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Various Vessels

Various Vessels

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I mentioned in the blog post before last that we’ve started working with resists at the well being centre. After our first piece using strips to cut make channels and cut flaps, we moved onto 3D. Our next piece was using just a flat resist to make a simple case, either with or without a flap. I chose to do mine without a flap, because I wanted to finish it off at home and shape it differently over a bottle. I shaped it over a Lucozade bottle so it would fit perfectly:

The week after we moved onto bowls using a flat, round resist. After we’d done our final layer we added some carded Bluefaced Leicester and a few locks. Somehow our balloons for shaping had vanished so we took them home to finish off. I really liked the shape of mine, it was really texturey. It still had a bit of a ridge around the middle, but I decided to just leave it because a previous vessel I’d liked the bumpy shape of lost it went I worked on it a bit more and put absorbent cloths in. The vessel is still wet in these photos. This is the bottom:

One side:

The other side:

BFL Texture:

One of the weeks, there was just a couple of us and none of the new members so we made slightly more ‘advanced’ vessels. I used a resist that I usually use for birdpods, but shaped it for a vessel:

The top had an interesting shape where I’d cut it open, I thought about neatening it, but liked the curves:

I fulled it a lot and got some nice migration from the yellow inside. It looks a completely different shape from this angle too:

I rarely take photos at the well being classes, the room has a strange orangey light, and I generally just forget! We had another new member so we’re making soft wispy pieces again, and opposite me, our previous new member is making a more advanced vessel with very little instruction. I hope she brings it in next week, it was a great cylindrical shape by the time we finished, but needed more work at home:

Pandagirl’s Year in Review

Pandagirl’s Year in Review

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I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve been traveling and have several family affairs looming that need my attention.

I started out in 2014 as a forum member and then in March I was a Global Moderator!  This past year has brought many challenges and delightful learning and wonderful outcomes in terms of felting.

My year started with experiments in dyeing.

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I shared my venture into encaustics.

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Tried my hand at painting with wool.

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Experimented with different wools.

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Participated in the quarterly challenges.

Jackson Pollock - Marilyn

Stewart Stephenson - Marilyn
Stewart Stephenson – Marilyn

 

Monet 2 after felting
Monet 3rd quarter

 

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Land Art 4th Quarter

 

Tried framing methods.

burlap 2

I broke down to drum carder envy and began my foray into making batts.  Woo hoo!

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Cathy and I tried indigo dyeing.

silk and thick n thinMy marketing blogs…

addiction biz cards wool side

 

 

 

 

 

I know it’s been awhile, but its more fun felting than marketing…  Sorry.

 

I taught a felting  class.

Toni
Toni and her placemat

 

There was a period of obsession with pods and vessels.

After rinsing

I ventured into free motion stitching.

moy layout

Then I experimented with embellishments and making a book cover.

finished front

Designing and making a handbag was a huge accomplishment for me.

hanging

I  experimented with 3D felting – grapes and flowers.

finished 2

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I learned a lot of new techniques in Fiona Duthie’s class.

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It was a busy year visiting farms, mills and fairs.

susan democarder back

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made scarves including a cobweb scarf.

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A big project was a 3D free motion stitched bowl, oh my!

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Felting a rooster, I learned to combine wet and needle felting.

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Our holiday exchange was an experiment of combining beading and felting.

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All in all, it’s been a very productive and inspiring year felting. Of course, there were many more projects that were completed.  It has been a wonderful year.  I want to thank all of you for teaching, inspiring me and encouraging me to do and try more.  Thank you!  A special thanks to my fellow moderators and Luvswool (Cathy),  Leonor at Felt Buddies and Nada for pitching in and contributing to the blog.  It’s been a terrific, fun journey.  I can’t wait to see what 2015 brings and what I learn and try!

 

 

Podfest

Podfest

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Last week, I traveled to Cathy (Luvswool’s) home to have a “podfest.”

Cathy wanted to try making a small vessel   So, since l have been making pods  on and off for months for family I offered to work with her using the method I use from Rosiepink’s Tutorial for Felt Pods http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/tutorial-how-to-make-a-wet-felted-pod.html

I had selected fibers I had dyed from my 4 day dye experiment – Cheviot, merino, domestic 56 and brought some silk, throwsters waste, locks and hankies in a similar colorway. I also brought the tools I usually use for fulling for both of us to use and for Cathy to try to see which ones she favored. The soup ladle was the winner!

Cathy had some mystery fibers she wanted to try that she hadn’t used and used some of my embellishment stash.

Of course, we were anxious to get started and forgot to take a picture of the first side.  Here is our first turn.  Mine is the turquoise, Cathy’s is purple and gray.

marilyn side 2 Cathy flip side

Here is our final layer before wetting and embellishing.  We both used throwsters waste and silk.  I added some locks.

Cathy layers Marilyn final layer

Rinsed and ready to dry.

