a life of felt

Posts Tagged ‘rust’

Two of my favourite things

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Rust and beach glass are two of my favourite things and I’ve wanted to do something with them for ages but it’s been the usual procrastination and claiming I don’t have time. Although, to be fair, I have attempted a piece of art with the nails previously but, it didn’t work out as I wanted.

I began by collecting my materials – rusty nails left behind by the builders, beach glass and florists wire.

Wired the nails into a circle.

Wired on the beach glass and just kept going until it looked right. I did try a few beads as well but they weren’t sufficiently translucent to sit happily alongside the glass.

Now I’ll keep spraying daily with water until the florists wire has rusted to match the nails. It’s not love but I do quite like the finished item and at least perhaps it’ll spur me on to try more.

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Rust inspired picture

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

I’ve had a fascination with rusty metal for quite a long time. You only have to ask my husband – the times I’ve had him carrying back large items from beaches and country walks. It looks fabulous when installed in the garden and it’s been in my mind for quite a while to produce a series of items inspired by rust.

So when I saw this mage and re-discovered this small piece of rust it seemed time to make a start. It’s probably not the most successful piece of felt I’ve made but it’s a good start to get me working on the subject. I envisage that I will work in both 2D and 3D and want to attach pieces of actual rust to the finiished felts.

The fabric pieces are crystal organza which gives a lovely texture when felted in and the curls are dyed teeswater. I wanted to get not just the colours but texture as well. In future I think I may use cut back techniques for added texture and depth. Not sure if I should stitch into it, what do you think?

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Beach combing

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

We had a lovely day on Saturday at Formby Point. It was fine if a bit cold and we had soup and sandwiches in the sand dunes before commencing our beach combing. It was a fruitful day with several pieces of rusty corrugated metal, pieces of rusty pipe, shells, feathers and rope found and brought back with us.

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I’ve got a bit of a thing about rust so I was very pleased to find the metal pieces. The solid rod will be used to suspend a wallhanging based on rust. Little pieces of the corrugated metal will be used on the hangings themselves. The rather lovely piece (longer than shown in the picture) with the triangular sections is to be mounted on the wall so I can use it as a trellis support for sweet peas.

A friend suggested mounting one of my surplus birds onto a piece of driftwood which the stump post most definitely is not. However, I think the post will look magnificent with a bird sat atop it. It could be quite awhile before it dries out though. I’m so lucky that my family, far from minding my obsession with beach combing, actually join in with me.

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