Here’s some more fun fiber links:
Felt:
The Therapeutic Powers of Felting
Liz Butcher’s Felted Fields with Geese
Pam DeGroot’s Artist in Residence Work
Renata Felt White Poppy Coasters
Mixed Media:
Jane’s mixed media work in progress
Kayla coo’s “Seas of Grass” Exhibition
Dyeing:
India Flint’s Eco Printed Silk Broadcloth
Fiber:
A few days ago, on the Direct Dyeing post, Shana was asking whether the same method could be used to dye felt pieces. I hadn’t tried it, but I had a couple of white sample pieces of felt that I thought would be good to try it with, so I did that yesterday. The first piece I tried it with was a sample made from two layers of 23 micron merino with wisps of egyptian cotton top between the layers and on the top. It started out roughly 9 x 12.5 inches, and after steaming for 30 minutes, it was 7.5 x 11.5 inches. The interesting thing with this piece was how the cotton took the dye, in some parts where I’d used a colour made from two shades of dye, the cotton took just ones of the shades
The second sample piece was made from two layers of 18.5 micron merino with milk protein fibre tops between the layers and on top. This piece started out 7 x 14.5 inches and ended up 6.5 x 13 inches. Both pieces were soaked in water and vinegar before dyeing.
I probably should have rolled the pieces instead of folding, from the photos of the backs, it’s easy to see where they have been folded. They didn’t take the dyes as well as wool tops or silk does, and there was still dye in both pieces that had to be rinsed out. The results were interesting though, both pieces felt the same afterwards, they didn’t feel extra fulled or less soft. Thanks for the idea, Shana 🙂
Click ‘Permalink’ under each photo in the carousel to see larger pictures.
Because we’ve been talking about all sorts of different dying methods and different dyes i thought i’d show you how i usually dye my wool. this pdf shows dying fibre with food coloring and a steamer which is an inexpensive way to create lots of different colors. If you dont have a free standing electric steamer then just use your stove top with a pot and steam basket. It is a lot of fun to do this, its quick and easy and the dye does hold up to wet felting but sometimes the red will run. If your dying fibre to use in needle felting then this technique is perfect.
Last year I made felt poinsettias for Christmas out of red and green felt. I ended up with a pile of felt scraps. I saved them of course. Who knows when you’ll need a small piece of felt? Recently, I saw someone online (I’m sorry I don’t remember where or have a link) making scrap bowls from left over quilter’s cotton fabric. I thought that would make the perfect project for using up my felt scraps. So I used water-soluble stabilizer, some yarn, the felt scraps and free motion stitched it up on my sewing machine. It worked like a charm.
I have included the PDF tutorial below (Thanks Karen for helping me out with that!) and I’d love to see what you make using the tutorial. After I made the bowl, I thought it would be a great idea to use the green scraps to make small Christmas tree ornaments. I haven’t gotten those done yet but if I do, I’ll show you how they come out. This process could be used in a number of different ways and I’d love to hear if you come up with a different way to use the technique. Have fun and if you make something from the tutorial be sure to post it to our Flickr group photos.
There is another way to do small or large amounts and get the same results each time. The easiest and safest way is to make a stock solution. It’s safest because dyes are most dangerous in there powder form, when the powder can fly around and land incredibly far from where you are measuring it. It’s best to use a mask when measuring the powder. You don’t want to inhale the powder. You need to keep records so you know what you did. What I do for acid dyes is measure 10 grams of acid dye powder into 1 litre of boiling water. This solution will be good for up to 6 months in sealed jars. Remember to labels your containers very well so everyone knows what they are. It’s best if you keep them separate and away from any food so there are no mistakes. This gives you a 1% solution so you can use 1cc (measured in a syringe for ease) of die solution for every gram of dry dye stuff (wool roving for instance) I want to dye to a medium shade. If I was pale shades I use half as much and for dark shades up to 4 times as much. This is the most accurate method. This can be hard if you don’t have a scale that measures very small amounts. Now if you’re not that precise that’s ok. As long as you use the same amounts every time you make your solution so if you use 2 teaspoons of dye in 1 quart of water and use a syringe to measure you will be fine. When you dye something write down how much wool you had then how many cc’s of each dye you used to make the colour. I used to keep a small sample of each batch on a card with the amounts of dye used so I could reproduce it when I wanted too.
