Finally finished...

My lion now has a mane!  I tried a couple of ideas which just didn't work.. and then got my lightbulb moment :)   I LOVE rag rugs... and I wanted my lion to have a nice chunky mane... so I decided to give him a rag-rug effect mane

I embroidered his facial features on, and added a couple of nice old
dark slate coloured plastic buttons for his eyes

Luckily I had a bag of Harris wool tweed remnants knocking around :)  I picked 2 nice brown based pieces and fulled them in the washing machine.  I have no idea how many tiny strips I cut from them, but there were a LOT.  Each strip was handstitched in to place individually - certainly the SLOW way of doing it, but I liked the effect of having them placed iggledy-piggledy.. I couldn't do it all in one go, the sewing made my fingers sore.. so I spread it out doing a bit every 2 or 3 days whenever I had an hour spare.



He is just what I wanted with his raggedy-ruggedy mane..



He is one half of a pair of doorstoppers I made for MARCH.  Last year my March doorstoppers were hares, this year it was a lion and a lamb.. from the old saying about March that it 'comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb'



Here he is with his 'other half'



I'm planning to make him a brother as soon as I am able to track down some nice suitable tweed.. I am totally kicking myself after missing 2 gorgeous pieces on ebay last night.. I was watching 4 yards (perfect colours in 2 different designs)  and I forgot that they were finishing! The vintage piece went for less than a fiver and it was lovely.. why oWHY did I forget to go bid?! 

Anyway, I'm planning to take progress pics next time and post them. 

Have a good weekend.. xx

New year - new ideas

I started off January by making a list of themes I wanted to explore this year.. And I actually started working on 2 of them IN January - now thats good going from me! There are a couple of other themes that I really want to work on soon, but I want to show you what I've been upto so far :)  I'm going to be running with these for a while I think 'cos I am really enjoying them.  So far I have started on Petroglyphs & Pictographs and Hundertwasser inspired projects..  and I'm going to start off by showing you my first Hundertwasser inspired bag, which was a nice little learning curve :)

I have been very much inspired by the work of Freidensriech Hundertwasser the renowned Austrian artist.. I love his use of colour and spirals and his love of nature.  If you have a few moments and are unfamiliar with him, please go google.. the site I have linked to is interesting but there is so much more online.. I enjoyed this essay in Hello Magazine.

So far I have kept it simple.. using lovely colours and spirals, nice natural shapes and texture..  My first bags have been inspired by The Big Way painting..

Hundertwasser inspired bag #1

close-up finished spiral

I made my resist with the idea of 50 to 55% shrinkage.  I enclosed my resist in 6 layers of fibre; the inner 3 layers are white Falkland and the outer 3 are coloured merino.  The first thing I laid down was 2 inegral pockets to be on the inside.. with this first bag I just used 3 layers of Falkland for the pockets (forgot to take photos this early). 



 After laying 4 layers of fibre, I added loops to run the handle through..  These were short cords with a fluffy root left at each end, I incorporated the fluffy root in between layers 4 and 5 of the layout stage. 

I didnt position it right at the top of the resist as I wanted room to cut the resist out and even up the top without having to worry about the loops getting damaged or weakened..

 Once all the layers were laid I started spiraling :)  This was the fun bit, it did take a lot longer than I expected though I must say.. laying out a nice spiral takes time!

I drew spirals on the front and the back of the bag using thin lengths ofmerino fibre, pretty BFL slubby yarns and boucle yarn which is an alpaca/wool blend - this is what the dark blue and charcoal is.



These BFL yarns are part of the stash I brought back from Wonderwool last year,
all naturally dyed by Alison at Pure Tinctoria

 

I got so carried away felting that I forgot to take pictures for a while now :(  I dont have any of it partially felted, or as I cut the resist out.

For the handle I wanted to creat a double cord - a big loop that runs through the hanging hoops.. I felted a loooong cord leaving fluffy tufts at each end again.  Onto the cord I twined all the colours that were in the spirals, they twist all along the length.

 And then I felted that - the cord handle has a white Falkland core and 2 layers of merino, then the twist of fibre and yarn.  It was worked in between each layer, but once the twist was on I REALLY worked it hard.. leaving the ends till later.

Internal pockets

The pockets are not as tightly felted as I would of hoped.. I think its to do with the different character of the Falkland wool compared to merino.. and possibly 'cos I only used 3 layers.  This is an area for improvement next time.. 

I am very happy with my bag.. and this one is MY bag :)  a keeper - yay!  I love the way that the white Falkland has crept through to the front making it all heathery - it brings all the colours together - so what could of clashed horribly is actually very harmonious. 

