River Felting

Before the summer I was investigating traditional felting techniques and thought I'd see what happens if I felted in a river.

As it so happened we went camping next to a river.

I did a bit of pre-felting so the fleece didn't just float off down the river and tried it with some bright yarn to a handy branch.

I then just left it for a few hours. I had to go back every once in a while to check it was still there.


The river flow created a really interesting shape to the end pieces.

This one is my favourite, you can see the little seed pods it picked up in the water

Felted Bowls

Hi all, sorry I haven't posted for ages and ages but I've been felting!


These are my first attempts to felt round a ball. They are two halves and I have felted the left handside one a bit more. The one on the right is my favorite as you can see all the fibres around the rim, it's just as it was when I cut the felted ball in half.


I have taken step by step photos for a tutorial but I'll explain quickly how I did it.

You have to make lot's of what are called in the trade - Pre-felts, which a small pieces lightly felted, you dry them, then.....................


your pin and stitch them all around the ball until you have lot's of layers built up, then you felt it. I will explain the whole process properly soon.



Then I made these bowls with good old fashioned kitchen appliances. I started felting them by hand and got bored and put them in the dishwasher. The dishwasher didn't felt them much but it made an interesting shape to the edges.


This pink and brown one is my favourite, you can't see from this photo but in the middle is a brown dot. When I had felted the two colours together a bit I cut a circle out of the middle and turned it over.





For the last few years my Mum and Dad have gone to Amsterdam to see the tulips and each year they buy an Amaryllis bulb for my nan, sister, me and one for them. We all get given them in paper bags with the colour of them written on it and every year the colours are completely different!! There follows lot's of up-date phone calls between my Mum and all the recipients letting us know what colour they really are, can't remember what colour mine was meant to be but it wasn't dusty pink.

How To Needle Felt a Flower Brooch

Here it is a little needle felting flower project for you.

Where am I going to get the materials from? you might be asking.

Well, I have listed a few links for companies I have used at the end of this post and you can also get supplies from various Etsy and Ebay shops.


I also thought that I would have a little competition. If you fancy having a go at the wonderful craft of needle felting, post 'I would love to have a go at this' with your comment below and I will pull a couple of names out of a hat and send you a little kit to get you started.
You can't say farer than that, can you?

**Competition closes Saturday 25th April 2008 at 1200BST**

Ok, so what you will need to needle felt a flower brooch are the following supplies;

• A felting needle
• merino fleece
• a dense foam sponge
• a cookie cutter of the shape you want
• sewing supplies
  
• a safety pin or brooch back
• and a button, oh and a cup of tea (very important)

• 

This is what a felting needle looks like, you might just be able to see from the photo that there are little nicks in the needle end. These are called 'barbs' and they are what makes the fleece felt together. They come in different gauges for different types of work. The larger the gauge the quicker it felts, but it leaves visible holes and you then need to work with a finer needle but it then depends on the fleece you are using.......... I could go into more detail but I'll leave that for another post.

For this project I used a finer needle.

Start by pulling your fleece (plucking) into small tufts and piling it into a cookie cutter, filling it up right to the top.



Poke (stab) your needle into the fleece, you want to gently push the needle through the fleece and into the sponge but not to far or hard.


Once the fleece has flattened a bit, take the cutter off.....


...........and carefully pull the shape off the sponge. Little tufts of fleece will have been poked into the sponge.

Now, your shape will look a bit of a mess, but don't worry, you still have some work to do.


Put the cookie cutter back onto the sponge, turn your shape over and put it back in the cutter.
Repeat the stabbing and turning over few more times, you will see the fleece 'felt' together, firm up and form a more solid shape.

(sorry about the rubbish photo!)

In-between taking the flower off of the sponge and turning it over you can poke the fleece round the edges.
WARNING: this is when I stab myself, so be careful!!
This will make your flower shrink a bit more and firm up the petals.


The great thing about needle felting is that you can sculpt it. If it is a bit wonky and lopsided you can felt it a bit more on that side. You can shape the petals by poking the needle in-between them.


When your flower is smooth and you feel it is firm enough to sew the pin onto firmly, it's done.


Choose a button for the centre and sew on and sew a pin onto back.



Supplies
All the materials are fairly cheap with needles around 80p-£1.00 each and the fleece is about £1.50 for 10g and the sponges range from 80p to £2.00. But you can used any dense foam, car washing or bath sponges.
You can also by kits with a variety of coloured merino fleece, needles and a sponge for around £9.50-£15.

I have brought supplies on the internet from Christy Bears and getknitted and from Art Van Go and Crafty Notions at show events.

Recently, I have been looking at ebay suppliers and there are a couple of interesting ones in the uk- KRAFT MANIA and Needdleworks Pleasures. They both have a really nice selection of colours.

FeltFinland blog has a list of suppliers, one of which is fantastic looking Wingham Wool Works, serious fleece!

These Christmas decorations were made the same way.

Hope this has given you enough info to inspire you to have a go, any questions just ask:-)

What is it with my Cats?

