Nuno Differences
We’re doing Nuno experiments at the well being centre for the next few weeks. The first week we made pieces with strips of fabric on top of two ‘standard’ layers of Merino tops. There are lots of different fabric strips of various fibres which attach differently. I chose a couple of fabrics I’d used previously-a kind of loopy, open weave scarf with 2 or 3 layers, and a piece of cotton gauze-and a couple of pieces I hadn’t which was a strip of viscose scarf and a strip from a charity shop dress. This is the whole piece:
They all attached really well. The open weave loopy fabric always has interesting results:
Top to bottom: Viscose scarf, charity shop dress, cotton gauze. These strips all had similar waves to their edges:
You can see on this close up there’s a lot of wool migration, though it’s more visible on the black part of the fabric, and less where the fabric is similar to the wool:
The 2nd piece uses the same sized fabric strips, and a couple are the same: the open weave, loopy scarf, and the purpley viscose scarf. This piece actually started about 50% bigger than the previous one, I laid out the fabric strips first, then added 4 very fine layers of Merino, which probably added up to being finer than 1 ‘standard’ layer of Merino (the average amount that gets pulled off from standard commercial wool tops, laid out you can’t see through it), and not as even. This is the whole piece after felting:
The fabric at the top is a piece from a charity shop sari (I showed some dyed recently), it feels like springy crepey chiffon! It created great texture:
The 2nd row is some fabric which was donated, it looks and feels like silk. After felting it looked kind of knitted:
The 4th Row was also a viscose scarf piece, I’ve used it before, but only with thicker layers of Merino. There was one patch which hardly rippled at all:
So I turned it over to see how the wool was laid out, and there was barely any at all:
I’ve used the pink fabric at the side before too, I don’t know what it is, but it feels very synthetic and looks very 70’s:
It ripples really nicely though:
The red, yellow, green, black silk I used on the opposite side also rippled really nicely:
Looking closer you can really see the migration here:
I like this photo, with a little bit of the other 2 silk strips showing, and all looking different:
12 thoughts on “Nuno Differences”
I hope you’re getting to like pink Zed because that first piece is lovely and all the fabrics looked good with the pink migration! Having said that, the second piece is pretty too!
Thanks, Lyn 🙂
You know, that pink just doesn’t seem to get any smaller, we’re running low on colours, so I keep using the pink. I must admit, it’s grown on me!
Always interesting to see how different fabric felts in. You seem to find really good fabric to try.
I find it hard to resist any fabric! Some fabrics which I’ve used on samples thick enough for a coin purse or bookcover have not attached very securely, but samples like the second one, with less wool, and more rubbing has them felting and shrivelling like melted plastic!
You’ve got some lovely results and I had to smile with each mention of “charity shop” fabric….a woman after my own heart!
Thanks, Karen 🙂
Ha, yeah, I look at the patterns and feel the fabric on long dresses in charity shops wondering whether they’ll felt. I’m just as bad in the fabric shop Abakhan here though, they sell remnants by weight so great for a bargain!
I’m finding your results very inspiring this morning! I don’t think I have ever played with a very thin back of merino with lots of different fabric pieces. This is a perfect bit of play on this Sunday morning as I try to process the latest political actions in the US. Ugh. Thanks!
Thanks, Wren 🙂
experimental pieces and playing around to see what affects an outcome is one of my favourite mind emptying activities 🙂
Great samples Zed. You do seem to have great luck finding great fabric at second hand stores.
Thanks, Ann 🙂
I think it’s just that my philosophy is to buy them all, work out how great they are later!
Great colors and textures! You do seem lucky finding the right fabrics.
Thanks, Marilyn 🙂