Friday 10 February 2012

Felt Gnome home and bag

(Goblin is 28 months)
I have been doing some more wet felting experiments. I've gone a bit wool crazy recently and bought a load of mixed random bags of merino wool from World of Wool.
I felt I needed to justify my expenditure by actually making something.  I wanted to try something more 3D so I started with a bag. I laid some white wool as a base and then laid coloured wool in a picture on top (I tried to lay the white horizontal and the coloured vertically so that it felted better).
 Then I grated soap onto it and poured some warm water over it and stuck a rectangle of bubble wrap over the top. I wobbled the bubble wrap about a bit to flatten out the wool and start the felting process. Then I wrapped the edges of the felt round the sides of the rectangle before laying more wool on this side of the bubble wrap.
On this side I laid the picture first and the back colour after (so all the pictures would be facing in on the final thing - the idea being to then turn it inside out).
So here it is drying off. I didn't bother putting a white backing on the other side, I just used coloured wool. 
 When I turned it inside out I realised that I'd folded the white backing straight onto the bubble wrap and laid the back picture over it - so the seam of the white backing is showing - lesson to learn for next time.
But the front looked good. The little bits of coloured wool really do look like little flowers.
To strengthen this creation as a bag I lined it. I added a handle made on a knitting nancy.
And this is what the final bag looked like. I was really pleased with this but thought I could probably improve on it. So I set out to make a gnome home using the same technique.
This is the wet felted result. But then I needle felted some detail onto it. I used a triangular piece of bubble wrap to make the roof. While the roof was still wet and soapy I moulded it into a soda bottle. It gave it a great shape - i need to remember this for next time so I can make the house bit more circular (maybe using a tin can). The handle is just plaited wool.




I am linking this to
MakingBeneath the Rowan Tree

10 comments:

  1. So clever - it is really lovely, love the top/roof! And I like your new look - funny, I did nearly 'freak out' until I read your comment to not, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice! You put that wool to good use.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kelly, I was inspired by your home made knitting nancy (but to lazy to make one), so I bought one and the handle of the bag was my first go with it. I'm so pleased with the result, thanks for galvanizing me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is adorable!! Such great ideas. I have been experimenting with felting myself and will definitely try this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great Creations you have made. I keep thinking I should dig out the felt again. Thanks for sharing your little bags.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love your gnome home! I am still new at wet felting, and haven't quite gotten the hang of it, I really love needle felting though. All of your wool looks like it will be fun to craft with. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really like how you raise the roof to get in! i must try some wet felting this way.
    thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lovely home. . . I am still gathering courage to try wet felting, but this would be a great project.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this, so cute. I wish you were here in the states I would love to buy one from you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This looks... like a fairy tale! I'm pinning it. Thank you for visiting my brown paper gift box and for your lovely comment :)

    ReplyDelete

I have decided to turn off comments on the blog as I am being inundated with spam. I do this with sadness as I love genuine comments from readers. If you would like to leave a comment please email me at TamingtheGoblin@gmail.com or visit the TamingtheGoblin FaceBook page (you can access it through the FB icon in the top right corner of the blog homepage).
Thank you for taking the time to read the blog.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...