Name: Marigold Fairy Felted Wool Charm
Brand: Carding House Co.
SKU: CHC-ORN-F-017
Price: 28.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Marigold Fairy Felted Wool Charm

$28.00 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 felted fairy in a red dress with gold butterfly wings, long dangling legs and flowers embroidered across every surface.

She is a fairy rather than an angel, and the wings decide it. Angels are given feathered bird wings. Hers are butterfly wings — two rounded lobes on each side, a forewing above and a hindwing below, exactly as the insect is built.

The marigold runs through everything: her wings, her hair, her shoes. Against the red dress it is the whole colour scheme, and it is what she is named for.

Every flower on her is worked in detached chain stitch. Each petal is a single loop of thread laid on the surface and caught down at its tip, so the loop stays open in the middle and stands slightly off the felt. There are more than a dozen of them — on both wings, across her skirt, and on the toe of each shoe.

The flower centres are small gold beads rather than knots of thread, so each one catches light.

Around the wings and along her hem runs a line of pink and yellow running stitch, dashed rather than continuous. Her green stems and leaves are straight stitches. Her shoes carry a small cross stitch each. That is four different hand stitches on one ornament.

Her hair is yarn, not felt — long strands laid from a centre parting, falling either side of her face and down her back.

Her eyes are closed, with lashes curving down, and there is a string of gold beads at her throat.

On a cream cord.

Made from New Zealand wool.

Please note: small beads. Not suitable for children under three.

New Zealand wool, felted.
Dyed red and mustard gold with an undyed cream face.
Yarn hair.
Hand embroidery in pink, yellow, red and green thread.
Small gold beads at the flower centres and throat.
Cream hanging cord.

Four different hand stitches are at work on this one piece, and the flowers are the reason to buy it.
Every flower on her is worked in detached chain stitch. Each petal is a single loop of thread laid on the surface and caught down at its tip, so the loop stays open in the middle and stands slightly off the felt rather than lying flat in it. It is the oldest way of embroidering a petal and nobody has improved on it.
There are more than a dozen of them heretwo on each wing, three across the skirt, one on the toe of each shoe. Every petal of every one is a separate loop, placed and anchored individually. A felted-on flower shape would have taken a fraction of the time and read as a blob of colour.
The centres are small gold beads rather than French knots. A knot would have been quicker and would have read as a dot. A bead catches the light and moves when she turns.
The dashed lines around the wings and along the hem are running stitch — deliberately spaced rather than continuous, which is what gives them their rhythm. A solid line would have been a border. A dashed one reads as decoration.
The green stems and leaves are straight stitches laid in a fan, and each shoe carries a small cross stitch at the toe.
SHE IS A FAIRY, NOT AN ANGEL
The wings decide it, and the distinction is real rather than decorative. Angels are given feathered bird wings. Hers are butterfly wings — two rounded lobes on each side, a larger forewing above and a smaller hindwing below, which is exactly how a butterfly is built.
Anyone reaching for an angel for the top of a tree should know that before they order.
The colour is held to twomarigold and red, with nothing else but the cream of her face and the thread. The marigold does the wings, the hair and the shoes — three places, widely separated, which is what ties the figure together top to bottom. Scatter a third colour through her and that thread would break.
The hair is yarn rather than felt, which is a different material and a different joblong strands laid from a centre parting, falling either side of the face and gathered down the back. Felted hair would have been a cap of colour. Laid yarn has strands you can see, and it moves.
Her eyes are closed with the lashes curving down below them. Closed eyes are harder to carry off than open ones — there is no bead to do the work, only two curved lines and the lashes to tell you she is at peace rather than simply faceless.

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

Day-to-dayair her rather than wash her. Wool sheds dust and odour on its own given a few hours somewhere with moving air.

The embroiderythe chain-stitch petals are open loops standing off the surface, which makes them the first thing to catch on a branch or a sleeve. If one lifts, ease it flat rather than pulling the thread, which closes the loop and loses the petal.

The beadssmall and individually set at the flower centres and the throat. Check them now and then.

The hairloose yarn strands. Smooth them down with your fingers rather than combing, which drags them out of the parting.

Hanging heruse the cord at the crown, not a wing or a leg. The legs are long and are not meant to take weight.

Spot cleaningblot with a barely damp cloth and dry hanging. Never submerge — red against an undyed cream face is the pairing that runs, and a pink face cannot be undone.