Rock Doodles and silk painting

Ok, this was more relaxing and more fun that it ought to have been. A smooth river rock + a Sharpie + some spray clear coat = a Rock Doodle. I think these could get to be addictive. No, I don't know what I'll use them for, besides leaving around to look cool. Ideas?

And on slightly more practical fronts, I'm back to painting silk scarves again. This batch came out of the steamer the other night, and is waiting to be washed and ironed. The silk in the picture is damp, so the colors are darker than they will be on the finished scarves. But I'm really liking these color combinations. I think I may use some of the same combos on some larger silk ruanas.

I'm particularly eager to see how the red ones turn out. I've had an issue finding a red dye that doesn't turn pink with this technique, and lots of people are asking for true red scarves. Here's hoping that the washing/ironing process doesn't pastel these out too badly!

Pattern weights? Picnic weights? Wedding Favors? Wet felted stones.

Yup, I've been playing with the felt again. This time I've made a slightly larger version of my little Fairy Stones. These are big and heavy enough to actually be useful. I use them as pattern weights when I'm sewing. They'd also be good for table settings for picnics, to hold the paper plates from blowing away. One lady suggested that they would be lovely wedding favors, scattered on the tables at the reception. Someone else thought they'd be awesome worry stones. And another person figured they were modern pet rocks.



What are they actually? Smooth palm sized river rocks, that are flat on at least one side so they will sit nicely. I wash the rocks, then wrap them in at least three layers of 100% wool roving. I drift different colors of roving around the outside. Then I wet the whole mess down with hot soapy water, and rub the wool and rock between my hands until the wool almost magically felts down into a seamless, soft and fuzzy coat.



Aren't they fun? I've added them to my Etsy shop, in sets of a half dozen for $24. https://www.etsy.com/listing/101497486/pattern-weights-six-felted-river-rocks I'm really looking forward to hearing what people decide to use them for. What do you think?

Felt covered stress rocks

I was experimenting tonight, and came up with these palm sized felt-covered river rocks. Everyone at the shows I do loves to pet the large door-stop sized felt rocks that I use as table weights, so when I had a request for palm sized ones I thought it was a great idea. The person who suggested these wants them as as fidget or stress relief stones for the work place. I think they'd also make great napkin and/or paper plate weights for picnics. What do you think you'd use them for? (They will be $3.50 each, or a set of 6 for $20.)

Fairy Stones! Or pattern weights for sewing. I can't decide which.

The other day, I did a tutorial on how to wet felt a rock. (http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/11/tutorial-how-to-make-wet-felted-rock.html) In the comments, Charla mentioned that she was going to make some smaller ones up to serve as pattern weights for sewing. I thought that was a fine idea...

...and then I got to thinking. I have a craft show coming up on Saturday, and there is nothing on my table that is down in kid range. I remember when my kids were younger, how much they enjoyed when there was something colorful and inexpensive in and among the adult priced pretties, that was just for them. It is so frustrating as a kid to have a few precious dollars, and all the lovely things are still way out of your range.

And then in the middle of the night, in that half awake/half asleep phase, I pictured these little soft and colorful stones. And I pictured garden fairies, sunning themselves on river rocks on lovely days. And I thought, if you were very lucky, those fairies might come to visit. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a special cushioned stone seat to offer them, so they would feel welcomed and at home?

So today I scrounged up some little river rocks, and spent several hours making up a batch of Fairy Stones. I'll offer them in my booth on Saturday, so the kids can have something that is just for them.

And so the fairies can have comfortable seats.

Tutorial: How to make a Wet Felted Rock

I read the weather report for the craft show I'm slated to be in this coming Saturday, and there is a chance of rain. In Arizona, that also means a good chance of wind. Thinking ahead, I thought it might be a good idea to bring along something heavy to hold things down on my table. Rocks would be good...but plain rocks are kind of boring. I decided that I'd make a felt coating over the rocks, to make them look neat and to fit in better with the theme of my table. Besides, they are fun to do!

Here's what I did:

First I went to my nearest source of fist sized river rocks. That happened to be the dog kennel in my bedroom, because my spaniel thinks he's a rock hound. Seriously. He gathers them from behind the hot tub in the back yard, brings them in, slobbers over them, guards them from the cats, hides them under my pillow, and eventually stashes them in his den.

I picked out a batch. Malcolm and I had a talk. I gave in and let him keep one of his treasures, and took the rest away. He was not amused. This is despite the fact that he still had like a dozen rocks in the crate.

Anyway, now that I had obtained a rock, I also dug through my stash and picked out some wool roving. This is mill end stuff that I got from www.thesheepshedstudio.com/. Make sure when you get roving for felting that you don't get 'superwash' wool. That has been treated to prevent felting.

I broke off a length of roving that was long enough to go around the rock, and feathered it out so it was thin, even, and wide. Then I wrapped it around the rock.

I wrapped another section of roving around the rock at right angles to the first one. Criss crossing the fibers like that makes it easier to felt them together.

I had lots of white, so I used that for the inside layers. Now I added a layer of my base color, again at right angles to the previous layer.

One more layer of base color at right angles to the previous layer, and I had a tribble. No, wait. I had a rock ready to felt.

But I decided that I didn't want a plain colored felt rock. I added some wisps of other colors to decorate it. I know things are going to move around in the next stage, so I wasn't really attached to the exact placement of the decorations. (At this point some people like to put the wool/rock combo into the cut off toe of a nylon, to keep things under control in the next stage. I don't find that necessary, but it can help.)

I took the tribble to the sink, and then coated my palms with a thin layer of dish soap. This serves two purposes. The layer of soap helps keep the fibers from sticking to my hands. And the soap gets down into the fibers, and helps them slip around against each other. Wool fibers felt because they have microscopic scales on them, that kind of velcro together when you add water and agitation. If the water is hot and soapy, the felting goes faster.

I turned on the hot water, cupped both soap slicked hands around the rock, and let the water run through my fingers onto the wool until the wool was wet through. It is hard to show this to you, because I also have to use one hand to take the picture. So this is the wool just after it has been wet down.

Now, making sure there was some soap on my hands, I gently started tossing the rock back and forth between my hands. It was kind of wrinkly, but a skin started to form as the outer layer of wool grabbed on to itself.

Once that outer layer formed, I could toss it back and forth a little harder. The wool started to shrink down against the rock, but things were still pretty mushy. (If I were using a nylon, I'd carefully peel it off at this stage, when the fibers began to migrate through the nylon.)

After awhile things held together, and I could rub the rock and roll it around in my hands in addition to throwing it back and forth. I alternated now and again between adding a dab more soap to keep things slippery, and running the rock under hot water to shock the fibers and keep the suds under control when they started to take over.

Now it was a matter of time. I kept throwing the rock back and forth, rolling it in my hands, slapping it, and generally abusing the wool. After awhile all the mush went away, and I had a solid, seamless coating form fitted to the river rock.

I set it with the other rocks to dry...

...until Malcolm came in to check on me. I put the rock next to him, and he was rather confused. That wasn't his rock, was it???

The dog is convinced I ruined a perfectly good treasure. But I think it will do the trick quite well, and I'll be felting up the rest of the rocks too. (Don't worry--there are plenty more for the fluff brain.) Between the batch of them, I don't think I'll be blowing away come Saturday!