Felting and Fiber Studio

This is a guest post by Lyn and Annie who were unable to post today but will be back soon.

Annie decided to make a lariat as she’d never felted one before … she likes a challenge… it’s 350 cm (138′) long!

You can wrap it round and round your neck loosely and you can leave the ends hanging
or tie them or just tuck them in. You can see in the layout close-up below that Annie has used wool fibres, yarns, fabric and threads.

It was quite a work-out to get it all felted bit by bit.

And here it is – still wet from felting.

The close-up below, of the dry lariat, shows the vibrant colours and textures achieved.

Annie was pleased with the lariat but she already has ideas for the next time: it could
have added wrapped threads; tied on fabrics; stitched on beads, both little glass or
bigger felted beads…

Jan needle-felted a beautiful dragonfly for the challenge and that inspired
me to attempt a wet felted dragonfly.

I shaped some dry wool fibres (a mix of merino and corriedale) to form the body then
wet felted it by rolling on a bamboo mat until it was very firm. I also made a small piece
of bright white cobweb felt then stiffened it with a 50/50 mix of PVA and water.

When the cobweb felt was dry, I used a fine marker pen to draw the wings on it – I used
a free clip art picture as a guide – then cut them out. I was disappointed to find that
although I’d used a stiffener, the wings were just a little floppy and actually were far too
delicate to make a brooch.

I spent hours trying to think of a remedy and I attempted to make a frame from very
thin silver beading wire. I won’t go into detail but suffice it to say that my swear box is
very heavy and my floor is littered with bits of wire.

So I rummaged through my stash trying to find an answer and I came across a piece of
thin, clear plastic. Ta Dah! I used clear PVA to stick the wings to it, let it dry, then
carefully cut around the edge. The wings still look delicate but they’re not.

I held the finished dragonfly up to the window, against a cloudy sky, to show the
difference between the solid body and the translucent wings.

It’s not quite finished yet, I need to get a slim brooch pin that I can stitch, or maybe
hot-glue, to the underneath.

There are many simple ways to use felt beads to make jewelery – this hair comb was
easy to make. I gathered together a plain hair comb, a hot glue gun and some mini wet
felted beads.

I made each bead by rolling a few merino wool fibres between my fingers, then when I
had a good bead shape I dipped it in soapy water then hardened it by rolling it firmly on
my kitchen worktop.

I wondered what to write here then decided that the photos say it all.

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this challenge and we’ll be announcing the second quarter challenge on April 2nd.