Felting Fail

I wanted to try wet felting some bird pods this week but apparently it was an epic failure. I followed some excellent instructions from Jeanne Harlan-Marriott but somewhere I went off track.

My daughter came over yesterday and while looking out the window asked me why I had dead rats hanging from the tree. These dead rats were the 3 bird pods I made.

I do know where I went wrong (mostly) and hopefully with a lot more practice I can perfect my wet felting skills or lack thereof. The first one I made wasn't too bad but I did not like my colour choice of roving. The second one I decided to use some fleece I had been given for free. This way I thought I could practice without spending any money. I lost the ties on this one partway through the felting process. The table I was using was not very wide and the ties were hanging over the edge and with the weight of the water they fell out of the pod. I was able to put a couple of them back in and tied the others on. The third one was the worst of all. I went off script and went for a different shape. I again used the fleece but made this one way too thick. I also cut the hole for the opening in the wrong spot. Many lessons learned on these pods.

I know the birds don't care what they look like but I do so I would like to make at least one I am happy with before I got back to work in September.