Festival Pony Felted Wool Coin Purse

$32.00 USD

100% New Zealand Wool
Open pasture, naturally soft, cleanly spun, and extraordinarily resilient.
Individually Hand-Sculpted
Wet-felted and needle-detailed so no two pieces are identical.
Naturally Fresh & Durable
Breathable, odor-resistant, and easy to spot clean.

Description

A pony in full harness, mid-stride, across the whole front of a purse.

He wears a yellow saddle over a blanket edged all the way round in blanket stitch, with a lazy-daisy flower worked at its centre — each petal a separate looped stitch anchored at the tip. The bridle is a fine cream cord laid along the face and stitched down over the top, a technique called couching, which is the only way to get a line that thin to follow a curve without puckering.

The mane and tail are a different wool from the body. The horse itself is smooth cut felt; the mane and tail are loose unspun fleece, left shaggy and barely worked, so they read as hair against the flat coat. Two materials, one animal.

Cobalt & Cream — a cream horse with a grey mane and tail on electric blue, with a teal blanket edged in yellow.
Rust & Green — a green horse with a black mane and grey tail on burnt orange, with a white blanket edged in red.

Neither pony is a colour a horse has ever been, which is the folk-art licence the whole piece runs on.

15 × 12 cm. Metal zip along the top with a matching felted ball pull, and a plain back.

He has a brooch-sized brother in the Festival Pony pin. Made from New Zealand wool.

New Zealand wool, felted into a flat pouch.
Cut-felt horse, saddle and blanket, applied and stitched down.
Loose unspun fleece for the mane and tail.
Cotton floss for the blanket stitch, lazy-daisy flower and couched bridle.
Metal zip with a matching felted wool ball pull.

15 x 12 cm (approx. 5.9 x 4.7 in).
Flat body, open at the top with a metal zip.
Fits cards, coins, a key and a lip balm.

Cut-felt appliqué with three different kinds of hand stitching, each doing a job the others cannot.
The saddle blanket is edged the whole way round in blanket stitch — a looped edge stitch that binds a raw felt edge and decorates it in the same pass. At its centre sits a lazy daisy, properly a detached chain stitch, where every petal is a single loop anchored at its tip.
The bridle is couched. A fine cream cord is laid along the line of the face and then stitched down across it at intervals, rather than being sewn through as a running line. It is the only way to make a cord that thin follow the curve of a cheek without puckering, and it leaves the cord sitting raised on the surface where a stitched line would sink in.
The mane and tail are a deliberate change of material. The horse's body is smooth cut felt with a clean edge; the mane and tail are loose unspun fleece, left shaggy and barely worked. Cut from the same felt they would have read as more horse. Left raw, they read as hair.
And neither pony is a colour a horse has ever been. That is the folk-art licence the piece runs on, and it is why a green horse on burnt orange looks considered rather than careless.

Pure New Zealand pasture wool naturally repels dust and light spills thanks to its dense, organic fiber structure.

The mane and tailloose fleece will catch and tangle against a bag lining before anything else does. Comb it straight with your fingers rather than a brush, which pulls strands out at the root.

The bridlethe couched cord sits raised on the surface and is held by stitches across it, not through it. If it lifts, ease it back under its stitches rather than pulling on the cord.

Day-to-daya soft brush lifts dust. Keep a lint roller off the front — it will drag at both the mane and the blanket stitching.

Spot cleaningblot with a barely damp cloth and dry fully open so the zip tape dries too. Never soak and never machine wash — the cobalt and rust grounds will both run into the pale horse and blanket.