Felted hats for tiny people

It's so nice to be writing on here again after a big break! We seemed to have a never ending chain of illnesses at our house for a few weeks, and with work to juggle around it I decided it was best to let my internet world sit quietly for a bit.

But it's also fun to put a little post together. So! Last month I put up my 'Woodland peg people' tutorial, and talked about how I was going to make these little wooden people with one of the schools I'm working with at the moment. I made the original hats by coating the heads with PVA glue, and then winding wool around it to make a little beanie. But the children I'm working with are only 6 years old, and I quickly realised this would be very challenging and quite unfulfilling for them. So I put my thinking hat on, and came up with an easier way to keep those tiny heads warm.

First I made several large sheets of felt, using the method I showed in this tutorial.

It wasn't easy because they looked so nice, but I then cut them up into lots of small triangles.

Taking a soon-to-be tiny peg person I coated the top and back of the head in PVA glue.

I wrapped the longest side of the triangle round the head, and used a blob of glue to hold the ends together at the back.

I then added a bit of glue to the top,  and folded it over to meet the back.

Creating a really sweet little hat! I think I like it so much because it looks a little bit like animal ears. You could also sew to it, making it likely to last longer and adding a bit more detail.

I took this example into the workshop, but what I loved was how the children used the felt triangles in lots of different ways. Some skipped the last step to make pointy hats, others stuck the felt on to make long hair, scarves or cloaks, and some made big headbands. Making art with kids I always learn so many new ideas because they are basically much more creative then me! Here's an example of one of their completed peg people.

It was great fun seeing all their tiny unique people be created. Hopefully those little triangles will have inspired them to make lots more peg people at home!

'Fake' felted moss

One of the projects in a school I'm working on at the moment is making a tree trunk dolls house for a world of tiny woodland people. Although we are using some found natural materials like sticks and twigs, I didn't want to damage anything that was living. But it seemed like our world wouldn't look right without moss for the forest floor, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to do some felt making with the children. 

I'm not a very experienced textile artist, but its such an easy and fun process to make felt I thought I'd share it here today. I know there are a million felt making tutorials online, but I couldn't find anything about making 'fake' moss, so perhaps it will be of use to someone else in the future. So first things first, I looked at some moss.

I then collected the materials together. I put down some bubble wrap on the tabletop to protect it, and then lay an old towel over the top. I then used a bamboo mat, a piece of netting, a bar of soap  and some beautifully soft merino wool rovings.

To begin I tore off tiny pieces of wool, and lay them all horizontally on the mat.

Once I'd laid out a thin rectangle of one colour, I began to add different shades of green, this time putting the wool on vertically. 

Then I added a few haphazard bits to make it look more organic.

I lay the netting over the top, and squirted it all over with soapy water. 

I rubbed it with my hands in circular motions. I then rubbed the whole thing with the bar of soap and added more water.

Now that it was nice and soapy I continued rubbing the netting in circles until I could see that the wool beneath was felting together. 

Once I was happy it was working, I removed the netting, rolled the felt up in the bamboo mat, and rolled this back and forth 15 times. 

I turned the felt the other way round, and did the same again. (At this point I added another cloth underneath as my towel was getting a bit soaked).

I peeled my felt off the bamboo mat, and rinsed it thoroughly in hot water, then cold water, then warm water. I also rinsed the soap off the bamboo mat. Finally I placed it on the mat one more time and rolled it 10 times, before rinsing it in warm water and placing the felt flat to dry. 

I thought it looked pretty mossy! Maybe not botanically correct, but a lovely colorful material to add to the tiny world.

The children at the school really enjoyed making their felt too, they seemed to appreciate doing an activity that was so immediate and tactile. I love how different every piece is, and how the colours change depending on how the wool was layered.

Of course when Mildred saw the felt pieces the children had made she thought it looked like the perfect comfy bed for a tiny person to rest on! I'm looking forward to showing the class her cheeky use of their artwork at the beginning of the workshop next week.

Happy felting!

