Failed Experiments

It is often said that great things are often discovered by accident... this was not one of those times.  If there is one thing that I have learned (over and over again, it seems) it's that there are no shortcuts in felting.  I made a last minute decision (the way I make most of my decisions) to make felt slippers for all the ladies in my immediate and in-law family for Christmas.  I had a pair for my Mom already finished, but I needed felt to make five more pairs, and only had a few days left to do it.  I had some pre-felt (slightly felted material) scraps laying around from a previous project, but needed bigger and thicker pieces, so decided I'd try to combine them into a larger piece.  I did't feel like I had time for traditional methods, so concocted an idea of basting the pieces together with sewing thread and throwing them in a hot water cycle in the washing machine...  the idea being that the layers would fuse and firm up as it felted.  It didn't work.

And I'm not sure why I thought it would work, because I've actually done something like this before with similar results.  Wishful thinking, I suppose.  I guess some lessons have to be learned over and over again.  I saved this crazy mess to someday be the innards of something sculptural in felt.