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Friday 20 June 2014

Sculptures to Dye For

I confess I have been a bit slack about posting lately. Sorry about that but I have been doing bits and pieces of felt making and dyeing. I dyed these pieces from my workshop with Yvonne Habbe a couple of weeks ago but have only just got around to taking photos of them. I think most of them turned out really well.

This one is about 4 inches long and I am tempted to stitch some beads into the cleft down the centre and turn it into a brooch.

This was my spherical pod from the first exercise on the workshop, I'm pleased with how the rainbow dyeing has turned out.

I love the colours and floral shape of this piece but it is too large to be a brooch - maybe a small bowl?

I have been making lots of these to test out how different wool breeds behave in these small sculptures. This one already has a brooch pin on the back.

This is another brooch, it wasn't intentional but after adding the dark beads it now reminds me of a pomegranate.

This sculpture (about 10 inches tall) reminds me of a tellytubby - again that wasn't my intention at all when I drew the template and started shaping the felt!

This piece still needs a bit of work, I think I will stitch down the curly tips to hold them in a tighter spiral and add a brooch pin to the back. It measures about 6 inches across.

OK - so the eagle-eyed amongst you have probably noticed this one and the next have not been dyed, instead they have been treated with a cellulose based stiffener.

Not sure if anyone else has tried making a hollow cube from felt? This has to be one of the most difficult things I have tried to do with felt, as you pull and stretch one side to straighten it you end up pulling another edge out of shape. I plan to add some stitching to this one, more on that next time.

And finally, a little tease, this is one of the bag designs I have been working on since Yvonne's workshop, it is actually a coin purse (or will be) that will have a matching handbag.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up to nina-marieoff the wall Friday

12 comments:

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    1. Thanks Felicity - I will take that as a compliment :)

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  2. Amazing work! I can't even imagine how you made some of these shapes.

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    1. Thanks Laura. To be honest I don't know how many of the template shapes will turn out either but it has been a lot of fun exploring different shapes.

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  3. So creative and unusual! What awesome small sculptures.

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  4. that's the coolest display of felted stuff i've seen!! Awesome girl. I love that footed curlicue thing! How are you dyeing them?? love it!
    lee Anna Paylor leeannaqults at gmail dot com lapaylor.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you - the "curlicue" thing is my favourite piece, I'm trying to figure out how to turn it into a lamp shade over a colour changing light. I have been dyeing them with acid fast dyes, literally dripping different colours onto the pieces after they had been soaked in vinegar.

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  5. The dyeing worked wonderfully and your "teletubby" looks like a pretty exotic flower to me.

    I used a plastic cube, as you would use a shoe last, to bash my felt cube into submission.

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    1. Thanks Lyn. How did you get the plastic cube out of your felt cube once fulled?

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    2. My cube had no bottom (but on display you'd never know!).

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  6. Wowza! These are all great. I agree with Lyn that the "teletubby" looks very floral. The shapes themselves are amazing but then when you add the dye colors it really finished them.

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    1. Thanks Ruth - I am starting to see the exotic flower you and Lyn can see. I confess this was my least favourite piece in it's first incarnation, after some reshaping and dyeing it is starting to grow on me... That's probably why I see a children's character while you guys see exotic flowers :)

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