After our extremely long HOT summer the arrival of autumn comes late this year with winter following close behind...
Driving through the countryside today the chilly north-easterlies are blowing down the last leaves and the hedgerows are almost stripped bare of their fruits and nuts…I’ve always collected seeds and pods and with the autumn 3-D workshops in mind I wanted to felt a large bowl to hold them. A flat ‘platter’ shape with a curved rim, firm enough to support handles…
The resist I used was approx 14” diameter, covered with 3 thick layers of BFL white and oatmeal, with an extra layer round the rim for strength and decoration…
Wetted out, rubbed and rolled until the fibres felt tight against the resist I made incisions in the centre with a scalpel - fraying the fibres to achieve a soft edge and keeping the resist in place so as not to cut right through. The opening revealed the white core of the bowl which I decorated with simple nut-shaped prefelts.
I continued the felting process by placing the felt bowl into a similar sized plastic bowl. I was able to use the plastic form to create a gradual curve in the felt rim, at the same time containing the warm soap solution. This is a really efficient way of felting! I wanted the top and bottom layers to fuse together to give a real thickness
Eventually the bowl felted together and the rims strengthened, but only after a considerable amount of hard work! A large surface area and many layers of fibre needed a lot of coaxing…
When the bowl was completely dry I added the simple wood handles,
pieces of sycamore drilled and attached with leather strips…
I also made a second bowl - same method just slightly larger...
This time I’m going beachcombing to look for some driftwood to make handles
The bleached wood should work really well with these coloured fibres...