Thursday 14 April 2011

continuation of 3d

O.K. continuing with making the mushroom/toadstool, as you can see from the previous post' picture, the fungus is sitting on a base, it's a good idea to always 'root' or stabilise your subject, otherwise it tends too 'float' and that takes away from the feeling of solidity.
In this case we have a little mound of woodland on which our fungus is perched, so lets start by making a disc of wadding or wool, make it 1/2 an inch or so thick, when it begins to feel firm, keep adding the medium(wadding or wool) to the top surface only, starting at the outside edge and work in towards the middle and continue adding until you have a firm, cone shape.
Now, continue to needle it until it's firm enough not to 'give' too easily under finger pressure. This is really subjective, 'cos some folk like the really soft feel items and some like them rock hard, use your own judgement on this.
When you are happy with it, make a second one, which can be slightly wider than the first, as this will be the cap of the mushroom.
Then make a 'rod' for the stem, now this is where you get imaginative, because if you 'google' pictures of mushrooms, you will see, that usually, the stem is wider at the base than the top but it's up to you, go for the cartoony type image!!
So now its time to join all the parts together. I find the easiest way is not to use extra fibre but place the parts together, at the points that look right, and just needle all the way through into the other one, WARNING!!! Your fingers are holding it together at this point, so make sure you know where they are and avoid them!! Once you feel that the pieces are held in place then you can move your fingers out of harms way a bit but try not to be too rough.
  When everything is firmly 'knitted' together, it's time to surface decorate using whatever colour combinations you desire, remember, you are the artist and there are no rules, which, when you start to accept this concept, is so enabling.
Just go ahead and have a whale of a time!!
Let me know how you get on and don't forget, if you have any questions on any part of the excercise or anything else related to the blog or felting in general, just ask in comments.
Have fun and if you can take a picture and post it with your comments, I may even have a gallery of work if theres enough participation.

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