1/17/2020

Tackle that stash - Needle felt jewelry

In my last stash tackler post I told you that my wire muse had disappeared which was one reason for me to embrace needle felting as a new outlet. In fact it was not just the wire, but jewelry in general. Somehow I felt stuck and couldn't think of anything new.
In my mind I have a few different projects - all non-jewelry, some with beads, some with felt - lined up, but I'm having a hard time to even start on them, like making a pattern for example.
The needle felting was a good way of emptying my mind and allow the creative child in me to play without any goal or plan. I already know that the child likes to be all over the place, it made a large and a tiny voodoo doll, a black cat head and a lion head, and it had so much fun doing it!




I also mentioned that I had no idea yet what to do with all that colorful roving. Bunnies? After all colorful bunnies were and are good enough for Steiff, so why not for me? Colorful "paintings"? The felted ball for Gundel after all?
Or - gasp - colorful jewelry?
You may wonder how I didn't have that not so unusal thought right away. I don't know. Of course I figured I would probably turn the both heads into pins eventually, but simple jewelry? When I was looking for an idea for the January Art Elements challenge, though, which has berries for a topic, I kept seeing raspberries and blackberries. I began mixing colors, but instead of a berry in the making I found "cabs" and "beads" in front of me.
From the start I had known that I wanted to add beads to the felt in some way because everything looks better with beads, right? When I saw the Waldorf style fairies of a friend and the beads she had added to one fairy's skirt, that only confirmed it.

Maybe I also had some bigger beads or pearls that would work with the felt components ... no pearls, the holes are too small for the headpins ... crystals maybe .... oooh, that mookaite with the purple .... and some beads on the felt .... actually this is the fast motion version as I got sick for two days in between.
This is what I have so far, two pairs of earrings and a pendant, very different from what I usually make, and I like that because it was kind of liberating. It's like going on a field trip just for the fun of it, like the time we were on a school trip to Berlin 40 years ago and a friend and I stepped on an S-Bahn and then randomly changed trains to see where it would take us, or that other time she and I were in London and did the same with the red buses.
Perhaps I'm still on one of those buses now, and who knows where I'm going to end up? ;-)


6 comments:

  1. Ooh, I hadn’t seen the lion yet! Love it!

    I can relate to losing your creative mojo - mine was gone for a month. I didn’t even take part in this month’s art element in challenge. I am finally seeing glimmers of it again. To jump start it, I have been coloring. I have a mandala coloring book.

    Fantastic raspberry and blueberry earrings! And the sun berry necklace. Okay, so maybe sun berry isn’t a thing, but I like it.

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    1. I didn't even think of those as berries, but you know, maybe I was just thinking along the wrong lines. I won't enter these in the challenges, but I'll try to use them as an inspiration.
      Perhaps I can sell them the sun berry as some kind of exotic fruit! *lol*

      I don't have the patience for coloring books, but I totally get how it can be a wonderful inspiration.

      Thank you so much for your comment!

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  2. I love your little zombie and of course the cat! I hadn't seen the lion either. Those earrings are perfect for this month's AE Challenge, the colors are spot-on. Alysen

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    1. Thank you!
      Life has been throwing me a few curve balls, and my creativity has pretty much dried up at the moment.
      Maybe I'll manage to put a pin on the lion at least!

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  3. Cat, I so love your foray into felting. The moment you mentioned that you had bought a kit, I knew we would be seeing great things from you and I was right!

    Your animals are adorable and leave it to you to make voodoo dolls! And, those felted berries, oh my, they are just exquisite. Can't wait to see what you do next!

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    1. Thank you very much, Dawn!
      I made a bunch of colorful felt "cabs" like the ones in the earrings, but have no idea what to do with them yet, and I have made a new version of my yarn baskets with felted yarn instead of wire.

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