Thursday, February 24, 2011

Spring Chicks

Wet Felting

I am moving full steam ahead into spring and surrounding myself with cheery colors and springy items like these little chicks I've been making *grin*.

I had some old sheep's fleece in my craft cupboard that hadn't been carded so I lugged out my big drum carder and cleaned it up nicely to use as the centers of my chicks. I just couldn't bear to use all of my new pretty yellow wool rovings to make them so I wound a tight ball using the natural cream fleece (sorry I can't remember what kind it is) and then just wrapped enough of my yellow corriedale roving around to cover the white and then wet felted them.

Spring Chicks

I'm really pleased with how the yellow balls turned out :) I was afraid that the yellow would slip on the white as I started to lather and rub it around creating bald spots showing through but I made sure I was extra gentle and it blended together beautifully. For the bottom of the egg shell I used an old plastic easter egg as my form and worked the wool over top of it so that it formed a nice concave shape for the chick bodies to sit in and I trimmed up the edges once they were dry so that they looked like that had been cracked open *grin*.

I was at a bit of a loss though when it came to how to felt a sheet of wool that I could cut out shapes from for the tops of the chick's heads as I've never tried doing it before. All I could think of was that I've seen others do it using bubble wrap or window screen and other similar things to keep the wool together while they agitated it but I didn't have any of that on hand. That was until I spied one of my reusable mesh produce bags! I loaded it up with enough wool roving to make a small 6 inch square, put it in the bottom of my sink on a cutting board and lathered it up and it worked! I think next time I'll work it a little bit longer to make sure it is a little more compact but it felted together enough to cut out little pieces to put on top of the chick's heads to look like bits of broken shell :)

What do you think? Do they look like they're popping out of their shells *grin*. My oldest was giving me a bit of a hard time before I put their eyes and beaks on because he said they looked like tennis balls with stars on their heads LOL.

Hugs,
Rosina


PS. Looking for more crafty ideas or inspiration? Pop over to Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday and see what others are up to :)

12 comments:

Amy Friend said...

Those chicks are too cute! I love them!

Sarah said...

Your little spring chicks are SO cute!

house full of jays said...

They are so great!! Way to use that beautiful roving!

Linda said...

These are adorable!

Kelly Casanova said...

They're very cute and definitely cheery for spring. Some paper stars would go beautifully with them (wink)

Nadja said...

Oh wow...how cute are those?!

S said...

Oh my they are SOO cute just peeping out of their shells.

TwigandToadstool said...

I think these are going to make their way into many of our easter baskets this year!! SOOOOOOO sweet!!!
xo maureen

Karen Sue said...

I LOVE these little chicks!! They are the hope of spring after yet another big dump of snow here yesterday!! I DID see some grass here a week or two ago, but wow did it ever get buried after that!!

W-S Wanderings said...

They are darling! I know a little girl and boy and mama who would love to make some of these.

Hopewell Creek Designs said...

You did a great job! So cute!! These will be great for Easter...I may need to give them a try for my Easter table this year.I made felted carrots last year....so little chicks would be a good addition.Thanks =)

Jenn Erickson said...

I saw your chicks on the "One Pretty Thing" photostream on flickr. They're wonderful! So beautifully done! I'm so glad I found you. Jenn/Rook No. 17