Christmas bells, beeswax and wonky masking tape!

Christmas bells, beeswax and wonky masking tape!

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Happy Christmas everyone!  At the moment you are probably up to your eyes getting ready for the days of festivities which lie ahead.  So, I will give you a few options here.  Here is a slideshow of my blog which you can go through in a few minutes if you are stuck for time.  Alternatively you can read my narrative or if you have a while to spare why not grab a cuppa, pull up a chair, watch the slideshow and read the narrative!

  • I covered the resist with orange viscose and two layers of red merino
  • Then I added silk paper I made. I didn’t like it so I pulled it off when it was at prefelt stage
  • This is the lid of the furniture polish I used to shape my bells
  • Here they are after drying. I cut them to size as they were rather long
  • Here is a view of the inside of one of the bells
  • I rolled the bottom edge to show the orange viscose
  • I pinned the soluble paper to the bell and drew my pattern
  • I cut back the excess paper ones I had stitched the pattern
  • Then I added the beads
  • Here they are ready for dunking
  • The paper dissolved once the water hit it!
  • Then I crocheted the ‘rope’ I painted the silver bells with some bronze nail varnish
  • Here they are, ready to go!
  • A detail of the free motion machine embroidery and beading on the tree
  • Disaster struck using masking tape on the inside of the card. Back to the drawing board
  • I stippled the card using a stencil brush and red then gold paint
  • Inside the card (no masking tape this time!)
  • A selection of handmade Nepalese paper for Karen to play with
  • All packed in the box
  • Here’s the finished card which I glued to the lid of the box
  • All ready for posting
  • And finally, here they are, on Karen’s beautiful Christmas tree

 

I was so delighted when I drew Karen in the Christmas card exchange this year.  I was also a bit daunted as I have been going through a bit of a dry patch creatively over the past number of months.  I knew I wanted to do something that ‘stood out’ (in other words 3D) but this can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to postal systems.

While searching through one of my fibre presses I came across a deep small box that I had used to transfer a porcelain bowl home from my holiday in NZ earlier in the year.  We won’t even talk about how my weird creative mind works but seeing the box instantly brought to mind bells so, decision made, I got to work on them.

First I made my resist.  I intended making two bells.  I covered the resist in an orange viscose fibre and then laid two layers of red merino on top. I added a hanging loop to each bell and some silk paper to each bell which I later pulled off as I didn’t like it.   Once prefelted I cut through the resist to make two shapes and then started working on shrinking and shaping.  Next, I searched for a suitable bell shape which I could use for the next stage.  That’s where the beeswax came in! The lid is shaped like an old fashioned beehive which is an ideal shape to work with.  Lots of rubbing and shaping ensued (and I will admit a bit of cutting as the shapes were too long), until I ended up with bell shapes I was happy with.  Then I rolled the bases so that the orange showed on the outside.

I decided I wanted a simple embroidered design on each bell.  I drew my tiny design on water soluble paper and added my stitches and a few beads to each bell.  Then I dissolved the paper and reshaped the bell on the top of my little beehive!  Once dry, I got to work on the ‘rope’ and the bell.  My little jingle bells were silver and I had been searching, to no avail for gold ones which I thought would look better.  Then I thought of using some nail varnish on the outside of the bells.  Worked a treat!  I then took some cotton embroidery thread and made the ‘rope’ which I attached to the body of the bell and to the inside of the little ‘jingle’.  Then I threaded ribbon through the loop at the top of each bell so that Karen could hang them up.  They fitted nicely into the box but I felt there was something missing.  So I added a few little squares of Nepalese paper which I thought Karen might like to experiment with.  Some of these are quite a lot heavier than the usual ones which are used in felting but I have managed to felt them into pieces.  I thought she might have fun trying them out.

Next to the card.  My cards were the same size as the box so I thought it might be fun to attach it to the box when it was ready.  I opted for a monochrome effect to start with; I prefelted a tree which was made from black merino and margillan silk.  Then I laid the tree onto a white merino background and felted the lot together.  Once fulled, I cut it to size.  Then it was decorating time which I did on my sewing machine using free motion embroidery.  I added some beads too.

