Q~ What did I get upto last week...?

A~ Lots of felting!

I had a week with no work interuptions - so I felted my days away very happily.  Im not going to bombard you with photos of everything in this one post.. I'm planning to trickle them out over the next few days :)

My first projects of the week were critters!  I felted a 2nd moongazing hare doorstopper... she was made on Monday.  The lady who first suggested penguins to me, after seeing my penguin doorstop post she requested a mommy penguin doorstop and cuddly baby penguin - as a gift for her daughter. And so, the penguin family grew.. 

I actually remembered to take a couple of photos as I went along this time!  So heres a bit about how I made them :)

Covering the penguin shaped resist with merino fibre

I put a layer of dark charcoal merino down for the first layer of the body, then a nice soft grey for the next 2 layers.. the way the charcoal mottles through the grey looks like baby is starting to get his adult feathers..

Thin plastic stops the flipper felting right into the body

I fulled the felt till it wouldn't go anymore, after rinsing & pushing/pulling it into shape the penguin dries on top of a radiator. 

Once dry he was stuffed.  I sewed a sort of teardrop shaped pouch from this lovely blue wave-like cotton, with wadding in the middle.  Some rice on the inner-body side for weight, then handstitched in place.. et voila - complète!

I now have a whole family of penguins :)  Mom, dad & baby...



Mom, dad are both doorstops & baby is a cuddly with a beany bum for stability

The baby is so soft and snuggly; he is well felted from merino.  You cant see too well in the photo but he has that nice pebbly texture.

Momma is felted from the same fibres as daddy penguin & has the same feathery texture from the Norwegian fibres coming through the merino.

Next post.. new bag design & a great new book!

xx

Addition to my menagerie :)

Just a quick post.. wanted to unveil my latest critter:

I havent got a name yet.....

My penguin doorstop :)  He is about the same height as the moongazing hare - just his beek makes him taller.

I dyed grey Norwegian wool black - it actually went dark charcoal grey, not black.  I used this for the base layers of all the black areas, with white Norwegian for the white bits.  The top layer is merino.  The dark grey Norwegian has come through the jet black merino & given it a lovely texture.. I'm really happy with that.

As with the hare he is seamless, made over a penguin shaped resist.. there was about 40% shrinkage during felting.  His flippers were formed over flipper shaped resists with dry fibre sticking out at the body end and I worked the ends into the body, in between layers as I was laying him out.  With plastic in between during felting to prevent them felting into the body.

He has a 500g rice bag in his bottom and some pretty blue wave like design cotton to finish him off.

This was my favourite project of the week.  Other than that the only felting was a scarf I played around with.. Its a collage of felt and lace fabrics & chiffon.  Havent take any photos as yet though (the penguin took over & stole the show).  Apart from that there has been work, shopping & getting work done on my car to eat the week away. 

xx

Moon gazing hare doorstop...

The days are racing by.. this is going to have to be a quick little post - I just realised its been a while and wanted to catchup a little.

I finished my moongazing hare.. and I adore him - he shall be staying home too :)  He's very simple - just how I pictured him.   Completely seamless, he was formed with both ears in place and is made up from Norwegian base layers and a merino top layer, with lots of BFL and a few black Leicester locks for surface texture.

Stands 14" tall, 500g of dried beans in his bottom for weight

Pretty vintage cotton fabric gifted to me by Clare a few months ago



Why can't a doorstop and teacosy live on the front window sill?

Pictured with the lovely daffs from Sue :)

Brother sheep is all finished.  As I finished him off with ears and hair he decided that he should be called Baaaartholomew :)  I used oodles of curly locks on Baaartholomew, so he is quite a bit more textural than my 1st lambcosy.

My next 3D creature might suprise you... if he turns out anyway lol.  Im just designing and dyeing fibre at the moment.

TTFN xx

WOOLGATHERERS

This morning I had the absolute pleasure of the first Woolgathering! 

Brenda & Susie came along, Clare had planned to come - but having given birth to her first child just 5 days ago, she couldnt make it. We were thinking of you though my dear & wishing you well - I cant wait to come cuddle your little princess. 

We had a really lovely morning!  There was a good deal of tea drinking, book browsing and fibre fondling - as you might expect from a group of fibre addicts.  I thought that it would be nice for us 'founding members' to each have a Sheepish pin..(pictured in the last post)   so the girls got to choose a little lambie to take home with them.. my flock is getting smaller again :)

Susie has issued a challenge over the next month.  She gave each of us a gorgeous tiny metal picture frame... which we are going to fill and bring along to the next meeting.  Quite exciting this... 

Whole new territory for me working on something so small! 

Now the sun is shining - and there is Spring in my heart.  This week has been satisfyingly productive, both in relation to felt made and... 

 A friend safely delivered a health babe.....

Our first Woolgathering went really well ... I have just spent a whole morning chatting with 2 friends over felt & fibre - sidestepping occasionally into such realms as music, yoga & strange phobias :)  It has done me good.

Hope you have an excellent weekend - whatever you have planned

xx

Lambing season...

is here.  I have no sheep... but this week I have found myself determinedly making myself a flock!  It all started out with this little chappy - whom I fell head over heals in love with while making him :)

My new teacosy
I used merino & Norwegian wool, with lots of locks; BFL, Leicester & black Lincoln

He makes me smile every time I look at him - he needs a name I think :)

He's just GOT to stay at home with me!  So I decided to make him a brother to go in the shop... And then while working on these, with their natural colours & the textures of the locks, my bronze moongazing hare caught my eye. mmmmm  my brain started figuring out just how to recreate it in felt.  The fingers started itching.. and a felted moongazing hare was born that afternoon :) She is mostly white - bathed in moonlight, I`ve felted in BFL locks so the white is textured.. and a couple of black Lincoln locks too. She isnt finished yet.. but will (I think) become a doorstop.  I really like her.. think the hares may multiply too :) as they are supposed too in March!

As you can see, brother sheep still needs his eyes & ears

I have also made 5 Feelin'Sheepish brooches / lapel-pins. 

I used 3.5" hat pins for these.  The little black sheep was made from the black lambs fleece from last Septembers charity event.. I washed half of it this week ready to use, and it is sooooo soft.  The black pin is mine, as I felt quite fondly toward that little lamb - would love to of brought her home with me!

More about what Ive done with some of the others soon

xx

March..

"In like a lion and out like a lamb" as the old adage goes.  Thought I'd share this with you, this sunny spring morning :)

From:

Flowers from Shakespears Garden - a posy from the plays

pictured by Walter Crane

An adorable book of illustrations by Walter Crane, a friend of William Morris and member of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

xx