Looking For Dimension

Looking For Dimension

I thought I’d try out a couple of things inspired by Marilyn’s challenge. A while ago, I bought some ‘budget filling‘ from World of Wool, with the intention of using it to make texturey felt or try it as a weird texturey surface effect, but I’d never got around to it. I thought I’d just try a smallish sample piece to see how it worked. I laid out a couple of regular layers of an Olive Merino, then added a pile of the filling:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI covered it with another 2 layers of Merino in greens and browns, I’m not sure you can tell there’s a mound from this photo:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI think the wool content must be quite high, because it flattened quickly and didn’t ‘bounce back’ after drying, it’s not very obvious (not as obvious as that face on the right!):

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt’s a bit more evident at an angle, though most noticeable is the migration of the fibres through to the top:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAEven looking along the surface there’s not much thickness, though the wavy edges show it did have an effect overall:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe other thing I tried was using organza. I had a tangle of strips, bits and unravellings in the bottom of my organza box. I laid out some of the separate strips onto some netting, and added the shorter/tangled bits in between:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou can see the tangle of fibres here:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd here, too:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThen I added a couple of regular layers of Merino over the top and then felted the way I usually do. I was expecting a bit more texture and more loose bits:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThere is a lot of rippling:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThese bits were loose at the ends:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASome sparkly golden bits:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Maybe I should try combing the filling with the organza? 🙂

14 thoughts on “Looking For Dimension

  1. I was surprised to see so much of the organza showing through after being covered by two layers of merino – it’s lovely.
    Another surprise was that the lump of budget filling almost disappeared – just goes to show that felting is always an adventure!

    1. Thanks, Lyn 🙂
      I don’t think I explained the organza thing very well. Instead of laying out my wool and putting the organza on top, like I’d usually do, I did it in reverse.

    1. Yeah, I had a similar ‘problem’ stuffing what would become a hole with fibre, expecting it to all puff up and spill out, and it all just felted in! I wasn’t thinking about the way I described the organza, I’ve come across a lot of people who add the wool to fabric as a matter of course, instead of fabric to wool, so just thought it’d be understood. I do have stiff organza, and some of the golds were more ‘crispy’, but a lot is quite drapey.

    2. I think it was in combination with the picture it looked like it was on top of white wool. When I make a nuno scarf I put the wool onto the silk. For small pieces I usually put them on top of the wool.

  2. I love the face in the first piece. While you didn’t get the dimension you had hoped for, it’s a nice piece. I love the texture and dimension of the organza. I love felting organza ribbon. Perhaps you could use some of the budget filling and needlefelt some shapes to put under the wool. That way it’s somewhat compacted before wet felting. I did that with my panda. Good job!

    1. Thanks, Marilyn 🙂
      I’m not allowed to play with felting needles 😉 I’m not sure it’d needlefelt easily really, it’s mostly threads or yarn, it’s weird stuff, maybe wetting and rubbing might firm it up a bit. I could get the wet felting group to try!

    1. I think it’s all polyester, elizabeth. There is quite a lot of migration really, maybe some of the unravelled threads are disguising it. You can see it on the enlarged angled photo showing the rippling, the green wool shows on the blue organza.

  3. Great experiments Zed! It’s funny how you think it will end up one way but then the wool surprises you by doing something completely different 🙂 I think mixing the organza with the fill might actually work better to give dimension.

    1. Thanks, Ruth 🙂
      It’s nice to still have surprises when playing around. I’m wondering if maybe mixing a bit of plastic fibre with the filling might give it a bit of body too.

  4. Curious result with the filling experiment, have you tried felting it on its own (perhaps to make a ball of material to create a bump) to see how much wool it contains?

    1. I was just thinking about that, Teri 🙂 It’s be interesting to try it with different fibres and fabrics too.

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