After rinsing

At that point, I packed up for my trip home and Cathy set her pod out to dry on a bamboo mat.

Cathy pod drying Cathy pod 2 drying

We were both happy with our pods after drying.  I could have used more curls, maybe next time.

final M pod final M 2 We had a great time and look forward to our next felting adventure!  What new felt technique have you tried?

Easter Baskets

Easter Baskets

Comments 26 comments

With Easter around the corner, I decided to make Easter baskets for my grandsons this year.

Since I didn’t have a container the size or shape I wanted, I chose to make a resist using Rosiepink’s “How to Make Vessels with a Resist” ebook.

I wanted to put a different design on each side, but have both the same. A bunny on one side and a chick on the other.  Then I made a resist design on paper and cut a template from plastic flooring material.  After sketching out a design, I made some prefelts in colors I didn’t have because I decided it would be easier to control the small design pieces.

prefelt

I cut out the designs from the prefelt and needle felted them together using yarn to decorate the eggs.  I used an extra white layer underneath the bunnies because I didn’t want the background colors coming through after fulling.  I also used another layer under the bottom of the eggs to level them out.  Before laying out on the resist:

chick and bunny

At the last minute I changed the position of the eggs making them vertical instead of horizontal.  When I put the designs on the resist they were too tall!  Back to the drawing board to make a bigger resist.  I added another two inches in height to accommodate the height and shrinkage.

Since they are baskets, I wanted to make them look like it.   So, I alternated background colors on the first layer.  It got tricky on the second layer because the roving was laid out perpendicular and the colors didn’t match because of the staple length.  I found the sparse spots and filled in those colors first then proceeded with the second layer design careful to alternate the side colors as well. I used four layers total one side at a time.

First layer
First layer

 

After I finished felting, fulling and shaping, I noticed my bunny and chick designs were too low.  I’m sure the kids won’t care, but I’ll know better next time.  I was very pleased with the final result.  Although, the bunnies need some whiskers. Any suggestions?

easter baskets 2

To finish it off, I made basket handles by braiding roving, then felting and fulling them.  I also used Zed’s “Polymer  Clay Simply Made” ebook to make “egg” buttons. That was fun, too.  I still have to put them together.  The handles are soft which was intentional so that we could easily pack them and use the buttons to remove the handles.

What spring or Easter projects are you working on?

Thanks to Lyn and Zed for creating such easy to follow tutorials!

Yarny Vessel

Yarny Vessel

Comments 17 comments

A few years ago, I wanted to make a felted vessel for my girlfriend, I had an image in my mind of how I wanted it to be, and I wanted it to be ‘perfect’, so it took a few attempts, but I was finally happy.

for SI used two of the practice vessels to make some ‘woolly vessels’ by needle felting locks onto them. One of them was this white vessel. I needlefelted locks of Angora, Alpaca, Wensleydale, Bluefaced Leicester and Kid Mohair onto it, then put it through the washer to make sure the locks were secure, and because a lot of them were unwashed locks.

white locksAnother one I made was this bluey green one, it reminds me of something from under the sea or around the coast. This has hand dyed locks of Angora, Alpaca, Wensleydale, Devon, Bluefaced Leicester and Kid Mohair. And I used texturey wools like dyed Icelandic and scoured lambswool to secure the locks.

100_8160outside cropAround the same time, I had the idea for making a really colourful texturey vessel, by needlefelting pieces of handmade yarn and wool twists onto one of my spare practice vessels. I had quite a large stash of handmade yarn and often made wool twists for projects so thought it probably wouldn’t take much longer than the other two had. I was wrong! 🙂  It took a lot longer… about 3 years off and on. I probably could have finished it sooner, and I did have phases where I would make up twists and add them, or sit spinning yarn for a few hours then cut it into pieces when it was dry and spend a few hours needling pieces onto the vessel but it never seemed to get any closer to being done! This last weekend, not feeling well enough to tackle my half finished business plan, I decided to try my hardest to finish the vessel. I got out all my left over yarn, stashes of wool blends and a drop spindle and set to work making a big pile of wool twists and a long length of plied yarn to cut up. I also got out my box of very thin felt offcuts and wet, rubbed and rolled some of those to add too. I didn’t want to wet the yarn and wait while it hung and dried, so after snipping it into lengths I wet and rubbed one end to ‘seal’ it and stop it unravelling. After needling all the pieces into the bare parts of the vessel, I finished off around the top, tidying it up and securing the loose fibres. And this is the result:

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And then I put it into an old pillow case and put it in the washing machine with a normal load 🙂  It looked like this:

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I unsquashed it and gave it a few shakes and spins, ran my fingers loosely through the twists and yarns (there’s a few strips of silk and organza in there too) then sat it on a tub to dry overnight. And this is what it looks like this morning:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI know it’s taken me a few years to finish it, but I kind of feel like making another one now! 🙂

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