Egg-spiration!

Really the time for eggy posts has expired, but I do have one more to display, that owes much to two fab felters I follow!

A comment by Zed on one of my posts got me thinking! 

Always up for a challenge, and in the midst of egg making I decided to have a go!

The Felting and Fibre studio have a quarterly challenge, and this year the theme is famous artists.

For the first quarter (which has also eggspired!) the subject was Jackson Pollack.

I am most familiar with his 'drip and splash' style and tried to imagine how this could be transferred to felting a 3d object!

Remembering this flat piece I made last summer and Angela's very helpful comment that I had always wanted to try...

I went ahead with my 'fling and roll' method!

Some colourful scraps (of wool, some acrylic, and cotton,)  from my spring projects 

were chucked haphazardly onto some bubble wrap, 

(on a cloudy day, hence the dull photo!)

A polystyrene egg, with natural shetland loosely needlefelted round it, 

was then rolled firmly through the carpet of scraps 

(using the bubble wrap, a bit like the bamboo mat whilst rolling sushi!)

With many strands sticking loosely to the egg it was stuffed into the doubled hem of some old net curtains, and gently rubbed with olive oil soaped hands to begin to stick the fibres.

When they started to cling, I just wet felted it as usual,

 with warm water, soaped hands, and the occasional firm roll in bubble wrap. 

There were some stubborn fibres that had not stuck quite so well, particularly in the sparsely populated areas, and a few stabs with the needlefelting barb kept them in place.

I am really pleased with the result, it reminds me of all the colours of Spring!

Mr RW appreciated it as his Easter gift too!

Many thanks to Zed and Angela for the continued inspiration and expert advice....

The colourful challenge for this quarter can be found here.....

Spiralling!

Its amazing where inspiration pops up! 

Whilst creating spirals in wool I found these beauties in the kitchen!

My family gave me very strange looks when I whipped out the camera during dinner preparation - on two separate days!

More inspiration can be found over on Jacqui's blog Living with Ethel...

she currently has  a vintage inspirational  giveaway to celebrate her first bloggy birthday.

The linen covered book she is offering is packed full of ideas and instructions for lots of  exciting craft projects.

Ethel is a really glamorous character - she models Jacqui's creations so well.

I would like to introduce you to Lulu, today she is modelling the Crazy Randomness Easter bonnet!

I think she may be a little older than Ethel...Lulu is in her late forties!

...and has had some reconstructive work on her smile in the past...the bonnet is covering her thinning but still auburn hair!

Happy Spring!

Crazy Randomness 2

Time for the revelation of Crazy Randomness!

Inspired by Ali and John Foster's poem It's Spring....

As always, for a project, there were lots of plans and ideas in my head...

I experimented with some freeform shapes and new flowers 

(all of which popped up in blog posts!)

and the design was going to be lots of scrumbles and flowers.

However, I kept returning to the poem and its references to clothes...

it felt like I should be making something to wear!

So.. an Easter bonnet began to take shape in my mind.

As time went by, and needing to make a start, I seized a spare afternoon my basket of spring colours and a hook...

I wanted to experiment with spirals and different thickness of wools...

so I just went with the flow...the colours picked from the yarn bouquet as I went...

 including daffodil, primrose, crocus, snowdrop, blossom, green shoots and sunlight.

it does lay flat if smoothed out!

The pink flecked yarn is a beautifully soft charity shop find. The white baby soft acrylic that runs all through the design is left over from the baby blanket I knitted (yes..you did read that right) 8 years ago for the special person who had the rainbow chevron pencil case for her birthday!

 I thought about the embellishments I was going to add...the flowers, the surface design (with the embroidery thread Ali was so looking forward to seeing!).

I studied the shapes formed by the spiral and the natural undulations resulting from the different thicknesses of wool....

.....the forms reminded me of hills...heathery paths spiralling towards the summit...

hiking, as a teenager, to the top of Roseberry Topping to watch the sunrise on Easter Sunday....

so I decided to stop,

 not to over egg it,

keep it in its natural state, 

and leave the interpretation of scale open to the viewer...

 As is customary in my recent blog posts there is a backside view!

...which is necessary - as hidden in the beginning of the spiral is the start of  the poem...

a reminder of the dark winter garments

 I had great fun devising, choosing, experimenting and creating this piece of Crazy Randomness..

I'd like to thanks Ali  and everyone who has shared our excitement..

for the support, inspiration and motivation..

...and I thoroughly recommend the whole experience!

Ali has posted about her design here - I have avoided peeping so far! 

As many of my ideas tend to spread, morph and blossom I'm sure you will see references to this whole process again!

 Thanks Ali  - its been a frill!

....and as a stashbuster - a seasonal 29g busted!!

Egg-citing 2!

Another clutch of eggs has been made,
 for friends and family that we will be seeing over Easter. These are three dimensional light and fluffy!

It all began a couple of years ago with these two characters...

a plan was hatched and below are this years chicken and egg models!

Here are some photos of them in the making!

Each is  formed from a pile of fluff, wrapped round a plastic egg and wet felted.

All the eggs have a secret middle - a contrasting colour with a strand or two of zingy wool!

Sometimes a hint of the contrast migrates through the layers -
making felt is so much fun - the results are always a surprise!

 

Here's the original link for the method..

I based my technique on the hands on method - and added the surprise insides!
 

Some have Wensleydale curls!
 

Once dried the fuzzy shell was cracked (using sharp scissors to form a zig zag shape!)

 

Tweet!

Having found some colour combinations I liked, the fluffy egg theme continued..

Fibre needlefelted onto polystyrene eggs and wet felted by hand...

Believe it or not..these are tiny!

Large ones,
displayed in one of RW Jnrs early egg basket creations - its probably 9years old now, but appears each year replenished with consumable eggs!
 

 

The light blue is hand dyed shetland from Sarah's Texture Crafts..

it has a beautiful bluey green hue..

My hands were lovely and soft as I used olive oil soap from a solid block during the felting process.

The colours look extra zingy when wet!
 

Remember that huge chocolate I had for Christmas?

The contents disappeared very rapidly, and extra deliciously, one weekend  - 

the container is very useful!

Wishing you all moments of thoughtfulness and a very
Happy Easter!