Dec. 30, 2008 - Wet Felting with Deb

Have you ever seen the OLD movie "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye? If not, put it on your list of stuff to watch when you want to giggle the day away! The following is a 'famous excerpt':

The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right?
Right. But there's been a change: they broke the chalice from the palace!

They *broke* the chalice from the palace?

And replaced it with a flagon.

A flagon...?

With the figure of a dragon.

Flagon with a dragon?
Right.
But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?
No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!
The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.
No! The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle ... the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.


Well, I created vessels .. you know, vases, bowls, chalices, flagons .. vessels! For my family and special friends for Christmas presents. Money being tight and me having lots of sheeps wool laying around and some time on my hands here and there .. I got creative. You start with the fluffy wool batt and an inflatable ball, loads of hot water and some dish soap and your hands .. and voila .. you've created 'something'!

My one sister tried hers on her head .. my sister in law did too. Guess I should have put 'letters of explanation for possible uses' in with each gift!

I 'signed and dated' each one with the use of a enamelled porcelain button from a Canadian artist - Ruth Pollack. I used an fine line pen, put my name and year on the 'back' of each button, and then attached the button to the vessel. The buttons, for the most part, are these incredible heart shapes.

What is 'fun' about this craft .. art .. is that you never know exactly how it's going to turn out. You know the colors you've chosen, but there are usually 4 layers of wool - mostly different colors - and during the felting/fulling process, you get shifts of wool, or bleed-through. Then, it depends on how much wool you did put on as to the height or size of the completed item .. you may cut it down or, using steam, stretch it out. The piece kind of lets you know what "IT" wants to look like and you work with it to the finish.

Don't get me wrong .. I'm a cross stitcher. But with stitching, unless you change the fiber colors or linen colors, or both, you know exactly from the start how it's going to look when finished. (with the exception of a piece I just did where I stitched it the way it was designed and absolutely hate-hate-hate the colors in the piece!!!!) I didn't really know I had a creative side to me until I started playing around with wool and I'm having fun!!!!!