alternative use for wire shaping jig

[lyn]

I had a brief fling with making jewellery a few years back - I love beads and all things sparkly - and one of the little tools I bought was like an acrylic peg board with metal rods. The rods can be inserted into the board so that you can shape wire around it to make shapes or words.

Last year I was asked to make new tusks for a soft, fabric toy elephant. I made white 'rope' from wool fibres then cut it in half to make two tusks (the cut edge was thick and each piece tapered to a point).

How to shape them? Ta-Dah! The jewellery-wire jig.

Anyone else found a felting use for equipment designed for other crafts?

[MTRuth]

That's a cool idea Lyn! Nice way to get the shape you want.

[Shepherdess]

A very cool tool. I bet using the mats and pins for blocking shawls would work too.

[charley]

Ingenious, wonderful idea.

[kjarvala]

That is so COol!!! what a briliant reperpousing. i have been uesing a seed planting mettle guide to wrap tows...and my felting serface is usualy a garden nealing pad sometimes i use a pice of pool noodle.... and my bee decapping cones work well for fiber prep, i hope the bees dont mind. - jan

[lyn]

Hello Jan - I'm intrigued - how do you use the bee decapping cones in fibre prep?

[Ann @ frabjous fabrica]

Nov 25, 2021 7:59:28 GMT lyn said:

Hello Jan - I'm intrigued - how do you use the bee decapping cones in fibre prep?

I think that Jan was referring to decapping combs.  From Google images they look like a miniature wool comb, and just as lethal!

[Ann @ frabjous fabrica]

I must admit that I have never** bought purpose made felting tools (other than needles of course, along with leather thumb and finger protectors). When I (and no doubt a good number of you) first started felting I don't think that there were any. We used bath towels, net curtains, bamboo blinds, bubble wrap, wooden dowelling or plastic piping, hand soap (the smellier the better as far as I was concerned) and builders' black plastic for resists, plastic milk bottles with holes in the lid for water, a polythene Ice Cream container for my soap gel, a car wash sponge, loose polythene gloves, various polythene bowls, funnels and jugs and that was it.
I have now added to that list, old pillow cases (opened up in most cases), non-slip mats, a "washboard" made from glass pebbles stuck to an acrylic sheet, ridged floor covering, ridged carpet protectors, a plasterer's wooden finishing trowel covered in carpet protector, a handle salvaged from a sanding tool that I was talked into buying at a show which never did what they said it would, part of a massage tool - the bit with moving spheres in a circular base, variously shaped wooden objects for working inside 3D makes, and of course the standard upholstery foam and my dog comb mini hand carders for needle felting.
I'm always on the look out for other things that might be of use when I'm out and about, particularly in charity (thrift) shops or a Pound Shop - and that reminds me I once bought a pair of car foot well mats - the ridged rubber type - for £1 which I used before I got the floor coverings to use.

Do you think that at some time in the future archaeologists might scratch their heads over our workshops?


** I tell a lie, I once bought a polystyrene hat block, which I think I've used once.

[lyn]

Ha-ha Ann - yes what would the archaeologists make of it all?

[Shepherdess]

I have very few purpose build tools. Maybe 2 that were gifts. When I bought my ball browser it wasn't a standard felting tool yet. I still use a plastic coffee canister for water. I have a real glass washboard but also lots of other rigged things for rolling on. I have a whole bag of nylons. I had thought about getting rid of all the tops but then I got asked to do a felt on a ball class so I am glad I kept them.

[Ann @ frabjous fabrica]

I've just remembered that when I was doing a lot of rolling of felt, I made myself a couple of velcro fastening strips, to quickly secure the roll and just as quickly release it. I just stitched the end of a length of the fuzzy strip to the end - wrong side - of the loop strip so that where-ever the end came after you'd wrapped it round a roll, you were able to press it onto the opposite strip and hey presto it stayed. I used to get so frustrated with rolls unrolling if not tied, but couldn't stand tying and untying knots, which usually slipped anyway. Impatient, that's me.

[lindsay]

Fabulous peg board, Lyn.

Oh my, I have so many ‘tools’ that originally have nothing to do with felting. My latest acquisition (a couple of weeks ago) came from a local antiques market stall. It looks like a large slightly flat wooden darning mushroom or a small cabbage press but has circular ridges cut in to the surface. Apparently it’s an antique Austrian potato masher. I’m certain it will come in useful any day now.

Something I’ve used very recently is a honey drizzler (bought in a charity shop, of course) Good for getting into small spaces to apply friction. Also a beautiful hand made porridge spurtle I bought from the maker last summer. Very smooth and strong. It has a knobbly end and a smaller end, both of which are great at getting through small holes and working 3D objects from the inside. I do love finding felting uses for old tools.

[lyn]

I had to look up 'porridge spurtle'! It seems ideal for felting - as does the honey drizzler.

[lindsay]

Dec 6, 2021 7:09:18 GMT lyn said:

I had to look up 'porridge spurtle'! It seems ideal for felting - as does the honey drizzler.

Ha ha. I admit I had to look up the spelling of spurtle (I was ok with porridge!). The honey drizzlers are a great shape but rather flimsy. I’m not sure how much serious pressure they will take. The spurtle, on the other hand, was clearly made to deal with some sturdy porridge. 

[Shepherdess]

I have one of each of those too Lindsay. My honey dipper is quite sturdy. I have massage rollers and a Chinese jade face roller. I don't think I have used that yet. Other cool stuff too that I am sure I have forgotten about.