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

Felting frenzy begins...

Wow what a busy felting week I have had! I have barely touched the computer this past week, apart from to check emails / orders etc. - the bare essentials. Last Friday found me hitting my stride, getting back into the swing of felting. I made myself a pair of slippers (working out my own technique for slipper making, these were my prototype) and a table trivet / mat... not sure what to call it really - any suggestions folks? To sit in the centre of the table & protect it from teapot, serving/casserole dish etc.

Drying in the sun

Both made from my Icelandic batts. The trivet has merino fibres & sari silk fibre decoration. The slippers are finished now & Im very taken with them :) Infact, I am this afternoon finishing off a 2nd and 3rd pair... but these ones are mine all mine...

Anyhoo, must run & get some more work done before the kids finish school.

Morefelt goody pics to follow soon xxx

B`day pressie pics

I can show you what I made now! Moms birthday has been and gone, she has her pressie... think she likes it (hope she does)...

What with both of the kids ill with that fluish virus last week (please dont let me come down with it!!!) and working at the weekend, plus this week is the last week of term & my little one is finishing Primary School - so there are leavers assemblys & plays and all sorts to attend AND this is my last few days of felting & working at home while the kids are at school - theres just no spare time. OK breath...

So, here it is...

Icelandic wool & merino in lovely woodland greens...

Lots of texture...with silk caps, wool & alpaca yarns, fabric scraps, glass beads, even bit of ostritch feather

Thats not all... this little lantern has a secret...

Dwelling deep inside this woodland cavern...

Is a pewter earthmother.

Unnoticed until the LED tealight is turned on, then she glows.

Be well folks
xx

Felted Slippers

Well I hit the ginger nut biscuits hard & am feeling much better now :o)

I joined the fun with the `join in & Make` on Working with Felt for these slippers, & followed the tutorial on there. Its the first time Ive felted slippers, and really enjoyed making them (hard work though - they took the best part of 7 hours). I decided to use Norwegian wool fibre as Ive heard that it is harder wearing than merino, its certainly coarser. I did my usual thing of jumping straight in, and allowed for the same rate of shrinkage as merino... This did not shrink anywhere near as fast as merino! So I really had to work them to get them to the right size. I thinks thats a good thing though; I really love the texture of the felt & it is very dense and hard - feels perfect for footwear.

I used mostly grey fibre, but for the 7th & final layer I used white for humbug stripes. So now they are dark and light grey stripes.

I have just finished sewing the leather soles on. I can imagine a viking wearing these for some reason. Cant wait for Gary to get home & try them on...