Mermaid Love and a handmade Birthday

I made this mermaid playmat for my daughter who is in mermaid love right now. We celebrated her 6th birthday last week.








I made this playmat from plant dyed wool felt fabric which I dyed using kurkuma powder for the yellow, indigo for the blue and krapp (redwood) for the pink. For the green I overdyed one yellow piece with indigo. Dying with Krapp and Kurkuma is not very complicated and the colors are alway coming out in beautiful ways. I used it quit often in the past for dying playsilks. A little bit of Alaun added to the pot with the color thats all I did and it worked out well. The indigo was a bit tricky for me, I tried it the first time and it made a beautiful blue in the beginning but when rinsing the fabric most of the color was washing off again. For the stones I felted an old brown wool sweater. It is all needled and embroidered by hand. To attache the different areas together I used buttonhole stitches. The stones and the seashell are stuffed with lambs wool. Flowers, leafs, stones can be arranged and re arranged which allows a very creative way of play. The wooden figures are all made by Ostheimer in Germany.