Felt Bowl Beaded with Wool Felt Sweater Scraps

I finished this felt bowl using the method I described in my last post.

It's mostly wool with a little cashmere, measuring about 9.5" across and 0.75" thick. I'm not sure what I think of it. It's soft and squishy but a little wonky. The pattern of circles comes from an arrangement of dimples on a golf ball.

Here is what it looked like after I got started.

This is the pile of strips I used.  That's 246 strips of wool and cashmere felt, plus a few extras, all cut from old sweaters.

Thanks for looking.

Bead Weaving with Wool Felt Sweater Scraps

Did you know that we can apply bead weaving techniques to wool felt?  This weekend I figured out how, and I have to admit, I'm pretty darn excited about it. Here is my first project.  It's a trivet, you know, a hot pad for protecting table tops from hot pots.  It measures 9 inches from top to bottom, and it's 5/8 inches thick.

Here you can see the trivet close up. Let me just say, this technique would make an amazing carpet. This is the texture I want my feet to touch first thing every morning when I get out of bed. Super soft and springy.

Do you want to see how I did it? Here are my materials and tools.  I started with scraps of felted wool sweaters. I used my rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat to cut a bunch of little strips that are 5/8 inches wide and about 3 inches long.  I made the green strips a little shorter than the yellow strips because the green wool is thicker and I wanted the rolls to finish as the same size, 5/8 inches in diameter. I used polyester "jean stitch" thread and a really thick, long needle to sew the rolls together.  I rolled each strip as I attached it. I stitched this together just as I would bead weave with peyote stitch. Sew right though the side of the jelly roll, through the center and out the other side.

The green scraps were left over from a sweater I made for myself this winter.  I think of it as "The Kelp Queen Sweater." I feel like a sea monster when I wear it, in a good way. It's mostly cashmere and super warm and cozy.

I also made this berry colored sweater recently.  It's in my Etsy shop if you want it.  Again, it's mostly cashmere.  I hand dyed the fabrics before I cut them up and stitched them together. Soft, cozy, warm and berry delicious!

 After finishing this sweater, I had some really nice cashmere scraps that I couldn't part with.  They were too small to make arm warmers, but too nice to throw away. So you can imagine my delight when I found that I could bead weave with them. Here is my set up of tools and materials.  I cut these strips a bit wider than the last set, 3/4 inches.  The strips are long enough to make the rolls 3/4 inches wide.  You'll notice I also added some pliers to my set of tools.  Those are useful for pulling the needle through the many layers of wool.  This technique is a bit hard on the fingers, and the pliers give you super powers, well, practically.

For my second trial of beading with felt rolls, I wanted to make a beaded ball.  With these wonderful strips of cashmere and wool, I beaded an icosahedron. It's the size of a tennis ball. It's very much like a tennis ball, in fact. My local tennis playing friend says it has a similar weight, too, but lighter. Similar squish, but a skosh squishier. It would be a good juggling ball, soft and light but not too light.  I stuffed the small space on the inside full of scraps I made with my scraps. That keeps it nice and solid. You can see how I layered dark and light purple together before making he jelly rolls.  Also, I used my scissors to trim the outside surface to make it smooth, well, smoother than it was. 

In making these two pieces, I found the beaded felt rolls really like to make a flat plane, like the trivet. The amount of curvature in the icosahedron is really pushing how much it the surface wants to curve smoothly before you start to see the sides of the rolls.  Accordingly, this technique will work better for objects with less curvature.  A big felt bowl would be nice, suitable project, I think. The felt should handle that level of curvature nicely.

Anyway, I still have a large garbage bag full of old felted sweaters destined to become new wearable pieces. In that process, I'll make lots more felt scraps. And with those scraps, I might just have to bead weave them into other things like bowls, balls, and boxes. So hopefully there is more bead weaving with felt in my future. Stay tuned. And, as always, thanks for looking. Happy Mother's Day.

Inspired by Opals - Beaded Textile Bangle Bracelet No. 57 Felted Wool Silk

I love opals, and I adore artwork that looks like opals, art that is almost white but has subtle colors, to make it not just white. Yesterday, I was pouring over some white-ish polymer clay art by Richelle of Shipwreck Dandy.  (Photos used with permission.)
 

Aren't they pretty? Drooling over these babies, I was inspired to make something like that, art that appears to have an inner glow, but I don't have any polymer clay. I do have wool and silk, however, in a nice array of colors. So, I made this bangle bracelet.

Silk and some sparkle fiber give it a nice luminosity. You can't tell from the photos, but it shimmers. Felt is a perfect base for some bead embroidery. So I added some real opals beads and seed beads in one spot.

There are also some Swarovski crystals and more seed beads.

I'm actually quite tickled that the finished piece met my vision. 

