woensdag 24 april 2024

24 - 4 - '24 : un-perfect 10 grams

Today I joined a small fun felting group :
the "un-perfect  10 grams" group

I had seen some of their work already
and thought that it would be nice to join them . . .
and just then, I was invited to take part !

Every now and then they set each other a challenge
using ONLY 10 grams of wool
What kind of wool or what colour
is up to one's own personal choice.
This time there were two more instructions :
- use a resist triangle no bigger than A4
- use NO SOAP at all when felting 
?????
Hmmmm, some will raise their eyebrows
felting ? and not using any soap ? is that possible ?

Well I know one thing for sure
on the steppes of Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan (?)
nomadic people make big rugs with lots of wool,
water and indeed : no soap at all !!!
(and they roll it behind a horse for some time as well, haha)


That's the amount of wool allowed
About 5.50 grams was red, the rest orange and pink in equal bits.


One side laid with half the red on the edges and pink in the center
turned and ready for the layers on side two.
One thing that really struck me was
the difficulty getting the wool WET through and through !!!
Normally just a tiny bit of soap does the trick very easily.


Gently rubbing with pressure and the tiniest of movement
under a sheet of bubble wrap
did the trick much easier than thought !

I removed the resist through a tiny slit
and closed this with my normal linen thread
Than more rolling (in cloth) and shaping
and soon after that it was done !


My finished piece
(I'll probably add some stitching when dry !)

The fun part was that tonight I met the other group members
in a special ZOOM meeting
where we told how things went,
good tips and some frustrations and showed the finished goodies.
Such different end products !!!

Thanks ladies
it was fun meeting you all and a fun challenge too !
On to the next meeting, in June !

vrijdag 12 april 2024

a colourful day

Yesterday I went to the "Patchwork & Quilt Days"
in Rijswijk near The Hague.
Though I can't say I'm a quilter anymore,
(I quit the Dutch Quilters Guild years ago)
I booked a workshop "gelli plate printing on textile" there !
(and . . . I urged myself nót to buy any more fabric :
my own little "shop" at home is filled to the brim !!!)


I didn't like the very thin layers, I more like stronger colours
but I surely need to do a LOT more playing with this :
I love the possibilities !

It was a good day to show off 
my new earrings
specially made to match the green brooch I showed earlier



It is so much fun to use wire inside the felt to shape it !

I also had a nice talk to a blogging friend, Els Mommers,
that lives half a world away at Saba !
She had her own art and many of the gorgeous Mola's she sells.
(I bought two from her a few tears ago)



It was a really FUN day !!!

*

The garden right now is
exploding

Too warm, but also lots of rain makes
that you see the change every single day.




This was a few days ago, before some heavy rain washed
most away of the flowers !

The ground is covered in green "grass" :
the leaves of all the allium and bluebells that are
mostly still in bud.
But soon the garden will be BLUE !!!
Though some white ones were early instead
and the Ginkgo leaves are bigger each day.





The early clematis is hiding part of the fence.

And because there are soooo many solomon's seal
I cut some of for indoors


I DO love spring !!!!!

 

donderdag 4 april 2024

new fun

Last Saturday we had a fun workshop
by Saar Snoek
(a young Dutch felting artist)
with members of the Dutch felting society
(Viltkontaktgroep)

We made leaves or flowers with thin stems
and she had a fun headdress to show off the technique.
I made two simple leaves then.
I always need some time to let things stew
. . . . .
but today I came up with a brooch using
that same technique in it.



Making the thin flower stems into some decorative swirls !
Of course I could have stitched them on
but for felters the fun is always to make it in one go :
no needle and thread needed !

Nearly there . . .


These were some of the results of the members on Saturday,
a lot of colourful leaves and flowers