The amazing Raven sent me some lovely jewel locks that she had hand dyed from her sheep. They are just amazing!
Look at those lovely colors!
so pretty!
I've never felted with locks before--let alone handyed ones--but I'm finding them a lot of fun to play with!
First, I needle-felted a dragon. Those pink locks were so vibrant and lovely and already kind of wing-shaped, so I tried to maintain their shape as much as possible. Since a lot of the locks went from one color to another, it was a fun challenge to arrange them to make the colors blend nicely!
side view
front view
I couldn't resist trying out wetfelting with the locks! I made the dragon for my mother-in-law, and wanted a pouch to safely mail something else to her. I was amazed at how nicely and quickly and beautifully the locks felted up! I was in a hurry, because it was getting dark, so I didn't get any pictures (I like to wet felt outside, so I don't have to deal with splashes of water in my house!). I gently stretched the locks apart and laid a green/blue layer horizontally. Then a blue layer vertically. Then a blue/purple layers diagonally, and then finally a pink-purple layer going the other diagonal. I Put a little more pink in the middle, going horizonally, just because the bottom of pouches like to get thin as I felt them into pouches.
I felted the layers first between bubble wrap. It only took maybe 10 or 15 times between the bubble wrap before it was firm enough to start felting around a wad of bubble wrap. The whole process was done in less than 1.5 hours. Picking and laying out the wool probably took most of that time!
I LOVE how the colors blend from pink-purple on the outside, to a light green/turquoise on the inside. And I love how firm it is, and how some of the curls and texture show up on the edges and surface. So pretty!!
The pouch and dragon match!
The colors look so good together!
If it wasn't raining so much outside, I would have tried to get more pictures of the inside of the pouch. But, I didn't want it to get even more wet, especially when I'm trying to dry it so I can mail to to my mother-in-law for her birthday!
I found out about needle felting last year at a craft fair and I’ve started getting into it! If any of you are in the Southeast, there’s a big fair called the SAFFE Animal Fiber Fair in North Carolina every October.
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