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

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

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