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.
![](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/62/54/42/6254425beed3832d2144e560052c9bb3.jpg)
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.
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7163-copy-768x1024.jpg)
These were felted to the prefelt stage before cutting into strips and laying out on 2 more layers of wool:
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7165-copy-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7164-copy-920x1024.jpg)
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,
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7207-copy-1024x768.jpg)
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.
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7210-copy-990x1024.jpg)
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:
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7214-copy-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7215-copy-768x1024.jpg)
I am really pleased with the colourful effect from this experiment and will persist with the shaving.
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7217-copy-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://www.teriberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_7221-copy-768x1024.jpg)