Category Archives: challenge

Adding Dimension

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.

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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… 🙂

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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.

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What are you planning for the 3rd quarter challenge?

Illuminated Lion Fish

A few weeks ago I bought a selection of different LED lights to try out in felted lights and this week I made a start with the first of them, making and lion fish night-light.

I posted this picture on Facebook and really didn’t expect anyone to guess what it might turn into bu Judith got it in just 3 guesses!

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This is him in the making:

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And nearly finished, he just needs a little more fulling to make his spines stand up straight and some shaping around his mouth to give him his smile back:

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I have also been working on a bag, that had an unusual beginning; my other half broke an axe handle a few weeks ago and while he saw a piece of firewood, I saw a couple of bag handles! After some sanding and a few coats of varnish I think the wood has come up really nicely. I’m so glad I rescued it from the wood pile 🙂

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I’m not sure this is what Ann had in mind when she set the 2nd quarter, stash-busting challenge but I think up-cycling an old axe handle qualifies! 🙂