't decorate - make felt!

Lyn

When a room becomes jaded, it needs decorating.....or does it?

I've realised that I can delay the dreaded decorating by having a quick re-arrange of some of the furniture and introducing new pretty things!  Then the room has a new, albeit temporary, lease of life.

So instead of fiddling with sandpaper and dust-sheets, I've been felting some vessels to brighten up niches and shelves.

This cobweb pot gave me a headache.

I draped some hand blended merino fibres over a large upturned vase and felted them much as you would felt over a soap.

The cobweb felt was very thin so I decided to rub some CMC paste into the fibres while they were wet and sitting on the mould of the upturned glass vase. Then I set the whole thing aside to dry.

I figured that when the felt was dry it would just slide off the glass.

How wrong can you be?  

It was stuck fast!

With the aid of filleting knife and a fistful of pennies for the swear-box, I eventually parted the felt from the glass.

 

This terracotta pot looks great on my white shelf on a white wall.  

It stands 20cm tall and is decorated with yarn felted in. 

I made it over a resist and shaped it using my hands and some balled-up bubble wrap.

 

 

I just love using yarn to decorate pots!

I like the white merino background because it shows off the pretty variegated wool - but the dye bled from the yarn into the white in places.  However, I think it just adds to the charm and I'll tell everyone that it's a design feature.

I made this one on a resist but fulled it over a square sweetie jar.

The inside top edge has silk noil detail.

 

This sculptural piece is hiding a damaged vase and it stands 39cm tall.

 

I made the vessel on a resist then moulded it on the vase during fulling.  I was able to make the felt lightweight because the vase is inside and serves as a weight.

 

The merino wool is a lime/lemon colour and I nuno felted some fabric onto it.  I love the texture of the fabric now that the wool has drawn it up.

 

 

Ah well, I can't hang around chatting too long - I need to make some more stuff to brighten up another room before anyone notices that it too needs decorating!

Some Flowers for Mother's Day

Hi Mum, I just finished making you this card for Mother's Day.  It's all stitched and painted. Hope you like it!  In my usual style it's going to be a teeny bit late getting to you...but better late than never!

Can I swap it for some homemade chips when I visit next week...? :-)

Happy Mother's Day! xx