This quarter, the FFS challenge is to add dimension to our felt, on the face of it I should find this challenge easy, almost everything I make is 3D in nature but that rather seems to defeat the purpose, after all, surely a challenge should be just that! 🙂
Last weekend I had a mini epiphany; I really like the effect of shibori felt like the brooch below but using the “tie in a stone/button/marble technique” is not very practical when you are creating a 3D object over a resist as you need extra felt to stretch over the inclusions and it invariably makes the surrounding felt uneven too. I woke up on Sunday morning and my first thought was to create these cup shapes separately and then attach them to the main piece of felt. Is it really sad that I am now dreaming about felt?
This was the piece made with the separate resists. It was very slow work making these 7 little cups and I’m not sure I will use this method a lot but it was interesting to try and I’m happy with the result.
This box is quite large, just shy of a foot square and 5 inches tall.
I wanted to make a small bowl inspired by this pine cone, it started out as a bowl but I clearly wasn’t concentrating while laying out the flaps and spikes so it became a pod instead… 🙂
Finally, I started working on a new vest top that I have been thinking about since attending a dress-making course with Cristina Pacciani at the beginning of July, it still needs some shaping in the back and around the collar but you can already see all the texture from the silk and felt ropes laid under the silk. Originally I was going to make this in royal blue chiffon but then decided white habouti would better showcase the different textures.
What are you planning for the 3rd quarter challenge?
Wonderful creations Teri! They absolutely fit the challenge for this quarter. What will you do with the box? I love the new top. I think you were right to use the habatoi. Very sharp!
Thanks Marilyn 🙂 The box is already for sale on Etsy but I imagine it would make a very generous candy bowl, or somewhere to hide small toys or gadgets
…or felted candy instead? That should be nice.
Love your work !
Thank you Viltmaaraan, are you planning to make some felted candy for the challenge?
The white silk is beautiful – please show us the finished vest later on.
What a terrific box, gorgeous colours, and you certainly achieved ‘dimension’ with it…as you also did with pinecone pod. Must have taken you ages to make that!
Thanks guys, of course I will model the finished top, although it might be next weekend before it gets finished as I start my new job tomorrow. You are right, for the size it is, the pine cone pod took an inordinately long time to make!
Great job on all three pieces Teri. Very different dimension on each. What if you made the shibori method to make your “cups” first but left the edges dry so that it could be felted into the surface of a 3D piece such as your box? Maybe that would be easier? I would love to see the finished vest when complete. I love the white on white effect.
Good idea Ruth…. something else to try! 🙂
Hi – I just stumbled across your blog while searching for felting resist shapes. I look forward to exploring your blog and seeing more of your beautiful work! Would you mind sharing how you made the box-shaped vessel? What shape of resist did you use? I can’t quite wrap my mind around how to make something like this with flat sides. (My main experience with resists is making round pods or bowls.)
Hi Darla, welcome to my blog! 🙂 I wrote a tutorial about book resists and shared the resist shape for a box towards the bottom of the tutorial, this link to should take you to it: http://www.teriberry.com/2016/01/15/book-resist-tutorial/
Happy felting!