Creating Your Own Designs

If you’ve followed my work for some time, you’ll know that something I constantly mention is how I like to teach in a way that empowers you to develop your style and explore your creativity.

I see no point in just showing you how to felt an object. When I’m developing my courses, my goal is always to go into the details and the reasons why I’m using a particular technique. That way, you can apply what you’ve learnt in a different project, so you’re free to develop your own designs. That allows you to grow way beyond the methods taught in a tutorial.

That’s one of the reasons I was so happy when I got an email from Audrey Petzold a couple of weeks ago. Audrey bought the tutorial “Felt Food – Fruit” last April and she wanted to know if the basic procedures I used for making the toy fruits could be scaled up to make life size fruits.

I told Audrey it was perfectly possible, and that she just had to make sure that the inner layers were felted enough to apply the next ones. Basically, all there is to do is apply more layers of white wool before adding the colored wool on the exterior. 

Then I asked her to send me photos of her work when she finished. And she did! 😊 

Audrey sent me pictures of her finished project, a wonderful handmade gift for a dear friend. She says, “Because your response was encouraging, I used your method and made 4 apples, each a different variety and color.” She used a bowl handmade by someone else she knows – the beautiful Acoma Pueblo pottery – and added a variety of purple apples (called Black Diamond, that I didn’t even know about), a Pink Lady, a Granny Smith and an Opal apple.

I can only imagine how thrilled her friend was about this gift. And I bet Audrey has really enjoyed turning the tutorial into an idea of her own.

Here’s a challenge for you! Take a look at my free tutorials and create your own design based on one of them. Then, send me the photos, so that we can all be inspired 😊

Talk soon!