Direct dyeing is a method where the dye is applied directly to the fibre. This can be done with very small or fairly large amounts of fibre depending on what utensils are available to you, but it is particularly good for smaller amounts. One advantage is that the fibres don’t move around so there is less tangling or felting. Another advantage is that very small amounts of dye can be made up, reducing the risk of waste.
I have written a step by step tutorial with lots of photos and a table to help work out very small amounts of dye/solution. I apologise to anyone more familiar with imperial measurements, the quantities used are so small that the tiniest measuring spoons are used and they are metric, so it was easier to stick to one measurement. And also US and UK fluid ounces differ, and even cups have metric, US and Canadian versions 🙂 If anyone needs a converter I find online conversion is excellent for everything.
Direct Dyeing Tutorial, please click for PDF
This is my first item for the spiral challenge. It’s a large heavy shawl I made for a cool fall demonstration. It started out about 10 feet across the long side and 4 feet from the point to the top. After felting it’s about 8 feet long and 3 feet deep. The main body is 23 micron merino wool and the spirals are multicoloured merino. It is lovely and warm.
A few years ago I was given some gorgeous multi-coloured Throwsters waste in a fibre swap. I’ve always used it sparingly, worried it’d run out and I’d have to begrudgingly pay a ridiculous amount of money for a tiny handful. Then a few months ago I was ordering wool and fibres from World of Wool and thought I’d take the plunge and order some gummed throwster’s waste since it cost less for 100g than most people charge for 10g dyed. I had no idea it’d be so stiff and dull! The complete opposite of what I was used to. I had absolutely no idea how to de-gum it either 🙂
A couple of days later after a few hours searching the internet, I was confident I’d pieced together enough info to try de-gumming for myself. I thought I’d probably have to try it a few times before getting it right, but was pleasantly surprised to see it work first time with excellent results 🙂
If you’d like to try it yourself, or are just interested in the process, I’ve made a tutorial with lots of photos and an easy to follow table for working out quantities.
Degumming Silk Throwsters Waste
I’ll be following up later this week with a tutorial for direct dyeing small amounts of animal fibres with acid dyes, which can be used to dye your degummed throwster’s waste some gorgeous colours 🙂
I have to say Thank You to foragingfibers whose pictures convinced me it was worth trying to degum my own throwster’s waste 🙂
Marketplace Mondays is a regular article that will be featured on most Mondays. If you are interested in topics about the business of being an artist, make sure to stop by each Monday. We will be discussing issues such as developing a product line, reviews of various venues where handcrafted work can be sold, pricing strategies, retail vs. wholesale, working with galleries, photographing your work, developing your “brand”, writing an artist statement and much more. If there is a specific topic that you would like more information about, please leave a comment and we’ll try to accommodate your requests.
For our first post, Zed has made a terrific tutorial on how to make a banner for a website such as ETSY. Making your own personal banner from your own photographs will help to ‘brand’ your store and attract people to buy your products. Think about what you want your banner to symbolize first. What type of photographs best represent what you do? If you already have a logo or business cards with photos, consider using the same photos or logo in your banner. Consistency is very important so that your customers will recognize you no matter the venue. If you have a Facebook page, a blog, a website and an ETSY shop, using a similar or the same banner on all of these sites will establish a consistent web presence.
Once you’ve picked out the photos you want to use for your banner, just click on the PDF file below and follow Zed’s tutorial. She uses Photoshop but most photo editing programs will be similar. If you don’t have a photo editing program, check out Gimp at http://www.gimp.org/. It’s a free program that you can download and use to edit your photos.
Periodically, we’ll be posting about fun felting projects that we’ve found other people are doing. If you’d like to be included in one of these posts, please leave a comment and the URL of the post you’d like featured.
Needle Felting
Fay Maxwell Video Using a Multi Needle Felting Tool
Eyes of Time – Needle Felted Friends
Etsy Russian Team-Needle Felted cartoon dog
Wet Felting
Gala Filc’s Wet Felted Scarves
Loco Lindy’s Felted Scarf plus bonus cute alpaca photos