Sraphappy December 2021

I had to scurry around for this month’s scrap utilising day but, if my contribution is unexciting, at least it’s seasonal.

I had a kit to make a 2D needle felted picture and there was some roving and yarny bits left over.  When I thought about making a gnome or two, some of the curly pieces came to mind.

I needle felted a ball for the head/body, a little nose and a pointy bit for the hat then added the curls for a very unkempt beard – but that’s gnomes for you.

It took quite a long time so I had a go at doing the same thing with some scrap double knitting yarn but it took just as long and his hat isn’t as neat,

So, a new addition to the bauble box and some curly bits used up – I told you it wasn’t that exciting.

However, it is Christmassy and I wish you all a good one in case I don’t get chance to post again before the new year.

They will have company later just got to get last year’s baubles out of the garage.

 

Scraphappy Day is organised by Kate & Gun for anybody who wants to make new things from scraps of any kind – doesn’t have to be fabric or yarn.  Here’s a list of participants – both regular and occasional – if you want to have a look at the sort of things you can do with scraps.

Contact Kate or Gun (first names on the list) if you want to join in.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn(me), Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear, Carol,
Preeti, Edith, Debbierose

 

 

Two Wooly Collie Crosses

As I haven’t done a post for a while, I thought I’d just drop in to show you my latest needle felted portraits which are both of collie cross type dogs.

The first one is my girl Flo.  She has many expressions and this is just one of them so I will probably do another one of her looking sly and another looking ashamed, the latter look generally following closely behind the former.

I bought some brightly coloured felt as a background for this one but, even though it is easier to needle felt on to, I think I prefer the more ‘arty’ look of natural linen.  I’m not completely sure though so coloured felt could still figure in future portraits.

My sister in law sent me an e-card last week which was an animated version of her new young rescue dog wishing me a happy birthday in, what I imagine is my SIL’s voice slightly distorted to sound as if she’d taken a lungful of helium. Either that or she has a rare talking dog.   As it’s her birthday in July I thought I’d take a screen shot from the card and do a portrait for her birthday as a surprise.

So, here’s my version of Callie.

I need to frame her but can’t decide whether to use a large embroidery hoop or a deep frame.  The hoop will be a lot cheaper to post as Mr. Tialys is still stuck in France so can’t be my mule for items I want taken over to the U.K.  – nor indeed items I want brought over from the U.K. – but, so far, I’ve been waiting since the beginning of May for some hoops I ordered to arrive so it might be a frame after all.

Do you prefer the felt (doesn’t need to be green) or linen look?

Scraphappy (birth)Day – June

Pssst!

I’ve got something to tell you.

Make it quick Short Stuff I need my sleep.

Well, today is the 15th of June so not only is it Scraphappy Day – hence the basket of felt scraps –

but it’s also The Servant’s birthday.

She’s how old? I don’t believe you.

It’s true, she remembers The Clangers * and she was even a bit too old for them then.

I’ve got her this flower.  What have you got her?

Let me think…..

Hmmm.  I’ve given her plenty of mice before but she doesn’t seem to like them.  She looks cross and calls me disgusting so I think you’re off the hook.

I’ll have to think of something else.  Maybe a lizard.

What are you doing done up like a cat’s dog’s dinner anyway?

She made me this little waistcoat out of scrap felt.

It even has a little vent to accommodate my tail.

I think the embroidery and the gold button from the vintage button jar make me look as if I’m wearing a Mayoral chain of office.

My whiskers are made from real horse hair taken from The Servant’s friend’s horse – does that count as scrap?

I’ve no idea, now shift over and let me get some shut eye, I think The Servant has spun this tale of a very small scrap project out for long enough now.

 

 

* For my non-British readers.  The Clangers (1969-1974) was a series that chronicled the melancholically funny lives of the Clangers, a flutey-voiced family of woolen, knitted aliens living below the surface of a knobbly little planet far out in space. Their misadventures brought them into contact with such unlikely creatures as the Soup Dragon, the Froglets, the Iron Chicken and the Glow Buzzers.  (IMDb)

 

 

Scraphappy Day is organised by Kate & Gun for anybody who wants to make new things from scraps of any kind – doesn’t have to be fabric or yarn.  Here’s a list of participants – both regular and occasional – if you want to have a look at the sort of things you can do with scraps.

