Nuno Wall Hanging
Since I started felting, my daughter in law Lia has been fascinated with the nuno textures. So, a while back we shopped for some fabrics we thought may go with her decor and she picked colors. Unfortunately, after making samples, the gold polyester fabric we chose even with open weave did not felt well.
She loved one scarf I had made in particular that I had hand dyed. So, I went to plan B and dyed more silk gauze and merino. She picked out the wool colors for accents.
Originally it was planned to be a very big wall hanging and I calculated a 50% shrinkage rate that I had achieved with the scarf. I had to recruit another table and used boards on top to give it more length and width to do the layout and felting. I couldn’t even get the whole table in the pic and I was standing on a high chair.
What was really fun was flipping it over to layout on the other side. Not.
When the first side was layed out, I wet it down and began my rubbing until I felt the fibers were catching enough to flip it. I did the same on the second side before I began the rolling.
The process went quicker than I expected and the shrinkage more than I wanted. But the ruching was what I wanted. I had to square it up and then figure out how to hang it. So, I pinned it to a towel and let it dry.
But when dry I noticed there were big spots that were bubbled up. It didn’t help the shape for hanging so I added some wisps of fiber and felted them in and had to re-block it and wait for it to dry again. Fortunately, I put enough fiber around it to get the edges to roll in for a nice finish. But I still had to figure out how to keep it’s shape for hanging.
After adding extra fiber to fill in big bubbles.
Lia didn’t want to put it under glass, but wanted to keep it floating against the wall. I wasn’t sure what a framer would suggest so I came up with an interim solution. I had some thin wire that I sewed around the edges trying to keep it concealed. It gave the nuno felt more stability and shape. I didn’t want to invest too much time in the event she didn’t like it or wanted to take it to the framer. There were a couple of spots I wrapped in scraps of silk that showed thru the front. I tried hanging it on the wall to see how it would look. It’s hard to see the detail.
I felt if she liked it I could wrap the wire later and sew the wrapped wire back on.
The nice thing about the wire it can be bent to help shape it. It is not totally a rectangle and has a couple of tails, but it’s an original.
I haven’t been back to Florida, but I sent it for their anniversary and it’s now hanging on the wall and I’m told she loves it.
It doesn’t show here in these photos, bu the wall color is a very light yellow.
Smartly hung high enough so the boys can’t pull it down.
What do you think of adding two narrow panels one on each side to help fill up the wall?
32 thoughts on “Nuno Wall Hanging”
How did you add more fibre and it stick once you had already felted it?
Good question Gail. Since the big bubble spots were just silk, I just added wisps of wool, rewet with soapy water and rubbed until the wool was firmly attached and rushed. I did this for all the spots, then rinsed and reblocked and let it dry again.
Beautifully made and the combined colours look wonderful. 2 more on the wall beside it would be just the thing.
Thanks Jeannette! The photos don’t do it justice. Now to get more silk dyed exactly the same. 🙂
It’s very pretty and a lovely shape, and I think two more, one each side, would look good!
I like the wire idea too. It will be treasured for sure.
Flipping a large item is tricky and I would now ask for some help because I once tried to do it on my own and seven pounds of wet felt flew out from between the bubble wrap sheets and splatted onto the floor.
Thanks Lyn! Since I had used both boards underneath to extend the table, I didn’t have any more boards to flip with. So, I rubbed enough to get the wool firmly attached, then folded it in sections and rolled it over. Then I laid out the second side and did the same. I had bubblewrap over and under but removed the top piece to flip. I mentioned the use of flipping boards in one of my first posts for the forum. http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2014/03/25/ruffled-nuno-felted-silk-scarf/
Working on a large scale is hard especially when you have to work two sides.
Wow. Good results.
Thanks Judy!
Gorgeous colours! x
Thanks Sharon! Lia picked them out and they go nicely with her decor.
The color combination is so striking!
Thanks Karen! Lia picked them out, but I have to admit they are some of my favorites, too.
very lovely, I nuno felt shawls and find that if I use a thin plastic sheet under it and another one one top when ready to flip, you press them together so they kinda “sucK” if you do not have any help just roll it up turn it and unroll
Thanks Liz! Great idea. I’ll remember that if I do something this big again. I do have some painters plastic laying around that would be big enough. It’s a lot less bulky than the bubble wrap I used.
I’ve seen this piece in person and it is gorgeous! Surprisingly, it is also light as a feather. So my suggestion is to build a triptych and complete the side panels when you have time. It may be a bit tricky to get similar results, but I think you are up to the challenge!
Thanks Cathy! I’m glad you got to see it before I shipped it off. The trick will be dyeing the silk to match the original color.
Great piece Marilyn. I like the wire idea. I think a triptych is a good idea. Maybe you could switch the dominant color on the outer panels to one of the accent colors.
Thanks Ruth! I will have to play with that idea of the dominant colors and see what Lia thinks. I may have a harder time reproducing the red and blue on the silk. But I can try. 🙂
Necessity is the mother of invention which is how I came up with the wire idea. It worked and I really thought it would be an interim solution.
I like the wall hanging, it looks so textured and what a challenge to hang it, but it suits the floating look. I do completely sympathise with the flipped process, I recently made a long scarf – like you lacked space so each side had to made in two stages then flipped and started again!! it was a challenge but the end result was lovely. Can you nuno felt by just felting on one side?
Yes, pansies sorry. I just remember it was gorgeous and very colorful.
Thanks Carole! Yes, you can Nuno on just one side. I could have done that, but I wanted a lot of ruching. I may have gotten a larger size had I done it that way. The silk gauze really shrinks up during the process especially with a lot of wool wisps. Was the scarf the one with the poppies? Well worth the effort.
yes it and the large pansy one – that I put silk on the ends and needed to add merino for felting
Lovely colour combination Marilyn, I like Ruth’s suggestion of changing the color balance for the other two panels, same colours but different quantities would look great.
Thanks Teri! I will try the different colors and see how that looks. When you say different quantities, do you mean less fibers of the wools?
Looks terrific and two more would be great! Lisa’s a lucky lady!
Thanks Penquin! This was a long time in the making. Hopefully the extra panels won’t take me as long. 🙂
It turned out great. I does seem a little small for the space. The trip pick would work but don’t limit yourself. You could do a smaller one for one side and a long thin one for across the top for instance. Maybe use a different dominant colour for each. To flip a large piece roll it u and flip it over and roll it off the top. Think of it like toilet paper rolls. It can come off the bottom ( that’s what we usually do) or it can come off the top. It is harder to unroll it but easier than flipping it flat.
Thanks Ann! It was supposed to be twice as big. I hadn’t thought of flipping it that way. I don’t usually work on anything that big. But will certainly keep that in mind if I do it again. When I see Lia we’ll discuss the options and let her decide. 🙂
That turned out nice, Marilyn 🙂
I liked ‘before’ and after really. You could use a template and put your wool wisps for side 1 down first, then carefully add the silk and side 2 wool to save flipping.
Thanks Zed! I did layout the wisps first, then added silk, more wisps, but still ended up flipping it. You’re right I wouldn’t have had to flip it, but I wanted to make sure both sides were doing ok before rolling. Old habits die hard I guess, 🙂
Have you thought of stitching it to a canvas? Possibly painted with the same paint used for the walls? You could keep the organic edges, which I love, but it would still seem to float on the wall.
Wendy, I did think if that, but it is an odd size 17 X 16. Lia had told me she wanted it to float against the wall. I haven’t seen it hanging, but it could always be hung away from the wall using long nails or a hook type nail. But I will certainly go over all the options with her next time I get down there. Thanks for your suggestion!