Hearts, Unicorns and Fairywings, but not as you know them.

3D felting technique, no stitching.

Small feltings were made by me last autumn. I wanted to perfect this particular multiple resists technique, which in the last stages involves cutting carefully through the individually separated layers, to reveal the shiny surprise waiting deep within the work.

I liked the spiral attached to the point of the heart, it has a rather tentacle feeling about it. It was all felted in one go, no stitching at all, except for the brooch clasp at the back.

Hand felted layered heart brooch.

The whole thing shrunk by about a third of its' original lay-out size. The shiny surprise is a piece of Indian sari embroidered with metal threads. It felted right in, with the embroidery popping up out of the wool. (merino)

Do you like my background by the way , of swirly hand marbled paper?

Shaggy felted shoulder bag.

In Spring I needed a new shoulder bag, large enough for all my stuff, and with a long enough strap, so it would fit across my body. That way I can walk hands free down the hill to town, and have nothing hanging off that sore shoulder. I made the body out of Merino wool, and the wild looking curls are Leicester wool, which is a long-wool sheep, strong wool. Those sheep are not very common in New Zealand.
It felts in nicely, especially when you secure the ends with an extra thin layer of merino over the top. The long curls remain separate, which is the effect I was after.

Channeling my inner unicorn...

 I made the strap separately, and sewed it on with plenty of reinforcing stitching. The closure is a wool spike that fits through the loop. 

The spike together with the shaggy manes made my bag look like it was made from a unicorn skin. Someone suggested I should add a blue glass eye looking through the curls. But I thought it was a bit too creepy...

Felted bag has inner pocket and divider, all felted in one go. 

The inside of the bag has a pocket and a divider panel added with a resist method.

The bag is soft, light and tactile to wear, my hand is forever touching the manes, as if to pet my unicorn. It is also easy to wash on the wool wash cycle in my washing machine.

This was the last biggish piece I have made, since my shoulder definitely did not like that felting day at all.(Yes it only took 1 day to make this!)

 Early January after my caring masseur lady had already stopped touching my arm for weeks, and told me to see my doctor, I had an ultrasound , and I found out that there was a small tear in the ligament of my a.c.shoulder joint. No wonder there were shooting pains in to my arm. 

Verdict: rest, no lifting, pulling, carrying. 

And that included felting. And vacuuming too.

How that may have happened I don't know exactly, but I suspect strongly that the last 2 years of lifting a child in and out of a wheelchair, and pushing the darn thing at school camp for 3 days over and up and down rough terrain would be the likely culprit. 

Sometimes you just put up with discomfort, until it gets too much, I guess.

The last 2 months have been frustratingly slow on the Art and Craft front. I noticed I could not even keep a book up for too long, but have had to rest the book on a cushion on my lap. Slowly it is starting to get better, and I can sleep for short times on my right side again too.

Found some things I could do though. 

I can't just do nothing!

Do you like to keep your hands busy all the time too?

Moss green moth. A tiny jewelled fairy in emerald wings.