Julie's Birthday: Ethan's Felted Flowers

This is another post that could not be put up until after the event, but I share the details with you because I am so proud of my eight-year old grandson.  Grandmothers can be silly ladies, sometimes, but I think his work is quite noteworthy.

Ethan has not done any felting for a long time, and I was surprised when he said he would like to make his mom a felted picture for her birthday.  He planned this piece out on the ride home from school on a Friday afternoon.  The colors were first.  He knew he wanted a purple background, and then the color of the vase. After going through the color wheel with its complementary colors and a few just for "pop," he decided on yellow.  By the time we'd had our snack and cleaned up the dishes, he had an image in his head of the piece he would make.

First afternoon's work:  ground cloth and vase with greenery.

After I cut him a purple-dyed piece of scrim for the base (he immediately asked for a 6" x 6" size, which will match his other two pieces), he went to the purple bin of roving and chose the deep, royal shade and began to draw the wool into long, thin streamers and laying it across the wispy fabric.  I cut him a piece of netting to use as a top for holding the batt together as he machine-felted.  He worked slowly, meticulously, and gave great attention to making the base even and flat.  He was so competent with the machine that I was able to work between himself and Bethy, who was picking her favorite beads from jars and bowls of them spread on the embroidery table nearby.

At each step, he asked for me to check his work before going on to the next.  He understood that we were building back-to-front, from background to vase then the leaves followed by flowers, so with that order in mind, the little guy worked very precisely.  Julie came to pick them up just as he was beginning to think of the flowers, so everything lay exactly as he left it, to be continued Monday afternoon when he has completed his homework.

Second afternoon's work:  flowers.

Together we sketched several ideas, and he developed three flower ideas from them.  Then, to the metallic thread case for the colors, and he was off.  I showed him a new stitch, the detached chain ("Lazy Daisy"), and he tried this on the blue flower, again on the orange.  On the red, he changed to straight stitch petals.  After one more assessment, the vase needed a touch more yellow roving, and he passed the finished piece to me.  Well, I thought, almost finished.  One more step.

Third afternoon's work:  wet felting.

To really finish a piece of needle-felted cloth, my personal opinion is that it should be wet-felted.  This neatens and tightens up the edges, which can go wild and wooly in a heartbeat with the embellisher, and it smoothes the surface and softens the punched look of the roving.  To that end, we worked in the kitchen and I showed him how to do this.  The folks at HeartFelt Silks Fiber Art Tools on Etsy make a palm washboard that is perfect for this kind of finishing.  I found it after I despaired of ever being able to wet-felt again when my hands began to change and draw up, and it is a wonderful tool.  Ethan and the beautifully-crafted wooden board are a perfect pair for this work.

When we had shocked the little square in hot and cold water, felted it some more, washed it and then did it all over again, it was time for the ten minutes in  the dryer that is the "finishing touch" for the surface.  Just a few more steps, now . . .

Creating the card was a lot of fun for him.  He worked at the drafting table with  jars of colored pencils to create a birthday card that was "still under construction."  Bulldozers and trucks are busily pushing and dropping the "Happy Birthday" letters in place.  He even included a note as to why the card was in the construction phase-- the workmen were out to lunch!

Such happy times in the studio with his booming little voice making announcements of his progress and asking occasional questions!  Why are he and Bethy growing up so fast?