Needlefelting Runes and Toadstools

I have a habit of following a really eclectic mix of blogs. One such, which successively catches my imagination is written by Gretel Parker, a very talented children's illustrator, author, and maker of the most fabulous needlefelt toys.

http://allaroundus.blogspot.com/

Always on the lookout for new things to learn and with my hands freshly injected with steroids (which temporarily, and oh so wonderfully, alleviate some of the problems caused by arthritis) I decided to have a go at needlefelting myself this week and found myself instantly hooked. Having foraged around in my mother's craft room - always an emporium of utter delight - I came away with two proper needlefelting needles (they have tiny barbs on them which 'hook' and tangle strands of wool together) and a bagful of both dyed and natural wool tops.

It took me all of ten minutes before I managed to stab myself with the needles which led to my bleeding profusely all over the purest white wool I was trying to felt, but freshly plastered and with a new hunk of wool I did eventually manage to manipulate the wool into a shape which bore a passing resemblance to a cube, now a much loved toy for my three cats!

Once you get into some kind of rhythm there's something quite satisfying about jabbing wool until it begins to matt into shape. Over, and over and over again. But I've found even with the steroid injections, it's terribly hard on the hands. I think perhaps not having a handle to grip the needle with hasn't helped so I'm going to investigate perhaps purchasing one of the many adaptable tools I've discovered on the net which will hopefully prove kinder. I've so many ideas currently flitting about in my head - but for now, having broken both needles which I've discovered are remarkably brittle (or perhaps it's just the way I've been over enthusiastically using them!) I'll have to content myself with showing you two other things I've made so far.

The first is a rune. As a teenager I was very 'into' runes but somewhere along the way I lost my set of beautiful wooden ones, so I've decided to perhaps try make a new set of my own using pure undyed wool, which kind of resembles stone. This is the result of my first effort;-




- a rune of the elder futhark, Fehu, symbolic of;

Possessions won or earned, earned income, luck. Abundance, financial strength in the present or near future. Sign of hope and plenty, success and happiness. Social success. Energy, foresight, fertility, creation/destruction (becoming). Fehu Reversed or Merkstave: Loss of personal property, esteem, or something that you put in effort to keep. It indicates some sort of failure. Greed, burnout, atrophy, discord. Cowardice, stupidity, dullness, poverty, slavery, bondage.



And just for the crack here it is with a felted toadstool I also made but spent less time on, so the matting is less dense and to my mind, not quite as pleasing either to hold or on the eye. All a big learning curve though :-)