Angels for Babies... 100 Days Project

So the 100 Days Project is approaching... the starting day is 22 May.
My project is going to be called Angels for Babies... making angels to give away to women who have been unable to have babies, or who have lost babies.

Having gone through my own journey, my heart went out to a woman in my choir, whose daughter in England is experiencing the same heartbreak. She has been unable to carry a child full term, and after an entopic pregnancy, where surgeons had to remove her baby even though she felt fine, is now having trouble conceiving. I know the heartbreak of blood. After hearing her story, I thought I would like to make her an angel, to let her know she is not alone in this. When it came to deciding upon a project for the 100 Days, several ideas later, I decided to make 100 angels, to be given away to women who have lost a baby or find themselves with the heartbreak of being unable to have a baby.  This is the beginning of a journey that will be emotional, beautiful, and I hope also healing.

In preparation for the start of the 100 Days Project... preparing angel bodies, ready to be transformed day by day during the project. Made from sheeps wool.

So... it has started, and I am up to Day 20. I have been having fun playing with colours, ribbons, feathers, and thread. My challenge so far has been to make each angel different with the colours that I have. My stash of wool has been in my craft room for a few years and it really started when I did my first 100 Days project 4 years ago when I decided to needlefelt something every day for 100 days. My mum has added to it as she gifts me wool that she has dyed and carded, but is unsuitable for spinning, whether it is because she accidentally felts it or because it is the leftover bits.

Each day I share a little bit of my story on the website... Angels for Babies 100 Days Project. I hope it is not all doom and gloom even though it is a bit of a sad subject. I have been learning that this is a really common scenario for many women, and that they too have to rewrite their fairytale. I have been humbled by the women who have contacted me so far, and shared their stories with me. Every woman has their own story., their hopes and dreams shattered by reality, and my heart goes out to them.

Update... It is now Day 54 of the 100 day project, and so far I have managed to stay up to date, although I haven't necessarily been upload to the website each day, because I prefer to take photos in daylight rather than at night. It can be a challenge to make every angel different and unique when using a limited range of colours (although I really do have a lot of different colours!). I have started getting a bit choosy over colours, as I wonder if I have used too much of one colour - sometimes it feels like all my angels are mostly blue, or purple, and I can struggle with indecisiveness. So I have adopted a new technique to bypass choosing colours: I just stick my hand into my plastic tub full of wool, and whatever comes out, I use.  As to my journey so far as this project progresses, I have found Facebook support groups for people dealing with IVF and infertility; I have found an Auckland infertility support group that meets each month; and friends have been telling me about friends they know who are going through what I have been through. I still cry about it at random times (especially if articles about abortion or pregnancy suddenly comes on the news), and I wonder if I need to go to counselling to help me deal with these emotions, as it has been a few years now, and I still get upset.

There are lots of tutorials available online to learn how to make an angel... I am sure I learnt how to do it through Twig & Toadstool but I can't find the link right now.  I have created a tutorial on a separate post, Tutorial for making needle felted angels, just because when searching for a tutorial, I am having trouble finding a nice simple one.

 Day 1... I made miniature hearts for my angels to hold; and added sparkly Angelina to the wings. I didn't iron the Angelina - just layered the wool roving over the the back, and felted it in, to keep the Angelina in place.

 Had a go at felting koru shapes onto the skirt.

Experimenting with feathers for wings... I put the feathers together, (2 feathers on each side) with the ends of the feathers overlapping. I wrapped wool roving around the ends of the feathers in the centre of the wings to hold them together and felted the roving into place, which secures the feathers.

 Playing around with copper thread, and feathers.

Plaited hair, tied off with silver thread. Silver thread around the waist holds the yarn over her shoulders in place.

I felted the flowers onto the green wool roving first, before attaching it to the dress. A thin strand of roving around the waist holds the lacy ribbon in place.

I sewed the beads onto the angel, taking the thread right through from the front to the back of the angel.

Strands of sparkly blue yarn on each side of her shoulder; held into place by wool roving wrapped around her waist and stabbed to secure.

I attached the flowers to the purple roving before putting it on the angel. You can learn how to make the flowers on this tutorial... Tutorial for making needle felted angels. I then wrapped a thin ribbon around her waist and tied it off at the back.

The beaded strands is held into place with wool roving wrapped around the waist and stabbed into place to secure.

To secure the feathers into place at the back, I placed a piece of wool roving over the ends and stabbed it into place.

 I made the miniature flowers using a small piece of pipecleaner, and a scrap of felt rolled into a flower shape.

 The stars were made from bondable Angelina fibre which I ironed; then I used a little star sticker as a template and cut around it on the Angelina to create the stars. I sewed the stars into place, and put one star in her hair. I put a bit of Angelina fibre in the wings as well (not ironed), to add a little bit of sparkle.

 I need a new stick - am running out of room.

 I used a bit of ribbon folded over into the middle, as wings.

 This angel is wearing a white feather boa - very glamorous!

 I used corriedale/sheeps wool as the base of the angel and her dress; but I used a merino/silk/corriedale mix for over the top - it feels so soft and silky.

I plaited her hair at the back.

 A multicoloured angel, with different colours around her skirt as well as over the top.

 This is the back of the multicoloured angel.

 A rainbow inspired angel, complete with rainbow wings, and holding a miniature heart. I sew the miniature hearts into place.

 I quite like using a variety of colours on the dresses and reflecting the colours in the wings.

 48 angels hanging off a stick.

 I am being brave and using different colours for the hair - previously I have tried to go for natural coloured hair. I rather like this little angel with her yellow dress and pink hair.