Wet Felted Landscapes

Some lovely work from the first day of my "Wet-Felted Landscapes" class.  We started with small

works to learn the process: next week, larger works!  My students rock!

Two recent works

A sweet, needle- felted kitty by one of my  students:

And a recent work by me, using "thick and thin" yarn hand spun by a friend:

Christmas Gift

I had to wait to post this until after the gift was given, a college-mascot pillow for a beloved family member!  Boy, this was fun to make.  I first did a free hand "sketch" of the mascot on wool.  How do you sketch in wool?  I simply laid the wool out in an outline, and loosely needled it in (so it could be easily removed and re-positioned).  Then, I loosely needled in all the details and began to really work on it.  As you can see, the mascot is mostly black. I added black and dark gray Coopworth curly locks to give some dimension to what otherwise would have been one flat dog.

I felted onto polyester fleece, and used fleece for backing.  I usually do this for pillows, as the fleece is softer than wool felt.

Have a Happy New Year!  Keep crafting!

Merry Christmas!

Some sweet work by my needle felting students!

 Holiday cards, a "crazy" doll, an angel, Santa, poinsettias and more!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Classes Coming!

I am teaching two classes in the new year at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, "Hearts and Flowers" and "Felted Landscapes."  Should be fun!  Make a rose for your sweetie or a pretty landscape wall hanging, pillow or other decorative item.

Here are some recent works related to these two classes:

A variety of traditional and free-form flowers, some on silk.

And a work in progress:

"Tree of Life" wall hanging, to be framed.

More information is at:
 http://www.lewisginter.org/adult-education/AdultEducationArtintheGarden.php

Quick Holiday Ornaments

I am making some models of holiday ornaments for my Nov. 1 class at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (http://www.lewisginter.org/events/event_detail.php?event_id=1430), including some small angels and elves (or little girls):

In the photo above you can see angel and unfinished elf, with the pipe cleaner armature I used to help make the form in the center. First, I wrapped the limbs of the armature in white core wool, then lightly and carefully needled it in place.  The nap on the pipe cleaner helps "grab" the wool, so only light needling is needed (more if you are making a doll for a child to play with)..  I needed to be careful of the wire inside the pipe cleaner, though, as it is easy to break a needle if I hit it directly. Then, I loosely created a ball of core wool, and inserted it into the loop on top, to start to form a head, covering it with more core wool and needling it into shape.  For the angel, I then simply draped a hank of core wool to for a skirt, wrapping a long pieces of core wool around the waist to anchor it and needling that into place,  I wrapped wool around to form a bodice, then added curly lock hair.  I made the wings separately, and attached them to the back.

The process for the elf was similar, though I striped the legs with green wool, and added a waist band with bow in back (I lightly needled a ribbon of green wool to form the tie).  I also added a short shirt, so the striped stockings could be seen.  I intend to add a hat to the elf and a few other embellishments.

Have fun!

Newest Class

My students at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and I had fun fashioning flowers for our summer hats today!  We felted on backing fabric, then made several free- standing flowers, learning how to crimp and cup the flowers.  Next class, in November, will be on holiday ornaments!  Go to http://www.lewisginter.org/adult-education/AdultEducationArtintheGarden.php for more information.  Fall classes will be posted Aug. 1.