Booh and I made a set of little spring baskets by felting raw fleece. Recently we went to a local farm to watch them shear their sheep and we got to take home a small bag of the skirted fleece. I wanted to add the fleece to our spring nature table and the idea of felted baskets came to mind. We took the raw fleece and wrapped it around a river stone. We then felted it using hot water and soap. I love the organic look of these and how the silvery Pussy Willow catkins from the tree in our backyard look nestled inside. To me it is the perfect addition to Booh’s spring nature table.
The one above is a close-up of the smallest one in the bunch (this one is for “T&Z”). I love the wispy edges. And the close-up of the one below is the largest one which we filled to the brim with Pussy Willow catkins and placed in the center of our nature table. We made several baskets to share and swap with others that have a nature table too. We’re sending them off today and are looking forward to what treasures we get in return!
Tags: felt, fleece, nature table, spring
icybooh 
March 13, 2009 at 10:53 pm |
Your little nests did turn out so cute. I really like that natural look they have and adding the pussy willow is really darling. What a wonderful idea. Its neat you were able to go and see the wool taken from the sheep that is such an amazing thing watching them shed their winter coat. : ) Thanks for sharing!
March 13, 2009 at 11:05 pm |
These are absolutely gorgeous! I love that you used the pussy willows for the little tiny eggs. Too cute. 🙂
March 14, 2009 at 2:29 am |
Wonderful! The raw fleece really lends an authentic look to the nests. Beautiful.
March 14, 2009 at 3:35 am |
OMG!! These are soooo sweet. The photos are fantastic also. Z will be so excited! I am honored that one will sit on our nature table! I think the photos would make great seasonal postcards!
March 14, 2009 at 2:53 pm |
They’re really lovely!
March 14, 2009 at 5:28 pm |
Gosh … thanks everyone. Your kind and encouraging comments brighten my day!
March 15, 2009 at 8:16 pm |
These are fantastic! Thank you for sharing your creativity!
March 15, 2009 at 10:48 pm |
How beautiful! I am coordinating distribution of some fleeces that will otherwise be thrown away. I wasn’t planning on keeping any for myself because I didn’t want to do the work of cleaning and carding the wool…but I never thought of felting with it as is! I looks wonderful!! I may have to save a little bit for myself!!
March 17, 2009 at 9:59 am |
Oh please don’t throw away Lyneya! We’ll take any you have. I’d like to do some feltboards with Booh.
There’s a very intriguing book I’d like to check out titled, “Magic Wool: Creative Activites with Natural Sheep’s Wool” by Dagmar Schmidt and Freya Jaffke.
Here’s the description I read on-line about this book:
Magic Wool unveils the secrets of captivating children with feltboard pictures “painted” with colored unspun fleece. There is nothing more magical to a child than to see a story spring to life as a parent or teacher “draws” it in wool during the telling. Because of the texture and nature of the fleece, these pictures invite the young child to enter the activity of the scene – it springs to life in their imagination. You’ll love it, too!
Also include are instructions for making figures from fleece to grace your nature table or for your young ones to play with.
March 17, 2009 at 10:05 am |
Oh it’s not getting thrown away! I’m rescuing it for a co-worker! She’s donated the fleeces in the past, but the organization doesn’t want them this year. I’m involved in historic reenactment so I know more fiber-geeks that you can imagine! They were thrilled at the idea!! Sounds like I’ll have more takers than wool and they’ll have to share nicely. 🙂 I just like the idea of being able to use some with the natural inclusions! It’s so pretty that way! I won’t keep much, but I’ll definitely save a bit!
I’ve been just getting my wool already cleaned and carded and it’s so cheap that I’m too lazy to bother with the hard work!!! I’m already on my third box of 5 lbs from them since last fall! It’s such a pleasure to have a big tub of lovely wool to do whatever I want with! (Did I mention that I’m a fiber geek too? Just a busy/lazy one.)
March 17, 2009 at 10:35 am |
These are lovly little nests! Thank you for sharing!
July 7, 2009 at 3:25 am |
Beautiful creations!