Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Les Fleurs Du Mal

 

 

 

 


Because I am primarily self-taught...

...I'm always trying to puzzle out how to do new things with felt.

I wanted to try making some flowers...

...for use as decorations on future projects.

I had this great idea...

...(or so I thought).

I would make a base resist in a circular shape...

...plus two smaller circles with identical holes cut into the middle of each.

I thought that rather than sewing the three layers together after felting...

...I could attach the three layers during the felting process-bing, bang, boom! :)

After felting, I cut around the edges of the top two resists...

...and pinched up the felt, forcing it through the holes in order to pull off the resists.

This method works well with thin layers of fiber...

...and you must make certain to work the center hole well if you don't want the layers to fall apart.

The thing is, though, I still had to stitch the base to form them into 'real' flower shapes...

...and I'm pretty sure that making three separate felt disks would have been just as easy (and less fiddly).

Sighhh.... (giggle)


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4 comments:

FeltersJourney said...

What a good idea! Very different technique.
How about if once you have taken the resists off, you put your finger (or a pencil) into the centre of the flower & fold all the layers up around it (so its like a closed flower if you know what I mean) then roll it between you hands like you are making a clay sausage. (Id probably get it hot n soapy first) If you work the base of the flower the hardest you should be able to get it to take the flower shape pretty easily.
x

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks, Deborah! I'll try this next time.

Leedra said...

I got a wet flower kit from www.livingfelt.com , only thing I have ever wet felted and the 2nd one turned out ok. It was my first attempt, my usual is knit, machine felt, then needle felt. Just had to try the wet felt, and getting the fever to try more.

Kim van Waardenburg said...

HIhiHi, I know that great ideas and thinking out ... I have had the same... didn't ofcourse worked out like I planned:(
I bet next flowers will be prefect!