Felted Pods Inspired by Underwater Themes

I have just made a group of felted pods or vessels, this is my first exploration into the world of making vessels and I am really happy with them, it’s becoming quite addictive. I started off with a plastic template, I felted around it, then cut a small opening and whilst it was still wet I shaped it into a pod.

 

Needless to say as I am also a lover of embellishments and bling I wasn’t happy with the basic shape and went on to add embroidery, bead work and even dabbled with pre digitised embroidery, as the pods developed I could see how they all linked to my love of under water themes

 

The first two pods are on white merino felt with merino and silk details, and some beading

Then I went for stronger colours to make this little coral pod

For my next pod I wanted to play with the idea of handles and a hand embroidered tree

After making these pods I started to get brave and decided to try a larger size, I added a loop at the top for hanging it

 

And of course then I wanted to pull in some other skills I’ve acquired over time, namely machine embroidery, so after one restless night I woke up with a plan to make this little pod to celebrate spring

My next challenge will be to make a large pod, egg shaped with more decoration, I want to celebrate the Spring Equinox, I have dyed silks and wool fibres – I’ll show you those on my next blog and by then I will have formulated my thoughts for a larger pod project

Moon Woman Completed

Initially I wasn’t sure if I should add stitch and beading to this piece, then I went for it, I’m so glad, now she just pops. This piece has been made from wet felted merino on sheep wool, with silk, and fabric needle felted into the background felting, machine stitched and added bead work. I’ve added a close up too.  

Thoughts from a creative woman

I have spent many hours, weeks, years experimenting and creating art and crafts from all sorts of mediums.

It all started in earnest many years ago when my husband for Valentine’s Day made the mistake of buying a beading book called “The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving” by Carol Wilcox Wells. I say he made a mistake because I was absolutely and completely absorbed by this book, the beautiful, unique and complicated pieces of bead work. If he had romance in mind he was out of luck – I was lost in my own romance with beading.  So of course the next day I hot heeled to a local bead shop and stocked up on what I needed to start my journey into the world of beading.

The following year I was invited to a celebration for International Woman’s Day and asked to run beading workshops. What can I say? It was a challenging and wonderful experience, my workshops were full, I was given funds to buy beads and equipment – I was in heaven. The women who came to the workshop on the whole went away with one, two or three pieces of work, some of the group who were completely into the whole process left with a goody bag of beads and pliers – how could I not? I had older women with failing eyesight who were keen to have a go. Beads, humour and helpful advice was flying in all directions. My lasting memory was the tears of laughter and frustration that can only be found in a group of women mastering a new and fiddly skill.

Later on, after I had finished a university degree  in Complementary Therapies, I was kicking my heels and wanting a new challenge. I had a love of stitch developed as a young adult sitting with my mother in the kitchen in the evenings sewing and listening to radio Luxembourg, when I left home to get my own space, the first thing I bought was a Frister Rossmann sewing machine, this lasted me for many years, later I inherited my mothers first embroidery sewing machine.

So it was natural for me to re explore the art of stitch. I took myself off to college to do a City and Guild in Creative Embroidery, not sure what I was going to be doing and I started the course in complete ignorance. That was my next inspirational experience. I learned so much about fabric, embellishment, project work and art.

After the first year of this course we moved country, my husband got an early retirement deal, we couldn’t resist and left the rat race of Monday to Friday work and weekends recouping for the following week. City life, busy roads, even busier shops everyone rushing here and there.

Now I feel I am in the privileged position of having time on my hands, a craft room full of half finished projects, and materials to do more.

This potted history of my journey to this place today perhaps will explain my current confusion of ideas and half finished projects.

I am mainly self taught in many skills, getting inspiration from books written by wonderful fabric artists, paper makers and beaders, and from sharing ideas with friends and family and continuing to explore this amazing creative world.

But like I said on my main page, this is about the beginning, this is the time to clear thoughts and plan a route through my creative process, pull together ideas, things I love to do and ideas I would like to share. If you feel you are also in this space and would like to join me please come along for the journey. Share your ideas, your creative process and together we will learn and hopefully produce things we love.