Time to address the card!  I stippled the outside of the card with a stencil brush using red and then gold paint.  Then I decided to do the same on the inside but got too creative and used masking tape so I could control the area where I was adding the colour.  Once happy, I went to remove the masking tape.  Disaster! It took away a goodly portion of the card too.  I was not a happy bunny!  On to the second attempt with the card (without masking tape this time), I was more successful.  All done and ready for the post.

Karen has received her card today and I got mine from her yesterday.  I love my card.  Karen has gone to such detail with it I am going to treasure it. Like Lindsay’s card from a previous swap, it will be putting in an annual appearance at Christmas time.

I love the concept of the card swap.  It keeps my felting friends close in my heart, especially at this time of year. Thank you to Ann who organised it and us.

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2025!

Helene

A leaded window decorated for Christmas taken from the outside
The Museum at Christmas

The Museum at Christmas

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I have been volunteering in the shop attached to our local Museum for several years now.  I have to keep an eye on the Museum, welcome any visitors, dispense information (if I can) and serve in the shop.  Visitors are infrequent unfortunately and, because I get bored easily and can’t stand doing so, I tend to bring in something crafty to keep me occupied between times.  As I am using the Museum’s electricity to light and heat my work space, I feel that I should use the time to make something that could be sold in the shop to help to raise funds for the Sturminster Newton Heritage Trust which runs the Museum and also the town’s Water Mill, renting the latter from the Pitt Rivers Estate.

I have told you about the Mill before here and thought you might like to hear a little about the Museum and the things I have made (or attempted to make) over the years to sell in the shop.  Though first I must show you a chap who, a few years ago, came to visit the Mill with his mates from one of the local biker groups.

A small dog sitting on the back of a motorbike dressed in a leather jacket and wearing goggles
Biker Dog – So cool! I’ve forgotten what his name was, though it might have been Jack, but he certainly attracted a lot of attention from others visiting the mill at the time, and he lapped it up!

This is the building which the Museum Society, as it was then called, purchased from the Town Council in 2007.

An old thatched building

The building started life in the 1500s as a cottage.  In the early 1800s it came into the ownership of the then Lord Rivers and was occupied by a farmer/baker and then a well known clock maker (we have one of his grandfather clocks in the Museum).  After being sold in the mid 1800s it was occupied by an insurance agent and then an auctioneer, before becoming a sweet shop and restaurant as well as a home.

Infamously, before the Second World War, the restaurant was visited for a meal by Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists.

After the war the property was bought by a solicitor and eventually sold to the Town Council in 1996.  The Town Council occupied the building until 2007 when it was purchased by the then named Museum and Mill Society.

The Town Council moved into purpose built Council Chamber and offices, which are part of The Exchange building. The Exchange was built and opened in that year on the site of what had been the largest Calf Market in the country but which had closed some 10 years previously.  The Town has had a market/fair since 1219, having been granted a Charter by King Henry III, and we continue to have a (much reduced) market each Monday with stalls around the town.

The first of my donations which the Museum sold (eventually) were these two small felt pictures of the Mill.  They were my versions of photographs which Graham, my husband, had taken.

Then I had a go at crocheting snowflakes, which did sell quite well in the run up to one Christmas.  I seem to remember that I have shown you these before but I can’t find the link so here are some of them again.

crocheted snowflakes displayed on a swag of green and white tinsel
A few Snowflakes

The Museum Shop has a number of items to sell which sport images of the Mill, Museum and, in the case of tea towels, our mediæval bridge over the River Stour.  I did use one of the tea towels to make a Memo Board for sale, with the intention of making a series of these if they sold.  Unfortunately that was not to be, the Memo board I made is still hanging on the shop wall.  Though to be honest I’m not sorry that there’s no call for more of them because it took a lot longer to make and was a lot more complicated than I had anticipated, and I had actually made it in my workshop rather than in the Museum shop, so it didn’t really meet any of my criteria.

A memo board constructed from a blue and white tea towel printed with images of a water mill, a stone bridge and an old thatched building; crossed with blue ribbons.
The “one off” Tea Towel Memo Board.

