We were out at the mall one day, and the display caught my eye. An owl specifically, Hedwig, the owl from the Harry Potter Charms Collection Series 1. How cute it looked! Although I love owls, I am not a Harry Potter fan per se, so I took a photo of it instead of making an impulse buy.
A few days later, I looked at the photo again to admire the cutie pie and thought, why not try felting it? And within days, my version of Hedwig came about. I think mine looks as good, if not better than the original!
As I progress with my new felting hobby, I find that the characters that I do get bigger each time. And they are just as cute. Maybe because I found a bag of beads to make the eyes, the size of the characters has to be proportionate to the beads.
Another cutie pie!
My latest character, another turtle, is such a cutie pie! A large piece does not necessarily mean harder to make – it only requires more material, which I have. I now felt each character with the off-white wool as the base, followed by color wool to dress it up.
It’s been a fun learning experience, and I find myself making a whole range of characters, unlike carving, where I stick to one or two shapes because wood is harder to manipulate. But both have their appeal, and I certainly enjoy felting and carving.
DIY project number 23 has stalled big time. Right after the Lunar New Year, I was so busy with my golf routine that crafting miniatures was relegated to become a thing of the past – a pandemic lockdown activity to kill time. My initial apprehension at my pace and fear of it stalling came true. Sigh.
I have to admit, I did not set a deadline, nor am I committed to completing the project. Hence, the stall. Occasionally, I find myself felting instead as this activity takes less time. Am I losing interest in crafting miniatures?
Bearing in mind, I still have eight sets waiting for me and a dozen more on my wishlist on the online shopping site that I intend to buy! I need to find the time, stay focused and prioritize my crafting time.
It is nice when I don’t have to worry about supply when I’m felting. When I first started on this new hobby, subliminally, I was mindful of not having enough wool regardless of color and was making tiny characters.
Now, this predicament is no longer an issue to bother me. The second turtle character, completed in a day, was much bigger than the first one but equally just as cute.
Bigger but just as cuteTurtle number two
Perhaps from now on, I should start felting bigger characters instead of tiny ones? They are easier to handle after all, and supply is no longer an issue. Let’s see what I can make next. Such fun I’m having!
So I had a little bit of time despite being busy with office work, a new design project that cropped up. But to work on my miniature would take too much of my time, and I needed some creative inspiration – I started felting a new character.
Look at all that wool!
I opened up the latest wool purchase to use and was amazed at the quantity. My eyes bugged out, and my heart soared! So much wool, I’m in seventh heaven because now, I don’t have to worry about not having enough of the base color. I can even use all this off-white wool as the innards of a shape and add color to the outer layer. Cool!
And so, as planned with this approach, my latest character, a tortoise, was felted with the off-white wool for the overall shape, and the green color wool added for the shell. It’s another cutie pie to my growing list of cutie pies.
My latest online shopping purchase is not my usual DIY miniature kit but wool for felting! As there are already several miniatures waiting for me, I decided there was no need to hoard any more sets.
The need for consistency
This change in purchasing pattern is because felting requires one color in abundance as the base. Case in point – recently, I made so many Miffy characters that had different base colors, from white and off-white to pink – I needed to be more consistent. Hence this latest purchase. It looks like felting is giving my crafting miniatures a run for its money here.
DIY project number 23 was moving along well until Mom came over to stay recently. She was very fascinated with all my earlier felted characters.
So I deviated from crafting miniatures to show her the felting process, and she was very impressed with my ability.
My felted Miffy family
From there onwards, I decided to continue felting and made more Miffy rabbits. This change turned out well as these characters fit nicely as students for the school setup of DIY project number 23!
DIY project number 23
Funny how things can fall into place nicely. Once all these ‘students’ are ready, I guess the school has to be done up quickly for the back-to-school in-person learning.
Wiring work is never fun when it comes to crafting miniatures. I am on the last stretch of DIY project number 23 and facing the wiring work for the lights. Even though I have almost two years under my belt doing this activity, wiring work and handling fabrics are still two big banes for me.
And this project’s fabrics, being felt and leather, are quite a task to handle! There are four bag packs that I have to do as this kit is about going back to school. This task looks even more challenging than making pillows, sofas, or bed quilts!
I have to be brave to face this; otherwise, DIY project number 23 will be incomplete and left sitting to collect dust.
Somehow I don’t feel the holiday spirits of the Lunar New Year even though we are at Day Seven of the 15 days-long celebrations. We are not visiting anyone, nor are we having guests over.
Better to stay safe at this point because yesterday, the Covid-19 cases spiked up to 10,089, a five digits figure again after a few months below this threshold. Not a good sign.
It is back to work today for all three of us, although I have to admit it’s slow for us. I most likely will spend time working on my miniatures to pass the time.
The Lunar New Year is next week, my goodness! There are a lot of last-minute preparations to usher in the Year of the Tiger. Like shopping for new clothes, for instance!
The last two years, with the pandemic and lockdowns, we were homebound and did not venture out to the malls at all. There were grocery runs to our local grocer nearby, and basically, essentials but not indulgent shopping.
During the MCO phases, online shopping was my go-to if I wanted to buy non-essential things. And even then, it was mostly to buy my miniature sets and carving tools. But no clothes.
So over the weekend, we took the opportunity to go on a shopping spree to buy new clothes as it is the last weekend to shop. With no more restrictions on interstate travel, it will be a traffic nightmare next weekend when city-dwellers begin the exodus for Reunion Dinners with the family and loved ones afar.
I, for one, who usually buy golf clothes, suddenly find myself buying Chinese New Year clothes. I bought not one but two Cheong Sam outfits! It must be the festivity in the air or the sudden freedom to be able to go out and try clothes on.
My two lovely and elegant outfits
For someone who does not wear or buy dresses often, the purchases were an incredible feat by my standards. Well, lockdowns change people and their outlook in life, I suppose. I look forward to wearing the outfits to welcome the Year of the Tiger with good vibes and have a roaring celebration, pun intended.
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