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An interesting Vessel

An interesting Vessel

Comments 12 comments

I am sure if you are on Facebook you have seen the link to Fiona Duthie’s free online tutorial for a vessel within a vessel. https://www.fionaduthie.com/vessel_within_a_vessel/  It is fun to do. I have done it before. It is here if you are interested. They were fairly small pots. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/01/06/pots-within-pots/

I thought I would do another one just for fun. I decided it should be bigger this time. For the template, I used a wall clock I had that is to good to get rid of, but I don’t use. I am sure you all have things like that around.   To give you an idea of sized it is the typical school or lunchroom clock that is everywhere.

The smaller circle is the one from drawing around the clock. I decided I wanted it a bit bigger so I drew another circle out about 2 inches or 5 cm by hand.

I cut it out leaving a small amount attached to the bigger piece and folded it over to make a second attached circle. I had decided I didn’t want a narrow neck on this one.

Now, you are probably thinking that isn’t very interesting. At least that is what I was thinking. Just to make things more interesting and difficult for myself I decided to add wings in a book resist type of thing. Not satisfied to do that the normal way I decided to make the wings/pages smaller than the rest of the pot.  I used the actual size of the clock.

I also separated the pages so the outside edges ended up halfway between the 2 circles on the main resist. I added 2 pages to each side of the resist.

Next was laying out the fibres. About halfway through one side, I was cursing myself for making things so difficult. The problem, of course, was that I hadn’t done a book resist in a long time and had to figure out how best to do it again.  You can see I add a piece of silk (I think) scarf to the yellow side that will go inside.

 

The second side when much quicker than the first

That is as far as I got. That was Sunday. My plan is to do the felting tomorrow and maybe the next day depending on how my knees feel about it. I have a tall table which is great for laying out but not as convenient to rub and roll on.  I am going to try to use my tall chair to help with that. I will show you how it turns out for better or worse next time it’s my turn to post. That should be next Wednesday. Have you tried a vessel in a vessel? If not go watch the tutorial and give it a try.

Better Late Than Never

Better Late Than Never

Comments 14 comments

I’m tardy on completing the First Quarter Challenge using a resist in a different way.  I had a few ideas, but then Cathy (Luvswool) loaned me a resist she had used in a class a few years  ago.  I still procrastinated not having a clue what to do with it.

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I covered the resist using the first layer of Icelandic on all sides.  then I left it for a week while I traveled.  I was still unsure of what I wanted to do with it.  Then on Earth Day I was inspired to use some deep jewel tone merino fibers and made some batts.  I didn’t want really striped areas so they went back into the carder to blend them a little more.

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I debated about using the fibers horizontally, but ended up using them vertically.  I suppose it wouldn’t have mattered either way.  I still wasn’t  sure about what shape it would take until I finished fulling it.

Here it is drying on my towel holder.

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Views from each side. The Icelandic wool underneath really muted the bright tones, but I liked the way it turned out.

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From the top.

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I don’t know what to call it, but it sits nicely by itself and will probably decorate the coffee table in my living room where the colors will be right at home.

I think I’ll try another shape after I finish the Second Quarter challenge.

 

Creative People on the Forum

Creative People on the Forum

Comments 18 comments

Each time we have a quarterly challenge, there is a place to post everyone’s creations on the forum. This first quarter challenge has really brought in some great ideas and entries. The challenge was to use a flat resist in felting in a way that you hadn’t before. You can read more about the 1st Quarter Challenge here. I thought it would be fun to show you what everyone has created so far. And if you haven’t done anything for the challenge, there is still time as it lasts through the end of March!

These are in no particular order and I am using people’s forum user names rather than their real names. If you’d like to join us on the forum, please click on the forum button on the side bar, we’d love to have you!

These entries are from Frances. She made a rosebud pod, a vessel within a vessel and a scarf with a sleeve. You can see how to make the rosebud pod here.

ann vessel

Ann showed us her version of using a book resist in a previous post but I wanted to show you this configuration of it that she posted on the forum. If you want to know what a book resist is, please take a look at this tutorial post written by Terri here.

Carole aka craftywoman created the layered pod above. We all decided it had a very interesting organic look to it.

Next up is this puppet created by Janekiwi. You can see the resist that she used and the finished puppet on the right. His name is Garlic 🙂

Jill in progress

Jwugg created an “octopod”. Here is the in progress photo where she is using a book resist.

octopod 1

And here is the result. Just love this photo out in his habitat.

lyn giraffe crackles

Lyn posted two pieces using the same “cracked mud” technique using resists to create the cracked effect.

These pieces were created by Blythwhimsies. She used metallic fabric under resists in the top two photos and used a different resist than she had before in the vessel in the bottom two photos.

Mwes created the two vessels above. You can see the layouts/early felting stages on the left and the finished vessel on the right.

These projects were created by Halay. She used some different shaped resists than she had in the past.

Smiff created two different vessels with different book type resists. It is interesting to me that shaping makes all the difference in the world when you use these types of resist. Making the “leaves” become indentations really gives an entire different look to a vessel. Also where you cut the resist out makes a huge difference as well.

I believe Zed already showed her entry on a post here of her flower shaped pod.

The hats above were all created by Teri Berry. She used a variety of resist shapes and added some embellishing techniques including adding foil to her flame hat. All of us on the forum decided she should get a Royal Appointment to make hats for the Queen.

zara vest

Zara created this nuno felted patch mosaic vest on a resist type she hadn’t used before. You can see the variety of fabrics she used in the close-ups.