In fact over the months I have come up with lots of different ideas for items for sale which haven’t worked:  Making books in boxes using unsold cards sporting very old photographs of Stur (as the locals call Sturminster Newton). Making Etuis, but I couldn’t work out how to get Mill, museum or bridge  images onto them; I would have had the same problem with making chatelaines with fabric covered thread cutters, scissors and needle books.  I did think of making pincushions to sit inside glass or ceramic pots or ornaments bought from charity shops but I couldn’t find a way to make sure the pincushions stayed inside them without using lots of glue, which I hate doing. I did try fabric paper weights and door stops, but obviously couldn’t use my sewing machine in the shop and hand stitching would have taken ages and probably wouldn’t have been strong enough to keep inside the grains of rice, which I was to use for the weights.

I was fast giving up on ideas for things to sell in the shop when my stint at trying to sell my scarves and fabric covered note/sketch books in 1855, our Artisans “Superstore”  https://www.1855sturminsternewton.co.uk/ came to an end.  I had not been able to sell much during the 6 months I’d allowed myself so the Museum Shop ended up with most of the unsold stock!

The covered books and the silk scarves aren’t on display at the moment due do lack of space.

I have at last found some things which I can make in the shop and which are going on sale in the runup to Christmas – I have become addicted to making Norwegian Gnomes.  Some people these days call them Gonks, but they are nothing like the Gonks that used to be around in the 70s.  Here’s one I made back then – it still sits on my landing windowsill.  I can’t bring myself to get rid of it.  It is made out of a hat which was left over after one of our WI jumble sales.  I stuffed it, putting in a scrap fabric base, and added eyes, ears, hands, feet and a tail, and have loved it ever since!

A gonk made from an old fur fabric hat with added eyes, ears, hands, feet and tail
My vintage Gonk

For the gnomes I used scrap fibres, mainly scoured but unprocessed merino, to make the basic shape and stitched large buttons on the bases to help keep them upright.  I stitched on noses, in most cases these were wooden beads, though there were a couple of needle felted noses.

Part built Gnomes in various early stages
Gnome “cores”

I covered the bodies in various unused fibres, mainly prefelts or carded batts which had become compressed in storage, or failed UFOs.  I added “hair” – some of the large stock of locks that I found in my stash (I’d forgotten that I’d got so much!) and added beards and moustaches from the same source.  Then I covered the pointy hats with more of the fibres used for the bodies.  A few of the Gnomes were female – plaits from scrap yarn rather than curly hair and facial fuzz.

I started off making Autumn Gnomes but soon ended up making Christmas ones.  There were quite a collection in the end as I was making them at home and at various workshops as well as in the Museum – I told you I was addicted!

Here’s what the Museum Shop looks like at the moment in it’s Christmas finery and with all the goodies currently for sale.

The Museum proper has 6 rooms housing various alternating displays which at the moment include:

Our famous writers/poets Thomas Hardy (he wrote The Return of the Native while living here); William Barnes (his dialect poetry is famous – you might remember the song Linden Lea – if you’re old enough!); and Robert Young (he also wrote dialect poetry under the nom de plume Rabin Hill).

A fascinating display on the history of weights and measures (for instance a cricket pitch measures 22 yards long, or a “Chain”.  I always wondered why a chain?  Now I understand, there was an actual metal chain used as we have one on display.)

We have the earliest map available of the Sturminster Newton and surrounding area dated 1783.

Swanskin  (as mentioned in the link at the beginning of this post)

The Hinton St Mary Roman Mosaic – this was part of the floor of a Roman villa found in the next village up the road from us, which is also the base of the Pitt Rivers Estate previously mentioned.  The mosaic was discovered in 1963 and unfortunately was removed and is now in the possession of The British Museum.  It was hoped that it could be returned to Dorset when the Dorchester Museum was enlarged but they won’t let us have it back!

As part of the Roman display there are a number of photographs showing what flora and fauna was introduced to this country by the Romans.  You’d be surprised what plants and animals they introduced that we now consider to be “native”.

Upstairs we have a new working model of Sturminster Newton Railway Station showing how it used to look before being closed in 1966.  Very few of the original buildings are still here.  That will be a permanent exhibit (hopefully!) whilst most of the others will change from time to time.

Certainly the Museum is well worth a visit at any time of the year.

