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| Giant safety pins and felt ball beads |
I was inspired by the work of Christa Saalfrank (She's just relocating so without a website I can share for you... but you can see her here in Carol Cypher's blog). Christa has taken the simple felted bead to amazing places with surface embellishment, embroidery and occasional seed bead.
I loved her approach, selling lovely hand made felted beads for you to embellish yourself, along side her stunning finished ensembles. I fell in love with about three, finding it hard to choose between sea greens and a heady mix of russets and purples.
What really caught my attention is how well her work illustrates the point that sometimes a single thing is frail and the message lost, but mass them together and they become something absolutely gorgeous, oozing character, designer style and definite desirability.
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| Not Christa's but a fun game to play |
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| The jacket that wouldn't 'do up'. |
It is also that lesson in perseverance, the tenacity and commitment to keep producing without knowing, until you have amassed the pieces, whether your original choices will work together.
I'm loving this whole idea, it is a very liberating way to play with colour, pattern and detail. So, on my giant safety pin I have a selection of 'Christa' inspired beaded felt beads in my fave shades of murky greens to match a lovely knitted jacket I'd been unable to wear because of that whole 'no fastening' thing that is really fashionable but not so practical.
Already I am itching to throw in some light coral, maybe a hint of turquoise, resisting the urge to rummage in the thread box... but am almost inevitably going to create a colourful tassel for the end of my pin and beaded beads to go between the felted ones.