Butterfly Creations!

It's been a while since the exhibition at Richmond Station which was a delight to share with the lovely Fiona aka Marmaladerose. Since then it's been a time of catching up with commissions and other family stuff going on.
 So to have a break from pastels, which I like to do from time to time just to keep me 'fresh', I thought I'd do another butterfly...I've been promising myself some more woolly fun for ages now but the pastels have taken all my time so far this year....I don't mind, they are my passion, but it's good to do different things occasionally (at least it is for me).
I discovered felt-making about 15 years ago now (gosh is it that long?) when I saw it being demonstrated at the Harrogate 'Stitch and Knit' event and I fell in love....I HAD to try it. I still love it today and have copious amounts of boxes with the most sumptuous colours of wools imaginable.
A few years ago, I happened to stumble on a you-tube clip of an American woman using dissolvable paper as a base to 'attach' the fibres. She was making rectangles which she then sewed together to make bags etc. I thought to myself, ''I can do something more creative with this technique'' and so the butterflies and moths were born......
After a couple of trial runs with some small samples, I mastered it enough to make my first big butterfly.....

And then a moth........

The butterfly went to a new home, the moth is resting in a gallery in Cornwall and various others (mostly smaller ones) have sold via my Etsy shop. I did a range of small ones for accessories, one of which I still keep for my hair specially for those 'Up-do' days.

So I started a huge blue butterfly at the weekend while outside the heavens opened and we had the most amazing storms ever.....
I posted it as a work in progress on a textile site and was inundated with requests to see how it was done. So, as promised, here it is.....

Firstly you need some dissolvable paper (the sort embroiderers use), some wool tops or fibres and a needle-felting tool. Also a piece of sponge so your table doesn't end up looking as if it has woodworm!  Oh and a reference photograph. Mine was taken from a box of real specimens.

I draw the wings individually onto the paper and start to apply the wool fibres using the needles....watch your fingers, they're sharp!

 I keep building up the layers until I'm happy with the finished result .....

The repeat for the other 3 wings......

When that's done, wet-felt them in the usual way to bind the fibres together and dissolve the paper....it might need a bit of boiling water to finally dissolve it all but I find it doesn't matter if some is left behind...as long as you can't see it.

While they're drying, it's time to make the body. Now I know this picture doesn't look like much....in fact, in the words of The Two Ronnies it looks like a 'small, brown Richard the Third'...it WILL eventually transform into a butterfly body...honest!

The next stage is a bit tricky....attaching the wings to the body.....be patient. Gently 'stab' the two together with a few fibres over the top....

You're nearly there!
When  you've positioned the wings, make some antennae from a piece of wire painted black and attach to the head using more fibres to fix it in place.

Et voila!

This one's about 65 x 50 cm so rather big...if I were you, I'd start with a smaller one....

I know I've probably made that all sound very easy when it isn't particularly but practise makes perfect and I'm certainly not there yet.......we'd better keep practising.....next a Cabbage White. :)

'Blue Butterfly' will be going into a box frame so that it looks like a proper specimen (albeit a large one!) and will be available to buy either via my Etsy shop or my facebook page. Why not pop across and say hello to me there and if you have any problems, I'm happy to help.
                                                       
                                                              Until next time.....
                                                                                    Sue xx


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