 

Dragon hand playing with felted sheep
Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 2

Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 2

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Part 2

After getting through a very busy September, it was nice to have a 2 day break at the Kanata Gaming and Felting convention. Day one, Friday, I spent working on giving the claw more of a diamond theem. I already showed you the gaming side and a couple quick pics of the dragon hand in progress.  It was a nice spot to work. I alternated listening to the increasing parrils of the table playing Arkum Horror and an audio book.

getting ready to add details and dimond shapes 9.2 Kanata Games club Day 1 felting project

As I said before, I started by spinning a bit of short-stapled silk, then reducing the twist before felting it onto the hand. I started at the claw tips and worked both the dorsum and palmar sides. I used sewing pins to work out the diamond shapes. Working on a curved surface the diamonds got a bit odd in shape but most were diamondish at least.

using grey silk to outline diamond shapes on the hand9.3-9.4 adding diamonds to the hand

You can see I still have too much twist in the silk I spun, I will take more out shortly. The green thing is another extendable magnet, I only dropped a needle twice so it was helpful to have.

9.5 I had trouble with making diamonds flow around the edge of the webbing between his fingers.

9.6  I kept adjusting the pins to try to work out the layout of the diamond shapes.

9.71-9.72

9.8

9.9 not quite diamonds but an interesting scale pattern where the diamonds brake down.

I took a brake and worked on a few other projects as I wanted to get Ann’s opinion of the hand. She checked it out on October 21st before she got to work on the helm she was making. She said it looked like he was wearing fish net stockings.

Hummm…… OK, let me think about this, I had wondered about adding colour at one end to give a bit more demension.

I also had more jobs for the sale suddenly occur, so had to work on the hand between more computer work.

10.1-10.2

Its almost time for the exhibition so I better work faster.  I am adding shredded sari silk to one end of the diamonds.

At the sale there is always an exhibition, the theme changes and the size and even the location of the display changes yearly. This year was our Diamond (75th) anniversary of the Ottawa Guild. our original organizer Carl had problems at work going from a team of 3 to a team of 2 to a team of Carl who still had to do the work of 3 for the pay of 1. That just dosn’t seem fair. So he had to step down from  organizing the exhibit and we had Wendy step in at the last moment. She did a great job with a short lead time.

11.1-11.2

11.3

She did most of the assembly of the display on Friday night, with a bit shuffling she had a lovely display.

11.4

There were a couple of felted pieces in the exhibition that I thought  you might be most interested in.

12.1-12.2 Ann and Jan Collaboration Dragon hand in Helm with dimonds

#6 Ann McElroy and Jan Scott     Un-Named – we invite you to suggest a name,   Wet felt, Nuno Felt, Needle felt, Wool silk nylon polyester wire.

13.1-13.2 Molly’s Bracelet

#16 Molly Underhill       Diamond Eternity Bracelet,    Wet felting and bead work, Merino and silk, Glass Beads

After the Guild Sale weekend, Part of the Exhibition was hung  in the Gallery just outside of the Studio in Heartwood house (Ottawa).

14.1-14.2 the two main walls of the gallery

hand woven black purse with dimond shaped embelishments and mit with dimond pattern–14.3) There is also the mitts and a small handwoven and embellished bag just around the corner.

Post script;

We decided we should have a photo shoot so you could see the collaboration a bit better.

First we took pictures of the assembled Helm, Hand and diamonds.

15.1-15.4 Photo shoot for the Helm, Hand and Diamonds

15.5-15.6 Attempted Cookie Thief

Afterwards, the Dragon hand seems to have discovered the last shortbread cookie, I think the Helm was taking note of the cookie too.   Can you see the frustration as the Dragon hand realizes I did not make a dragon mouth and stomach to go with it?  OH the Despair!!! Is Ann’s  helm getting closer, in case it can claim the cookie?

 

 

 

A Knights Helmet continued

A Knights Helmet continued

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Last time I left you with the main part of the helmet drying.  I also made a nose piece and strapping.

It seems I did not take pictures as I thought I had. I guess I must just think about taking pictures and then when I am busy working it is completely out of my mind. Jan got one of me working. I was using a darker grey to create the look of rivets as I attached the strapping and nose guard. I look so serious.

We did get lots of shots of it finished.  And not so serious

Here are a couple on the hat stand in my studio

I am happy with the way it turned out.  I need to make it look like it lost a battle. I wet it down again and rolled it in a towel to get most of the water out. I scrunched it into a ball and then opened it again. I think it looks like a crumpled helmet.