I know they are beautiful and I tell them often, but as soon as I get my camera out to photgraph my latest craft project one of our cats will appear from nowhere and plant themselves in the picture. I had to go away and make a cup of coffee before he decided that his photo session was finished.


I have been off work most of this week with sick children, they haven't been really ill, just a tummy bug that has meant that they were all floppy and haven't eaten all week.
But it has meant that we've watched lot's of films while I did a bit of crafting.

And for some reason I decided to make an apple today (might have something to do with watching 'Lazy Town' where apples are called sports candy). I was going to make tiny ones to put in a little basket I have but my first one turn out to be about 2 inches high. I like it, it's very jolly.

Nutmeg posing for the camera

What a Wonderful World

Thank you for all the journaling encouragement.

I started to practice on my journal and grabbed some felt pens and crayons and done a bit of colouring.


Now the reason for the title of this post is this.
I took part in a craft book swap on Swap-bot. This was back in October last year by December I was thinking that my partner had flaked and I wasn't going to receive anything.
Then the lovely Yoli contacted me. As the host of the swap she had noticed that my partner hadn't sent and she kindly offered to send me a book and this is what arrived.

Ginger checking out the 'Crafty Chica'

I have read it from cover to cover and loved it. It's full of encouragement to 'just have a go' and Kathy Cano Murillo seems like a really lovely lady. Thank you Yoli for such a lovely present.
My partner did send my book in the end, plus some extras to make up for sending late, thank you to her too.

I have been doing a lot of needle felting, trying to get some items finished so I can get my Etsy shop going.

When I grabbed the pens and crayons last night for my circle colouring I thought the colours I picked up were random, obviously not!

One World One Heart

Edit- and the winners are............................


Carol-spirits journey designs, Susan and Angela.
I have emailed them all and their flower brooches will be with them soon.

Shop Update++++ Not quite ready yet, still some photos and pricing to do.

Felting Leaves

I've spent the last couple of days making a batch of needle felted leaf brooches.

Spurred on my friend Jo (who is also my best customer) I've got my Etsy shop nearly in order ready for a grand re-openning later in the week.

I've been doing lot's of Etsy research on prices and marketing and some ebay shopping for supplies.

I won't just be selling brooches, I will have some knitted cards, ribbon cut cards and scrap craft kits as well.

Watch this space!

Finished, at last!!!!

Hurray, I've finished it and worn it.

It's taken me 19 months to finish, yes 19 months!

[Edit: Peter has just pointed out that I could have had two babies in that time!! ]

Also, finished some leaf brooches, I've had a few requests for these so I thought I'd make a batch.

I'm trying a holly leaf, I'll let you know what happens.

Looking forward to the Knitting and Stitching Show tomorrow, I'll try and take photos. It was suggested that I wear the rabbit ears so people can spot me!

I was going to wear my newly finished shrug but is that like wearing a 'Spock' costume to a Star Trek convention?

102nd Post Competition

To celebrate my 102nd post I am going to give away one of these hand felted leaf brooches!



So, to win one just post me a message telling me why you should have one.

101 Posts! (Edited)

Can't believe I missed my 100th post! I think it's was because I was so taken aback that I was 'dishcloth cotton' (sorry still not gotten over it! (see post below))

Had a bit of trouble with t'internet today so loads to catch up on.

OK, first - friday poll!! last week it was - Cats or Dogs? and the poll says - CATS. This week - Bath or Shower? mmmmmm what do you think?

Next - lot's of crafty shopping.

I went to Hobbycraft on Tuesday, I had never been before and there was so much to see and so much to buy. My primary reason for going was for work and they had loads of great christmas'y kids stuff so it was worth the trip.

Also, Euan has been doing a bit of needle felting (since posting this I have read that only children over 10 should needle felt!!) and broke my only needle so after a bit of a t'internet search I found Christie Bears which sells lots of stuff to make bears but also needle felting gear.

So I ordered about 6 needles, 4 the same because I wanted to make a felting tools.

My dad had drilled 4 holes in a disc of wood ready for the needles. I had seen the 'How to...' in the current CRAFT: magazine. It works, but it's a bit scary to use and look at.

And here are some more leaves, I'm a bit obsessed with leaves at the moment!

Felted Leaves

Here are some photos of the leaves I have been needle felting this week.

The big one is my least favorite, I am going to try and wet felt it and see what happens.

This one is my favorite so far, I used a lot more wool, laid it both ways and twisted it to make the colours more interesting.

This was the first one and a bit thin, I'm thinking of applique (thanks P).

I started making these, the idea was christmas tree decorations but I'm not sure, maybe some sequins might help.

Felted Notebook

Made the knitted, feltted rectangle into a notebook. I have been colleecting scrap paper from envelopes from work. I punched holes in the top and threaded some of the wool through and tied it in a bow.

Felting Experiments

Had a bit of Collinette Point 5 yarn left so I thought I have a go at felting it (or fulling it as I think it's called)

This is what it looked like to begin with;

then after washing in the washing machine with a full load at 40.

I also made a flower;

before washing

after

before

and after washing.

Not sure what I am going to do with them now, I might make the rectangle into a notebook. What this space.