TAPOCHKI

these beautiful felted and embroidered slippers came to us as a christmas present from Kazakstan. the russian word for slippers is "tapochki". don't they just make you think of "Aladin" or "Little Muck", flying carpets and magic lamps?

they are obviously made entirely by hand. several layers of different colours of felt are sewn together and embroidered. the soles are leather.

perhaps this inspires the felters among us to try a similar design.

i hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas holiday.

FELTING WITHOUT ERIKA :-(

life has to go on, erika is back in joburg, the weather is lovely and warm enough to work outside. i've decided to give the fish a rest and try my hands at a bird.

please, meet SIR ARCHIBALD. he is a jolly fellow and quite the ladies' man (watch this space). he does have a thing about hats. we argued about them quite a lot until he was happy with this one.

FELTING WITH ERIKA

my friend erika joined me in wilderness under the milkwood tree for a week of felting. erika brought some samples of the decorative felted balls she wanted to show me how to do.

on monday we brought all the materials and tools we needed outside
 to the deck to take advantage

of the beautiful weather.

 

monday afternoon we had accomplished quite a lot and decided to take a break on tuesday and visit Plettenberg Bay and the Tenikwa Cheetah Sanctuary.

 

on the way we visited a pottery gallery and that is where inspiration struck. i decided i was going to try and make felted fishes with the balls as basic form.

wednesday saw as back hard at work and when two of my friends came to visit and meet erika we already had a few pieces we could show them.

and this is what we had produced by friday:

and now, may i introduce family fish:

son 'spike' who is currently in a punk phase to the dismay of father 'harry' who has a bit of a weight problem and most of the time is in a bad mood. mum 'agatha' is very sweet and keeps trying to keep the peace in the family. daughter 'lucy' is mainly concerned with her appearance.

sadly erika had to leave for joburg on saturday morning. who knows what else we would have come up with if only she could have stayed longer!