Contact Kate (first name on the list) if you want to join in.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn (me), Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny and Kjerstin

Pooch Portrait Gallery

Remember my first forays into 2D needle felting and, in particular, dog portraits?

I thought you might like to see how I’ve been getting on since I started at the beginning of February.

My dog Stan was my first go but I could see room for improvement.  Which was just as well otherwise why pay for a course?

The next one I did was a Trailhound.  I don’t have a Trailhound, and don’t know anybody who has but the photo was in the course for us to use as a practice piece for a smooth coated dog.  Even though he was only my third go – I did a practice Jack Russell too which I showed in an earlier post – I think he’s still the best thing I’ve done so far.

I was really pleased with him and the practice will come in handy for when I do a portrait of my girl Flo as she has a similar look.

Next I did another practice piece, copying the Lhasa Apso photo on the course to try out a longer haired dog as I wanted to do my sister’s Westie for her birthday.

The long hair was difficult but I think I made a passable portrait and I was pleased with the collar.

We lost Phoebe, our lovely German Shepherd back in 2013 and I didn’t have that many suitable photos of her to copy but I used what I had and I’m quite pleased with the result.

I’m sure those of you who paint will already know how many different colours are present in things you previously thought of as comprising only a few.  I used so many colours of fibre in those ears and, close up, I thought it looked ridiculous but, once you stand back, it all seems to work.

Then it was time for the Westie.  He’s called Harvey and my sister adores him so I wanted to make my first portrait for somebody other than myself a good one.

Again, the long hair, going off in all different directions, was difficult but hopefully she’ll be able to recognise her beloved fluff ball.  To be honest, I think most Westies look the same but I’m sure their owners don’t think so.

I won’t be framing my practice pieces, but for the others I found some good frames in Ikea which are perfect for textile art because you can sink the image quite a way down from the glass.  At least it was glass when I bought this one to frame Phoebe but when I ordered another four of the frames online the glass had been replaced by some sort of polycarbonate.

I still think they are good though and very reasonably priced if you are thinking of framing any textile work.  The model is called Ribba, they come in both black and white and they cost about 7 euros.

Next up, will be my beautiful Flo

I’m still really enjoying myself with this and working with lovely pure wool fibres is a treat.

Thank you for visiting my gallery.

Felting Talk

I’m still enjoying learning the art of 2D needle felting and have had a stab – no pun intended – at doing a portrait of my boy Stan.

This probably wasn’t the best photo to choose to copy as he was much younger then and the light is making his black coat look as if it has purple and blue in it – and that bow tie!!

As I am completely in love with this new activity I thought I’d talk you through what 2D needle felting involves in case you’re interested and you’ve never come across it before.

 Firstly, I did a few free online tutorials with felting artist Sophie Wheatley – remember the hamster I did?  Sophie felts a picture from beginning to end and you can follow along live or watch later. (a link to her website at the end in case you feel it’s something that would appeal to you).

I immeditely knew I was going to love the craft and, as I love dogs just a bit too, I thought I would join her paid course for the dog portraits which is probably the best money I’ve ever spent on a crafting course of any description.

With Sophie’s method, you don’t have to be able to draw – which is good because I can’t.  Instead, you choose a really good, in focus photo where there’s not too much shine or shadow and the features are clear.

Then you transfer the photo on to your background fabric.  100% wool felt sheets are good because they help the felting process begin but you can use whatever fabric you can get a felting needle through.  I used linen for Stan’s first portrait.

I don’t use the method Sophie uses to transfer the photo although most of the students seem to.  I use a lightbox and trace the outline and as many markings as I can in pencil.

I turn the traced image over and, again using the lightbox to highlight the lines, I go over the drawing with a transferable pen.

Then, I turn the paper over again so that the transferable pen lines are against the backing fabric and iron it, making sure all the lines are transferred.

Then you really look closely at the original photograph on your screen, zooming in on the detail and see what colours you have in there.

Sophie recommends using carded wool batts rather than roving (wool tops) as the batts are already slightly matted and will felt down much quicker.

