half a hat ?

My online Surface Design in Felting class of Fiona 

has reached it's third week,

and it's no surprise :

I LOVE IT !

BTW, there is very good news 

for all of you who thought you had to wait till the end of summer

for Fiona to do a second run of her class :

the next run starts in April

(till half May)

For this third week 

there weren't as many samples to make as week 1 and 2

So I took the chance to make a piece with

three little techniques in it :

bumps, an enclosed big glass nugget and seed beads.

All of that in a head band

or you could say

half-a-hat

(is that a Mad Hatter or what ?!)

When I made the (first) resist I forgot to enlarge my design ...

(even being experienced doesn't prevent you from doing stupid things  :-(  !)

so then I made a new (bigger) one.

I used two layers merino in blues

One thing : with all these special bits you must do some slow felting !

Despite my calculations the piece stayed too big,

so I cut it in the back 

now I can adjust it to the right size.

front

and the back

(I am definately gonna wear it)

a little heart for .....

Doris !

There were eight paper hearts with a name on it

and one jumped out of the "box" after a bit of shaking.

Send me your address over the mail,

then the purple felted heart comes to you, Doris !

(next time better perheaps for the other ladies)

Gotland

Gotland wool is gray, shiny

and rather coarse.

Once I'd seen some lovely things, mainly wonderful vessels,

that someone made, in a little studio in Rotterdam.

We needed some coarse wools for Fiona's SDO class, 

so I ordered some Gotland 

along with the other Merino colours

that I normally use.

The big ball of gray (top left) is the non-felting wool Heideschnucke

and right below that in the plastic bag, is the Gotland.

300 gramms ... 

just as much as the big ball of white Merino below it !!!

Gotland has 30 + microns !

(the shiny white is silk)

I wanted to make a big vessel of the Gotland

and do some more craters as well.

(because Fiona thought I used coarse wool in the bag flap with craters 

that I posted on the class-blog, but that was all Merino)

I laid out my usual two layers of merino on both sides of the big resist,

then I put down the silk and cotton-viscose mix fabrics 

and covered that with two layers of Gotland ...

added some Gotland curls on the top edge and started felting.

When it came to cutting into the wool to open the craters

I couldn't find them on the outside ,

so I was glad I could locate them on the inside !!!

Grrrrr ... the silk came loose : probably to densely woven 

The last part of felting and fulling the Gotland was tough work :

the wool was not smooth but really coarse by then,

my hands weren't "happy" at all !!!

You see, a good deal of shrinkage, 

but the crater edges were rather fuzzy and not crisp and firm 

like on the merino bag flap!

And you know what :

the Gotland "ate up" all the red Merino of the inside !!!!!

Only a haze of red colour was left

(some lessons learned)

giving a little heart ( 14 - 2 - 14 )

I love this funny date,

(though I'm not really into Valentine's day)

but, 

nothing wrong with giving away a little heart

A purple wet felted heart

with lots of stitches with gradient cotton perlé and silk ribbon.

If you want to give this little bit of love to someone dear

(or keep it for yourself)

write a comment

and 

maybe

you are the lucky one 

when I draw a winner on Sunday

:-)

face

Blogging has slowed down a bit,

mostly because of the horribly  s l o w  computer,

but life and creating things goes on as normal 

I did finish the lovely lace shawlette of that fiery wool,

      I finished one sock  .........  and started another pair

ànd  I enjoyed the first two lessons of my felting class.

Last weekend was the start of the second week 

of the Surface Design Online class of 

Fiona Duthie

And let me tell you this :

if you're a felter, and want to have some real fun 

with old and new techniques,

presented in a very thorough, good documented class ...

join Fiona 

for the next run of this SDO class !!!

(I think the next time starts right after summer,

keep an eye on her blog for that,

it's in my sidebar)

One of the techniques appealed to me right away,

and because I also had to make something 

for my new felting-exchange, the connection was made.

The theme for my first "exchange" month was

face(s) 

Here is the postcard size face for Caroline

There were two layers, with resits,

then cut open at the desired places and continue felting.

I'm sure I'll use this technique some more in the future !

*

Although winter still holds a lot of places in a firm grip ...

spring is definately on it's way !

(sorry, for all of those who are still "covered" in snow)

new starts

The year 2014 turned to Februari already :

time flies

Time to make some new starts !

1

Finally I know what to do with the "fiery" wool present 

I got from Anne (Australia)

I will be knitting a lacy shawl called

Dragonfly Wings

f i r e

(fire shining on my hand  ;-)  !) 

2

The second start is my fabulous online Surface Design Felting class with 

Fiona Dutie

This weekend I received the first lesson

with five assignments

So I better get started soon !

(nothing to show yet ...)

3

This month starts a new felting exchange

There is a new group of people

but the rules are the same :

every month a little post card size piece of felt 

for one of the participants

on a chosen theme

(my first one will be "faces")

So ... not much to show yet,

just promeses

!!!

I hope we make another new start too :

our computer is old and

v e r y

s .. l .. o .. w  

(and plays nasty tricks every now and then)