At the beginning of this quarter, Ann had posted about this quarters challenge theme being early Celtic.
https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/03/31/second-quarter-challenge-3/
I thought a lot about it and had several ideas, but wasn’t sure I could pull them off. One of them was a pod with spirals. Lyn got to it before me, but of course as she said, everyone does things differently. So, I did.
I had some Llama yarn I hand dyed years ago in several colors. I decided to use that for the spirals. I made a little bit larger pod than usual in order to accommodate the design. I laid one layer of Merino on each side, then two layers of Corriedale and a final layer of Merino. I felt this would give the pod some substance. Here is the start of the topside design.
Full design wetted down.
Bottom (I ran out of turquoise so I used yellow.) I had actually had a yellow spiral on the bottom, but forgot to flip it over before starting the topside design so it ended up being cut out.
I did a lot of rubbing to get the design to stay, but the Llama was not cooperating. It was felting to itself and not the Merino. Frustrated, I let it dry out then needle felted the design in place. That did the trick, but the Llama shed everywhere and blurred the design.
I tried shaving and shipping tape it but wasn’t helping. So, I grabbed my tweezers and embroidery scissors and sat for an hour pulling long hairs out of the design. There is still more I could have pulled out but goal was to get the black to look black and set off the design.
Much better.
I kept looking at the pod thinking it was out of shape, but it finally occurred to me it was an optical illusion because of the design.
As for the Llama, I thought I had used it before and if I did I didn’t remember it being problematic. I don’t think I’ll be using it again.
Have you done the challenge yet? You can post your work on the forum any time, but we’ll be announcing the next challenge soon.