And I already showed you mine on a prior post but here’s the “thing” I made with a book shaped resist.

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A late addition by Luvswool, a cat cave.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing everyone’s creations. The creativity is astounding and I hope that if you haven’t tried something for the challenge that you will be inspired to try felting with a resist in a way you haven’t in the past. It was great fun and we have had a wonderful exchange of ideas on using resists on the forum. So join the fun! Do share anything with us by adding it to the challenge thread on the forum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Quarter Challenge

First Quarter Challenge

Comments 23 comments

They say great minds think alike. We all seem to have decided on a book resist. I started with 3 stacked circles. I had been going to cut 2 of them in half and attach them with duct tape but after reading Terries tutorial I grabbed a needle and thread and made a few stiches to hold it together.

The first thing I made was long snakes leaving the ends fluffy.

1 snakes

Then I made 6 fiber circles. I used about 2 grams of fiber in each of 3 layers for each circle.

2 circles

then I added them to the  stacked resist. I did remember what everyone said about having a hard time where the resists meet at the top and bottom and paid particular attention to that.

3 wrapping the stacks

next was the long snakes.

4 ready to felt

I put those on near the top of the circles.  The next part is not very interesting. rub, rub  rub,  roll, roll, roll. Then cut the hole in the top. I decided the inside wasn’t felted as much as I wanted so I left the resist in and went back to rolling.

5 cut open

after it was all dry I had planed to weave the long snakes around it in an artistic design. Unfortunately weaving really needs to have a odd number of so that didn’t work. I needed to find a solution.

I did these

solution 1 solution 3

or maybe turn it on its head?

solution 4

Last night I took it in to a guild meeting and challenged them to do something with it.

solution 5b solution 2solution 6

solution 7 solution 8

We had artistic twisting, plant hanger, a fancy bun cover, and a bag. We had a great time and lots of laughs, The conclusion was that had I made a great new party game.

 

 

 

First Quarter Challenge Finished?

First Quarter Challenge Finished?

Comments 31 comments

I showed you the start of my first quarter challenge project a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have fixed a few areas that didn’t have enough fiber, fulled and shaped it. When I was covering the book resist, I found that the sharp corners and edges that are formed where the book resist is sewn together are hard to cover. I thought I paid special attention in those areas but there were definitely areas that weren’t covered and holes that developed. But it was easy to fix, I just added more fiber before fulling, needle felted it in place and then wet felted it further. There are still a few areas that are thin but since it isn’t functional, it doesn’t really matter.

I also shaped the crater areas for the “eyes”. I looked for something to fit in them that would hold the shape better but couldn’t find anything. I just used my fingers to shape the craters.

Q1 Challenge Balloons

I used 5 balloons and some plastic bags to fill each of the lobes. It’s really hard to take a good photo of this because it’s fairly large and strangely shaped as you can see. The spikes really make it even larger.

Q1 Challenge Bottom

Here’s the bottom of it. The center area was where I had to do a lot of repairs but you can’t even really see where the problem was now.

Q1 Challenge Piece

I didn’t really get a good photo of the entire thing but this is the best one.

Q1 Challenge Teeth

I am also considering adding some teeth all around the edge of the opening. What do you think? These are shark teeth that I picked up on the beach years ago. I would most likely either glue or sew them in place.

Q1 Challenge Hat

Or perhaps it’s a hat and I could wear it to the next Jubilee? (Sorry for the pitiful selfie.)

Have you done anything for the first quarter challenge? The challenge is to use a wet felted flat resist in a method that you haven’t tried before. I hope you’ll give it a try. It was fun!

Starting on the First Quarter Challenge

Starting on the First Quarter Challenge

Comments 21 comments

When I announced the challenge, I had already decided that I wanted to use a book resist and make a more complex vessel. Then Teri wrote her guest post on the book resist and it reinforced my intentions.

I worked all day on my vessel and still didn’t get it finished. It is at the holding together/mostly felted stage and I have removed the resist but it still needs a lot of work. I haven’t fulled it yet or made the “eyes”.

challenge Q1 spikes and resist

I decided to add spikes to the outside of the vessel. I made 15 black and brown spikes and you can see the resist below the spikes. I sewed it together on the sewing machine. It has 6 pages but I decided I would rather have an uneven number so I taped two together for 5 pages.

challenge Q1 resist

Here’s another view of the resist opened up.

challenge Q1 eyes

This is quite a ways along into the process. I have done one layer of wool on all the pages and now I am adding the “eyes” on the front and back of each page. There is a small circle of plastic to resist that area so I can then make a crater. The spikes are at least staying on at this point.

I went ahead and cut a circle in the top and removed the resist. The bottom has a small hole where I didn’t get enough wool around that portion of the resist. It gets a little tricky at the juncture where the resists are sewn together. I started to full the vessel but I was tired and it was time for dinner. So I thought I would just get back to it this weekend.

challenge Q1 bucket of tentacles

So for now I have this tub of tentacles. It’s fairly strange looking and I still need to fix the craters to make “eyes” and then get some heavy fulling done.

Have you started the first quarter challenge? This was definitely a challenge as I haven’t tried this type of resist before and just to make it more challenging, I added long spiky tentacles. I will show you the finished vessel soon. If you have been creating a piece for the challenge, please share it with us on the forum.

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