So then it was off to the guild Sale and Exhibition. I think we put Jan’s part and my part together the morning we opened. I think we were both too busy on set-up night to even think about it. It is all a bit of a blur.

we did a little photo shoot after the sale too it is very hard to get a good shot into the inside of the helmet.

 

I have no idea what to do with it now. What do you do with your projects after the show?

Green nuno felt with stitched flowers with stems added in wool couched stitching.
Painting the Landscape

Painting the Landscape

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The last time I showed you my Indian Paintbrush piece, I was undecided about the way the stems were ending so abruptly on the background. So I left it for awhile before making a decision on what to do.

The first thing I decided to do was add some stems to the blue flowers. I didn’t want the stems to be too visible so I chose a thread that was close to the background color. You can click on the photos to see them enlarged.

Green nuno felt with appliqued Indian Paintbrush and small blue stitched flowers with stems added in wool couched stitching.

It’s probably hard to see here but I did think that the stems helped the piece feel “more grounded”. But the stems of the main flowers still looked like they are not integrating with the background. So I decided to add paint to cover the end up a bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo with just the paint over the bottoms of the stems and over the lower third of the piece.

Green nuno felt with appliqued Indian Paintbrush and small blue stitched flowers with stems added in wool couched stitching. Addition of paint and stitched flowers to the stems of the Indian Paintbrush.

I added more blue flowers with stems over the base of the larger flower stems and the stems are looking better. I have decided it’s finished and now need to find a background fabric so I can finish it and get it ready for framing. This one is named “Painting the Landscape”.

The Fourth Corner: Winter.

The Fourth Corner: Winter.

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I have chosen to decorate the last corner of my wool blanket with some winter greenery in recognition of the season and Christmas, and I think some holly and mistletoe is an appropriate choice.

Holly and ivy were used as traditional decorations for the home at Christmas, it was a part of my childhood, and we all loved trying to find the nicest and shapeliest sprigs of each for our Mum. I have carried this on in my own home. I don’t remember seeing any mistletoe growing in the area of my childhood home in Ireland, nor in Yorkshire, where I lived for some time, but there is an abundance of it where I now live in Herefordshire. I did try to grow some last year on the crab apple tree in the garden, but no joy from all the seeds (about 50) stuck to the branches. I may try again early next year.

       

The tree on the left is a large maple and you can see the ‘balls’ of mistletoe around the top very easily. The photo on the right is of a large mistletoe ‘ball’ (different tree), the berries are just about visible. Both trees in the local park.

There is a national mistletoe day, and this year it is on 7 December. Each year there is a mistletoe and holly auction in a town/rural area not far from here (Tenbury Wells), the auction dates this year are 26 November. and 3 December. A Mistletoe Festival is held each year – 7 December this year – when the druidic myths and traditions around mistletoe are celebrated.

A certain amount of mistletoe is harvested for this auction, but future harvests needs to be protected too.  Many people will gather some of their local mistletoe, or buy a bunch from a garden centre. It keeps well, and I generally collect some for my home the week before Christmas

My post is due on 9 December, quite close to Christmas, and around the time when I would be out looking for some greenery to help me with my Christmas decorations. So, a timely post!

I have a holly tree in the garden with lots of berries on it this year, so it is very easy to pop outside to collect a sprig. Mistletoe grows practically on every tree here, unfortunately quite high up on the trees and therefore difficult to reach. But occasionally there will be some that is within reach to snip a piece off.

Once again, I have free machine stitched the holly sprig shape onto the wool blanket, along with the some leaf shapes. Not all holly leaves are sharp and prickly, which is lucky when trying to find a nice sprig. I have also free machine stitched the mistletoe sprig shape.

                                                       

I have stitched some pre felted leaves to the blanket to add a little extra dimension. I made these some time ago, and these I have hand stitched using a blanket stitch. I compared which shade of red floss is the closest colour for the berries, and then embroidered these in place.

The colour of mistletoe berries are more like small pearls in colour and shape, quite white/opaque, and difficult to show up on the wool cloth; so I have used a pale golden colour floss to embroider these berries so that they can be seen a little easier than a white colour would be.

