A couple of years ago, I was making silk paper just for practice.  I decided to try to cover a bowl and make some ruffle edges.  But it was a disaster. I used an acrylic medium to help give it substance, but all that did was make it stiff and unmanageable.  I tried soaking it in soapy water for a couple of days, but that didn’t do anything either.  So it went into the “pile.”  I’ve picked it up a couple of times thinking I could use it for something, but nothing came to mind. Sorry about the fuzzy picture.

Recently, with the Second Quarter challenge to revisit our UFO stash, I pulled it out again. This time as I thought about it I started pulling it apart, peeling off layers.  I wondered if it would still felt, so I looked through my stash and found some yellow batts with unknown fibers.

It felted just fine, some parts are still stiff, but most of the thinner areas still had the silk shine. This piece will probably be made into a coin purse.

But what to do with the rest?

Another UFO was a piece of prefelt I had cut for “lace” in Fiona Duthie’s Surface Design class.  I put a piece of habatoi silk under it and felted them together.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it.  But I like the bubbly effect of the silk through the holes.

Then I found a frame for the cityscape.

While I haven’t made a big dent in the scraps and UFO pile, I feel good about trying some new things.