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:

I 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:

I 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!):

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

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

The 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:

You can see the tangle of fibres here:

And here, too:

Then 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:

There is a lot of rippling:

These bits were loose at the ends:

Some sparkly golden bits:

Maybe I should try combing the filling with the organza? 🙂