The blanket will need a little more work I think. I will add a decorative feature to the centre, probably a little more stitching, and then I will find a soft backing to complete, this will make it more comfortable next to the skin.

 

 

Some pre-felt on top of a hessian stabbing mat, with sewn lines made to resemble a postcard
A Christmas card swap, except Jan’s card is still with me

A Christmas card swap, except Jan’s card is still with me

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Firstly, if you’re Jan and don’t want a spoiler about your card, stop reading immediately!

I think I’m jinxed. There, I said it. For last year’s seasonal card swap, I was paired with the lovely Hélène and the card I sent her was returned to me by Irish Customs, who didn’t deign my wares good enough to cross its country’s borders. This year, I am unable to send my finished card to Jan because Royal Mail says no (well, Canada post says no, they’re not accepting any mail until their strike is resolved).

If I take part in next year’s swap, you might want to avoid me as a partner…

This year I decided to take the notion of a postcard rather literally; I wanted something the size and look of one, and so decided to put my sewing machine to use.

Some pre-felt on top of a hessian stabbing mat, with sewn lines made to resemble a postcard

I cut some pre-felt almost to size and marked down the lines typical of a postcard using a heat-erasable pen. See the twisted red wool on the top left corner of the photo? At first I had the idea of felting the lines with it, until I realised it would take me forever and not look half as good as using the sewing machine. I changed tactics.

After sewing those lines I wrote down my seasons greetings. I was ambitious in what I wanted to say, as you’re about to see.

The beginnings of the writing on my wool Christmas card, where I wrote "Dear Jan, Happy..."

Using yarn, I worked with a felting needle and carefully started following the outlines of the words. I immediately realised my “handwriting” wasn’t going to be as small as I intended. Oops. If you look carefully at the picture above, you’ll see the next word I was meant to write was “holidays,” which is larger than the already felted “Happy.”

More words needle felted onto the wool, saying "Dear Jan, Happy Xmas! L xx"

Where did the word “holidays” go? Well, sometimes you have to pick your battles. Let’s pretend this was the plan all along, shall we?

And then, off to the decorating and making it a more seasonal card.

The almost-finished card with a 3D Christmas tree needle felted on the right

There was something missing in the background… so I did the foolish thing of working that part after having the foreground finished. However, I think it was worth it, but you can judge by yourselves.

The same felted card as before but the needle felted Christmas tree has a blue background also in wool felt

Much better, I hope you agree! I particularly like the detail of the present with the bow made from yarn.

Now it was time to cut the card to size and glue it to a real postcard (a blank one made from watercolour paper). I sadly don’t have a good enough photo of the card’s front, so you’ll just have to imagine the above image in the correct size and without the markers that I removed with a steam iron.

Here’s the back of the card:

The back of my card, made of paper. It has some drawn birds, a doodle of a cat in lieu of a stamp and some greetings to Jan

“I hope this card reaches you in time” was written before I knew Canada postal services were not only delaying deliveries but had altogether halted them. Sorry, Jan!

I will have this on its way to you as soon as possible.

(By the way, see the smudge under the flying bird? That wasn’t me being clumsy at all, no siree, that was completely on purpose and represents the movement and plight of the avian creature as it strives to reach its maximum potential. Cough cough…)

Seasons greetings, everyone! Thanks for reading.

 

Dragon hand playing with felted sheep
Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 1

Collaboration with Ann, Dragon Hand part 1

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Ann’s Dragon hand

I did say I was going to tell you about the dragon hand you may have noticed at least once in a recent post. So no travelogue today as we look back at what Ann got me working on for our Diamond exhibition celebrating our 75th anniversary. It would be part of the exhibition at the guild sale (which Coincided with the exhibition of guild work at the museum in Almonte). I know two shows at once, can be confusing.

During the summer, Ann asked if I could make a dragon hand for a project for the diamond exhibition.  We met at the guild social, I brought jute covered wire, its unlabeled but is either 14 or 12 gauge, and made an amateur for her.  She considered it, then asked if it could be a  bit bigger. Ok, on that! Mark 2 dragon hand was bigger and could thus hold more diamonds.  She deemed it worthy, so unlike Goldilocks, I got it right in 2 tries!

