Besides wearing pearls for our wedding, it was important to me to have handmade felted jewelry as well as felted décor. Felting in wool is a huge passion of mine. I started felting during grad school and it became my form of expression. I have recently started to incorporate pearls with felting and wanted to showcase it on the table runner.
This was another challenging project, but I was thrilled to see the finished pieces. My maid of honor Michelle and I decided to make a table runner for the head table. We went to the Fashion District in downtown LA and found beige-to-brown fabrics to create the ombré layers. Michelle cut and pieced together the layers, and I was in charge of the decorations at the two ends of the table. The total length of the runner came out to be over 35 feet! I used Merino wool cut into petal-like shapes and felted it onto the lace fabric. I then sewed pearls in the center and pieced them together with lace, fabric, doilies, etc. It captured the warm, rustic look I was aiming for.
Photo taken before the setup
I also wanted to wear felted jewelry for the wedding, and I put together a bracelet the day before we left for Santa Barbara. I sewed small Akoya pearls—leftovers from my Tokyo wedding jewelry—in the centers of the beige roses and felted them onto white Merino wool. I used a 10.5 mm freshwater button pearl as the clasp.
Felted bracelet with Akoya and Freshwater pearls
Michelle has also made pearl hair fascinators to all the bridal party including our mothers. She used 7-9 mm Freshwater buttons.
Our great friend Sarah and her husband Mounir from Kojima Pearls gave us these wonderful pearl gifts. The cuff links are set in resin embedded with baby mollusks and natural pearls. We’ve never seen anything like it! It was made by Fuji Voll in the 1960’s.
The earrings are handmade by Sarah’s best friend. The natural Abalone pair is set on high carat gold and it is such a simple and beautiful piece of jewelry. I’m planning to get a lot of wear out of them on our honeymoon to Italy!
