Needle/wet felted pendant experiments


I’ve been rather haphazardly been experimenting with making pendants.
Now it is time to get serious which I began with the last pendant I’ve made so far, the white/grey pendant.
As I was making it I wrote down which fibers I was using and in what order, noted that I needle felted it very firmly and drew outlines of the pendant both before and after wet felting. I do remember or can figure out what fibers I used in the other pendants, but in the long run you don’t want to have to rely on memory. It’s better to take notes.
I need to compare pendants that are made just from Merino and those made from a MC-1 short fiber batt (probably a mix of Merino & Corriedale) or a short fiber Merino batt or various combinations of any of those.
To maintain the vibrancy of the embellishment fibers, I want to limit the amount of time necessary to wet felt the piece and hot water.
So lots to learn, lots of work to do.

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Those are so neat. They remind me milkweed pods or sea shells.

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Thanks! They are meant to be pod shape - I love all things nature and it’s a simple enough form that it lends itself to my learning more control while I’m enjoying making them.

I really love all the texture in these. The stitches on top of the felting adds some really beautiful contrast. They are all so unique and gorgeous! I look forward to seeing more of your experiments.

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Beautiful pendants

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I love these, such a unique pendant idea and the embroidery on top gives them great texture.

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BEAUTIFUL! I would be hard pressed to pick a fave.

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They do look like seashells! I like the blue and brown one and the 2nd to left one the best!

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Ohh @Harlan! That grey/white/yellow one is so beautiful! Do you know what you plan on doing with them, yet?

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Thank you! The white/grey/yellow is loosely based on Claire Maunsell’s polymer clay work. She does amazing pods!
I expect to make complete necklaces for some which will require some experiments in types of beads and wet felted rope that will work with the pendants.

They’re like beautiful fantasy seed pods. I love them.

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I haven’t seen Claire’s work before! Her mokume gane pods are beautiful! It’s interesting to see a fiber version of your work!

On Insta I follow a prompt of #RemakeInYourOwnStyle, and this is a great example. I would do mine in slow cloth /floss, or paper mache.

I’ll keep an eye out for when these become available! clicks

Tagging in @geekgirl Lady! You work in clay. Check out Claire Maunsell’s clay bead work. The layers and colors remind me of you.

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When I was teaching on CAE, I worked with a lot of polymer clay artists. It was very inspiring given that it is such a versatile medium. Fiber is also very versatile, but in very different ways than polymer.

I’ve only dabbled in measly little polymer clay projects. I did not seem to take to it. I was the duck. But the water was far, far away.

But I admire the work! And the techniques! Whoooo!

I don’t want to hijack this thread, but what/where is CAE?

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CAE was CraftArtEDU an online educational service started by Donna Kato and her husband Vernon Ezell. I started just as a teacher there and later took on recruiting, training new teachers and editing classes for other teachers. Sadly, it is no more which had to do with the people who had invested in the company. They hurt the company more than they helped. It was a great place to work because they really tried (and did most often) to see that teachers were paid better than they are at similar online sites. I really, really miss working with them!

I love these!

If you are concerned about the vibrancy, you could always needle felt more fiber over the top once you’ve gotten the shape you want with wet felting.

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Thank you!! >^,^<

The vibrancy issue has only been with one specific Merino lace yarn that I’m using which fades when exposed to excess hot water. The piece that showed the most fading also had the most amount of shrinkage because the basic form was not needle felted to be really firm. I anticipated that there would be more shrinkage. I was disappointed in the amount of fading, but certainly not the first time I have observed that happening. The amount of exposure to hot water can be reduce by making the needle felted form extremely firm since there will be less shrinkage. Other brands of Merino lace yarn that I have used have not been prone to fading as much as this one I’ve been using lately.
The reason I am wet felting the pieces is for durability. Needle felting additional fiber on after wet felting will not make that fiber more durable.

These are beautiful.

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Love their organic shape and look!

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That’s so interesting. Thank you for sharing!

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