You have seen me playing with wire armatures before, so if you had questions or want more info on armatures and wire gages look back through the blog posts. What i want to show you today is something I haven’t seen anyone else try.  Ann’s Specification was dragon hand, with poses-able fingers, and claws, that could hold the diamonds Ann was making.

Early this year, April I think, I had been surfing around the internet, on the other side of the planet, and doing a bit of on-line-shopping. While looking for other things I spotted claw tips!!, well the seller did not realize they were selling claw tips, but I knew they were as soon as i spotted them! I ordered 100 in Bronze and 100 in gun-mettle (sort of a charcoal blue/ gray) then later, in October, I made another order of 100 silver.

You can buy a few of a stud, an assortment of various studs or a pack of 100 studs. I figured 5 toed dragon or 4 and a heal claw, with 4 legs per dragon and maybe tail or spine spikes. That would mean the minimum per dragon would be 20 claw tips and however many spiny or tail spikes.  I could probably get a maximum of 4 dragons per 100 spikes. I could not decide between the bronze or the Gunmettel black so, as i said, got them both.

1.1-1.3)  Aliexpress vender was Sunfordfashion Store

I was going to make some samples but by august Ann asked if I could make her a dragon hand. Ah ha! I have just the thing I want to try out!

3 plastic bags of 100 each studs 2.1) 3 bags of studs in Gun-mettle black, Bronze and silver

Lets have a  closer look at the claw tips. its mettle and made of two parts; a screw back and the talon, where the screw inserts.

3.1-3.3) Close up of stud and backing

Now that you have seen them don’t you just think they would make the most perfect claw tips?

Do you recognize what they were originally designed for? Let me give you a hint; punk jackets? Stud collars? Ok maybe not something everyone looks at and goes OOOH those are cool.  I never had a leather jacket with studs or a spike collar, but the jacket still sounds cool. Originally they were screwed through the leather (or Pleather) from the back.

The studs come in lots of shapes, sizes and colours. so this might make a useful option for other projects.

studs come in lots of shapes here are depicted quite a few of the options 4.1) Various available shapes for studs.

I should show you an example of the expected use of these lovely studs

example of studded jacket with a few diferent types of spikes.4.2) I think this was listed as an jacket available on etsy. I guess the shoulder spikes would keep your purse from falling off. (Added design feature?)

Now that you have seen what the expected use for the studs, i suspect you can already see where I was going with this. I made the armature so that each toe ended in a loop. let me see if I can find the a bit too small armature to show you. I think I saw it in the bedroom, I have no idea why it was there. No its likely off with Miss Mer somewhere else in the house now.

When I created the armature, i arranged a loop at the end of each toe. Through which I put the claw shaped stud. around the space between the screw and the claw, I wound floral wire.  I then wound the floral wier ends up the dragon finger to both keep the claw affixed and give the aluminum some added strength.

5.1-5.4 shows the claws inserted into the wire loop then used steel floral weir to keep it secure.

Its not the pettiest of armatures but it worked. If or when I do this again. I would add a drop of crazy glue and give it one more twist to tighten with a screwdriver.

Last online shopping with Ann, I tried World of Wool’s “Carded Core Wool Sliver”. The previous shopping spree had provide carding wast core wool. Its sort of clumps, that may have tried to escape the carder or maybe refused to leave? It works a charm after a quick few passes on the hand carders. (for that, I actually used the full size wool carders not the pet brushes.)

world of wool core carded roving.6.1 this is one of the two options from world of wool for core wool

The jute cover on the wire made it easy to warp fiber over the armature, well easier than a bare weir armature.

adding core wool from the ankle to the mid forarm.6.2 adding core wool from ankle to mid forarm

As I added fiber I considered joints, tendons  and tried to figure out the anatomical important bits for a dragon. Ann had oked 4 claws rather than my original 5 clawed idea.

adding core wool over toes, note jute rapped wieir alows for good adhesion of wool to covered wier.6.3 working wool down fingers

I started to create a webbing between the fingers to make up the palm.

6.4-6.6 adding the webbing between the toes

I had considered the need for a tendon for the heal claw and started to block it in.

6.7  adding tendon to back toe

I had been over at Elizabeth’s, helping her set up the first draft of the Guild workshop schedule. That done it was back to my messy computer desk. please ignore the messy desk, i do as long as i can.