I have quite a few neutral colours as both my dogs are black with varying degrees of white but I also needed tans and creams and browns.  Luckily, you only need small pieces of wool as you don’t actually use much at all.

Felting needles come in different gauges but, basically, they have barbs on the end which you repeatedly poke down into the wool and this is what causes the fibres to come together and become ‘felted’.

A foam pad is one of the types of support you can use beneath your work.

Generally, it’s good to start with the eyes because they immediately give the portrait some life and encourage you to move on.

I have a tendency to make the eyes too big and this right eye was removed at a later stage and re-done.  This is possible if you don’t felt the wool down too firmly at first.  you can always go over it all at the end to firm it up.

I sent a photo of the first finished ‘draft’ to my daughter on WhatsApp and she sent me back a link to ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch.

Everyone’s a critic 🙄

So both eyes came out at that point and got re-done.

Anyway, I’m pleased enough with my finished portrait of Stan to put him in a hoop (for now) but I still have a lot to learn and will do some more practice before I try one of Flo and another one of Stan with the grey hairs he has now.

If you fancy having a go, Sophie has some free tutorials on her site ‘All Things Felt and Beautiful’  which was where I learnt to do the hamster and, just last weekend, this lemur – which I’m quite proud of actually.

I’m glad I started learning this before the current lockdown situation otherwise I might have found it hard to get the materials.  It’s been the perfect distraction – the time flies while you’re doing it.  I did think the other day that I’d like to try Tunisian crochet but although I could get instructions and patterns on PDF files, I haven’t got any of the special hooks so that will have to wait.

I hope you’ve found this quick run down on 2D needle felting of interest but, I thought, if i’m going to talk about it in future posts, you might want to know what it involves even if you’re not going to try it yourself.

Have you started anything new during the current situation to take your mind off things or have you taken the opportunity to finish current projects or can’t you concentrate on anything at all for long at the moment?

Distractions

I’ve been very distracted so far this year.  I’ve been seriously studying 2D needle felting as I’ve joined a paid online course and want to do well because I’ve got plans to do portraits of both my dogs.  I’ve put the 3D needle felted sculptures to one side at the moment although I’ve every intention of getting back to those once I’ve mastered the 2D stuff.

Before the course started I had a go at this snow hare.   Room for improvement but doing this sort of got me hooked which is why I signed up for the dog portrait course.

I started practising noses and eyes.

I sent a photo of this one to Mr. TIalys when he was in the U.K. and he thought one of the dogs had done something on the carpet!!💩

I progressed slightly although they look weird as stand alone features don’t they?

Both my dogs are mostly black and, unfortunately, the wrong colour fibre was sent to me so I couldn’t really make a start.  I did have lots of brown though so decided to follow the workshop for a Jack Russell even though I don’t have one, never have had one and don’t know anybody who has.  All good practice though.

Ooh, a bit spooky. Also this eye is too big really but I carried on regardless.

I’m counting this as a partial success as the ‘too big eye’ impacted on the rest of my markings and I made a complete mess of his chest hair but, as it was my first attempt, I’m trying to be kind to myself.  I am quite proud of the nose though.  Also, it does actually resemble a Jack Russell so it can’t be all bad.

I just put it in the hoop for ‘show and tell’ purposes. It will actually go in my ‘Progress Portfolio’ so that when I get better I can look back and laugh at my early attempts – she said, hopefully.

So, I’m going to try to replicate this photo of Stan which was taken before he had any grey hairs but is a favourite of mine

I’ve made a start by transferring the image on to some linen and, now that my 50 shades of grey (and black) have arrived, I will try to immortalise dear Stan in felt.  Of course, I didn’t think about ordering any red fibre for the bow tie did I! 🙄

My other main distraction – and reason for lack of blog posts – is the possible, well probable really, relocation back to the U.K.  Nothing to do with Brexit I hasten to add.  A difficult thing to achieve when our needs are many and varied including displacing multiple animals, a husband who needs commuting facilities, the need to be within a short drive of one of our daughters, the need (well, desire) for workshop space and a largish garden (very difficult to find in the South of the U.K. at a price that is achievable by people other than film stars and Lottery winners) .  To say nothing of the time it takes to sell property here in comparison to the U.K.   I am so sick of looking at houses on the internet and am dreading the whole thing.