There are a couple of things to tweak for next time..  The hanging loops are strong and stable, but maybe look a little thin on such a big bag - next time make them chunkier!  The handle is super long.. I like that, I can wear it across my body comfortably, if I want to wear it over the shoulder though I would probably have to tie a know to shorten it a little - next time make it a tad shorter.  And the inner pockets need to be sturdier, these are stable enough, but I like them to be tight and even edged, these are a little 'frilly'.

Next time Hundertwasser bag #2

xx

Making Mittens

I hate having cold hands!  One thing that always freezes my fingers to the point that I could cry is scarping the ice off my cars windows.. so I decided to felt an ice-scraper mitt; a thumbless mitten with the handle of the ice-scraper going through to the inside where you hold it and keep warm.  I didnt take process pics, but made 2 at once by using a double resist which I cut in half part way through felting.. giving me 2 scraper mitts

I cut a slit at the end & 'healed' the edge as I was felting.. this is where the scraper goes

 I decided to give these to my aunties for Christmas.. hope they liked them (I havent seen them yet)  They should be good for ice-scraping as they wont get wet.

Now I needed to make for myself.  Oraigionally I planned to make a thumbless mitt, but I have I've always fancied a pair felted mittens that I can wear out and about.. last time I tried it turned out like a felt boxing glove lol (I'd used way too many layers!).  Also I wanted the thumb to be positioned slightly to the front rather than at the side..  Gary solved this for me very simply, he pointed out that I can turn it slightly as Im working the felt so the thumb is where I want it.

covering the double resist with nice golden orange merino

I used 3 layers.. so it would be thick and warm, but still flexible

On the 2nd and 3rd layers I added blue for the hands
keeping the orange clear for the wrists

For surface decoration I used a pink and yellow silk cap that I dyed a while back
and some pretty variegated finger roving brought back from Wonderwool Wales

Wetted and rolled, just about to cut them apart

healing the edges

After working the left mitt look at how much it shrunk after it came off the resist

Finished front and back

Generally I am really happy with these.. I shall tweak the resist next time to make the finger area slightly narrower.  When I made these I didnt want them to restrict my fingers, but I think there is just a little too much room there.  I may wet them and work the fingers a bit more yet. 

Safe to say there will be more mitten making in the future :)

Helenium Cushion - process pics

This all started with a lovely project article in FELT magazine - an Australian magazine which celebrates felt in all its forms :)  I have only been able to get hold of the one issues of this (issue 3) but really enjoyed it.

The project was for a poppy cushion and was written by Wendy Bailye.  Lovely clear instructions and lots of photos for making a seamless 3 dimensional poppy cushion with 3 petal layers (1 being the outer frill).  I very much enjoyed making this.. as you can tell from the fact that I followed Wendy's instructions :) something I rarely do.  After making my poppy cushion I decided to be daring and make one with even more petals.  I wanted to have a go at making a rose for my nans birthday.. nan has a beautiful rose bush that my grandad brought her many years ago and I decided to try and make the rose- cushion in those colours.

As you can tell from the title of this post (& the photos)  my cushion had a mind of its own and did not want to be a rose..  its more like a marigold or a helenium - and as heleniums are one of my favourite flowers thats what I'm calling it  :)

My first step was to card batts blending the colours that I wanted.. gold, bronze & pink, and turn them into roving.  (I LOVE carding batts and blending pretty colours - its so satisfying)  They actually look a little dull on the picture, in real life the pink against the gold and bronze was delicious!

Then I cut the resists; one big circle of foam underlay for the centre + 4 layers of thin plastic for the petals

The first layer of fibre was layed as rays extending out past the edge of the circular resist.. (all the fibres for this outer frill were layed going in the same direction so when they felted there was plenty of give to allow you to shape them into ruffles).

Then the centre of the circle was filled with perpendicular layers

Next came a layer of plastic with a hole in the centre where the petal layer felts into the main part of the cushion.

This was repeated 4 times..  each layer of petals I made just a little bit smaller than the last.

Flipped over and layed the back out

The next stage took AGES.  Cool wetting and rubbing till it was ALL holding together well.. and finally rolling it - again there were a fair few hours spent doing this.

When it got to this stage it was strong enough for heat and more vigorous fulling.  Making sure to stretch the petals out sideways as they shrunk so they were nice and flouncy..

(can you see all the silk? I used LOADS)

Till it looked like this.. 

 I cut button holes and healed the edges, for a button close back

It really doesnt look much like a rose to me unfortunately..  nan likes heleniums too though so I'm hopeful that she will still like it :)   I made this in early summer.. nans birthday is in November - talk about being prepared!

xx