A few weeks ago I was indulgently scrolling through Pinterest, as you do, and came across a ceramic vase with a pretty, colourful pattern around its rim.
This inspired an experiment to see if I could achieve a similar efffect in felt…..
I made a collection of cords in different colours, cut them to rougly the same length and sandwiched them between 4 layers of wool tops.
These were felted to the prefelt stage before cutting into strips and laying out on 2 more layers of wool:
Then covered with 2 more layers of wool before felting to the firm prefelt stage.
I wanted to shape it into a bowl, so draped it over a hat block and rubbed it vigorously to make the sides shrink onto the shape of the block,
The colours from the cut ropes were already migrating through even after a few minutes of rubbing.
After lots more rubbing and a trim it was holding it’s shape well.
I had always intended to shave the finished bowl bring out the colours in the spots but found shaving hasn’t made that much difference to the colour intensity of the spots:
Before shavingAfter shaving
I am really pleased with the colourful effect from this experiment and will persist with the shaving.
The last few months have been life-changing, first moving to New Zealand in March, two weeks in quarantine, buying a new home (complete with 12 chickens), starting a new job, adopting two kittens and finding Auckland Fun Felters (AFF) the wonderful felting activities on the North Island.
Don’t be fooled by the cuteness, when they aren’t sleeping they are tiny little terrorists!Aoifa (pron eee-fa) – giving us her sternest lookFlokiAoifa “helping” to unpack the studio
AFF are affiliated with Creative Fibre, I first found Creative Fibre online before we left the UK and confess I was worried when I read their interests lean heavily towards spinning and weaving, having belonged to a Spinners Weavers and Dyers group in the UK where felting was a dirty word and the committee behaved like felt-makers were contaminating the purist application of spinning, weaving and dying I was a little hesitant about joining.
I am so glad I took the plunge and went along to my first meeting in May, AFF are true to their name and such a fun group of ladies, and everyone is obsessed with felting and the associated skills. I immediately felt like I had come home 🙂
Each meeting involves a show and tell and announcements of upcoming events we might be interested in, at my first meeting that was Woolfest in Kumeu (held annually north west of Auckland). I arrived after lunch and most of the crowds had already been and gone, it was rather lovely being able to get to all of the stands without having to fight my way through:
You can just about make out the AFF stand to the left of the door in this photoHaving been deprived of hugs and cuddles for so long during lockdown this stall naturally pulled on my heart-stringsI couldn’t resist buying a bag of Gotland locks from this stand
Back to the AFF show and tell, Lynn took us through a collection of gorgeous items our members had made:
Isn’t Lynn’s waistcoat stunning?These eco-printed tiles were inspired by Fiona Duthie’s Creative Sparks video
These tiles will be crochet together to make a blanket that will be raffled at next year’s Woolfest:
I managed to make one during our session on Saturday, the only rule is that that the design had to use just straight lines, I can’t tell you how desperate I was to add a red dot to the middle, some of my triangles became a little curved during fulling too:
After the show and tell, Lynn demonstrated how to make silk paper using spray starch:
These elegant little bags are an example of what can be made with the papers:
Another benefit of belonging to this group is the extensive library, including the back catalogue of my favourite magazine, I think I have died and gone to heaven!! 🙂
And just to show what a small world this is, I discovered Robyn (a fellow FFS member and a former student of my hat class) is also a member of AFF! Robyn is working on a blanket square for her own personal blanket.
That reminds me, lots of keen felters have been asking when the concertina hat class and the felt bags classes will start again, I am delighted to announce the next iteration of both classes will start on 19th August (registration will open a couple of weeks earlier on 4th August). If you would like to receive a reminder when registration opens please contact me saying which class you would like to join.
More information about these classes can be found here:
