More felting

Life seems to have be remarkably hectic since I returned from Brisbane a couple of weeks ago.  I found time to practise my felting before I forgot what we did in Brisbane, but I didn't make a very good job.  I carefully laid out all the fibres in a lovely thin layer on the silk - all in the one direction - so of course it didn't shrink sideways very much at all!  I will learn my lesson well though for next time, and this will become book covers or something else interesting.

I spent last weekend at another felting workshop here in Mackay.  It was sponsored by Artspace Mackay and the tutor was Wanda Bennett, al very talented lovely lady with a great sense of humour.  There were twelve of us at the course and we all had so much fun we have asked for another workshop later in the year.

This is a photo of some of the things we made.  There were some very talented ladies in the group. The first day we made a 3D vessel which was a fascinating process.  They all had balloons blown up tightly inside towards the end of the process to give them their shape.  Mine is still drying out so I can't pop the balloon, probably tomorrow.

This is a closer photo of the vessels and a few of the bags.  We made those on Sunday, also some little nuno felted bags.  The flowers had traditional felt for the lower layer and nuno felt for the top layer.

I loved the colours and the texture of this bag.  Every workshop I have attended has shown a slightly different method of felting.  I think in the end you take what you want from each tutor and make up your own method.  I will definitely be making another vessel soon so I can hope I can remember the instructions I wrote down and follow the photos I took!  Wanda had a series of different sized vessels with tea lights inside them.  they give a lovely soft glow in the evening.

Just for a change of topic there is a new dog in the family.  A gorgeous young kelpie labrador cross has come to live with our son and his family.  Her name is Sascha, she is twelve months old, partly trained to lead and sit and come when called and Alexander is totally besotted with her already.  He was in trouble for letting her jump up, but he plays with her every minute he can.

Now I need to clean up my workroom so hopefull I can soon start on the Hot Needles, Cool Stitches online course I signed up to do and haven't even looked at the embellisher yet!