Down at the Woolshed - Helping Hands

Six little hands and two large hands rubbed and rubbed to create this blue nuno felted scarf.  I was hoping to receive a  photo showing the little Glennie Students' hands working hard on this creation at the Jondaryan Festival......... perhaps the photographer did not have a cropping tool on their computer that would hide the small faces appropriately.

The scarf was laid out in swirls for a change to see what effect it would have when it was felted.  The wool needed a little encouragement with a needle felting tooljust to get it started as the nylon weave was tighter than I had thought.

During the slow very wet days some of the volunteer children made this little basket of felted squares and felted soaps. The squares will be added to over time to create a childrens rug or mat, and the felted soaps will be passed on to my friend Yvette O'Brien in Toowoomba who ...with her group ...fill little bags they have made with toothbrushes, soap, shampoo etc. for the homeless and disadvantaged.

The squares were made using a resist to help keep the squares roughly the same size.  Two layers of coarse merino - 29 microns, were laid on each side.  Scraps of felt were cut into patterns and laid on the tops before wetting down.  Some of the scraps were already embellished and added to the effect.  A little glitz was sprinkled on the leaves in the square below.

When the resist started to buckle it was cut out and the two sides of the square were felted together to from a firm mat.

A gourd was also made during the Festival using the same coarse natural merino and a resist.  The cord was attached after the two layers on each side were wetted down and partially felted. The a third layer was added to each side and felted till the resist buckled and needed to be cut out.  It was then rolled, worked in hot water and thrown to shock the felt into shrinking further.

It was later dyed with food colouring...the kind one uses for cake icing.  Dyeing is a  new area for me.. so I experimented with a dye bath of water vinegar and a cap of green colouring.  Placed in an icecreanm container and microwaved for 6 minutes ...and then another 6 minutes after it had cooled a little.   The gourd was left hanging outside for some days. It did lose some of it's colour during the rain, but not much.

Many thanks to all the visitors and volunteers who helped make these felted pieces and the babies booties ...that I haven't shown here.  I hope they inspire to you to give felting ago.