needle felting

First attempt at needle felting.....rabbit.
Hand dyed fleece...came out much more mauve/purple than the expected grey

Birds of a feather

Handmade nuno felt using alpaca, silk and camel fibres. 2009

for craft hatch

I will be selling bird head brooches mounted on thin log rounds. These will be a series of australian wrens:
Mallee emuwren (stipitrus mallee), Superb fairy wren (Malurus cyaneus), Purple-backed wren (Malurus assimilis), Lavender-flanked wren (Malurus dulcis), Lilac-crowned wren (Malurus coronatus), Grey grassren (Amytornis barbatus), Lovely wren (Malurus amabilis)

Yesterday I made this head while watching a dodgy saturday afternoon tv movie.
It is a lilac crowned wren (malurus Coronatus). It is Nuno felt, made using alpaca fleece, hand stitched with bright purple thread.

The cut rounds are from a wattle tree which came down in a storm. As the timber is still green, I'm seasoning it in the oven.Unfortunately for one batch I had the temperature up too high and split most of the rounds. Because of that, I know 50-80 degrees is a good range to work in. After reducing the moisture content, these will be sanded, shellaced and varnished.

I anticipate the brooches to look simliar to the above picture, only the log rounds will be varnished.

hummingbird update

Hummingbird slowly coming together. I've been swamped with sewing other stuff, so this has really really been lagging!! At least now it has some skin on it, but it still looks like shit at the moment :)

Doing work without actually doing any work.
This afternoon I was selecting coloured fleece for specific animals and putting them in fleece pouches, so that whenI'm ready to make that animal, the colours are ready to go.

So far I have colour schemed
- Bogong moth
- Cairns Birdwing Butterfly
- Mountain Blue Butterfly
- Royal Spoonbill
- Numbat
- Ghost Bat
- Boyd's Forest Dragon
- Fairy Wren

I still want to try some of my own dyes, and have been collecting plant specimens to use.
I probably with felt some white/cream then dye, because I'm afraid that if I dye carded fleece, I may not set the colour properly and lose the brightness of it duringthe felting process.

hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird....well the inner body and beginnings of the wing structure. At the moment it kinda looks like a baseball meets a fetus with wire handles, but in the picture below you can see how things will take shape.

Hummingbird

I can finally get down to making a felt hummingbird...Heat wave over... A couple of weeks ago i finished nuno felting the colour scheme i will use to make a Rufous Hummingbird. They have amazing irridescent quality to their feathers, and I find that rather exciting to try to replicate.
Below is one of these awesome birds and a photo my felt scheme.

Til Death Us Do Part

Male and female fairy wren (life size), nuno felted with alpaca and silk fibres, beady eyes and bloody canvas.

Malarus Cyaneus

This idea came about from an exhibition proposal with Katie Jacobs and Rohani Osman entitle New Holland (Veni Vidi Vici)

It is a mounted head of a superb fairy wren on a slice of pine.
The body is bits of hand made felt sewn together with a vivid blue thread. It has been nuno felted on to black silk using alpaca fleece, suri locks and gold silk fibres.
The mount is a piece of pine i found around the farm. It has been sanded, has a few coats of shellac and topped with gloss.

I ended up giving this to a friend for their birthday.

all in the family

My mum opened an ETSY store. She is selling hand felted bags, pouches, clutches as well as nuno scarves and wraps all made using Australian alpaca fleece.
www.eellee.etsy.com

Pre christmas SALE

My ETSY store is having a sale on all stock including new stuff. Get in early and grab your self a christmas bargain!!
www.thevibrantcity.etsy.com


New 'from the woods' toys
Zigana, brain flap in dark brown tween and tan herringbone


Vivienne, cleaved butt in tan alpaca felt and plaid.

Varick


Guillermo, flayed stumps in velveteen and rose grey alpaca felt.

gestures

Finger gestures, handsewn felt brooches
Making these for the Melbourne Design Market 08
Fingers crossed
skeletal crossed
Poke
boney bird

felt making developments

After making a few sheets of felt from scratch, I have decided that from now on i will use pre-carded alpaca fleece in the process rather than doing the washing and carding myself.
The lovely Freshfield Alpacas farm gate shop has an amazing selection of alpaca tops in variety of colours ready to be felted.
I have not given up entirely on making felt from scratch. Being able to know which alpaca the fleece has come from is a wonderful thing, but the process in converting the raw fleece into the base fabric is a lengthy one, especially when using flick carders!! So I will retain my handmade felt from OUR alpacas for very special limited edition 'From the woods'....and switch to using my handmade felt from pre-carded alpaca fleece from here on in.
Prioska is the last to use fleece from our alpacas (Seamus to be precise) so she is the precursor to the very special limited edition

Prioska

The Bad Seed

I wanted to thank my friend for writing an article about my stuff, so i made her 'The Bad Seed' a felt version of Nick Cave's moustache.
The stache is made from hand made felt (Alpaca of course) sewn over a card substrate. Nick was a quick sketch in illustrator.
Me wearing the moustache

Hergé

Hergé is the first deer made with hand made felt, you can find him for sale on ETSY.

The felt uses the fleece from one of our alpacas, Seamus. The entire process has been done by hand, from skirting, washing and carding.

felt bones, vinyl, cordoroy and faux pearls

I made a badge last night. It is my hybrid of a piece of Chanel costume jewellery and the Haighs chocolate logo.


A couple of chicken scratch doodles....


Hand stitched felt skull, a bow, a button, some pearls.

making felt

Currently: skirting, washing, carding raw fleece...Listening to Edvard Grieg
I have just started trying to make my own felt from Alpaca fleece (my sister has an alpaca farm)
The first batch i made was using black fleece and i had begun to make a damaged deer toy from it, but my dogs destroyed the toy and the majority of the reamaining black felt!
This is Goran, i managed to salvage him. As yet his leg stump wounds are not in place. I won't sell Goran because of his poor condition, however i have made more felt...

This is made from Seamus's first fleece, and will be used for a damaged deer toy.