Can you help? and Hand Sculpted Felt Cloche continues

Can you help? I have created an on-line portfolio in the hopes of winning an arts grant. The more supporters I have, the greater my chances. If you can spare a minute to go to my portfolio here, rhondarogalski.see.me, and click Support in the upper right, it will help greatly. There is nothing to sign up for, but it will ask you to post a link on your page of my portfolio. I would appreciate it so much if you could help spread the word about the work I am doing. The more people that are aware of the sustainability and environmentally friendly process of felting, the more our artists will succeed as well as bringing new artists on board.

Stay tuned for more of the exciting adventure of creating a hand sculpted Felt Cloche. The journey completes today with more photos of the process and the completed hat. Thanks for coming along! 

Hand Felted Cloche Begins

Today I started making the cloche that was a custom order. I took some photos along the way to show some of the steps. It's not a complete tutorial but if you are already familiar with felting then you will get the idea. If you have no felting experience or would like to use a really nice, step by step tutorial, HandiCraftKate offered one on Craftsy. You can get in touch with her to see if its still available. It is awesome!! So, here goes...

 I began yesterday by choosing my materials and today I started by laying out the roving to make the flat felt that will eventually be sculpted into a cloche, or wide brimmed hat. I laid out 3 layers and then decided it needed a bit of sparkle. The woman who ordered this is an entertainer with very red hair, so I don't think she is going for subtle. Since the fabric I will be using for the flower has gold threads in it I decided to sprinkle some gold Firestar on the roving.

Shingling the merino roving

Firestar sprinkled on top

After it was all laid out I covered it with some netting and rubbed until it passed the pinch test. Then I went to work with the sander. I love using the sander!!!!

Rubbing on the netting with a recycled grocery bag

I love my sander <3

After both sides were sanded it was off to the sink for squeezing, kneading & rinsing in the sink, throwing, then repeat all several times.

Rinsing, squeezing & kneading

Throwing - this part can be a lot of fun!!!

I wanted to harden the flat felt a bit more so I threw it in the dryer with a bunch of felted dryer balls for about 15 min. While it was tumbling I began laying the roving on the recycled lace to make the removable hat band.

2 layers of roving on the back

Rolling the cord that will be the ties

 Now to make the flower. I cut out 2 circles from the shirt and one I cut into petal shapes. I laid some roving, Firestar and kid mohair locks then sanded it together. The other circle has roving laid onto the back only. These aren't the best photos but it will be Fab when you see it all together tomorrow!

Fabric with merino roving, Firestar and kid mohair locks.

The 2 pieces of fabric together. It will look better tomorrow!

 All the pieces I made today are drying and resting, getting ready for tomorrow. I will begin by sculpting the cloche which takes quite a while. It will require a lot of rubbing and shaping with my hands. Stay tuned & I'll post the photos when it's all done. Thanks for tagging along as I make and create with Fab fibers :D