felt sculpture – Felting and Fiber Studio

A zen sculpture and some cuteness

February 10, 2020 shepherdessann Comments 18 comments

I saw an interesting Zen sculpture on Facebook. Now I can’t find the picture to link to of course. I think it was one of the Russian felters. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting resist and sculpture so I would see if I could do one.

first I made some circles. each one a bit smaller than the last one. then I cut out a bit where I would join them.

Then I used some duct tape to join them.

I forgot to take a picture of the layout before felting but here it is when I was about to cut it open and remove the resist.

Here it is finished. My husband’s and grandson’s first words were that it looked like a snowman, specifically Olof from Frozen. It looks a little better against the colourfull background.

It wasn’t a bad first go. I would make the balls smaller next time. Also, the bowls need to be wider and flatter by comparison to the balls. I would start early to make the bowls flatter and wider. Also, I am not happy with my colour choice. I think a solid colour might be better.

And now for the cuteness

These are the bottle lambs. Some got cold and didn’t go back some had other problems. on of a set of 4 had a strange leg that is now much better and not causing him problems but of course, it’s too late to go back to mom now. The white one my husband is holding is called Prince Ali, named by my granddaughter. The lambs are having a bigger pen made for them as I type.

4th Quarter Challenge – Land Art

December 22, 2014 zedster66 Comments 24 comments

I didn’t think I’d ever find time to do the 4th Quarter Challenge. When I chose Land Art, I thought it had a really good scope for some interesting felt sculptures. I really liked the work of artists using twigs and branches, whether they were abstract, patterns, designed by colour, or like Tom Hare’s work in willow, sculptures of plants, leaves, seeds, or even a sliced apple. I really liked this lotus seed head: http://www.tomhare.net/files/cache/6241679806767b541ec85e7977677c16_f44.jpg

I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. Something sculptural based on the things I’d seen with holes and stems and curves. I even thought I might do a series. Well, time was running out and I hadn’t started, and I was thinking about what I could do to take part that wouldn’t take as much time. For a few weeks I’ve had a piece of felt with a balloon inside, hanging in my living room doorway, it was the result of me thinking I’d try felting a winter woolly hat, and it ended up looking more like the start of a balaclava or fetish mask! So, I thought I’d improvise and use that. It wasn’t far off the shape I’d pictured, and though I would have preferred to work with wet felt not fulled, I thought it was worth a try. So, I started cutting, wetting and shaping, and I was happy to see it was starting to look interesting! I rinsed it and put another balloon in to keep it’s shape while it dried. I thought it looked really good, it was nice and firm and kept its shape without the balloon. I attached some string to get a photo, and this is what I saw when it spun around:

A ribcage! My fancy felt sculpture was meant to look plant-like, but it looked like a carcass! I took the string off and put it on the table, but it sunk a bit and that didn’t look less dead either!:

I reshaped it, the way it was meant to be, and that looked much better! I know it doesn’t look like any plant or seed in particular, I wasn’t copying anything, I just had a vague idea of shape, lines and holes:

Different angle:

It does look much better hung up, less flat and more round. While I was messing around taking photos, I stood it upside down and squashed it, and that looked really interesting!: