The Quest for Diamonds
Did I get your attention? My quest is to make diamonds, felt ones, that sparkle and shine. As you have heard from several of us the Ottawa Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guild is 75 years old this year. It is our diamond anniversary, so the exhibition theme for our Fall Sale and Exhibition is diamonds. You can interpret that any way you want. I thought Jan and I could collaborate, My part is the diamonds and probably a helmet but I will let Jan tell you about her part.
So now I am on a quest for the best way to make the diamonds. Originally I thought I would use a small resist that I could leave inside to help them be more 3D. I was thinking I could pull and shape them.
Well, that didn’t work out at all. the squares couldn’t be pulled and the diamonds didn’t look right with the middles pulled. It was partly because trying to get them pulled and a bit pointy was so hard. The big reason though is their size. When you try to stretch them you are pulling on two ends of the same fiber. Jan said kind things about them but truthfully they are terrible. It would only be worse if I tried to make them nuno felt. They look better in the picture than in person.
On to the next idea. I decided, who cares if they are 3D? Flat would be fine if they are the right shape. Next is a piece of shiny ( probably polyester) fibre from my stash. I thought it would felt in but wasn’t sure. Also, I decided I wanted August’s page to be pink so I combined the two. I used a piece of white prefelt and pink merino
I added some red sparkly fabric to one corner. It doesn’t look sparkly but it is.
Even dry the camera wants to focus on the wool and not the sparkle. It needs shaving but I am out of razors. The next stop Dollarama for the econo bag of razors.
One more try this week. I cut out some silk, some sparkly and some sequined fabric. Wow, is it fiddly to cut without cutting the sequins and they still fly everywhere. I put some face down and then put red prefelt on top.
Then some black prefelt and I tried to match up the fabrics to the bottom ones.
I rubbed this longer than usual to make sure the fabrics were stuck. My plan had been to stop at the soft felt stage. Cut out some diamonds and then finish felting. Unfortunately, I was listening to a good book and just kept going on autopilot. and before I knew it it was done. Now it is drying. I will cut out some shapes tomorrow and see what they look like. We may have to modify the project.
How would you make felt diamonds? All advice gratefully accepted.
18 thoughts on “The Quest for Diamonds”
Ann it sounds like you are having a sparkling time trying to perfect your diamonds. Thus far they look fascinating.
Do the diamonds need to be ‘fully’ sparkly or could the sparkles peep through a window? If windows will work – check out Judit Pócs or
Baribon.
If you want them 3D you could try differential shrinkage by cutting ‘facets’ from prefelt, place them on, or under, more shingles and work them to get a 3D shape – check out Brigitte Funk (Parallelfunk or Funkmalrein), Ruth did a pumpkin along similar lines or Andrea Noeska-Porade.
One last idea – maybe the ‘cracked mud’ technique where you cut away a diamond shape revealing the sparkly bits (which is full circle back to my first suggestion)
Looking forward to seeing your progress.
Xx
Ok, second attempt, the reply are acting strange today. Lots of great ideas. My plan was to do some windows like Judit Pocs. I will have to look up Baribon. I did think of differential shrinkage but they may be to small to make enough difference. I will have to try. I may try stuffing a few but I think they will just look like pillows. I will probably end up with flat ones. i woke up with the idea and dragged Jan into it right away before thinking to much. Ihe image I had was to literal I think . I often start there and then have to shift my thoughts.
I was going to suggest putting the sequinned fabric inside a felt diamond (or any other shape) with a diamond shaped resist on top of the fabric, with another layer of fibres over the top of all. Then when you cut the resist out you’ll have your diamond. I have seen earrings and pendents made like this and they look great.
My other suggestion was to perhaps try Ruth’s Paper Fabric Lamination technique. I don’t know if you’ve done that workshop with her? I think that would work. You could end up with photos of real diamonds on your felt.
Keep going Anne, looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Ann
yes windows is one I thought of too. I do like that idea. I haven’t done the paper lamination one. I do have lots of fabric and shiny fibres so I should be able to get shine and sparkle.
The biggest problem is that wool felt doesn’t sparkle 🙂 Perhaps it does a bit if you have silk in the top layer of wool.
If you made felt 2D diamonds, they could be embroidered with thick, shiny, silver metal sewing thread – perhaps stitch a diamond pattern with it – it really catches the light. (I have a thread that is smooth and shines like tin foil.)
Or add miniature clear glass beads.
I wonder what small blobs of iridescent acrylic paint would look like?
Or could you spray the felt with hairspray and while it’s still damp, sparingly sprinkle on very fine glitter?
Somebody will come up with a genius idea and we’ll all slap our foreheads and say ‘Oh yes!’
Yes felt, even the most lustrous wools do not really shine. I plan on adding silk and some of the super bright trylobal nylon. The hair spray idea is promising I have some of the fine mica for making cosmetics. It is very shiny and sparkly. I do have some metallic threads so maybe I could sew some diamonds like diamond leaded windows. That’s an interesting idea.
Am I under-thinking it to say I would try a book resist, diamond shaped, with plenty of Angelina?
No not under thinking. It is an idea I had too. I think it may be to fiddly with such small shapes. I will probably give it a try though.
You could try flat felt and then add gold or silver leaf with gel medium. That would be very shiny 😄
LOL Maybe I should expand it to gold and jewels.
Interesting experiments! I think adding paint on the top to add in some sparkle would be effective. If you went with a spray application instead of brushing the effect may be more shimmery and randomized.
Maybe. It was 3d shape giving me the most trouble, I think I will end up going flat. People will just have to use their imaginations.
Of course, there’s always nail varnish too. This project could keep you going all year Anne.
Ann
Nail polish may work, I think somewhere I even have some with large sparkly flakes in it.
This is a great challenge Ann. I read through everyone’s comments with a couple of possibilities in my head – then crossed each one off as it was already covered. Great minds!
So it’s back to the drawing board. Then I began to wonder if Rolio pigments would be useful here along with a medium. They would add a bit of sparkle to the occasion and could be worked into 2D or 3D pieces. Here is a link to the various colours but you can get sets quite cheaply on Amazon: https://roliopigments.com/collections/individual-colors
If you were to make your felt rock hard (pardon the pun!) you could then paint on the pigment. One way that you could be assured of a very hard finish would be to use 50/50 wood glue/water in the process (I learned this from Anna Gunnersdottir). Also how about BIG diamonds – after all, they are a girls best friend.
Second attempt for you too. crazy replies. Glue mix might be a good solution for 3D. I could maybe shape them so they dry as diamonds. I will have to look up the pigments. I haven’t worked with them before. Big could be cool or maybe just one big one.
Also , I was searching for something in my studio and came across transfer vinyl foil. I have a vague memory of purchasing it then putting it away ‘safely’ (forgot it!). Something like that might work on 2D surfaces (it has to be ironed).
it looked intersting in person. i am looking forword to seeing how the sequin section will work.