Today, I'm taking a break from my travel blog to write a bit about felting...
..."What is it that you're saying? This is supposed to be a felting blog???" Oooops! Giggle.
Sorry if it's been a bit more travelogue than wool, lately!
Between our vacation, my work schedule, my unfinished studio and a little thing called 'having no electricity for 24 hours due to a storm'...
...I haven't done many felting projects lately.
This table runner was inspired by the lovely ceiling of St. Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol...
...a beautiful 14th Century Gothic church with a marvelous gilt-edged vaulted ceiling.
This weight of this ceiling is supported by over one thousand bosses...
...which act as functional keystones.
A boss is a small raised carving the size of a spread hand...
...which is used to conceal the join in a vaulted ceiling.
I became so enamored with this design...
...that I had to try to replicate it in felt.
I laid out my design on the surface of a piece of gauzy muslin fabric...
...using orange roving strips for the lines and red roving balls for the bosses.
I covered the surface of the fabric with white wool batts...
...and wetted it all with soapy water.
I used netting to cover everything and used my hands and a felting stone to begin the felting process...
...making sure that special attention was paid to the edges of the piece and the bumpy sections where the balls of wool were.
I felted it for a long time...
...in order to get the muslin to ruche and pucker.
The 'good side' is the muslin side...
...where the design shows through...dimly, as if through a curtain.
The photo is of some of my travel spoils...
...clockwise from top left: muslin (used in this project), Cath Kidston fabric,
David Shrigley postcards, Thornton's toffee, a Wallace and Gromit pin,
notecards from the Architecture Centre bookshop,
pearl-headed pins and acrylic buttons (in my colors) from Bath,
a scarf, fuchsia Clarks shoes,
and onion and mango/ginger root chutney.
Fun!!!
8 comments:
like the look of the goodies you brought back from your trip! Thorntons toffee, yummy!!
Looks like quite a haul! And Wallace and Grommit....my favorite.
Karen-Thanks to your recommendation, we got to experience the 'joy of Thorntons'!
Joei-Me, too...and Wallace and Grommit's creators are from Bristol...which I never knew.
Bristol is also the birthplace of Cary Grant (born Archibald Leach), and Harvey's Bristol Cream, among other things. :)
what a cool design and what great inspiration!
Love those shoes!
Thornton's Toffee -- my FAVORITE!! You lucky duck!
Mariana--Thanks! I'm pretty excited about the shoes, myself. They were from the new Fall collection and I have a feeling that they won't bother exporting them to the US (in this color, anyway!!). I think they would probably have a limited fanbase. Har!!
Suzanne--Where do you get your Thornton's toffee in the US...or do you only treat yourself with it when you travel?? Our last bag has melted into one large GLOB in its tupperware home!! We're just picking it off and eating it anyway!!
Hi Heather, I LOVE those fushia shoes and think it is so funny that I try to pick up funky shoes in the States and you do the same in England!!! XXX
Hahahah...
Nicola-we are truly kindred spirits!! There's an enormous shoe store 5 minutes from my house. Make sure you put it on your list of 'things I must do at Heather's'!!! XXOOO-
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