10 grams (un-perfect)

February is nearly at an end and last Wednesday
we had our zoom-meeting with the
UN-PERFECT 10 GRAMS group.

It was a very special challenge this time
because we sent a flat piece of pre-felt
to another member of the group
and she had to use that for the "Carnival" theme.
I had to send mine to Germany,
and I got one from Switzerland.
(that last bit wasn't without silly troubles about import duties !!!)

You were allowed to add some fibers of your own
so in the end my piece weighed 12+ grams
(but : I used ALL of the pre-felt I got !)

This is the pre-felt Kelly sent me
(with also some dots on the other side)

Carnival is for me most of all the Summer-carnival parade
in Rotterdam, with lots of swinging and dancing brightly
dressed people.
Especially the big headdresses are impressive,
so that's where my inspiration came from.

The finished piece.

The process.
I cut strips and turned some around, the off cuts of the points
were later used for small balls at the end of the tying strips

(hmmmm "wearable")

And this is what I got back already from Silke

For her carnival means clowns with their red noses,
their funny trousers and their
BIG SHOES !

I divided all colours in two
for two perpendicular layers in the pre-felt
(I forgot to take a picture of the finished pre-felt
but the spacing of the colours was more or less the same in both layers)

So, not an easy task this time but all worked out well !
The sad thing was though, that during the "zoom" I heard NO sound
though all the others could hear me . . .
(grrrrr)

quiet (but busy)

 It has been quiet here on my blog.
That happens sometimes
(especially after my busy Pinktober month !!!)
But I can say that I wasn't idling my days away !
(although I did a lot of reading)

There was another "(Un)perfect 10 gram" meeting at the end of November
We had to work in black
and the motto was "facing black"
with a bit of sparkle, or lights.
I must say I have no problems with that colour
(I'm often wearing it)

Like always we had a fun meeting 
with lots of inventive products.
I made a black "Möbius" ring
but still have to make a little video to see it best.

In November we also had a new Stitch Club workshop that I took part in : stitching on metal
but
I only did a try out on paper
(and skipped the metal in the end)

Then I was busy making our Xmas/New Year cards for this year.

COLOUR AND GLITTER !

(and I made some presents BUT those are still a secret !)

Then, after we had a fun party celebrating the Dutch "Sint Nicolaas",
I could start with a brand new Stitch Club workshop
by Tina Marais

Because my hands are not in the best shape at the moment
I wanted to make something small first.
(so I had 8 cm to work on instead of the suggested 40 !)

The imagined "seed pod" I made from (poly) felt
and some plastic beads.

But this left me wanting more   :-)

and I took the original idea, though still working "micro" !

One down, one to go

When the "further development" came for something wearable
(which I did already . . .)
my choice went to

felt
(and my own design)
 

Nearly finished

And with lots of seed beads stitched on I have now a lovely set that goes together

Happy !
Thanks Tina Marais for the inspiration !

un-perfect 10 grams

First : the Art Market in Baarn was

HOT

 and therefor not very successful
. . .

This was around 12  o'clock when we had just started,
but it quickly became very warm and
though there were enough lovely people to talk to
and some sweet customers too, it was not a great success.
(it was a looong lazy afternoon !)

*

Today was again the day for our zoom meeting
to show what we made for the challenge this time.

The task was to include a foreign object
that had to be included in the 10 grams (!!!)
and some kind of contrast.

I thought about a spool for machine thread
but in the end (really just today !) I decided on a
scouring pad
(NO, don't ask me where the idea for that came from ???
because I really don't know !)
The scouring pad weighed about 3(+) grams
so that left less than 7 for the wool !

Because I wanted to stack them up
I made three resists out of bubble wrap
(15, 10 and 6 cm squares)
and had to lay out the wool very thin.

Halfway through the stacking process
I doubted if it all would work (as often happens . . .)

But it did !

Like a small cake !

un-perfect 10

On June 12 the little group of felters
that challenge each other to make something fun
out of 10 grams of wool met per "zoom"
to show the results of that time.
Petra, one of the members loves to make "zentangles"
and one of those was the inspiration for all of us.

I studied that particular drawing a long time
but couldn't get around the "construction" of it.

Well : inspiration doesn't mean you have to follow exactly . . . so
I chose "woven" as my theme.

Though it was said to be 2D, I thought it was fun to make it 3D !

With this one, I was very early
though I thought I was awfully late !
(hmmm, wrong date, because I scribbled something
on the note that had the right date, so the "1" disappeared   :-D !!!)

That meant time enough to give it another go
Again with "woven"
and, I wanted a more open structure.

A Celtic knot was just what I was looking for !
BUT in the end I didn't like that all of it
felted together . . .

So these two were what I had for the show and tell

But today
number three was born !
Another Celtic knot, though I used other colours.
(limited by the things in my stash !)

More to my liking !

The blue knot is as big as the first attempt I made
The red one is bigger but thinner.

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 !