Frightening Fruit With Ceramic Bowl

Fruit Materials:
8" x 11" x 2" foam pad
36-, 38- and 40-gauge felting needles
3" 2x2x2x2 38-gauge felting needle*
wool bat
fruit colored wool roving
green roving for the leaf and stem
sharp material scissors
small bits of roving:
- eye color roving
- black roving for filling in the mouth and eye
- white roving for eye and teeth
wooden skewer or cocktail straw
embroidery thread
3" to 5" doll needle
multi-needle tool - optional
*3" 2x2x2x2 38-gauge felting needle means that there are 4 sides to the needle with 2 barbs per side.

Bowl Materials:
bisque bowl
#2 pencil
various sizes of round brushes
liner brush
Mayco Stroke glazes (glazes that fire to cone 06)
Mayco C-109 clear coating glaze
drill with an attached glaze paddle (for mixing the clear coat)
Skutt programmable kiln
stilts for the kiln
sanding sponge
glass grinder with bit
safety glasses

1. To form the core, stuff two good handfuls of wool bat or roving into the end of a nylon stocking. Pack the wool in and tie off the end so you have a wool ball inside (figure A). Tip: The more tightly you make the ball the less needling you will need to do later. Also, the larger the balls the bigger the head as the roving or wool bat will shrink. Continue forming wool balls throughout the nylon stocking until you have several balls tied in a row (figure B). Place the string of balls into the washing machine and wash at a high temperature. Do not add detergent your machine will have residual detergent in it already. Dry the balls on high heat in the dryer. The point is to shrink the balls to produce firm balls. Peel the nylon off the balls. You now have a core to create your whimsical fruit (figure C).

2. Roll and tuck a 1" x 4" piece of roving wool into a small ball to form the nose. Secure the ball as you roll with a needle by simply poking straight in and out. Leave at least an inch "tail" on the ball. Position the nose in the center of the head making sure to leave room above the nose for the eyes and below for the lips. Tack down the ends and the bottom of the nose with a needle. Then tack the loose tail into the nose bridge (figure D).

3. Form the upper lip with a piece of 2-1/2" x 1-1/2" wool on the mat. Lay another piece on top of this making sure the fibers go in the same direction (up and down). Needle felt a line going from left to right all the way across this piece. Fold the piece in half. Needle felt about 1/4 inch right at the fold. Pick up anything you felt on to the foam occasionally or it will permanently felt into the foam. Spilt the piece down the center. Place the spit piece so each of the two sides goes around the nose, one on the left and the other side on the right. Tack down the sides but not the corners.