Piscine Wine Tote- Part 3 of 3

The fully felted (but still wet) tote front...

 

...and back.

 

Now that the project is completely dry...

...the silk noil 'scales' show up much more clearly. :)

 

Flipped to show its proper orientation (front)...



...and back. 

 

A view from above...

 

...with wine bottles in place...

 

...and its (slightly wonky) 'fishy embellishment' fully on display! :)

 

Piscine Wine Tote- Part 2 of 3

Adding silk noil 'scales' to my herring...

 

...then wetting out the tote.



As I work, brown and white fibers begin to blend...

...and my fish is beginning to look more and more cartoonish!

 

Cutting out tote handles.



Using white roving as a thin, secondary layer...

...gives blended colors which form a lovely heathery brown. 

 

The finished tote...

...blocked and drying.

 

Next time: the finished bag!

P.S. Can you believe that this is my 800th blog post?!?

Fishing For Compliments

 

 

 

 

Well, here it is...

My yellow perch!!

What a cutie-pie.

I laboriously made a sketch for my pattern (again...no drawing skills), based on a web diagram of the shape and markings of a yellow perch.

...then I used it to make a resist.

I know, I know...my track record with resist felting has been checkered to say the least.

...but something told me that this project would be different, so I persevered...

...and I found some weird and bunchy variegated roving in several fish-like neutral colors among my stash...

...which I made into batts. (Tricky business with bunchy fiber, I tell ya!)

Then I used black and yellow wool to shape the markings and eye, and some pencil roving for the pun.

(Sorry about that, BTW, I couldn't help myself!) Grin.

When it was good and felted, I cut a small slit in the backside and pulled out the resist.

I finished felting it (hard, since it will see some use), and let it dry...

...then stuffed it with some wonky wool roving that I had on hand (more of the bunchy stuff and some weird black alpaca)...

...and then 'Frankenstein-stitched' up the hole...trying to mask it a bit with my wooden nametag.

I hope he appreciates the joke! :)

Something Fishy This Way Swims...

 

 

 

 

This post is a tease, really.

I am making a Christmas present for a fisherman and 'gamer'...

...you know...those (mostly) men who arrange with friends to meet on-line at a set time and play games of strategy and warfare?

So...I puzzled and puzzled over what to make.

Finally, I decided on a lumbar pillow (for back support while gaming)...

In the shape of a fish!! Hah!!

...but it couldn't be just any old fish, nooooooo.

It had to be a game fish which could actually be caught locally...

...and by someone other than Jacques Cousteau!

So I looked at photographs of regional fish online.

(My children were both bemused and befuddled.)

...but I found my fish!!

You, sweet readers, must wait until tomorrow to see the end result.

I promise you, it'll be worth the wait!!

Grin.