Friday, 3 May 2013

Catching up..

Oooh it's been a while.  I was pretty out of it last week suffering from migraines, I couldn't stand looking at the computer much all week.  The first migraine struck the first day the weather went lovely!  Typical!  All week was gorgeous and I spent it skulking in the shadows like I was playing vampire :)

I did manage to make one bag last week.. took me three times as long as usual mind you.. here it is :)


 Inspired by Gustav Klimt's Wildflower Meadow painting..


A few flowers for the internal pocket design
Piles of fibre which will become integral pockets
 the resists sit on top of these after wetting
This bag is all merino - 22 micron so it is tough enough - especially with how hard I work it :)
Vibrant pink inside, with a black core
Magenta and pink outside, then simple flowers added.
Some are cut from prefelt, others are swirls of merino and silk fibre
Covered with thin plastic before rubbing so the design doesn't shift
 Then I worked it HARD.

Cutting the pocket resists out.
The golden tussah silk on the inside glows a treat against the pink
 And worked HARD again.. 'till
Stuffed with tea towels to round out the bell-bottom
It took me 3 or 4 days to get this far..  slow going.

Made matching felt and cut the reinforcing to fit the top of the bag
Pinned 
Blanket stitched with a lovely gold silk thread
A week in the making.. but oh my I was pleased with how it turned out!  And it's on it's way to a lovely lady in the US who wanted a tote in these colours, possibly with some free form flowers on :)  Hope she likes it.

This was the back


I did also have a new neighbour for the week!

About 50ft from my living room window.

I kept hearing this little beauty in the undergrowth right by the house.. I think he was looking for a lady, but I don't think he found one 'cos he has moved on.  

Hope you all have a wonderful May Day weekend whatever your plans :)
xoxo

11 comments:

Zdolność-tworzenia said...

Piękna torba i kurki poniżej.
Pozdrawiam.

Terriea Kwong said...

Color and the little flowers are simply gorgeous! Made the inside pocket and way of covering with a thin plastic sheet are good idea. Beautiful bag to go with.

Anonymous said...

Hi there I am new to felting, being a painter by trade!! I so enjoy your blog, and i wanted to ask if you have written anything about how to make a bag with a flap....something i can't get my head around.....how to make the resist, so that you don't end up with a flap which is cut from the body of the bag if that makes sense, I am sure you have covered this before, keep bloggin you are such an inspiration, cheers Kathryn

Jeany said...

It is so beautiful, i only can imagen how hard the working has bin, but the result STUNING!!!!

CLAUDIA said...

Hallo, I like your bags very very much, and all your others works as well.

Bye bye
Claudia

Dorothy's Factory said...

Ale piękne rzeczy tworzysz. Podziwiam i gratuluję talentu:)
Pozdrawiam:))

Kelly said...

Beautiful- I love your color choices for this one! Sorry to hear about the migraine, it's no fun being stuck inside when the weather is beautiful outside.

crazydazy said...

what a beautiful bag, ali

FeltersJourney said...

Thank you all for your lovely compliments :) and sympathy over the migraines. I am feeling completely better now.
xoxo

Anonymous left a comment asking about making bags with flaps.. I can only reply on here I'm afraid.

I don't think I have anything on my blog about making flap bags :S What I do is increase the size of the resist so it includes the flap (example 2/3 of the resist makes the body of the bag & 1/3 forms the flap). Part way through felting - when the resist is beginning to rumple up cut to remove the resist at the point where the flap meets the top of the bag (1/3 of the way along the resist) leave the resist inside the body of the bag after removing it from the flap and carry on working it for a while before removing entirely. The flap should felt together and be substantial done this way - I find that they are too lightweight if they are the same thickness as the body of the bag.

Hope this helps.. it's been a long day and I'm pretty frazzled so I'm really hoping I've made sense here. Feel free to email if there's anything you are unsure of.

x

Unknown said...

Torba przepiękna. Super wykonanie i kolor. Bażant fantastyczny.

FeltersJourney said...

Thank you Karolina :)
x