Artist Inspired - Ruthie Redden

I just love the work of UK artist Ruthie Redden!  Ruthie's work is inspired by nature, folklore and celtic mythology - please go along and take a look.. seeing for yourself will explain better than my words can.  I follow Ruthies blog - 5PreciousThings, which is a visual treat.. so grab a cuppa and piece of cake and go exploring into the magical and ancient! 

One of her paintings that I adore is the Moongazing Golden Hare...  I recently, and rather nervously asked Ruthie if I could make a felted interpretation of it.. and she kindly agreed :)  Thanks Ruthie x

I decided to make it into one of my favourite shaped bags, and spent a lovely couple of days felting doing it :)  This is how it went:

I wanted interest inside the bag and decided on a simple, celtic inspired spiral doodle in gold, cobalt and petrol.

This was the first fibre to be laid down, straight onto the resist so when it is felted and the resist removed the design will show on the inside of the bag.

Then I added 4 layers of fibre to make the pocket (3 Falkland + 1 merino) .
Next the pocket resists are positioned

Now I carried on laying the fibre layers down for the body of the bag;
3 layers white Falkland + 3 layers coloured merino - each layer of merino on both sides had the blue and green bands.

Handle loops were added between the 3rd and 4th fibre layers

 Once the 6 layers of fibre were in place I started building up the design.

The back of the bag

I used turquoise and mid-blue tussah silk to highlight the sky, and  cut a  silk cap to cover the moon 

The silk cap I used for the moon was actually the most boring - blah - beige colour imaginable.  It's one I had experimented with natural dyes on and it didn't turn out as I had hoped.. was just what I needed for this though!  After taking the above photo I added some of the moon-silk to the grassy area, and added some black yarn  to it too.

I outlined the picture with black woollen yarn (still had the moon to outline at this point)

I used the same technique for applying the moon and hare as I did with my dragon on the dragon bag..  I cut a silk chiffon template first and added the fibres on top on the silk (shame I forgot to take photos as I did this - I was quite lost in what I was doing at that point).

It took a lot of rubbing, rolling and whalloping to full it completely - I like these bags HARD.. that said they still feel lovely and soft to the touch but they have a nice sturdiness to them.

Internal pockets - after felting

Long strap - perfect for wearing across the body

Finished - back view

Finished front.
A little definition has been lost on the end of the nose - but considering how  thoroughly felted it is (and how much it shrunk!) thats not bad

I think the silk on the grass makes him look like he is sitting bathed in  moonlight :)

xx