Sunday, June 13, 2010

Felted pencil holders/Filz-Stifte

Oh dear, it's been a fortnight since I posted last, I'm sorry for that ...

The heat of the summer has struck us completely now - 30-35°C in the shadow, and it's often too hot to do anything ... The kids have two more weeks to go before they're off on summer holidays, and we're all looking forward to get a leave ...!

It's late in the evening, and I've just finished preserving ten small jars of strawberry jam with elderberry flowers - if you're lucky still to have some fresh elderberry flowers in your garden when the strawberries are ripening, you really should try this: just boil the strawberries as usual, but put a small branch of elderberry flowers into the jar before filling it up with the hot jam - that's all! The combination is wonderful - and no extra effort at all - and I'm sure you won't regret this little experiment!

Two weeks ago, my daughter Emily and I spent an afternoon felting some pencil holders, just for fun - you just wrap a pencil tightly with some wool roving, felt it with warm soap water, rinse it and form the upper tail as you please, then let it dry:



When completely dry, I embroidered a couple of them with the handdyed thread and some beads:



Well, I've managed to finish the first silk/wool shoulder scarf as well, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out:



As you can see from the detailed picture, I felted a shawl pin in the matching colours to go with it:



Following an idea of Sara, I used a Chinese chopstick for the pin and wet felted around the top in a similar way as with the pencils. The shawl and the pin were a birthday present for a very dear friend of mine.

(German version: Bei uns ist es im Moment so heiß, daß man fast gar nichts machen kann! Trotzdem habe ich heute das Spezialrezept meiner Mutter, für Erdbeermarmelade mit Holunderblüten, machen müssen: Man kocht die Erdbeeren wie üblich, nur daß man noch ein Blütenzweigerl ins Glas gibt, bevor man die heiße Marmelade hineinfüllt! Sehr einfach und sehr empfehlenswert - wenn man das Glück hat, noch frische Blüten im Garten zu haben!


Mit meiner Tochter habe ich noch ein paar Stifte mit Filzwolle ummantelt und naßgefilzt, dann bestickt - ja, und das Woll-/Seidenschultertuch ist auch fertig und hat schon eine neue Besitzerin gefunden!)

10 comments:

Kelly said...

I love your pencils. I made a few pens in the same fashion. I love how tou embroidered yours! Very pretty!

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Thank you, Kelly! I've never had such a fast comment as yours - within minutes :-)!

Kékmadár said...

Nagyon-nagyon tündériek a ceruzavégek!

Elizabeth said...

The pencils are really cute and I love the chopstick-idea.

Now about this complaint of the heat. Just think of me, still wearing my wintercoat in the morning, 16 degrees celcius high noon. Please I long for some sunshine, it is almost impossible not to become envious.

Have a lovely warm day, enjoy yourself.

Sara lechner said...

also, ihr wart nicht untätig. bin auf die bleistifte ganz neidig!

Connie said...

I love the pencils! I also love that you have the English and German on your blog. It allows me to practice reading German. I spoke fluently as a child but not so much now! We are at 40C however we do have air conditioning!

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Thank you so much girls - even if I unfortunately don't understand Hungarian! And nope, no air condition at our place - but some shadow under the trees in the garden at least ...
And for Elizabeth: If you want some sunshine I guess you have to jump on the bus and visit me ;-) ...

Angela said...

I love your felted pencils, they are so colourful :)

Helga said...

Die Stifte habe ich auch gerade bei unseren Sommerfest mit den Kindern gearbeitet.Sie sind immer wieder schön
Liebe Grüsse
Helga

Unknown said...

I tried these and failed miserably haha... Could you please give a more detailed step by step guide for me? I've never felted before but I just love those pencil holders