A Snowy Monday

So yesterday I woke up to about 8 inches of snow on the ground, which caused quite a bit of shifting around of travel and work schedules and such. So, to make a long story short I stayed home yesterday instead of going to my studio to make things simpler. I did get lots of great creative stuff done at home though, and thoroughly enjoyed my snowy day off.

First of all, I made nice leisurely breakfast, which I think is truly the best part of a day off. I made scrambled eggs with onion and spinach, and then mixed it together with some rice for a sort of breakfast, faux fried rice thing. It was very tasty.


My big project of the day was to make my first ever wet felted bowl. One of the new classes I am teaching is a felting class, and while I have done lots of needle felting I have only done small wet felting projects and wanted to try a few things out to use in my class. I have looked at several books about wet felting, and also watched this tutorial for making felted slippers online yesterday before I started. The tutorial is a little long, but it was great to actually see the process in action. I used basically the same technique as in the tutorial, but made this round template instead of the slipper shape.


Here is my felt covered template after rubbing it between the bubble wrap.


And this is the hole I cut to make the opening of the bowl and allow the template to be removed.


I then took it over to the sink and felted it to the fulling stage. I didn't have a wash board or anything, so I just rubbed in my hands with some textured rubber gloves. It did come out a little lumpy as you can see, I think my layers of wool were not as even as they could have been, but not bad for a first try. Let me know if you have any other tips on making my next one smoother.


I then stuffed it with plastic bags to hold its shape while it drys.


I think I will decorate it with needle felting too, to show how the two techniques can be used together. I am really enjoying that teaching this class gives me a reason to try some new things that I wouldn't always have time for otherwise.

I also got a chance yesterday to give my orchid a nice soak (which is how I learned they like to be watered). My husband got it for me for Valentines Day, and it is beautiful. I love plants, but I can be a forgetful waterer, so I pretty proud it is still alive and doing so well.