Wednesday, July 29, 2009

WIP Wednesday- Rainbow Week Continues and The Tale of Two Crowns


What a wonderful coincidence, it's rainbow week and I can also show off the crown that Matteo is getting for his birthday! Now before you all get excited on me... NO, I didn't make this crown. As I was searching Etsy for ideas and supplies, I came across this gorgeous, breathtaking silk/wool wet felted crown made by the immensely talented Susanna Wallis. Even though, I had already bought supplies for Matteo's crown, even though I was already more than halfway finished with it... I just saw this crown and fell in love (I mean, look at those crystals embroidered in the middle of every star... too precious!).

So, I feel like I am punking out a bit on the original crown. I even spent an evening appliqueing trees on one of the side panels- ripping them out almost immediately because, well they just looked so sad. But this is my solution... stay with me here... Last year my best friend wore 2 dresses for her wedding- a beautiful traditional white ballroom wedding dress for the ceremony and then a gorgeous hot pink silk halter dress for the reception... no reason why Matteo can't have 2 crowns for his birthday, right? The rainbow crown can be the special one to be worn for the family dinner every year and the train one can be his special 4th birthday crown he can wear to the party with his friends and year round for play, which also gives me an excuse to make a crown every year that can reflect his interests (as with the trains this year).

Mr Birthday Boy has a pretty good stash of royal goodies coming his way. We got a copy of Ivan's family's coat of arms and I hoping to make an applique of it to put on Matteo's robe and I will finish off the year round crown


I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco a few weekends ago and picked up some really delectable roving. They both are made with merino wool and silk. The purple/magenta one has pieces of silk sari and the blue/green one has bits of peacock feathers. Inspired by the rainbow crown, I want to make one for my beloved Nico. His birthday isn't until November, but I REALLY wanted to do some wet felting and get my hands on that batting!

I'm still laying down the wool and oh.my.goodness... it is the softest material I have ever laid my hands on! It's like working with gossamer. After some trial and error last week with other pieces, I realized that it takes quite a few layers to get the thickness I want. The mohair roving is going to be embellishments on the crown. I'd like to inlay them into the crown as I wet felt it or I'll needle felt it if the inlay doesn't work.
For those who are interested in trying this at home, the batting (I am working with almost 2 oz) is available from Yeti Yarns and Dry Goods and the mohair roving from Luna Bud Knits. If this works out, I'll post a tutorial... wish me luck :)!

I am very excited to be participating in the the Seasons Round Exchange and have started some of the projects (this is where you, Grace, my swap buddy have to close your eyes if you want to be surprised :) ). Matteo and I needle felted a few acorns.

...more to follow :)

I realize this is probably one the longest posts I've done in ages. Thanks for sticking with me, lovely friends :). Surfing around, there have been some other great projects going on with the WIPsters, go check them out!

11 comments:

Nicola said...

AWESOME! all of it, marina. it would have been fun to go to renegade (together?) but i was out of town. was it worthwhile?

the crown is gorgeous and i am ALL for the dual crown theory. i have been considering making new crowns for my two. their were the first i made and SO simple, so every crown i have made since has been simple (out of fairness). they play with them all year, so i thought special crowns would be worthwhile. haven't done anything about that yet!

and the acorns...very very cute. are they hard?

nicola
http://whichname.blogspot.com

Alicia said...

Wow, what a beautiful crown, a feast for the eyes!

Jen said...

Amazing - all of it! I look forward to seeing the coat of arms. I've always wanted to do something with the Professor's...

You asked about spinning, so I must confess I still haven't gotten around to it. My roving is very lonesome - thanks for the nudge!

Next time I make cheese & yogurt I'll try to take pix. But seriously, they are both so easy. I used Mark Bittman's recipes from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian.

renee ~ heirloom seasons said...

I really love those little acorns! So cute!

gardenmama said...

*gorgeous* crown!!!
I would love to see how yours comes out and a tutorial!?!? yay : )
Your acorns are really sweet, we made them in the past and had so much fun with them!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Just WOW! You're so amazing, Mama. The family coat of arms stitched by hand into his royal robes?? Genius. And those felted acorns! I do hope you'll consider a tutorial. Would love to make us some for our Totoro-inspired birthday this year :-)

FrontierDreams said...

yay! i love it all!! i hope to make more felted acorns to hang on our tree this year.

i love your crown theory. i need to fix up kaulini's for this year's birthday.

<3 to you!

Tahara said...

Two crowns...What a lucky boy...The crown is beautiful Marina!...Sounds like a lovely celebration is being planned :-)

Songbird Mama said...

love the acorns! good fall project!

LunabudKnits said...

I am so looking forward to seeing what you make out of the mohair locks from my shop:) There is such joy in seeing what the dye work becomes. Thank you very much for posting a link!
Steph
LunabudKnits

mommychick said...

That's a GORGEOUS crown! Wow! I love making those sweet acorns, too:-) I have a pic of some on my blog somewhere.