rosiepink

Felt Vases

  
Thought you'd like to see these little vases Mum made over Christmas.  The colours were seaside inspired and the fixings were mainly the usual favourites of beads and buttons but I think the green vase with the eyelets is rather quirky and eyecatching.  Something a bit different.

Hope you like them!

Now the New Year has whipped round it's back to work!  Tomorrow is the first time I have had to set my alarm in 10 days so its going to be a bit of a shocker.  Especially as its going to be freezing...and my boiler sounds like its about to pack up!

Will have to get on and roll some felt to keep warm :)

 

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Machine Embroidered Felt Vase Wraps

The felt I wrote about last time was cut from a much bigger piece.  I had originally been planning to make a large wall hanging but felt a sudden desire to take the scisssors to it and have a play.  I decided to stitch another, bigger piece of the felt so that I could make a couple of vase wraps.  I thought the texture of the felt would be seen better in a 3D item rather than on the wall in this case.  It took hours to stitch but it was very absorbing so I didn't really notice the time until after it was done!

 
I made a large vase (45cm) and a smaller one to compliment (30cm):

 

They have been delivered to Coastal Creatives Gallery, waiting to find a new home ! 

Experimental Felt & Parisian Flowers

Have recently been playing with my favourite thing about feltmaking - the different textures you can make with inclusions and stitching.  The only limit is your imagination - oh, and time.  I lost about 2 hours stitching into this piece and it felt like five minutes!

 

 

 

Have also been to Paris recently where I did my usual thing of not taking photos of popular tourist attractions but seemed to focus more on local arts, the birds, iron railings and flowers! Why is that I wonder?  I think I just like details.

Found this gorgeous quilt in a shop in The Marais - simple design but stunning!  And so much work by hand.

 

And there were so many flowers all over Paris.   Couldn't resist photographing all the colours for future inspirations!

 
 

More Felt Panels....

Hello.  I've completed three felt flower panels now, the first one is pictured here. The other two are pictured below.  They are approx 140cm x 45cm and are backed with calico and hanging rods so they are left free to be touched rather than framed behind glass.

I used hand and machine embroidery to pick out some details and give a bit of texture.

 

Have got lots more panels planned - just need to get them out of my head and into felt and stitch!

Making Felt Panels

 

We went to Lyme Regis recently for some much needed rest (and cream teas and fudge and ice creams!).  We took 100s of photos while we were there so have got lots more ideas to work through in felt.  Mum made some more pebbles which have proved really popular.  They are very tactile and have to be picked up and played with!  Although by design they are supposed to be paperweights, doorstops or decorations.

 

I was obsessed with taking photos of boats as I really want to depict them in wall art, and especially the fishing boats (they looked so cute!):

  

We also took loads of photos of flowers which inspired a few of the felt wall panels we have made since we got back:

 

 

Flowers panel (approx 140cm x 45cm)

 

Time flies!

Hi...Can't believe it's been over two months since we wrote!

Have been really busy with work commitments (officey work, not fun fibre work!) and other stuff so all of a sudden it's June and we haven't been playing with fibres nearly as much as we'd have liked.  Anyway, hopefully will have more time now and so have just recently unburied some woolly, fibrey treasures and dusted off the sewing machine and have been making a start on some more felt pieces.

Mum has been trying out a carding machine we bought a while back and I think she is finding it somewhat addictive!  Below are some photos of felt pictures she carded some wool for and then did some really beautiful decorative stitching on.  I haven't got photos of the whole things just some details.

 

 

 

I decided to get some old bits and pieces out of my samples box (where I throw odds and ends of felt scraps and experiments) to get a few ideas and start thinking about some future projects, here they are laid on the desk...

 

I got all inspired and decided to make a large panel with the greens and pinks and somehow have ended up with blues and yellows.  I haven't got a photo of the new work in progress, as the light has gone for today.  But it just shows that it doesn't matter if I make a plan, as soon as I look in the boxes of colours I am lost to grabbing whatever takes my eye!

I have also been doing a bit of experimenting.  The other day I decided to rework a piece of felt I made a little while ago.  Normally I leave the edges of felt to be natural but I decided to cut this piece up and "finish" the edges.  I rather like the wavy edges and think I will definitely be playing more with this idea!

 

Felt & Machine Embroidery Artwork - Beach Huts

Just thought we'd share some photos of a commission piece of artwork we've just finished.  It's very similar in style to the previous beach huts pictures we've created but this time it was a lot bigger at 4 feet long!  Really enjoyed making this one and would love to do more!  Here is a picture of the finished thing and also of some detail:

 

 

We have just been to Cornwall for a long weekend and have come back with a camera full of inspirational photos so hopefully will find some time to turn some of them into new felt artwork.  Too many ideas, not enough hours!

Making Felt Lampshades

We’ve had several emails enquiring about how we make our nuno felt lampshades.   We thought perhaps others might like to try too, so here’s our own ‘recipe’.

 

 

(This type of lampshade needs familiarity with seamless 3-d shapes and nuno felt but if you’re just starting to make felt then you can make lampshades from flat felt – simply make a large piece of felt then cut panels to fit a lampshade frame and join them together imaginatively with bold stitching.)

 

Nuno Felt Lampshade

from scrim and merino wool top/roving

 

Cut a resist from plastic - the same shape as your wire frame (for example the resist for the lampshade in the photo resembled a bell shape), adding 10-20% for shrinkage (shrinkage very much depends on how thick you make your nuno felt).

 

Put scrim down as a first layer on both sides of the resist with just enough folded over to hold together.
Make three fine layers of wool on both sides of the resist, perhaps topping with a little silk then felt in the usual manner.

When the resist starts to buckle, make opening cuts across the top and bottom, remove the resist, smooth the sides then continue the felting process until the felt is firm.

Cover the lampshade frame with clingfilm - several tight layers - so that you almost have a solid form on which to work.  Put your lampshade onto an old table lamp stand (or a 500ml water bottle, filled with water, and the top screwed back on to secure the lampshade in place) to elevate the shade from the work surface. 

Place the felt onto the frame - it obviously won't fit too well at this point – but you will be able to see which part needs more shrinking by rolling.  When it fits quite well, literally bash the felt until it shrinks to fit the frame (you could use the bowl of a wooden spoon) - remember the felt also shrinks a little when it dries. 

After rinsing the soap out of the felt, put it back on the frame, tease it into shape and leave it to dry in a warm place.

 

You can fix the felt to the frame with bold stitching, and ornamentation is only limited by your imagination - this lampshade is decorated with 'flowers' made from circles of nuno felt and buttons.

 

 

Felt Making Tips & Tutorial

We are often asked questions about feltmaking techniques so we thought we would post a "tips" page based on some of those questions and we have also added another tutorial, this time about making basic flat felt.  (To view these, click on the buttons to the right).  Really these are aimed at those who’ve just started having a go at wet felt making and needle felting and are just some of the things we have learnt along the way.  There is no right or wrong way and you will undoubtedly find your own methods, but we hope what we have learnt will be useful to you.

You don't need expensive equipment and the basics of feltmaking are easy to grasp.  Take a look at the free tutorial and have a go!

Here at rosiepink, we mainly concentrate on wet felt making and then use needle felting as a compliment to this. For example, this penguin was needle felted onto a wet felted antarctic landscape.

Have a go at creating your own unique felt masterpiece!