I was nose-to-the-grindstone this week, working at my tech job. And when I spend an entire week without creating something new, I get really antsy. Well, I took care of THAT today! After spending last Sunday at the knitting show immersed in all that fiber, I had to work on my latest vessel. It was like therapy - and I got my February Bead Journal Project "page" all laid out and pre-felted. Tonight I will felt and full it, and hopefully tomorrow it will be dry so I can start beading it. I don't know what it will look like when it has shrunken down, but here's what it looks like all wet and soapy on my work table. I decorated both sides, so I'll have lots of beading to do.
My head was in a rather different place last month than it was in January. I was very much influenced by all the blossoming pink trees around me, so I just knew that my February vessel would represent the pink month. It was great - while I was laying out the fibers for this vessel today, my guy was in the yard mowing the lawn. Ah yes, working on a nature-inspired vessel with the smell of sweet freshly cut grass wafting through the wet lab... life is good!
I'm going back out there now to do a bit more work on this piece before I head out for supper. I hope that you are having a happy and creative day!
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7 comments:
wow...i can't wait to see your progress on it. you're right--it's so very different from the last one.
Shirley, this looks amazing! It's a picture of a place that I've hiked near Fremont, I swear - MacGuire Peaks...in felt! It's looking great and I can't imagine how incredible it's going to be with beads.
I did some felting today and it looks better than my first attempt, but then this time was not alpaca. It is indeed harder to felt than sheep's wool. Hey, it's quite a workout, huh?
Very pretty so far. Anxious to see how much prettier you'll make it with beads. One of these days, I'll have to take up felting.
Love the colors, shape & style so far, can't wait to see more!!
All I can say is WOW that is stunning.
Nicole/Beadwright
Wow, thanks for all of your wonderful comments!
Patty, I had a hard time felting alpaca. Each animal felts differently - even different kinds of sheep. Merino is a dream to wet felt, but not as good as other wool when it comes to needle felting. And yes, it can be a major workout! After I took that felting class at Stitches West, I was sore for 2 days.
Once again, I learned something new - and I haven't even started beading yet! When this felted down and shrunk, the "picture" really collapsed, and it doesn't look anywhere near as picturesque as it did when I first laid out and wet the fibers. Also, the colors became rather muted so I'll have to put some color pop into it with beads. I'll be taking another picture of it before I start beading it so that you can see what I'm talking about. I think that from now on, if I decide to do scenery on my felted pieces, the piece will have to start out a lot bigger than my BJP vessels. These vessels are small - not much room for expansive tree branches.
Kelly, felting is very addictive!
Jody, all of my vessels start out in this shape. But they end up shaped differently by the time I finish felting and fulling them. That's part of the fun for me - seeing how I can "sculpt" them. I have some ideas for some wild & crazy shapes, but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to achieve them. I have a lot of experimenting to do...
This is stunning so far!! Can't wait to see it evolve!!!!
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