On the brighter side, I’ve been doing some patchwork as the new round of F2F (foot square freestyle)has started which means, I will be making three blocks each month for the next ten months for me and the other nine participants in our chosen colours.  The first up is Tracey of It’s a T-Sweets Day and she has chosen Christmas colours – red, green and Christmas pudding brown.  I can’t show you the blocks I’ve made for Tracey as they are on their way to her now and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Hopefully, see you next time I take a break from the felting, foundation paper piecing and freaking out about moving.

Tight Lipped Tuesday #23

 

Beginner 2D needle felting project number 2.

Further Felting Adventures

I’m continuing down the path of my new obsession – needle felting.

After my idiosyncratic hare which was my first attempt at a beastie……

……..I thought I’d have a go at 2D needle felting.  In other words, making a picture using wool tops and a felting needle.

For my first attempt I copied the ouline of an illustration from a card I’d sent to Mr. Tialys at one time on to some linen. Then filled it in with needle felting.

I really like the texture you can achieve.

Then I went back to the 3D sculpture stuff and made a fox.

He has rather a high forehead – probably a very brainy fox – but, overall, I’m quite pleased with my second animal sculpture.

Here he is again resting in some monster-sized faux lavender.  I need to learn how to tame unruly whiskers.

I stretched my 2D picture in a hoop just to display on the blog but I’ll be keeping my early (flat) attempts in some sort of portfolio file in order to track my progress.

Although I think this would work quite well, with a little felted heart between them, as a Valentine’s card.

I’m not sure yet, whether I prefer making the 3D needle felted sculptures or the 2D needle felted pictures but it’s early days yet and for the moment I will carry on with both until I make a decision or, more likely, continue with both sorts.

Next, I’m going to have a go at a dog sculpture – I think I could adapt the shape of the fox to represent one of my dogs.

Also, I’m going to try to needle felt a picture of my other dog for which I’m going to follow a live Facebook tutorial.

At this rate, I see felted gifts for friends and rellies in the future – which will make a change from blankets and quilts I suppose.

But, first, we’ll see if I can make anything worth giving.

First Scraphappy Day Of 2020

A new year, a new scrap friendly project – and a very simple one it is too.

If you’ve been reading my recent posts you’ll know I’m trying out needle felting again.

Before the French postal service did away with their economy international tariff, I used to sell French linen of the sort that is used to make tea towels.  I still have lots of scraps and offcuts and sometimes use them for various crafting purposes.

Most people seem to use a foam pad underneath their work or even a sort of brush thingy – these protect your work surfaces, support your work in progress and, usually, stop you stabbing yourself with the stiletto like barbed needle that is used for needle felting.

When I was doing my research into needle felting and deciding whether to to take the plunge again after my not too successful efforts a few years ago, I spotted several people using hessian bags filled with rice and, as that seems more eco friendly than foam or a plastic brush, I thought I’d put those pieces of linen into use.

The linen is quite a coarse weave so I think it will work well.

I just cut two squares, approx. 12 x 8 inches, overlocked the edges, leaving a gap to fill with about 1.5kg of the cheapest rice I could find, and sewed up the gap.

And, I’m ready to go!

Scraphappy Day is organised by Kate & Gun for anybody who wants to make new things from scraps of any kind – doesn’t have to be fabric or yarn.  Here’s a list of participants – both regular and occasional – if you want to have a look at the sort of things you can do with scraps.

Contact Kate (first name on the list) if you want to join in.

Kate (me!), Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, Sue L
and Sunny

Tight Lipped Tuesday #21

I thought I’d let you know how my needle felting journey is progressing.

I know his ears are super long but it was me putting my own spin on the kit.

A back view to show off his tail.

I really enjoy the way you have to sculpt the wool to get the shape you want.

I like to think I’m making some progress since my first efforts.

Still far from perfection but I’m quite proud of him and there’s enough wool left in the kit to make another one .

As for this needle felting lark – I think I’m probably a goner.