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.....

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!

Poppy Penguin!

This little penguin has just popped in hoping you are all enjoying the Christmas holiday time!

With a modified crocheted cylindrical body and needlefelted features she is stuffed with short ends of projects gone by and a present for my niece with a penguin passion!

The beautiful curly locks are mohair...and she has needlefelted feet too! 

A little posterior needling gave her a tiny tail!

She would like to share my December stashbusting totals with you 

including her 10g ...

the total is  265g.......

........there may be some more if I get a couple of items finished over the holidays.....

Hope you are finding some time to relax and create!

x

Flame On!

This is the card we gave Mum for her birthday...

It started as the fourth piece of wet felt created for The dying of the Sun...seen here on the right on the line of fire!

There's a bit of everything incorporated into the needlefelting, two types of Teeswater curls and mainly shetland tops with some sari silk...

...and some crochet. 

I suppose the crochet flames could be considered my first free form crochet as I just hooked a few stitches until I got a flame shape.  They then took on a completely different form as they were needlefelted onto the piece..

I'm amazed how much my style has changed from this

to this in just a year. 

I'm always on the look out for frames and this is a great one from B and M bargains last year. The glass has been removed but the mount had padded foam on the back and a polystyrene sheet is included to pack out the box style. I might have to pop in and pick up some more, though I have quite a collection of shapes and sizes as I buy them when I see them. Also I'm never quite sure what size a finished item might be!

Part of mum's present was a crochet Poinsettia brooch from my daffodil pattern,
with a few more petals of different widths, and...you've guessed it...

a needlefelted middle!

Happy Birthday Mum!

The dying of the sun

It's here! The exhibition The Dying of the Sun for the International Day of Felt is open...there have been lots of sneak previews on the website and elsewhere and it looks like it will be a vibrant feast of firey felt! 

As it is a little too far to travel I have been enjoying the photos and hope to see a few more as the exhibition continues.

Three rectangles of Random Wooliness felt have travelled Northwards to be part of a collaborative piece:

Fire: 

Shetland and Merino wetfelted with yarn, silk, sari silk, and crochet. Needlefelted Shetland, silk fibres, Teeswater and Wensleydale curls added.

Previous experience with felt pieces has taught me they can be viewed in more than one way!

Embers:

Wet felted Shetland and sari silk with Wensleydale and uncarded black curls. Teeswater and Wensleydale needlfelted curls.

Smoke:

Wetfelted Shetland with Masham curls, Mohair yarn, angelina fibres, and washed uncarded  Greyfaced Dartmoor

This started with a bright background to which darker tones were added to try and capture the glowing firey light against a dark sky...

 The washed and uncarded Greyfaced Dartmoor is really sticky and made great natural smokey whisps

Line of fire.....

I've been waiting ages to use that pun!!

or
fire and water...

Huge thank you to Tracy and Angela for all their hard work, the inspiration and opportunity to join with fellow felters to celebrate International Day of Felt.

Hope The Dying of the Sun is a great success!