needle-felted bee

Towards the end of December, me and wonderful mum went to a new-to-us venue, Straight Curves in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.  They have some really interesting classes and judging by all the class samples displayed in the classroom, I think we might be going again!

We took the Needle-felted Bee class.  Looking at the website, it says Carol Wilson was the tutor, I hope that's right!  I really must try to be better at taking down tutor's names to credit them.

It was a really good workshop in a lovely venue and I even took some photos during the class!

I have needle-felted before.  I made a flat picture at home and we did needle-felted brooches at one of the Speed Craft sessions, which involved needle-felting into a biscuit cutter.  This was my first time 3d felting.  Above you can see my sponge, the bee shape I created using Jacob wool and the needle felting tool which is different to my Clover 3-needle tool.  We got to keep this one!

I have only felted with merino wool before, this was a lot fuzzier but just as good to work with.  Putting the stripes on took judgement about thickness and placement.  We had lots of pictures of different bees to work from, but I just went with a stereotypical bee.

Felting the wings was really hard!  I attacked them several times with scissors and had to start again!  I added a few embroidery stitches for the veins.

And here is my little bee all finished!  He's on a brooch back, but I won't wear him until the summer.  The tutor had hers mounted on a small piece of wet felted "landscape" in a wooden frame.  I quite like that idea and may, possibly, one day, get round to it!

This bee is very messy underneath, but hey, you shouldn't be looking at bee's undersides!

Doing the class gave me an urge to needle felt (though I wasn't well afterwards so didn't) and writing this post is making me want to needle felt...  I've got a couple of books and some merino at home!

Speed Craft #4 - needle felting

My previous post was about the Speed Craft event me and wonderful mum attended at Debbie Bryan.  If you want to know what it's all about, scroll down and read that post.

Our forth session of the day was needle felting.  I have done this before but it's always good to see how other people do things, particularly when you're self-taught.

We used biscuit cutters as the base.  There was no bunny but I wouldn't have chosen it anyway.  As soon as I saw this t-rex I was sold!



No in-progress shots as I was too busy stab, stab, stabbing!  I did Mr Dinosaur in turquoise on white.  I wanted him to be holding a carrot, but there were no orange tops so I made a flower / lollipop instead.  That is actually his hand holding the flower, but now it looks to me like it's his bottom jaw and he's eating it!

I was running out of time (remember we only had 45 minutes), so I quickly sewed a brooch back on.

Due to the time constraints, I glued a second layer of white felt at the back and then cut round it.  The turquoise in the middle of the sandwich is where the felt comes through when you're stabbing it.

Yes, I am 38.  Yes, I am wearing a dinosaur brooch.  I wore it to work and everyone was very careful not to mention it!

Breaking needles

I have done a little needle felting in my time, never anything 3d (must give that a go) and not much.  Back in November I had an urge to needle felt, so got out my supplies of wool roving, my needle tool and my foam pad.  The needle tool holds 3 felting needles which differ to sewing needles in that you can't thread them and they have little barbs on them which grab hold of the wool and make it felt (magically, I don't understand the science behind it).  Those needles are sharp.

Abd fragile.  

Unfortunately they were the only needles I had and I'd managed to break all three in one foul swoop.  (Is that the right expression?  Is it foul swoop or fell swoop or something else entirely?)  I had to put the needle felting to one side whilst I waited for some more to come in the post.

When they did, I felted this vase of flowers and made it into a card for my mum's birthday.  The flower centres are little jewels that I glued on afterwards.

I didn't design this card, I took it from Beginner's Guide to Needle Felting by Susanna Wallis, and I really enjoyed it.  I'm not quite sure why the roving and needles got put away after that as I had planned on making more.

The reason I'm showing you this now, rather than the beginning of November when I made it, is that I forgot to take a photo and only just got one from my mum.

Craft Book Review - Felting Fabulous Flowers

Pavilion very kindly sent me a copy of Felting Fabulous Flowers by Gillian Harris to review for you all.

Before we go any further, the disclaimers.  I was sent the book for free to review but I was not told what to say and all opinions are 100% my own.  I didn't receive any monetary compensation.  Links in this post, as with all my book posts, are affiliated.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.  

I'm embarrassed to say that it's taken me quite a while to get round to reviewing this for you and I'm not sure why as when I got started, I really enjoyed it.

The book has 23 different flower patterns and some leaf shapes too.  The flowers are divided by colour and each given a rating of easy, intermediate or advanced.

There are some truly beautiful flowers included.  Look at that amazing passion flower!  Yes, that one is advanced!

The cosmos flower is the bottom right of the above photo, this is one that I chose to make.  All of the flowers are a mixture of wet and dry (needle) felting.

