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Pandagirl’s 1st Quarter Challenge 2017

Pandagirl’s 1st Quarter Challenge 2017

Last month Ruth Lane announced the 1st Quarter Challenge focusing on Fauvism. If you missed it, you can read about it here:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/12/31/2017-quarterly-challenges/ 

I had a  hard time deciding what to do and looked through a lot of photos and pictures for inspiration.  Finally, I came across an old postcard from Hawaii of a ship on the sea under dark skies that intrigued me.

I decided I would concentrate on bold colors and simplified forms.   Here is my layout:

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I used prefelts I had previously made and batts I had on hand. Please ignore my messy work table.  It’s hard to tell from the monitor, but the sail next to the green one is a teal color.  Here it looks blue. Also the dark blue boom above the body of the boat got lost because of the blue water. I didn’t notice that when I laid it out.

After felting:

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I probably should have stopped fulling sooner.  I had used a Domestic 56 base so it needed shaving.  I couched some yarn for the masts and used yellow thread for the halyards (I believe that is the correct for the ropes connected.)

I decided to frame it.  I had an old frame I had used for papermaking and it fit perfectly.

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I’m not sure if this is in true Fauvist style, but I was pleased with the result.  Have you started the challenge yet?

 

Finishing the Panels

Finishing the Panels

Last week I showed you two large panels I made using scraps.  Since then I created three more.

One long panel.

20161116_145808  20161118_122459

20161118_122511Two short ones.

20161116_145815 20161118_122422

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Here they are laid out on the floor.

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Here’s the final project.

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So, whats underneath?

My Simplicity Needle Felting Machine naked.  Sorry about the lighting, this was our first snow and kind of cloudy.

Now you see it.

20161204_142455Now you don’t.

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I was amazed that I got the sizes right.  I purposely left the edges organic.  Its a little lopsided but the top of the machine is narrower than the bottom.  Now I can change it around for a different look when the mood strikes.

Did you see that coming?

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Threads and Yarns

Threads and Yarns

Around this time last year I was still doing the Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge. I struggled with it, and didn’t always enjoy it, but I did like what I produced when I used some felt offcuts from a piece I’d made with natural wools for placemats and coasters. I used my own handspun thread to sew the stitches. This is one I made using chain stitch, and this is one using cretan stitch. I hadn’t used my threads in a while, but recently I’ve been inspired by my flickr-friend, Marchi Wierson, a sculptural fibre artist who uses a variety of techniques in her work, such as wet felting and crochet, and loves working with natural wools and fibres. Her recent vessel commission and some gorgeous natural fibre yarns had me rummaging through my wools and fibres and getting my spindles out to spin more thread and yarn. I decided to use three shades of Shetland Wool.

shetlandI pulled off some of the tops from each shade.

tops

Then I looked through my embellishment fibres for some I thought would make a nice match. I chose Soybean top, viscose top and flax.

fibresI added some of each fibre to the Shetland tops.

fibreThen I blended them by hand.

blend
I got a couple of my spindles out, this is one I made and painted a few years ago.

spindleI made a small amount of thread, though even a small amount of wool and fibres goes a long way when spinning thread. This is it wound around the spindle.

threadThen I blended up some more Shetland and fibres and spun a thicker yarn. I will probably use the yarn in a wet felting project, though I have used them for needlefelting before.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADo have a look at Marchi’s photostream if you have time, her work is amazing and inspiring 🙂

You might have noticed a few changes to the site recently. We’ve been updating it and adding more photos to the galleries. We’ve also added a new page for Fabrics, and Ann’s ever popular Cat Cave ‘how to’ is now listed on the Wet Felting Tutorials page.

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