HOT WATER, SOAP AND AGITATION

FELT VESSEL

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

dyed wool rovings, wash board, hot water, soap

Some years I have the kids work & felt over a children's bouncy ball from the grocery store,

but senior Rachel Kannampuzha wanted to try felting a 3-d form from scratch.

I had her watch several you-tube videos before she began.

She understood how to felt flat because we did that in the Beginning 3-D class.

so this was a natural transition that she really enjoyed.

Rachel especially loved working with the colors I had available that I had purchased from

Gleason's Fine Woolie's Ranch in Lyons Colorado.

She also was required to learn how to do basketry coiling 

so she could incorporate it into her piece.

She ended up using it as an ending lip treatment.

I really loved the contrast between the cool color on the inside and the warms on the outside.

A stunning piece Rachel!

Very proud of you.

xoxoxo

OH MY, IT'S A BIT BIGGER THAN I ANTICIPATED...

3-D FELTED SCULPTURE

ADVANCED 3-D ART

hand dyed wool rovings, hot soapy water, wash board, washing machine,

& needle felting supplies

thought senior Helen Park after she wet felted her dyed wool rovings into this spherical form.

But after more hours of hot water, soap and elbow grease her sculpture began to emerge.

She cut an opening in the sphere,

turned it inside out and aggressively worked it some more

 on the washboard to shrink and stiffen.

When she felt she could do no more herself,

 she took it home and put the form in her washing machine to full and shrink it EVEN MORE!.

Satisfied she brought it back to school to sew and tweak the shape into a pleasing vessel form.

She was also required to add a bit of needle felted design.

In this close up below you can see the extra work she put into the neck area

 using raffia over a jute core.

 She coiled and stabilized the neck with a basketry technique called Figure 8 stitch

(also a requirement).

The grey and dark brown shapes are needle felted over top and the little white pearls

 are really needle felted balls. 

Talk about a herculean effort!

So proud of you Helen!!!!!

LIGHT AS A FEATHER

HANDFELTED LANTERNS

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

hand dyed wool rovings, children's bouncy balls, lamp sockets, hot soapy water & misc. embellishments

It all started with a bouncy ball from the grocery store 

and lots of hand dyed roving choices.

Round and round the students went splaying out their roving 

to build up 3-4 perpendicular layers round their balls.

Then lots of hot soapy water to felt it down it with.

Those tables got clean, clean ,clean!

Let it dry out and cut an opening to remove ball as senior Hazel Cruz in doing here.

And then figure it out to to turn this hollow felt ball into a lantern.

Senior William Kim was acting as a mannequin for Hazel's jellyfish.

Let me show off a few of them.

I wish I'd have gotten a more focused shot of senior Kristine Luong's sweet bunny lamp.

At least the side view is a bit better.

Notice the areas that are more lit up?

These are areas that had a bit less roving built up which allows the light to shine thru.

Below you can see a part of the light socket that my husband picked up for the kids at Home Depot.

About $8.00 each.

And the man made the cording extra long 

so we were able to reach all the light sockets for Open House.

Thank You Jimmy!

Junior Shreya Sheth went all out creating a fish lantern,

complete with felted eyeballs and fins.

I like that she cut out some areas and replaced it with a sheer fabric.

We can also see some of her beading.

And underneath it all is a wire structure she fashioned so that it would keep it's shape.

Brilliant!

Another class favorite was this one by senior Amber Wu.

She modeled it after a Chinese lantern,

and this one was really as light as a feather.

Super delicate and lovely when lit up.

And this last one was Will's.

He also based his on a Jellyfish and it was spectacular when lite up.

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW???

FELTED VESSELS

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

dyed roving, bouncy balls, hot soapy water & elbow grease

They loved this assignment...

wrapping their bouncy balls from the grocery store with layers and layers of splayed colored rovings.

And then felting them up with the hot soapy water.

Here is senior Kaili Hamada proudly displaying her felted ball.

Once partially felted they cut a small opening and continue to work the inside to shrink, shape and stiffen it.

Then they've got to decide what to build.

Maybe hats?

Too cute!!!

:)

Maybe not.

LOL

While they are deciding,

I show them a bit of dry needle felting for embellishment possibilities.

Above are senior Bianca Tolentino's practice pieces,

below is Kaili's practice sun motif.

And senior Daphne Chiang's fishy.

So sweet.

I also show them coil basketry with the lazy and figure eight stitches

because I'm requiring them to find a way to incorporate it into their vessels.

Above we see Daphne's prelim. coiled basketry disk.

Love how she mounted it for display.

And now onto the finished works.

Kaili was inspired by last year's  Advanced 3-D student Karisma Dev,

who built a hanging lamp.

Kaili's jelly fish light was one of the stars of the Open House Show.

Magical when it was lit.

Notice how she incorporated her coiled basketry

 and needle felt designs into the surface for visual interest.

She also beaded onto the surface for a bit of sparkle.

LOVE!

Daphne knocked it out of the park with something completely different,

a desert landscape.

Her basketry element is the coiled base it stands on, 

and her needle felt designs the cactus and sun.

I also really like how she cut away part of the felt layers on the side

 to expose her other colored rovings underneath.

And lastly Bianca has really cut open and exposed her inner layers to create this lovely floral piece.

She embellished with sparkly copper thread,

and lots of french knots in the center.

Speaking of Laarnie...

FELT VESSELS

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

here she is with classmate Reis Misaka, both juniors.

I'm trying out a new assignment on them that I'm calling Felt Vessels. 

 I saw this in one of my feltmaking books.

Laarnie found two bouncy balls at the grocery store, and I gave them dyed roving to wrap around the balls in their chosen colorways.

You can see that Laarnie added handspun yarn to circle her rovings.

Next they wet felted the balls, the netting helps the initial starting so that things don't move around too much.

The finished products were wonderful!  I required that they have at least one opening that they coil a an edge to