Needle Felting (top image) - my piece is a bit bigger than a business card. I decided to go abstract and play with the lovely colours rather than try to create a picture of something recognisable. A nice easy form of felting where you lay a piece of the wool fibre over your solid base and then stab it repeatedly with the special needle (keeping fingers well out of the way). The colours mix nicely when layered and you can create different textures depending on how much wool you add and how often you stab it. The lady showing us how to do it mentioned that wool keeps needles sharp so I intend to make this the top of a pincushion. I left some whispy bits hanging over the edge as I like the contrast of un-stabbed with stabbed.
Rag weaving (bottom image) - a real up-cycle of waste material here. We used pieces of cardboard for the 'loom' and would around crochet cotton then wove in strips of fabric cut from old bedlinen (all smelling nicely of laundry soap). It takes lots of strips to create a nice solid fabric. I have woven onto cardboard before but using wool. I found the fabric rather cumbersome to weave.
Inner tube jewellery (middle image) - those black strips are cut from the inner tubes of bicycle tyres - another great up-cycling craft. The rubber is very easy to cut with scissors or a rotary cutter - you can use paper punches on it too. It feels surprisingly nice to handle, soft and pliable and you can then knot it together or knot it to strips cut from old t-shirts. The ladies said that they got all of their inner tubes free from cycle shops as it saves the shop from paying to have them sent to waste. If you have any inner tubes lurking in the garage or know people who do and you like a bit of crafting with scissors then I suggest you have a play.
3 interesting materials to play with and a good visual set for my snap - win win.
Loving all the snap sets you are sharing
11 comments:
A very industrious day. I particularly like the needle felting and I would imagine it would make a great pin cushion.
The Makers Faire sounds like good fun. I like the colours in your felting - will we get to see the finished pin cushion, please?
Fantastic Snap collection. What a very interesting idea to host such workshops. I like your finished inner tube jewellery. I remember my Gran doing rag weaving & I have seen on a few blogs that there is a renewal of sorts of this craft. Thanks for showing Needle Felting, I have seen a few of these classes advertised in the local school's night class listing.
That's a good collection. One of these days I'd like to try needle felting. It looks like a lot of fun.
that must have been a fun day trying those different crafts....I would like to try the needle felting!
How FUN to try new crafting projects!
I too have been seeing examples of the bottom one around. An old house I used to stay in in the 80s had loads of rugs done in that style. Nice to see traditions coming back into vogue.
Needle felting! such fun, I love it. I needle felted some forget-me-nots for the Alzheimers project. I think its a very quick and satisfying thing to do. Except with my friend who is so clumsy with the needle the whole session has the soundtrack of OW! OUCH! OH! and worse... A great set for snap.
What an interesting trio! I have a needle filter that I've never used, I am ashamed to say. I like the look of that weaving ... Great achievement to make three things in a day.
I just gave away a box of needle felting bits in my big craft purge. The recipient thanked me for those specifically (they'd got several boxes of items). Tis fun isn't it? I've not heard of the inner tube jewellery - great use of waste material.
How interesting, and lovely, too. The bicycle tubing is fascinating. I love the look of needle felting and considered buying some supplies for it a couple of years ago, but it's clear I do NOT need another hobby!
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