Sunburst and Vortex...

It has taken me quite a while to get these finished... . I've been otherwise engaged all over the place doing lots of fun things like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and travelling down to Birmingham to see my sister and nieces and going to the Festival of Quilts.  The Festival of Quilts was quite an event (I had never been before) - and although I am not a quilter we had a wonderful day drooling over all the stalls and getting lots of inspiration.  The highlight of the day though was actually getting to meet lovely Myfanwy of Sassalynne in person and to see (and buy!) a collection of her wonderful supplies 'in the flesh'.  Over the course of the day I bought lots of exciting and inspiring supplies, and discovered new sellers like 21st Century Yarns, which was great too.

Anyway, back to Sunburst and Vortex - these are prototype necklaces, the first two end results of my Sassalynne viscose felt project. 

'Vortex'

I haven't done any felting myself this time - the colours of the felt were so lovely I didn't want to cover them up by adding any more fibre.  Instead I just beaded and embroidered onto the surface, and experimented with a more 'ethnic' feel with dangly (not sure how else to describe them!) additions at the bottom of the felt piece and on the chain.

Glass beads and tiny sequins, with seed stitch in ribbon and cotton.

'Sunburst'

Glass beads, and seed and running stitches in gold thread.

The addition of the metal drops is a bit of a departure for me - the idea arose from wanting to try to incorporate a bit of movement into a necklace.

Aegis...

'Aegis' is another new necklace prototype I have been working on - I wanted something a little smaller than the 'bib' idea, but still large enough to give me a good area to play with :).  I have been trying to think of iconic shapes, but steering clear of anything too figurative like hearts or stars.  Eventually I was reminded of a 'shield' shape (inspired by beautiful earrings I bought from ILDVED on Etsy) - ok so still quite figurative but more unusual, and the symbolism of protection and strength really appeals to me.

So, I tried a few shapes and sizes out in card, came up with a prototype stencil, and here is the finished result:

in situ:

I made the felt from silk hankie fibre, merino roving, abaca tissue, silk throwsters waste and cotton nepps.  Then I added couched thread, glass beads, and seed and colonial knot hand embroidery stitches.

First stage...

The first stages of my viscose felt projects are complete:

(they each measure 4.5 x 6 cm)