6.8-6.9 adding more structure to the foot

i had a lot of fun adding more anatomical features.

7.1-7.2  adding more structure to the foot and ankle

I was pleased with the shape and covered the hand in black. No matter what colour diamonds Ann made, everything goes with black!

As I said earlier, someone else may have thought of studs as claws, and I just haven’t seen it. I hope this will spark an idea and send you careening off in some new and exciting wet or dry felting direction.

NOTE: my main suggestion is that next time, I think I would add a drop of crazy glue with the floral wire and screw. it should  keep the claw tips from any rotation (one tip has loosened a bit and rotates out of perfect alignment, but it hasn’t let go!)

Aug.19th social I took the claw in to get Ann’s Ok.

Ann and the dragon hand gently playing with one of the sheep8.1-8.2) Ann playing with the dragon hand

Dragon was showing interest in her sheep……  the shepherdess looks nerves but Dragon was very careful.

Ann asseses the dragon hand8.3)   08-19-2024 progress to this point shape is good, claws look grate, needs more detail than flat black.

she liked it, but wanted more detail.   Ok I can do that, but first I need to photograph the set up for the Guild show in Almonte (which you have already seen!) and there is still guild sale and library work to do, and I have to get the Mer’s ready for the Almonte show too. We will continue with the dragon hand next post.

Some Past Holiday Exchange Cards

Some Past Holiday Exchange Cards

Comments 4 comments

Hi All It seems I forgot I had to post today so I am late. I am reposting a post showing some of the past Holiday Exchange Cards that we have done. I did remove the links to sign up for this exchange.

Hi all,  for those who may not know we also run an interactive forum for felting and fiber folks. It’s a great place to share your work, ask questions and help each other out. http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/

Each year we have a holiday exchange. You make a small felted postcard or similar size card with some felt on it.

Here’s the timeline:

October 4-Nov 9: people sign up

November 10 partners are announced.

November: Make your card, contact your partner for an address

December 1: Mail your card

Here are some of the cards from our past exchange, there has been lots of variety.

 

   

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Background of light blue grey nuno felt with tree appliqued in place covered with gold cut purl stem stitched garlands.
Holiday Card Exchange

Holiday Card Exchange

Comments 16 comments

For the studio holiday card exchange, I had Tesi’s name. I was in a bit of a hurry to get it finished so I chose a simple design, a holiday decorated tree.

Pieces of nuno felt, screen printed felt and stitched felt chosen to create holiday card.

Looking through my stash, I found a couple pieces of nuno felt, a screen printed piece of felt in green and a tree trunk that was already stitched! I love when a plan comes together this easily re-using bits and pieces from my horde of “stuff”.

Background of light blue grey nuno felt with screen printed felt tree shape and stitched felt trunk with wool "snow" at bottom.

This was the beginnings of the idea. I had some “wads’ of white wool that I thought I could use for snow and the background looks kinda snowy.

Background of light blue grey nuno felt with tree shape appliqued in place and red nuno felt "ball ornaments" appliqued in place.

So I stitched down the tree and added some circles from the multicolored nuno felt. Then I wanted to add a garland. As I was looking at what I had, I remembered my goldwork supplies. That would definitely add sparkle!

Background of light blue grey nuno felt with tree shape and ball ornaments appliqued in place. Addition of yellow felt padding stitched at top of tree.

So I added some yellow felt padding at the top of the tree to give a raised effect. Then I could cover it with cut purl.

Background of light blue grey nuno felt with tree appliqued in place covered with gold cut purl stem stitched garlands.

I used Gilt Bright Check Purl for the garland stitched down in “stem” stitch. The photos aren’t the best as the felt and the shiny gold make the camera confused and unfocused.

Background of light blue grey nuno felt with tree appliqued in place covered with gold cut purl stem stitched garlands and gold cut purl tree topper.

Now on to the tree topper. The hardest part in “cut purl work” is getting the sizes correct so that they fit correctly over the padding. I used Gilt Rough Purl for the tree topper. I decided against using the snow at the bottom of the tree as originally planned. I thought it was unnecessary.  I glued the entire thing down to a blank greeting card and sent it off to Tesi in the mail and it arrived safely. Yay!