Finally got a chance to finish my felted flower. This is my largest wool felt creation to date. The main portion was done with wet felting and the finishing work was needle felted.This homage to a Stargazer lily is 24" across and the center is about 17" high. I have been sort of obsessed with lilies ever since I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show last year. There were some magnificent displays and I am looking forward to going there next week, after I get back from Boston. Yes, I am heading north to Bean Town in FEB for my first big craft show of the new year. I've never done shows in that area, know nothing about Boston, so it should be an adventure!
These natural dyed felt flowers are about 5" high and 10" across. They are perfect for a votive candle or candies. I have been making them in the wool colours I just dyed, yellow, red, pink and I just made a blue one! I am planning to introduce them at the New England Home Show (booth # 364) in Boston this month. The show is held in the Seaport World Trade Center Feb 25th-28th.
I weighed the fiber for each petal and cut a mat board stencil for the shape. I layered the wool inside the petal cutout and lightly tacked it with a felting needle to hold the shape. This large pile of wool was moved to bubble wrap, covered with a net curtain and wetted out with warm soapy water. I should have known better, well I DID know better but chose to be foolishly optomistic. The wool that I dyed lovely shades of pink and the natural white are two very diferent types of wool. I did manage to get them both to felt, however they really didn't felt to each other all that well. The colour migrated quite a bit...I have quite a bit of finishing work to do...my own fault. Will I learn????
In spite of the cooooold basement, I finally got to dye some more of the wool I'd cleaned . The yellow is a mix of dried marigolds and some goldenrod that I canned so it didn't smell bad this time. The indigo vat is acting funny, I think it is too cold. Today I chose to work up near the stove for a while. I started another large felt flower in pinks and white. Unfortunately the white fiber has an awful lot of hay and stuff in it even after washing. I hope I'm not making a mistake by using it.
It rained on Sunday, at night even harder and then kept pouring Monday morning. By 10:00 am this is what my back "yard" looked like. The creek, that is not normally visible, could not handle the runoff from the hill in front of the house. Once again the driveway got washed out, water in the basement and septic system flooded (not funtioning still)... Today is sunny and beautiful and I have to find a septic repair dude. More $$ that I don't have out the window for shit, literally.
This project used up the last of the wool felting fiber I had dyed. I washed and dried two fleeces during the past week. I carded the first one and cooked it in alum/tartar so I could start dyeing today. I used an old (fermented) jug of goldenrod dye and the funky smell stunk up the entire house even though I dye in the basement! bleh. I have some nice candles taking care of the problem now.