14 January 2010

A&S 50: Material Culture three: Felted pouch, compass star

Julia May, aka Samia al-Kaslaania
February 2009

The first pouch I made several years ago while teaching a felting class. The wool is Harrisville, the tablet woven trim is pearl cotton (made by my honey and usurped from a different project), and the embroidery is a silk/ivory worked in chain stitch. The tabletweaving serves as a shoulder strap. The motifs are felted into the body fabric.

I had no intentions other than "something cool" when I made it, and I expected that it was not suitably period. However, Eithni assures me that it is in keeping with traditional Celtic motifs.



The second pouch is an A&S50 project. It's a wool roving [that I have to look up when I go down to move the laundry around again], purchased at the State Fair. The embroidery is silk/ivory worked in chain stitch, the tablet weaving is pearl cotton. The yellow body of the star is felted in, but looking closely you can see that it's fairly lopsided. The stitching is what really keeps the shape there. I didn't like working with this wool. It has a spongy texture when felted which is surprisingly transparent--and was difficult to full into shape.

The red one weighs probably three times as much as the plain one (despite being about the same size), indicating the break I took in felting. :) The red is one of the first things I made after a break of several years. The goal to "cover all the gaps" when laying out the roving was excessive. The plain one is probably thinner than it should be, but it's functional and will comfortably hold a camera or a wallet.

No comments:

Post a Comment