On my desk today - Tiny woodland world materials (WOYWW)

Recently a lot of my time has been spent planning for the project I have just started, a residency in an Infant School for the company Artspace. I explain more about the project here, but my idea is that the children will work in small groups to make rooms for tiny imaginary woodland people to live in, and we'll then stack these one on top of the other and paper mache around them to create a doll's house that looks like a tree trunk.

I've been inspired by Steiner Waldorf crafts, as well as the natural materials found in the woodland, and have been collecting things from all sorts of places. Today I laid some of the materials out on my desk to try to imagine how the different colours and textures might work together. I absolutely love every single material, from the smooth surface of the stones and how they contrast with the softness of the felting wool, to the rough rings of the branch slices and the fragility of the leaf skeletons.

I've also been getting out my collection of dolls house furniture, and couldn't resist a little play, putting the crockery out on the wood slice like a tiny table and placing the stones around it to make miniature seats. I can't wait to get making on Friday, and am so inspired I'm even contemplating making a tree trunk dolls house of my own....

I'm contributing this post to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW), a brilliant opportunity for creative people to have a peak at each others work spaces. To learn more follow the link above or take a look at Stamping Ground.

Mini Make - Woodland Peg People

I'm working on a project at the moment in a local school for the company Artspace, inspired by Kurt Schwitters and including a visit to his 'Merz Barn' studio in Elterwater in the Lake District. The teachers and I came up with the idea that the project will ask the children to imagine that tiny people are living in the woods, watching Schwitters at work in his studio and being inspired to decorate their tiny tree trunk homes with collage. We'll also be making giant flowers, leaves, and seed pods, and masks of animals who live in the woods to create an installation that explores experiences of scale. Needless to say, I love this project and I'm having loads of fun thinking about the things we could make on it.

This week we are going to start making the homes of these little people with shoe boxes, using a colour palette and materials inspired by the woods. But of course we also need to make the miniature people who will be living there, and this is what I have been working on today.

I'm working with Year 2 classes (6-7 year olds) and there are 36 of them so whatever we made needed to be cheap and relatively easy to do. Don't get me wrong, I am a big believer in children getting to try their hands at all sorts of art, not just the easy options, but this is a big project and we have lots of things to make so I didn't want the little woodland people to take up too much time. Using wooden dolly pegs seemed to be a simple but fun way forward, and I was excited to find packs of wooden pegs which come with their own stands so they don't topple over!

We try to incorporate little bits of Waldorf inspired activity into the things we do with our one year old, and recently took her to a Steiner related playgroup full of lovely wooden toys decorated in woodland colours, so these have also influenced these little people. There are so many beautiful blogs out there of people who make peg dolls, but I thought you might enjoy seeing my process so you can make your own.

I started with a dolly peg and stand, but the pegs was far too tall when compared to the shoe boxes so I decided to cut them down.

Using a small modelling saw and mitre I cut the ends off, but kept them because they looked like they could be good for making mini furniture later on.

It was really simple and looked so much cuter, but I have to cut 50(!) so I might be regretting this later in the week. Anyway I made a few that were slightly different sizes so they could look more like a family.

I wanted the bodies to be painted in tones that reflected the colours of the forest, so I began with a simple base coat of watercolour. 

I then painted stripes of greens and browns, but brushed over them with a wet brush so the colours merged into each other.

Now on to their tiny little faces! This was surprisingly difficult, so after a few disasters despite using the smallest micro brush I could find, I decided to take the easy option and drew the eyes and mouth on with coloured pencil. 

Then I used a tiny bit of watercolour paint to give them rosy cheeks. 

They looked so sweet, but needed something to keep their heads warm! I thought about using felt, or knitting extremely small hats, but this seemed like it would take a huge amount of time, so in the end I glued a wool on to look like wooly hats. I began by covering their heads in PVA glue, and then carefully wound the wool round their heads (I think we might use tape for the workshops in school though!)

And they were finished! 

Of course I spent a while playing with them but it wasn't a very nice day so I couldn't run out and put them in a woodland scene like I wanted to. Perhaps another day. But for now, I hope you enjoy making tiny woodland peg people!