In my last post I showed a dragonfly brooch that worked out too large for me to wear so is now on my wall…..my steampunk dragonfly brooch has worked out even bigger! It’s made with painted cotton fabric and various trims cut from lace with metal beads, wire and cogs. I’m now doubting I will get a full outfit made in time for the Lincoln Asylum festival in August but at least I’ll have this humongous brooch to wear!
I seem to have developed a bit of a thing for large fabric insect brooches. Billy the beetle is my latest make. No, he’s not a stag beetle, he’s a rare breed, so far only seen in the Lincolnshire Wolds😜 His body started out as a very simple shape cut from cotton fabric which was stuffed and moulded with a few stitched tucks here and there. He’s been decorated lace and hand painted and this time I added legs, wrapping them with threads and adding beads. He has a lot more character than the previous insects, maybe that’s a beetle thing? I can feel an infestation of beetle brooches coming on and it amuses me that when I’m not wearing him I can stand him on my desk as if he’s about to pounce .….sometimes it’s the little things that us smile!
In my last post I showed you my wet felted conch shell made from Merino and Corriedale fibres with ribs made from Sari silk yarn. I liked the shape of this and wanted to make another, this time in off white with pale coloured ribs. I found a site on Etsy selling a beautiful subtle coloured variegated sari yarn but unfortunately when it arrived it was so loosely spun I realised it wouldn’t be suitable for this particular project.
As I was in the mood for felting I didn’t want to have to reorder so decided to search for a pastel “slubby” knitting yarn which I knew was hidden somewhere in the depths of my yarn stash.
It turned out to be far easier to work with than sari silk as it was less inclined to move while felting and it had just the right amount of colour and texture for the look I was after. I was intending to leave this shell plain white but now it’s made I think it will benefit from a bit of shading so that’ll get added at some point.
I increased the size of this one to approx 31cm long x 15cm wide x 6cm high. My spinning group has a coastal theme for our 2026 exhibition so there will be lots more shells being made in various fibres, fabrics, techniques, shapes and sizes.
Wet felted spiral shells crop up a lot online and I’d been wracking my brain for ages trying to work out how these are made. I had a light bulb moment back in December when I made this small spiral shell from 10gm of carded Corriedale. Since then I’ve worked out another way of achieving a similar shape and so made this larger version using 20gm of carded Corriedale fibre and measuring approx 13cm x 9cm.
At one point the shell was sitting next to this bowl and I wondered how the centre piece from the bowl would look inserted in the shell…..
…..I quite liked it so I’m now wondering whether to leave it in there as an abstract hermit crab or make the effort to felt a more realistic looking crab, what do you think?
Another theme I’m working on right now is insects, particularly dragonflies and butterflies. It all stemmed from a tutorial by textile artist Anastasiya Goleneva to make this beautiful dragonfly brooch. It’s made from hand and machine stitched and painted calico. At 16cm long x 21cm wide it worked out a bit too big for me to wear as a brooch so instead I’ve put a Command strip on the back and mounted it to the wall.
Having enjoyed making it I decided to do another but using interfacing and my own technique for the body and legs that would allow it to stand and give it a more delicate, longer, slimmer look. One thing I’m not happy with is the “flat” face which suited the brooch but doesn’t look right on the standing dragonfly so version three is underway!
The dragonflies led to my friend Diane asking me to show her how to make a simple butterfly brooch so I made a couple of samples with body and wings made from painted cotton velvet. This fabric takes on a beautiful leather like look and feel when painted with fabric paints or acrylics and remains very soft and flexible. I was thinking of hand embroidering the wings but decided to keep it basic as Diane could add more detail if she wanted to.
Lincs In Stitches 