I didn't have any green merino tops to hand, so I didn't attempt any of the leaves, but they'd look fabulous is a bouquet or with a flower as a corsage.

Each flower has it's own page of instructions, then there are instructions for the various felting techniques at the end, followed by the full-sized templates.

I decided to make the daisy and the cosmos (though in blue!), so I started making some felt.  My white felt ended up rather thick.  It's been a long time since I made felt and I overestimated how much it shrinks.

I actually used two different shades of turquoise for the second piece of felt.  One colour on the front...

...and the other on the back.

It's not easy to see the difference, but there is one!

I cut out the cosmos shape from the turquoise felt and decided the lighter colour would be the front.  I added some needle felted veins in the darker turquoise, which are hard to see, and did a simple needle felted centre rather than the balls in the original.  This flower needs shaping with some Mod Podge or fabric stiffener to give it more shape.

The daisy is made up of two layers of petals with a yellow centre needled to make it a dome shape.

I liked this so much I added a brooch pin and it's already on my winter coat.  I know, daisies aren't very wintery but I don't care!

I have a few of Gillian Harris's felting books and all of them are fabulous.  The projects are lovely, the photography is gorgeous and the instructions are good.  This book is no exception and I actually want to try each and every flower in this book.  I think they'd make a wonderful bouquet to put in a vase on the table.  

If you have any interest in felting, whether you're a seasoned felter or are completely new to it, I'd recommend this book.  The instructions are good enough for a beginner to make their first piece of felt and try their hand at needle felting, and the projects are varied enough to interested the more advanced felter.

Product details Hardcover: 80 pages Publisher: Collins & Brown (3 July 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 1909397393 ISBN-13: 978-1909397392 Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 21 x 21 cm

Linking up to:








Something New for 2014

  

Disclaimer:

I was given a review copy of the book by Pavilion, however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.  Amazon links are affiliate links.

the end is near

The end of the world?  Probably not.  But, before we get to the ending, I have a couple of photos I squirrelled away that I want to share with you.

Remember my needle felted butterlies? 

I finally got round to making them into brooches!  I sewed the brooch back on.  In the book I used, it said to place a bit of roving over the brooch back and needle felt it in place.  Having observed that the front comes through to the back when needling, I decided to just sew them on instead!

I also realised I've never shown you the talents of Mr F.  He has many talents, though only one in the craftosphere that I've found so far.  He makes these bracelets:

I believe it's a form of macrame.  I bought him a book for his birthday and he branched out into patterns such as this:

and this!  Pretty impressive, eh?

So, this here ending?  Do you remember this?

and these?

It's been a while since I updated you on my weekly glass class.  Mainly because we broke up for summer.  We started back the week I was in Tunisia, clearly I didn't start back that week, I started back last week.  I got quite a bit of cutting done.

Then on Wednesday night I finished all of the glass cutting completely.

OK, that's a bit of a lie.  I clearly haven't cut out some of the areas where the fused glass leaves will go, and I have to cut holes for glass nuggets all round that clear border, and some in the "patchwork" panel too.  But the outline is done!

Next week I start leading.  I'll have to do a bit of cutting (for the nuggets and leaves), a LOT of grinding (to get the edges to fit nicely in the lead), then I'll be adding pieces of lead to the whole thing and cementing it!  Still loads of work to do, but it feels so great to have finally finished all that cutting.  I got more cutting done in the last two weeks than I did in the entire first term.

You'll have to excuse my glass photos, I have to take them in the workshop, at night, with no natural light.  Also, as the panel is so big and I'm so short, I have to hold the camera above my head!  Hopefully I'll be able to update you more next week.

Tomorrow I have a craft class at the Bead Shop, so loads to share next week.

FNSI results - August

Good morning ladies!  I've just popped in quickly to write this post, then I'm off to get my hair cut.  I haven't had my hair cut since just after my wedding.  I got married in April 2010.  Ooops.  It's starting to resemble a mop and somedays I look like a scarecrow (albeit a rather rotund scarecrow) and other days I look more like the Wild Woman of Borneo... time to get it cut!

Last night I played along with FSNI hosted by Handmade by Heidi and Crafty Vegas Mom.

Except I didn't sew.  No.  I had planned to, I was going to handstitch some felt flowers for which I was pretty sure I had a pattern in one of the craft books downstairs.  I didn't.  I couldn't be bothered to go upstairs.  Yes, I am that lazy but in my defence I'm always tired on a Friday night and I just had the week from hell at work.

I had, however left my felting supplies and books on the dining room table.  6 paces.  I could manage that.  I wanted to make myself a brooch, I love brooches but have so few of them.

