Nuno Challenge Experiment One
The second quarter challenge over on the http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/ is mine but I have yet to start. Today I started. Months ago I made a shrug jacket and then died it blue. It would not stop bleeding. I rinsed it for days. Changing the water several times a day. I reheated it in vinegar water and still it bleeds, so I gave up. with all the work it has great texture.
To get the great texture it shrank a lot. It will no longer fit anyone.
Next I unpicked the sewing. Not an easy task. The stitching was really sunk into the felt. Next it was into the washer. I have a front loader. I hope it works well it isn’t as aggressive as at top loader. I have shrunk a sweater down from an extra-large to a child’s small in it so I had high hopes.
Here is the finished twice washed piece. The red piece is the original finished sized before all the rinsing and washing. The coke can is for size reference.
Here are the close-ups. The texture is much tighter and the piece is much stiffer.
The biggest surprise was that there are definite lines of wool on the silk side. I am imagine it’s where each rows of wool overlapped. I only laid the wool in one direction for this piece.
21 thoughts on “Nuno Challenge Experiment One”
I like the white pattern – shame about the bleed but the texture is great!
Thanks Lyn, it is fun to play with something that work out properly. I think now it will work for something that needs to be sturdy. Maybe a purse or book cover. The silk is actually the same blue as the wool but wouldn’t photograph properly with the light I had, to much light bounce of the silk.
How sad you could not master this,it bled because the dye was not heated to the correct temperature for the correct time,the texture is over felted and should shrink back down to exactly the percentage you increased your template to after doing a shrinking swatch,NUNO is very very easy to do when following the rules
Not sure what to say to this.
I am simply saying why it went wrong,I would hate would be Nuno felters to be put off the technique a fter reading aBout your experiences,I get so many new students thinking these techniwues are surrounded by very very hard work and mystery.Nuno felt and dyeing are from this ,follow the rulles and beautiful textures and
g arments can be made
You did it in a very rude fashion. If you read the post you would know that it was an experiment. It is not over felted. It is felted to the maximum. It is now useful for a different purpose than the original. It is people talking about the rules that deter people. There are many different ways to make nuno felt. As for the dying, you have no idea what the circumstances are so you do not know what went wrong. There is more to it than time and temperature. If no one ever experimented or made mistakes we wouldn’t have nuno felting or anything else new.
Interesting experiment Ann. What do you plan to do with the piece?
It was interesting. I don’t know what to use it for, something sturdy. It is still soft. Maybe I will cut it up and make a hat.
I think this is quite beautiful. Admire it for what it is. Sometimes things not working out “right” takes you down a more creative path. That has been my experience over the last few days; a “disaster” (which mine truly was) actually set the wheels turning for a new and exciting series of work.
Thanks Deb, disasters sometimes are the best thing that can happen. Sometimes just getting out the reject box will give you some great ideas. I am planning to try some fabrics that I don’t think will work for the rest of the challenge
This looks great, Ann, the texture is gorgeous 🙂
I agree with Deb, it’s when things don’t work out how we want them or how they should that we tend to discover more things, we’ve already ‘ruined it’ so we might as well try… and then we find out things like the lines of wool, which is really interesting.
The only ‘rules’ I know of nuno felting are the ‘laws of physics’, and even then the outcome will always be a variable as we can’t control every stage of our supplies process. There are no ‘rules’ as to how much texture or how much felting should be done, it’s all personal choice.
What did you use to make the white detail?
Thank you Zed. The yarn is a synthetic wool blend, 70/30 If I remember right. I will try to remember to take a better picture of it when I get home form work and post it on the forum. I bridged it with a small amount of wool. It was a big job to do it all. I always forget how long it will take to do when I do a meandering pattern all over a big piece.
I think it looks great to Ann and I really love the texture, you could always make a nice bag out of it 🙂 and “Rules” what rules, I’ve always been shown that there are no rules in Felting , its all personal choice and if you don’t experiment then how will now what works and what doesn’t xoxo
Thanks Karen, no rules is one of the things I like most about felting.
The texture is great. Dyeing is always tricky for me. But experimentation is a good learning tool. It seems from most of the posts on this forum nothing goes to waste. I’m sure you’ll find a good use for it and it will turn out terrific. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Marilyn. I am going to try dying with rain water this summer. My water is very hard.
That sounds interesting. Keep us posted on your results!
Breaking the ‘rules’ is the best way to learn. I can’t think of anything less in the spirit of fibre art than sticking to the rule book. To me the best felt evolves. I liked your post which is honest and exploratory. LizSeville.wordpress.com Principally Felt
Thank you Lizseville. It is fun to see what happens if I do or don’t do X. Your experiment on you blog is really cool.
When I first took a workshop on nuno felting the instructor hand a lot of do’s, don’ts and musts. I have ventured out and broken many of the “rules” and while things do turn out different when I do they do turn out and give me more choices for the next project. Thank you for sharing
Thank you. It is one of the things I like about felting of all kinds. it is very versatile and you can do things so many different ways. I find it very forgiving so its if fun to experiments with.