Using Black and White Viscose together
I think most of the natural wool and fibre panels I’ve posted about have used one breed of wool and one fibre. I did post about Humbug (black and white striped) Jacob about a month ago, and I’d used both black and white viscose top with that. This first piece is light grey Swaledale, it’s mostly a creamy white with light and dark grey flecks which give it the light grey appearance. I blended some black and viscose tops by hand and laid them on top of the Swaledale:
The overall appearance of the blend is a dark grey, with white streaks:
The separate colours are a bit more obvious close up, I like the way the fibres appear to sit just on the surface, lightly tangled with the Swaledale fibre.
This is a bit closer and slightly at an angle, showing where the fibre is a little bit thicker, I like the twists and waves.
This next piece is one of my favourites, it’s English 56s with Angora locks. I don’t know if there’s a proper name for older goat locks, I’ve heard ‘yearling’ used, but I don’t know how old the goat was these are from. They are a lot thicker and generally less soft and more wavy than curly kid mohair. I loosely combed the locks through a handcarder with either black or white viscose, to blend with the locks. I laid them out loosely alternating each row: black, white; white, black etc.
An angled shot:
A close up where the locks were felted in more:
And a supermacro of course:
Do you prefer combinations of wool and fibres which have lots of character and texture or do your prefer the more softer effects of fibres closely felted to the surface of a smoother wool?
25 thoughts on “Using Black and White Viscose together”
I like the more textured natural look, But it might not be as durable in that form.
Yeah, it’s more suited to decorative effects and not for items that would be handled too much.
Interesting texture with the viscose, I like it. The angora of course is beautiful, but as you say, best for decorative pieces rather than functional ones.
By the way old goats are called either old Billie or old Nan! 😉
Ha ha! 🙂
Maybe it’s Billie beard locks 🙂
I prefer the textural effect of mixed fibers and have used them in some of my mats, but I don’t really know how durable they are long-term. For wearables, nothing beats the look of finely textured merino, but I also enjoy seeing embellishments on the merino. Have never worked with viscose but will have to try it! Love seeing your experiments.
Thanks, Cathy 🙂
The white viscose is actually very shiny and does look great with merino.
The angora is wonderful – it looks so soft that it makes you want to touch it.
I like the texture in art (hangings) and I’ve seen it used to great effect on hats (where the hatband would normally be) and of course locks are great on pods and other vessels, but I also like smooth felt.
It all depends on what suits the item.
Thanks, Lyn 🙂
Yeah, neither of these would be good for book covers or bags or anything handled/used a lot.
I agree with all the comments – it’s hard to decide what you like best when you like all of them 🙂 I just like seeing the different textures that occur with different fibers and mixes of fibers.
Me too, Ruth, and some of the panels have inspired me to try other things and hopefully they’ll give others a bit of inspiration for a particular look they want.
I like to use different wools and fibers to get nice effects on hats and scarves. Merino seems to grab and hang on to just about anything. Your experiments are always fun.
Thanks, Ann 🙂
Hopefully I can do a few more soon, I haven’t tried as many of the white wools yet. You’re right about merino, I often use that as an under- layer for textural stuff.
Variety is the spice of life. I love to see different styles and textures and things I have never tried.
I have only ever used merino with a tiny bit if silk throwster???( I think that’s what it was called, or maybe not.)
But I love to admire or the textural effects from more experienced felters.
Thanks so much for sharing your experiments you inspire me to try new challenges.
Thanks, Chris 🙂
I like Silk Throwster’s waste too, it is really shiny and great for embellishing.
Both the effects are lovely for different purposes. I think the angora won’t be as stable as the viscose. Angora classifications are; kid( under 1yr), young goat(under 2yrs), adult and the rams wool is kept separate from the ewes and wethers.
Thanks, Tessa 🙂
What do you mean by ‘stable’, do you mean how firmly they’re felted in?
The stronger the angora fibre, the more slippery it is and tends to slip out of the felted base, the effect of the long strands is beautiful though and I would love to know how to get them to stay put
Oh, I see 🙂
Yeah, it isn’t the easiest fibre to felt with. I basically use it as if it is an embellishment, if one or both of the ends are under wool, then it will stay put. When I use it on my vessels, I wrap a little bit of English 56s round the end before needling in.
Very pretty! I don’t really know much about wet felting and confess I had no idea one could felt non animal fibres… great to learn more! 🙂
Thanks, Leonor 🙂
Yeah, they won’t felt on their own, but it’s like using fabric for nuno, the wool grips the fibres, and you get different effects depending on how much you use, similar to the effects of how open the weave is of fabric in nuno.
How interesting, Zed. I wonder if these fibres would needle felt on their own.
If you can push them down securely enough they will. A lot of people needlefelt with silk, but it does have a kind of ‘roughness’ to it. It wouldn’t be as secure as wool/animal fibres, but if it’s something that isn’t handled much, that’d be ok.
It’s amazing what we can do with the things we have in Nature!
I don’t know why this didn’t come up on my feed, but it’s lovely. I love, love, love textures and these certainly have a lot of it.i hope they invent touch vision soon, it’s still hard to know how it feels!
Thanks, Marilyn 🙂
Yeah, supermacro will only tell you so much!