Enter my needlefelted butterfly.  It's taken from Wool Pets by Laurie Sharp.  I love it.  But... it has two major flaws.

It's bigger than I wanted, and it's too thin.  I decided to try again.

I tried to make this one thicker and smaller and ended up making it thicker and wonkier!  Attempt number 3.

I succeeded in size, but perhaps not the shape.  I thought I'd have a go at decorating it anyway.  I do quite like it and may add a brooch back.  People seeing me wearing it will probably think I'm bonkers, but no change there then.

Still in a feltingly mood and hooked on the return of Sharon to Eastenders not to mention the saga between Ben and Shirley, I got out Quick and Clever Felting by Ellen Kharade and flicked through.  I found this paisley motif as part of a felted purse.  I thought it would look nice as a brooch.  I needle felted the white base, added in the purple and turquoise elements (the turquoise is a LOT more vibrant than in the picture, I just couldn't get the colour right) and then hand stitched on some beads.  So I did sew for the FSNI!

I thought you might like to see the back of a needle felted piece - quite funky!  I think I will add a brooch back to this one.  I don't like the white I chose at the base, but overall I think it works.  Am I deluded??  So, that's two more for my Craft Book Challenge.  It's been ages since I made anything from a book other than Zakka Style!

Right, I'm off to get those split ends removed...  I may be quite some time...

I am just so famous!

Oh yes, I am, famous that is!  I got home from work, sorted out poorly Tiff who'd been taken to the vet by my parents for an operation to sort out her overgrown teeth, then sat down with the latest issue of Simply Homemade which had been delivered.  My plan for the evening was to work on my embroidery journal for January, but I can't see that happening now, I'm too excited!  Flicking through the magazine I got to the page on "Crafty Blogs" and there I was!  I'd love to show you a picture but I can't get to the desktop computer which is attached to the scanner at the minute as there are rabbits in the way so I'm on my laptop, I'll take a picture tomorrow though as I just know you're all dying to see (don't worry, I'm not that deluded, I know I'm the only person in the world who is excited about it - Mr CA was pretty taken aback though, I'm not even sure he knew I had a blog and he certainly doesn't know what it looks like or what one is!).

Now I'm here, I suppose I should show you some photos.  Want to see my latest LANT?  I've had a go at needlefelting.  I'd bought the tools and then put them on a shelf.  I also had some of the merino wool tops as I'd bought them to do some wet felting, which still hasn't happened, so I thought I'd experiment a little.

Here's my equipment - some wool felt, a brush pad thingy that I'm not convinced is the right tool for the job, a needle felting tool and the book "Beginner's Guide to Needle Felting" - so this qualifies as a Craft Book Challenge too.

I put some wispy layers of white wool on the brush thing and jabbed away.  Quite satisfying.  I added some purple in an attempt to do a heart pattern.

Hm, not so sure about that border.  So it was time for the second experiment.  I'd bought some biscuit cutters in lieu of the very expensive needle felt moulds.

I pressed the biscuit cutter into the brush matt type thing and jabbed away.  Jab, jabbity jab.

Needle felting only takes tiny amounts of wool, but I seemed to be putting half a sheep in this mould!

Ta-da!  a couple of VERY thick flowers, one with a falling off petal.  Hmm, not quite sure I'm getting this.

So I had a go at a free-hand heart.  Yep, definitely not my forte!  And the backs?  Well, this is the reason I'm not sure the brush matt is the correct tool, the backs are really hairy:

I then thought I'd have a go at something like nuno needle felting.  Now I have no idea if this actually exists, I suspect not, but my first go at felting was on a workshop for nuno felting which is a version of wet felting where you use a piece of muslim as a base.  Have I spelt that right?  I assure you it was a piece of cloth and not a person of faith.  Anyway I cut a bit off one of my husband's old shirts (in my pile of old clothes which are waiting to be cut up and sewn with) and had a go at nuno needle felting.

Nope, don't think that working.  At this point I got fed up and went downstairs, but I will not be beaten by bits of sheep and a sharp needle.  I'll give 3d needle felting a go next - I mean, what's the point of being able to walk before you run??

Right, I'm off to bask in the glory of my fame, eat homemade fish and chips and go on and on and on about my magazine appearance to Mr CA.  I've got a lovely weekend ahead, after taking Tiff for her post-op check up (not part of the lovely weekend) and shovellling half a ton of poo out of the dinning room (rabbit poo that is), I've got a full body massage to go to and a day out for lunch and the cinema to see The Help on Sunday with my mum - who I will bore silly with talk of my fame of course!  I should be back over the weekend to show you my poor attempts at the TAST challenge week 1.