Skip to main content

Felt and crochet - new obsessions

It doesn't take long for a new interest to become an obsession. I was asked to demonstrate some embellishing on my new felting machine for a Dollies meeting this month, so I started to make some samples and have become more and more interested in needle felting, wet felting and "fulling". Here's a definition I found from a website http://www.fuzzygalore.biz/articles/fulling.shtml
Fulling is the process of fluffing up an already woven or knitted piece of woollen cloth. It's to be distinguished from felting, which takes raw fleece and puts it through the same process without having any initial structure. Felting usually yields a fabric that's a lot stiffer than fulling, since it needs more felting to be able to hang together at all.
It's hard to believe that this little red handbag was crocheted with a 6mm hook and was very big before I washed it with a pair of jeans in my washing machine. I loved the sample as soon as I saw it in Brisbane http://www.jennykingdesigns.com/. My mum bought me the pattern and wool as she saw how much I wanted to make it. You might wonder why that bit of tree is beside the bag in the photo. Jim, my husband, will soon be making me a beautiful timber button from that piece of wood for the bag closure.
My daughter, Naomi also has a new obsession. She has just learnt to crochet and has done really well, even learning to crochet an edge just by looking at another blanket. Here she is with a baby blanket she has made for her new nephew in England.
Others who have caught the crochet bug are the women in Mando village, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. When I was there as a volunteer last month, the women were not only quick learners, but were excited to learn a new skill, hopefully to supplement their meagre incomes as subsistence farmers. Here is Susan, with a cap she crocheted... doesn't she look happy with herelf ?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Connecting and Interpreting : Story #3 from the ATASDA Collaborative Golden Cape

  Connecting and Interpreting : Story #3 from the ATASDA Collaborative Golden Cape  Background : The Golden Cape is a collaborative project for ATASDA members and it celebrates the 50th Anniversary of ATASDA in 2024. 50 present day members have  received  an image of one of 50 yesteryear members artworks, to use as a muse, to create new artwork based on the past. Inspiration can come from textures, colours, style, design, subject, culture or history of the original artwork.  The new artworks have become panels stitched together to create a Golden Cape - an anniversary art wearable .   The Golden Cape will be displayed at various venues around Australia from May 2024.  Vine  (Exotica 2009 ATASDA exhibition ) : Norma Warnecke Meg Buchtmann chose Norma Warnecke's 2009 artwork shown in the ATASDA  exhibition "Exotica" as her inspiration for her contribution to the golden cape project .  Golden Cape panel 2023 : Meg Buchtmann Taken with the colour combinations and the 3D natur

Wednesday's Child /2

Work in Progress - 3 of the 193 for "Stitched Up"- Wilma Simmons   The work for the "Stitched Up " Project  continues. See the previous "Wednesday Child" post for the background to this art project celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Newcastle Industrial School. I have been documenting the progress of my work, so I thought it might be interesting to share some of the early stages of the "stick dolls" ... Here are some of the beginning steps.. Sticks collected while walking the bushland in my neighbourhood  Drying and getting rid of any insects - oven heat 75 degreesC for approx 1-2 hours.  Trimmed and cut if necessary  Ends sealed with matte sealing solution.  Drying  - solution goes on white but dries clear.  First wrapping - foil to create a body shape  Second wrapping - stretch fabric.  Third wrapping - fabric strips  Some stitching - more stitching and embellishment to come.  Follow thi

Gothic Tuesday

 It has been such a long time since I participated in a Tag Tuesday  challenge … This fortnight the theme is ‘Gothic’  and  it really engaged me because I really couldn’t at first think of anything I could create as a tag. I recently have  been playing with photo manipulation and editing so here is one of the results - a double exposed image of the interior of a gothic cathedral and the head of a sculpture I made a few years ago . I also added a few touches of gold leaf and coloured a few areas of the image with Prisma pencil to add some depth. I was thinking the gothic arches created mitred headgear ?  Or is just a spectre of a saint interred in the cathedral crypt? … it’s gothic!