Monday, July 09, 2012

Inspired Felt Buttons


So in the process of cutting circles of wool felt for buttons...I became bored.
















Even knowing that I would be attaching these to some upcoming nuno-felted pieces with beads, other buttons, and some perle cotton didn't help...I was not inspired!

I had gone through all my containers of smaller felt pieces looking for ones that were at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. If the piece wasn't big enough for at least 3 buttons, back in the container it went. Okay, the plain red ones, the plain fuchsia ones, the plain ochre ones...
Wait, what are these narrow multi-color pieces? They're not wide enough for circles, but what if I cut them into narrow strips (mine were about a half an inch wide), put a little glue on them and rolled them up like a pinwheel? Pin them until they're dry. Oh, yeah!
It was pretty easy to get that look! 
These started out with 2 or 3 different wool yarns (feltable) that I single crocheted into squares or rectangles.  Any completed size will do as long as you remember that the squares or other shape will felt down to about 1/2 of the original size.  If you think about how the crochet stitch is created, you'll understand how the interesting circular patterns in the discs appear even after felting. Wow. I like. I think I'm going to need a lot of pieces that need closures for this fall's collection of "Of Wool and Silk Bondage" wearables...


Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Back in the Studio?

It's discipline. It's working through life's little annoyances. Some days it's Facebook. It's S.A.D.S...
How many times have you heard this from me? 

Well it's now April, and this week I have finally finished some crocheted purses that I've been working on all winter.  To help the calm, I would cut strips of different fabrics, tie them together, then crochet them into this interesting shape for the purses.  As listed on my Etsy site, these are not your grandmother's crocheted bags!

I dug into fabrics in the basement, my closet for "never to be worn again, too small or too big" clothes that I've made over the years that are still pretty cool, and some that I got at the store.  I've even hit the resale shops for old purses and belts that I could upcycle.

I must have 12 that are crocheted and are waiting for linings and handles.  In the past 4 days I have finished 6 of them.  All photographed, except the black one that refused to show up well in the shots.  Anyone have any ideas what might work? All I manage to get is a black blob with no detail of the stitches. Detail shots are fine...     
Here's a few of them!