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felt brooches

made these needle & wet felted brooches recently as gifts.

this rose brooch idea was taken from the spotlight inspiration room website. basically twirl some wool fibres with whatever shades of colour you want into a small circle, and needle felt them onto a felt sheet (i used dark green). then cut around the needle-felted fibres to make a rose shape. do the same thing, but with green wool fibres and cut it into a leaf shape. sew the leaf & bloom together. sew beads onto the centre of the flower. and finally sew a brooch back / safety pin thing on the back.

this next one was taken from the felting for baby book by saori yamazaki (amazon, book depository)


this one is just a matter of needle-felting two balls, doing the same with the green leaf as the previous brooch (but this time i wrapped the green wool fibres all around the felt sheet, instead of just needle-felting it on to the front side). to attach the two balls together without seeing any stitches, i just ran a threaded needle (cream/pale colour) through both the balls' centres a few times, but making sure to make only a small distance between where the needle exits and re-enters the ball, so that i can just cover the thread that is visible on the surface with some wool fibres (just grab some surrounding fibres to cover the thread & needle felt to cover it). and then did the same thing to attach the leaf to the balls. and then sewed on a safety pin back (sew it higher than what's in the photo, or else the brooch will be too heavy & droop when it's worn).

i actually tried both a dry and wet felting method to make the second brooch. so i needle-felted the fibres into a ball, then i dipped/soaked the ball into some soapy water (a small container of warm water with a small drop of detergent - not too much or else it'll get really bubbly). then i transferred the soaked ball into a zip-lock bag (or just a plastic bag) and squished it a few times in the corner of the plastic bag so that the soapy water can get all the way to the centre of the ball (basically the soapy water acts like the needle to lock the wool fibres together). then i squished the ball in a towel/cloth to get excess water out.
i repeated this process a few times, adding new layers of roughly needle-felted wool on top if the ball wasn't big enough.

i thought this method would be as easy as what's shown in this blog, but no. you can't just magically shake a bunch of wool fibres in a container of soapy water and it somehow transforms into a neat ball.
but oh well, i ended up making the leaf the same way. the advantage of this versus just plain dry-needle-felting is the fibres/ball ends up much neater.

ok. back to studying. bye.

thank you dr qin.

i'm both scared & intrigued - the first time i've heard of this topic. don't think i can bring myself to watch it when it's released..

We Need To Talk About Kevin synopsis & trailer.
interview with the author.

Tilda Swinton makes strange films. like that bioterrorism trial documentary, Strange Culture.

p.s. relating to nature v's nurture, this article from national geographic from earlier this year is interesting (on animal domestication): Taming the Wild
and if you want to see more media things on psychopaths, here's a documentary that was aired on abc last year: I, Psychopath (makes you wonder about the various people you've met in life..whether you want to or not)
- synopsis from the abc website
- watch online

disclaimer: i am not obsessed with these disturbing topics! i was just taken by reading the article last night and reminded me of the other two links. you know.. after-midnight-thinking-modes stay with you for longer...

fred MiXed MeSsaGEs mug

got this from le bro today & decided that it will become yet another study motivation thing!
it's another product from Fred - visit their site to see more kooky & fun (& useful) goods!

taken from their spring 2011 catalog

polymer characters for you to stick on your mug!
(letters have been cut by me).

the instructions tell you to leave the mug unused in the first three hours after sticking them on, and afterwards they seem to be attached quite well! you can still take them off though i'm sure if you tried - the box says you can.

let's hope i successfully convince myself with this mug's claim!

good night

wet & wendy

came home today to find a package from Wet & Wendy! the 'weatherwear' online store selling raincoats (stylish ones with pockets yo!) and umbrellas! turns out it was from the Frankie mag giveaway i entered some time ago :)




anyway, it's so pretty and blue and grey that i wouldn't mind some light rain to come x)

visit their store to see more rainy day goods - they also have standard/non-folding umbrellas! (and they're having a 50% off change of season sale until the 15th september!)

biscotti's response to abdominal palpation (ie. feeling for guts and other organs) = lying down to prevent anymore practice -___-

i wished i had this simulator (the cat one)