You could say this vessel is laden with mistakes.
This was my first attempt at making a 'pumpkin' vessel but I have certainly made other vessels, but in my own defense, not that many, three to be exact. But this one turned out bulky and heavy and it's simply because I forgot basic principles that should become innate for me soon.
Mistake #1: Layered the fibers too thick aound the resist.
Mistake #2: Put fiber layers in the wrong order causing the outer layer to be horizontal rather that vertical. Result: Couldn't apply pantyhose wraps without disturbing the fiber layers.
Mistake #3: Tried to correct mistake #2 by covering fiber with sheer curtain remnant so I could pull the pantyhose over the mass without disturbing the layers.
Mistake #4: Prefelted the vessel before discovering the sheer had acted as a 'resist' and created folds in the surface of the vessel. (Luckily this vessel is felted wrong side out so the folds are on the inside and I discovered the problem in time to remove the sheer so that the final wet felting stage somewhat corrected the folds issue.)
Anyway, not wanting to give up on this beautiful fall-colored fiber, I added the embellishing yarn around the top then finished felting and fulling the vessel, taking extra time and effort to try and get the walls thinner and more acceptable. This helped but it is still too bulky. Nothing to do about that now except add the bead embellishments. Those will be larger earthy looking beads rather than the delicate glass ones that I had in mind in the beginning. When finished, it will be an acceptable vessel for displaying little gourds or nuts or even small twists of roving in the studio. (I will take additional photos when it is finished.)
