Someday, the altered art you make today will be
old, faded, falling apart, and someone else will salvage the bits and use them
in new altered art.It's the best that any piece of art can hope for

~ anon~


Click on the tabs below for some other stuff

............................................................................................................

Monday 15 March 2010

The Mystery of The Balls

You may remember that when I started my Upcycling course, the first week we made some strange looking balls. These were a project in wet felting, and we used wool tops (fleece) which we wrapped around a pebble and 'massaged' in to knit the fibres together. We then had to take them home with the instructions to either put them through a 60 degree wash or to boil them and then not to even think of unwrapping them until the next class.


I chose the boiling method and as I missed the next class did unwrap one and cut it open as per the class example... as you can see it wasn't a great success!! So I put the other through the machine and it immediately felt firmer/tighter. This was because of the agitation as well as the heat

Here it is before cutting it open
And afterwards, which reveals the pebble and gives you a cocoon/conker/onion.... Not sure what it is, but it does look organic! The pebble inside is a souvenir we picked up from Findhorn beach in Scotland. The beach is completely covered in almost perfectly spherical pebbles - beautiful!

Obviously I wasn't going to leave it just as it was, so I have made a little reminder of some of our holidays. The Slate we picked up in Wales, and the fleece is reminiscent of all the sheep's fleece I collected from where the sheep had rubbed up against the fences - that was a bit nostalgic, because I can remember as a child being asked by my Nanna to collect some bits of fleece whilst we were on holiday so that she could put it between her toes, as she had bunions.... she didn't want a pressie she just wanted bits of fleece LOL - the pebbles as I said were from our holiday in Scotland and the piece of charred driftwood was picked up during a week spent on a local beach. All precious family times!
Not sure there is any significance of the beads and wire that I wrapped around the cocoon.. I just like using beads and wire!


9 comments:

  1. ooo what a lovely effect!!! Yes it does look a bit like an onion hahaha! But I love what you have done with it XXX

    ReplyDelete
  2. it looks great, did meade me laugh about the onion hehehehehe xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. aaaaaw Findhorn one of my favourite places !
    Love this effect and what you have done with it. Can't wait for a lesson on the 11th/12th/13th lol
    Sparkles

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fantastic idea but it's just brought to life with what you have done with it. Love it! KT

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks great! Love the way you used it for your souvenir piece!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow Nicks, this is a fabulous make - I love the effect it has when you split it open... What a lovely reminder of your hols - beats rock and fudge hands down!!

    Paula x x x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great use for a Findhorn pebble. Speaking of Findhorn, I used to live there! My Mum still does.

    ReplyDelete

COMMENTS - Thank you for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate your views. I am sorry I have had to add 'word verification' (i find it very annoying myself) but I am getting increasing amounts of spam - please don't let it stop you commenting xx