These pieces are for sale.  Click on the photos to go to the listings.  Thanks for looking!

More Felt Cuffs

I started adding beads to this felt bracelet and couldn't stop.

Two more felt cuffs... these are in purple.  I don't know why, but my camera hates purple. The colors are prettier in real life, I think.

Anyway, this one is a Mobius bracelet. It has a half twist in it.

Now, you might be looking at that and thinking, "No way I could wear that.  It's huge!" Well, it's also soft and flexible.  See, here's a photo of that same bracelet flipped inside out.  It's very soft, but it's stiff enough to pop back into position, which also makes it fun to play with.

If you're like me, you like the idea of bracelets but hate wearing them because they're uncomfortable.  That's why I make felt bracelets.  They're big, bold, colorful, and they are so soft and light, that you barely know you're wearing one.  Comfy, comfy, comfy!

This cuff is a regular bracelet with some beads on it.

See? Beads!

Seriously, the colors are prettier in real life.  Trust me.
These pieces are for sale.  Click on the photos to go to the listings.
Thanks for looking. Have a great day.

Mobius Textile Felt Bracelets

I gave a workshop recently at the Gathering for Gardner on how to make topologically interesting surfaces in wool felt. After the workshop, I was asked to write a short article for Math Horizons, which you can expect to see published next fall sometime.

After making some samples for the article, including this one

I had the wool out, so I kept making felted objects, including this one.

These pieces can be worn as cuff bracelets,

but they are also fascinating objects in their own right. As bracelets, they are large and bold. They are soft and so light, you'll barely know you're wearing one. I added a few seed beads to this one to give it some extra texture and sparkle.

These textile cuff bracelets are felted with fluffy merino wool with silk fibers felted right in.  The shapes are organized but organic. They have a lot of holes to stick your fingers inside. They're fun to play with.

The combination of needle felting and vigorous wet felting permanently binds the fibers together. As you can see in the photos, the felt is stiff enough to hold its shape, but it's still very soft and quite flexible.

If you bend them out of shape or flip them inside out, they will pop right back into position. If they ever get bent out of shape, wet them because they are totally hand washable, very strong and won't shrink, crease, crumble or tear. When they are wet, you can reshape them in position to dry, and they will stay like that. Since they are wet felted, I already pre-washed them.

These pieces are for sale in my Etsy shop, gwenbeads. Check out the Section on Bracelets to find them. Thanks for looking.

Upcycled Sweater No. 12 Brown Purple Hoodie Cardigan with Zipper

Here's my newest hoodie cardigan, made from wool and cashmere. That ribbed blue fabric at the cuffs, pockets and framing the hood is delectable soft and thick cashmere. I like using the best cashmere at the points where the sweater touches the skin.

I kept this sweater for myself because it fits like a glove and I wear these colors a lot. Since I'm trying to make a living off of my art, I try to sell almost everything I make, but sometimes I give in and keep something because I know I'll wear it to pieces.  This is one of those somethings.

 Thanks for looking.

Sweater Hoodie Pullover No. 11 Beach Sun Rain Wind Sand

My first completed project of 2016: this pullover sweater hoodie is mostly wool with a touch of cashmere. That's me... Hi, happy new year!

It all started with a crazy striped yellow, blue, tan and white sweater of thick, soft lambs wool. It was a really nice quality wool, thick and still soft, and it had a lot of usable fabric. I cut it apart and stitched the patches back together with a bunch of other sweaters to make this wearable, cozy piece of art. The focus is the long patch pocket on the front that I embellished with symbols of the beach: sun, water, and wind. I used a variety of hand stitching techniques including applique (raindrops), reverse-applique (sun), embroidery (sun) and couching (sun and wind).

The cut is a tunic dress that drapes slightly longer on the sides and back. It has a roomy hood that isn't so big that it will fall over your eyes when you wear it. When the hood is down, it forms a large wide collar that frames your face and keeps your shoulders warm. The sleeve ends are finished with soft, cozy cashmere is bright aqua.

The hood has a single brass and metal button. The picture button is large and antique (c. 1890) with birds, flowers, and trees on it. It's one of the nicest buttons in my collection, but I decided to let it go because the birds added something special to the beach theme of the piece.

The colors are an assortment of beach colors including sand, golden yellow, pale blue, gray, and bright aqua. The seams are bright aqua.

The seams and hems are professionally sewn with four polyester threads on my serger sewing machine. Some of the finer detailing, I first edged on my serger and then stitched by hand with aqua wool yarn. The hand stitching adds visual interest and gives me more control when assembling the pieces so that everything sits as I like. The hand stitching is on the sleeve hems, the pouch pocket and the inside of the collar. This sweater very well made, comfortable and warm.

