Felt Dragon Picture

Following on from my shell felt picture I thought I’d try something else.  For this one I intended to make the picture in felt and then add some detail with embroidery, it didn’t actually turn out like that!

I had an outline of a dragon’s head from a previous project and thought it would be ideal for this piece.  My first step was to draw the outline on thin paper and then tack it to my support square of felt.  The felt is 5 inches square.

From there I stitched the outline in blue thread and then, very carefully, tore off the paper.

As this is a bit of an experiment, I wasn’t sure where to start but decided to block round the whole outline with the darker felt.  Then I started adding in the colours in the more clearly defined places, the spines, the neck and chin area.  Gradually the colour built up and I realised I could keep felting on top of an area, changing the colours, until I was satisfied with the result. 

At this stage I still intended to embroider in the details, in particular the eye.  Then I decided it would look odd if only the eye was embroidered so I carried on with the felting.  The eye was a bit fiddly but I kept going over the area until I was happy with it. 

I was surprised how precise I could be with the felting and was pleased with the result.  

Felt Picture Experiment

When Sar and I visited the Goole open art exhibition we saw a piece created from felt with stitching to enhance the design.   I was quite taken with the idea and decided to give it a go. I based my simple design on a rock I picked up on our walk to Spurn Point, the rock is dark red and embedded with a lot of small shells. 

My design incorporated a ripple pattern to suggest the origins of the rock from the seaside and I needle-felted this onto a 4.5 inches square of red felt.

I did some trial runs to find the best way to transfer the design onto the felt.  The fluffy nature of the felt made it difficult to draw a clear line.  I found the best way was to draw the design on thin paper and tack this paper to the felt.  Then I stitched through the paper and the felt.

With the sewing complete, I carefully tore away the thin paper to reveal the pattern.

The final step was to fill in the shells, with felting, to cover the ripples showing within their outlines.

I enjoyed trying out this method on a simple design and, of course, now have plans for something more elaborate!

The pencil sharpener and the dragon.

Which came first?

Well, it was actually the game which is the reason there haven’t been any entries on here for a while.   There’s quite a bit of dragon action in the game and a shortage of a baby dragon for Bess to find. 

So out came the pastels and a lot of time was spent trying to find a sharpener which gave me a good point.  I ended up using the craft knife which, for me, isn’t ideal and so decided to buy a mechanical sharpener.  After some research on the internet, I settled on a Swordfish Ikon sharpener which, from the reviews, would work for pastels.

The sharpener duly arrived and I eagerly started sharpening up different pencils and was very impressed.  Unfortunately, one of the pastel pencils then showed their tendency to snap and left a lump of lead in the sharpener.  After some poking various implements into the slot to try and dislodge the offending lump of pastel, I again consulted the internet and found the instructions for taking the sharpener apart.  Perhaps the craft knife would have been quicker after all!

Anyway, that pastel pencil apart, it has put a lovely point on everything else I sharpened, including other pastel pencils, as the photo below shows. 

With a good set of points, I started my drawing of a baby dragon for Bess to find at a hidden location!

Frogs and Ducks

Frogs and ducks, what do they have in common?  Instead of doing all the things you intended, you end up watching them.  So here are some photos that I have to show for my time spent watching.

Taken on the 1st June 

Taken on the 13th June

Taken on 28th June 

A Blackwork Bookmark

I recently had a big sort out and reorganise, of course nothing much was thrown away but everything is now more logically organised.  During the process of finding things long since forgotten I came across a small unfinished sampler strip of blackwork which I can remember sewing when Sar was on board.  

With so little work required to finish off the sampler I'm surprised I hadn't completed it.  So out came the needle and the required rows were added.  As the piece is roughly bookmark sized I stuck a red felt backing onto it and added a row of running stitch around the edge to finish it off.  

This is probably the shortest entry on the blog but I found it quite satisfying to finish off a piece so easily.

Christmas Swan 2

After Sar suggested the Christmas Swan would be a good addition to the game I decided a more exotic version was required.  It also gave me the opportunity to practise the negative watercolour painting techniques.  I picked the colours of sunset for the swan and started the painting with some weak washes of this colour across the paper and then added some blue around the swan's outline.  On top of this I painted the swan.

I drew in the outline of the wave motif and then painted round the shapes in a series of washes.  I painted over some of the waves to vary their tone.   The photo shows a wash in progress.

I gradually deepened the washes and added some prussian blue in places.  I started to paint the sky with washes between the cloud shapes.  

As I liked the red and gold showing through the sky I didn't use as many washes as I did on the water. Finally I gave the swan an eye and tinkered with his beak to finish the picture.  Now I just have to give it a story in the game!

Christmas Swan

It's always good to try something new and the Christmas present from Jo and Haydn gave me the opportunity to do that.  The wooden swan came as a 'flat pack' kit with a set of instructions.

The lovely smell of fresh wood was released when I opened the pack and laid out the components for this photo.  The shapes were pre-cut and just needed pressing out from the sheet of plywood.  

The reverse of the cover sheet gave the instructions which were rather brief but I soon realised they didn't need to give a lot of detail.  Each slot had a number which matched up with the number on the piece which would fit into it.  

It was quite satisfying slotting the pieces together, a bit like a puzzle.  Here's the basis of the body and the little cross piece attached the head and neck to the body.  Later additions to the body reinforced the structure and the finished piece is very stable.  

So here is the swan gliding along the bookcase.  But the swan's potential didn't end there.  I thought the wooden shapes and structure of the swan were attractive and would make a good subject for a drawing.  

So thank you Jo and Haydn for a good present, it's something I wouldn't have thought of buying for myself.