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Annie
I've been enjoying making new craft supplies from deconstructing old things. The flowers in the little picture above are made from coppery bits from an old necklace that had seen better days and the edging is some more copper wire that I rescued from the electricians when they were here last week. Waste not, want not!
For the background I started with a piece of my handmade felt that I've clearly attacked before:
Then I machine stitched on some background stems before adding the jewellery bits and some beads and hand stitches. It's only about a 6cm square but I like making tiny pictures as they are quick and easy to experiment with. It means I can actually finish something in a couple of hours and it's in less danger of becoming an Unfinished Project!
I've also taken to stripping colourful strands of fibre from the fabric samples I had left from years ago to re-use in feltmaking, as many of them are too thick to use as they are but are interesting when deconstructed, and have also found that cutting thin pieces from the arms of a close knit (ruined) cardi and stretching it out produces great lengths of interesting pieces to felt in, not individual strands of yarn but a highly textured, springy cord of 3 or 4 strands. I'll have a go at felting it in and see what happens. It's good to have a play!
The pieces of cardi might look good just roughly stitched on too - I auditioned it for the border of my pic but went with the copper wire in the end:
Although there is an abundance of new craft supplies on offer - of which I do buy many! - there is something satisfying about making something new using something old. It adds to the character of the piece too. I probably wouldn't have bought slightly rusty flower beads from a craft shop but somehow getting the pliers out and dismantling an old necklace made me look at it differently.
I've got all sorts in my pile of things to try and also lots of bits on the go that I haven't finished in a kind of "pending further inspiration" pile. Here are some photos of little bits that I started making from felting my handspun yarn on a base of Merino fibres, to which I added scrim and other bits with the embellisher and felting needle:
I love the effect of the fibres but haven't quite decided what to do with it all yet. Some of them do look wonderfully beachy with all of the colourful bits that look like nets and ropes etc that you find washed up. I was rummaging in the pending pile because I've just been on another lovely spinning day and it reminded me what I had started after the last session, and that I hadn't posted since then!
This time I made a little skein of yarn from random odds and ends that I gathered together that morning and took with me. It was great fun. I had no plans for colours or anything I just wanted to chuck in as much stuff as possible to see what happened, and be happy as long as it held together! Here's what I made:
I tried to use some really short staple dyed green Shetland wool to start with and I ended up with lots of little broken bits until I carded it with some longer odds n ends like lime dyed silk and other longer wool fibres and then I ended up with a knobbly random yarn that I plied with a mainly Merino yarn. It's only a tiny skein of about 20 metres but it was fun to make, and it's plenty for using in felting. Productivity wasn't high but we had other things to do too like scoff cake and natter a lot! :)
