Wet-Felted Baby Cocoon- Part 2 of 2

Turning the project right-side out...

  ...and continuing to felt and full it.

                                                         Looking at the bag interior...

                                            ...you can see how the colored pre-felt fibers...

                                            ...migrated through the white roving to the inside.

                                                 The finished cocoon after shaping and drying.

                                             A raised 'collar' was fashioned for the head opening.

                                            The thin, even nature of the commercial pre-felts...

                                    ...allowed for a lovely color-blending effect where they overlapped.

                                                           The unadorned backside.

                                                                The finished cocoon...

                                       ...shown with the fabric that I used for its bias tape ties.

                                                             A close-up of the closure.

                                                           A warm and snuggly baby gift!

Wet-Felted Baby Cocoon- Part 1 of 2

                                            Placing pre-felt pieces onto the surface of a resist...

                                                   ...and covering them with wool roving...

                                                  ...before flipping the project to side two.

                                                  Adding additional layers of wool to each side.

                                                            A felted-in piece of wool yarn...

                                                          ...serves as my 'cutting line'.

                                                Cutting a circular opening for the baby's head...
     
                                                             ...and removing the resist.

                                                            Mid-way through felting.

                                      When a good friend of mine brought his new baby home recently...

                                       ...the weather here was still quite bone-chilling.

                                                   Remembering  this project...

                                      ...made with another friend for her new granddaughter...

                                              ...I knew just what to make as a gift!

                                                 Next time: the finished cocoon...

                                             ...with handmade bias tape closure.

                                                           

The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Friends, Felt and "The Future" in The Netherlands

My friend Nienke and I become part of an exhibition here...



...where even coats worn by visitors become an art installation!

Claes Oldenburg's giant screw sculpture graces the lawn of this museum.

Learn more about his original concept here.

 

 I spent a wonderful day with a dear friend...

...the exquisite and spectacularly talented feltmaker, Elis Vermeulen...

...and several of her equally genetically blessed family members! 

I made friends with one kind of 'baby' while I was there...

...and ate muisjes to help celebrate the birth of my host's new 'human' granddaughter, too! :)

Here's a photograph of the darling wee one (only one day old!) in the felted baby 'cocoon' that we made for her.

 

We stopped for a Belgian Tripel in this cheerful Rotterdam bar...

...and discovered that it doesn't take too many of those to feel rather...erm...cheerful, yourself!



A view of the future(?)...

...my "Beam me up, Scotty" shower at the Citizen M airport hotel in Schiphol.

 

Next time: lots of photographs from another Dutch museum...

...including a number of masterpieces by Van Gogh.