FROM THIS TO THAT

FELTED BALLS INTO PINCUSHIONS

dyed wool roving or yarns, old nylons, hot soapy water, felting needles, 

felting pads

I FELT FOR YOU

3-D FELT CONSTRUCTIONS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

wool batting, colored wool rovings, perle cottons, wool handspun yarns, needles for dry felting,

hot plates & pans, and a washing machine

Teachers Beware!

This is an especially messy, soapy adventure but well worth the prep, effort and cleanup.

Also involved is the use of your home washing machine,

and lots of counter space both in your classroom and at your home.

I use the floor under the classroom cabinets,

 as well as on top of them for the various stages of storage.

This year will be really tough in that I have more students doing this at one time then ever,

45!

There are many YouTube videos showing how to make felt on a 2-D surface,

which is how we begin this project,

 and even more on Needle Felting.

When the felt is shrunk and dried,

 the kids are required to use their critical thinking skills to cut out pieces

 and reassemble them into a 3-D piece.

No glue is allowed,

only Needle Felting or stitching or both to assemble them.

The results are quite remarkable.

We start with 8th grader Annie Nguyen.

The color movement going thru her design is so lovely.

She figured out how to put in her own zipper using You Tube

 (I haven't put in a zipper since the 7th grade).

She also brought in a bit of embroidery as well.

And her mom allowed her to use her sewing machine to put in the diagonal quilting lines

which I feel add so much interest to the overall piece..

Next up is 8th grader Shivani Kedila.

She transformed her flat piece of felt into this intricate box with a woven top.

I was speechless when I saw her finished product.

These kids are really incredible!

You can see how her sides are hand stitched up

plus she added a bit of embroidery as well.

Check out the top below.

I loved that she brought weaving into this piece!

This amazing pillow was the work of senior Inna Sikar.

Occasionally the kids work their flat flt a bit too aggressively when they begin the felting process 

and end up with a few holes or see thru patches.

Inna had both.

So she critically thought out to inlay a bit of fabric under those openings

for a very cool effect.

And we all were so impressed with her embroidered toucan!

She invested a ton of hours in this piece  as you can see.

We all loved the flowers that 8th grader Sophia Oporto needle felted on top of her purse form

along with her embroidered areas.

The colors flow so well together!

We totally didn't expect this clever solution.

Junior Rachel Tibayan knocked this assignment out of the park with her unique idea,

a complete outfit for her bear.

I just adore it all!

So well fitted and embellished.

Bravo young woman!!

And sweet 8th grader Yusuf Karan

 made this adorable kitty face pillow using his own handspun yarn for the whiskers.

Wonderful job Yusuf!

But it was senior Sophie Yang

 who really blew us out of the water with this elegant crafted pillow form.

Her 2-d felt piece was gorgeous from the get go,

then she cut it and inlaid the white wool felt.

The embroidery finished it off so beautifully.

And we loved how she alternated the design on each side.

Another brilliant piece to share with all.

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

A NEW TAKE ON AN OLD ASSIGNMENT

FELTED YARN BALL PINCUSHIONS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

dryer lint, wool yarn scraps, dyed wool roving, felting needles, old nylons

The old assignment Felt Balls was to wet felt a ball by hand, 

shape when wet then stitch to embellish when dry.

We used them as ornaments.

The kids were ok with them but not super excited.

But over last summer I experimented with recycling dryer lint & wool scraps,

and really liked what happened,

plus it was really cost effective.

So I tried it out on the kids this year and they loved it! 

And I loved the recycling.

We started off by taking a bit of dryer lint and crunching it lightly into a ball shape.

Then took multiple pieces of scrap yarn

 and loosely wrapped them around the lint until none showed.

You can use only one color or keep switching colors as desired.

Or like the one above,

work a bit of design into the wrapping.

Next we stuffed each ball into an old nylon with knots separating each one,

and I threw them in the washing machine with my other laundry.

The first time round I wasn't satisfied with the felting of the balls,

so I threw them into another load.

They were much better.

Here they all are complete with their new needles and pins.

The kids used these all year long for the many projects that required a bit of stitching.

And it kept so many of them from loosing their needles.

But then in 3rd Quarter,

 after they went thru "the real" feltmaking unit and learned the craft of both wet and dry felting,

we revisited these balls and needlefelted them into something recognizable.

We then continued to use them thru the end of the year as their pincushions.

(sorry about the little pieces of paper on top each one)

Here is a close up of several.

They were absolutely wonderful!

From left to right we have 8th grader Heer Patel, junior Kiana Hernandez,

 and 8th grader Sophia Oporto.

These next ones belong to senior Sophie Yang, junior Angelica Luza and junior Ann Luong.

And grandma here was done by senior Inna Sikar.

Adorable right??

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!!!!!