Sophie's Felting Fun...

I bought a book on felting some time ago and as is often the case did not get a chance to really look at it until a couple of weeks ago. I had a little go at home and thought that the girls would like to have a go at school. So in the lesson I showed them how to do hand made felt, pros and cons etc. I have a sample that I had made to show a different year group earlier in the year for the 'after it is finished' bit. I then gave them sponges, felting needles with handles and some coloured wool tops to have a practice with.

Here are some of their efforts. They have never done this before.

Initials were a popular idea.

This was very carefully made and surprisingly strong. This young lady had listened when I said we would be doing felting in a couple of weeks and decided to find herself a felting kit locally and have a go at home!! That is one of the reasons why I teach!!

We also looked at some theory work as part of the file to prepare them for the exam and then the lesson was done. So I said that I would take the felt sample home and see what I could do to develop it. Being a Friday Hubby would be out at his Model Car Club, so Sophie and I usually do something together at home, ie painting our nails, watching Mamma Mia etc.

It was not long before all this was spotted by Sophie who wanted to help. So after some tuition she had a go.

So that evening I started by trying to strengthen and add to the sample but it was starting to distort too much. Then thinking that kits generally have you felting onto something I decided to get some white felt from my stash and use it for the backing. So I started to felting the sample onto the felt backing and add further colours.

Well it was not long before Cbeebies was forgotten and felting looked more interesting for Sophie!

So we went and had a look at my stash and the wool tops that I had for felting, gave her my sponge and my own needle for her to use and she was away. With supervision this was a safe activity for her and she only broke 1 needle.

A design gradually took shape and she liked the fact that she could see something happening all the time. I had an idea for my own sample and she wanted to try it to my cutting out some flower shapes in shop bought felt and then felting onto this to give some texture to it. Once she had felted the flowers, with a little help from me with the tiddly bits to avoid stabbing fingers, she then had more ideas to add stems and leaves.

I kid you not, for 2 whole hours she sat there and worked on her felt picture!! I worked on mine sat next to her and we chatted all the time about this and that. It was spooky but it was easy to forget that she is only 6 years old. Such a mature level of conversation it made me see how short a time that she will be a small child. She was even asking me about my day at work!

I let her stay up later so that she could finish it as we were going to go to Truro and there we could get a frame for her picture.....

......and here it is....

Isn't it brilliant? Definitely high on the Slushy, Proud Mummy meter this one.

Here is the final piece... what do you think? It has been taken into school and now sits proudly in her room!

I am very proud of my Sophie, she is such fun and willing to have a go at anything. Maybe I am teaching the wrong age group? Well lets leave that for another blog post.

More on my felting efforts tomorrow plus my students second felting encounter.

xx