Hand Felted Leaf Shaped Amulet Pouch

 Hand Felted Leaf Shaped Amulet Pouch


This amulet pouch is constructed from hand felted wool in a leaf shape. The wonderful swirls of purples, orange, yellows, and green evoke a walk in the forest.

This amulet bag has 3 silver leafed leaf charms, hand made polymer clay beads, and I have used a 26 inch piece of recycled sari silk to hang from your neck.

Wear this leaf shaped amulet bag near your heart and filled with your favorite talisman, whatever you use to bring you good luck... a gem or stone, coins, drawings, dried plants or herbs, even words or prayers.

If you know someone who is going through a tough time include a prayer for them in your amulet bag. You will be reminded to include them in your good wishes each time you touch the bag. The bag can be worn inside your clothing and so be closer to your heart.

If you feel unsure about purchasing from me on my blog, here are links to my Amazon and Etsy stores.  Feel free to check out my reviews!

Wyvern Designs on Amazon

Wyvern Designs Home on Etsy

What is Art Fire Doing?

I don't know what's up with Art Fire recently.  First, they chose the holiday season to initiate a big roll out, along with it's associated bugs and glitches.  Now, they're adding new fees to what they are already collecting from their sellers.

I've been on Art Fire as Wyvern Designs for quite a while and have what they now call a "legacy" account.  When I signed up, the deal was that I would pay this monthly fee for as long as my shop was active on Art Fire.  It seemed like a good idea, but ever since the roll out sales have tanked.  They brought a program called Google Boost where you pay Art Fire a set amount and they use it to promote your shop on Google Shopping and while I did get a few sales during the holidays that were purported to come from Google Boost, my feelings are that Google Boost is a Google Bust and I will not be giving Art Fire any more money for that program.

I have looked at other venues and found a new one called Aftcra where I'm in the process of moving all my fiber crafts, knits, crochet items and felted items.  I'm there under the name Tiny Weasel Fiber Arts.  No sales yet but my shop is relatively new.  I've been looking at creating my own web store but the prices are not something I want to take on right now without some assurance of a return. 

here's a few example of the items list in my Aftcra shop.
Coiled Hand Dyed Basket

Needle Felted Amulet Bag

Sea Turtle Wool Felted Pincushion

Painting With Wool

Or in my case finger painting with wool!

I admit that I'm a novice when it comes to felting wool.  But the process fascinates me.  I haven't, so far, ventured into wet felting, although I'm seriously considering it.  No, what I do is needle felting.

Wet felting involves applying warm soapy water to layers of fibers that are laid at 90 degrees angles to one another.  Then, through repeated agitation and compression, the wool fibers "hook" together to form one cohesive piece of fabric. 

Wool felts because the fibers are covered with tiny scales, similar to those on a human hair.  When wet, these scales expand and the agitation allows them to hook onto each other, creating a felted piece of material.  Plant and synthetic fibers will not felt. 

Needle felting is much less involved.  Since wool naturally wants to stick to itself when agitated, the use of a felting needle facilitates the process. A felting needle has notches along the sides of the needle near the point that "grabs" the wool fiber and tangles it together, forming a unified piece of fabric.

I've made bottle cap pincushions using this method.  They are tiny little things measuring a few inches in height.  I cheated a bit.  Basically because I'm cheap,I used an old sweater that I had previously felted for the core, needle felting it into a sphere.  Then I used the more expensive roving to cover the ball.

Purple and White Bottle Cap Pincushion

Hand Embroidered Miniature Bottle Cap Pincushion

But my latest project is a leaf shaped Amulet Pouch

 

I started this project with a piece of off- white 100% wool felt.  

 

 The next step was to needle felt over this base with various colors of wool roving.  I chose greens, yellow, orange, and purple to give the finished leaf an Autumn look.

I have two different felting needles.  The one on the left is a single needle, while the one on the right has multiple needles in a finger saving case.  I'll warn you right now, that you DO NOT want to needle felt while watching television.  I have the scars to prove that it's not a good thing!

Using a block of foam, I spread the base with small hanks of the roving and started the needle felting process.  Yes, it's tedious but it did give me time to think about what I was going to make for supper.  Chicken stir fry, if you're interested!

Finished piece of needle felted fabric

Needle Felted Piece With My Leaf Patterns

I cut out two of each size.  I never did use the smaller on.  Oh well, maybe another project.

For the amulet bag, I needle felted brown wool yarn for the veins of the leaf.  Using a piece of orange and purple wool roving, I needle felted a  spiral on the front and back,  stitched the two larger leaves together on my sewing machine, then needle felted the orange and purple roving along the front and back edges.  I added one of my hand made owl beads to the front and a length of recycled sari silk for the necklace.  The two large variegated beads are also some of my hand made polymer clay beads.