Size: Medium. Laid flat, the bust measures 20", waist 18.5", hip 21". I am modeling this piece in the photos, and I'm 5'5", US size 8-10.

This work was inspired by the amazing sweater coats of Katwise, with help from her tutorials. Find her on Etsy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/katwise
The inspiration for the combining the needlecraft techniques on the pocket came from Alabama Chanin. and her books. 

Sweater Hoodie Dress Upcycled Wool Cashmere Rose Cable

Off my cutting mat is this sweater hoodie tunic dress of mostly wool with a touch of cashmere.

The focus of this piece is the cabled, multi-color wool sweater from my closet that I loved but rarely wore. It's a bit scratchy, and the neckline was so high that I could only wear it with a turtleneck shirt. I haven't worn a turtleneck since I left Wisconsin in 2001.  Thus, that sweater sat lonely in my closet waiting for a more useful life. Last week, I decided to upcycle it into something new, cut it apart, and stitch the patches back together with a bunch of other sweaters to make something wearable and wonderful, a cozy piece of art to keep you warm.

I always loved the design of that sweater, but I hated the neckline.  So, I redesigned the neckline to keep the scratchiness off your neck. To do this, I binded the neckline (and the sleeve ends) with soft cashmere in forest green. I used this same cashmere to line the pouch pocket in the front to keep hands cozy and warm. Yup, the pocket is super soft inside.

The cut is a tunic dress that drapes slightly longer on the sides. It has a roomy hood that is still functional.  It isn't so big that it will fall over your eyes when you wear it. When the hood is down, it forms a large wide collar, a large cowl neck, which frames your face and keeps your shoulders warm.

I hand dyed the pretty burgundy sweater on the torso with wool dyes. It is soft fluffy lamb's wool.  The other colors include dark pink, gray, navy, blue, brown, olive, and a touch of golden yellow. The seams are dark pink. 

Most of the seams and hems are professionally sewn with four polyester threads on my serger sewing machine. Some of the finer detailing, I first edged on my serger and then I stitched by hand with pink wool yarn. The hand stitching adds visual interest and gives me more control when assembling the pieces to keep the wonkiness to a minimum, especially around the hands and face. You can see the hand stitching on the sleeve hems, the pouch pocket and the inside of the collar. This sweater very well made, comfortable and warm. It is number 10 in my ongoing series of upcycled sweaters.

This work was inspired by the amazing sweater coats of Katwise, with help from her tutorials. Find her on Etsy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/katwise

Upcycled Sweater Hoodies No. 7 8 and 9

Here are some photos of my latest hoodie cardigans made from felted wool and cashmere sweaters.  I wash the sweaters in hot water and dry them in the dryer to make them felt.  Then I cut them up and sew the pieces together on my serger sewing machine with some stitching done on my regular sewing machine because a serger doesn't do everything.  First is Sweater Number 7.  My great accomplishment on this piece was the front placket with buttons.  The placket is two layers, so it lies flat and is quite functional.  I'm quite pleased with this design, and I'm now using this placket on all of my cardigans. Of course, I used this as an excuse to splurge on vintage buttons.  I love buttons, and I was tickled to have a reason to buy more of them.  Sweater Number 7 is in marsala burgundy, hot pink, gray and brown, size medium with woven leather buttons.  It has two pockets and is super snuggly.

This is a photo of some of the pieces before I assembled them, mostly wool with a bit of cashmere.

This is some detail on a matching cotton skirt that you can see peeking out of the bottom.

I made Sweater Number 7 as a commission for a friend, not realizing that she's actually much broader than I am.  Although it fits me perfectly, sadly, it's too small for her.  Before we found that it doesn't fit her, she asked me to cut off the point of the hood.  Here you can see the difference that a pointed hood makes versus a rounded hood.  I thought I was in completely in love with pointed hoods until I cut off the point.  Now, I think I actually might prefer the rounded hood.  One thing I wasn't expecting when I cut off the point is how much it changes the shape of the collar around the neckline.  The very first sweater hoodie I made, I kept for myself, and it has a pointed hood.  I find the point kind of gets in the way.  I think from now on, I'll make most of my hoodies with rounded hoods.

 

Sweater Number 8 is in aqua blues, size small.  This one is quite elvish with a pointed hood and a long pointed pocket. It's about two-thirds wool and one third cashmere with green vintage plastic buttons.

Sweater Number 9 is in purple, blue, gray and olive, size medium.  It has a stripe up the back in purples and a pocket on the front. It's mostly wool with a bit of cashmere and vintage purple plastic buttons. 

These pieces are all for sale at Isabella Boutique in downtown Sunnyvale, CA.  Many of the techniques I used I learned from the ever-talented Katwise.  Thanks for looking.