Completed chakra hearts felt project in my living room

This is a short post to showcase my first finished felting project.

Final work

It did take a bit of a push to finish.

Once the seven hearts were felted, I did a little editing on them, adding a few fibre strands, needling some loose areas, and trimming some stray bits. I couldn’t find clear fishing line, which I usually have in my crafting boxes, so instead I used embroidery thread and an embroidery needly to stitch together the hearts.

I made the mistake of going up through the bottoms of the hearts, and had to do a little needling to get things back into shape. The piece of driftwood I already had. I used some necklace line and a pushpin to hang the driftwood.

Now I am happy to have the project hanging in my living room, next to my work desk.

Reflections

The project had two tricky parts – getting started, even once I had my materials, because I didn’t know how long it would take to learn, and finishing. Other than that, it was really enjoyable, portable, and addictive.

My inquiry question #3 was about using felting in the art classroom, and I think these are useful reflections to weave in. I think it might be important to support students in pushing through initial resistance, and in helping them to complete.

As for this particular project as a classroom option, I will have to think more. One the one hand, it’s a great first project, because it’s straightforward. On the other hand, it doesn’t involve much “voice” and “choice”. There were worksheets regarding each chakra and colour significance, which I haven’t blogged about, and I do think that those could be woven into a classroom for therapeutic value.

Going forward

As I mentioned in my last post, I feel like I am at a fork in the road: I can continue playing around with my leftover felting materials, or I can start doing some research into felt practices over time in this region. I think I will play around a bit more, which is both exciting and intimidating. Stay tuned.