At any rate, I'm sure that my friend Lorah dropped this off for me because of the felted wool bird houses. I have to admit that the notion is intrigueing- I still have a huge stash of fiber, and those look pretty cute (though I don't think hanging houses would survive in our winds).
How do you suppose they were made? Each one was felted individually, obviously, over a form. But what kind of form was used? A balloon wouldn't hold up to vigorous felting, and a solid sphere would not be removable. This looks like a fun (wet, finger pruney) craft to do with The Grands, if I can figure out how they were made. All suggestions welcome.
5 comments:
I bet you'll love them on Christmas morning!!!
Maggie (since I can't remember the pssword)
I have felted over a balloon-even in the washing machine. Although it was a 9-inch balloon, I only inflated it to about a 6 inch diameter. It held up fine. A hollow playball can also be used, but it has to be cut into pieces small enough to remove from the opening of the birdhouse-definitely a tedious chore.
I recently felted some pumpkins in my frontloader.. they require knitting a balloon shape, then watching them closely in the machine to make sure they don't felt the sides together - then stuff with plastic bags and let dry. I bet you could do something similar to make the bird houses.
Pumpkins raveled here...http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Theflock/pumpkins
I'm guessing that there is still infrastructure inside the felted birdhouse. Otherwise, when it rained, it would lose it's shape and ruin the nest inside. Also, the idea of felt alone for a birdhouse would not be healthy for the birds, for the same reason. When wet, it would become a moldy mass that would start to rot, and cause illness.
My previous comment was made with the assumption that the birdhouses were made from felted fiber, but then I went to the gardeners.com website and I zoomed in on the picture. There are places that seem to have textured circles, especially in the bottom birdhouse. Now I am wondering if they were crocheted first, then fulled.
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