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Month: June 2025

Sunflower Sample Using Washaway Stabilizer

Sunflower Sample Using Washaway Stabilizer

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I’ve been trying to make some sunflowers using Aquamesh Washaway embroidery stabilizer. This method allows me to make individual flowers that I can move around on the wall hanging I am making before I figure out their final placement. I’ve got 6 of them made in varying sizes and have decided I don’t really like the ones I’ve made so far so I want to try something a bit different.

Here is a photo that I used to draw out the design on the left side of the drawing. I love this sunflower color.

orange/browish sunflower

After studying the petals on my sunflower photos, it seemed like I should make layers. I drew out three layers and highlighted the petals I wanted to stitch in each layer. Flower #1 are all the petals on the first layer, flower #2 are the petals on the second layer and #3 are ones behind both.

drawing of sunflower petal layers

Then I got the idea to try to print a design onto my Aquamesh Washaway embroidery stabilizer so that I don’t have to keep redrawing the layers, if my layer idea works. I was a bit worried about how the ink would act for the end product, especially since I would be dipping it into water. The stabilizer is not stiff enough to run through the printer on its own, so I thought I would iron it to a piece of freezer paper that I cut to 8 ½” x 11”. I cut the Washaway to that same measurement, then ironed them together. The Washaway shrunk about an 1/8” all around. Note to self…maybe cut washaway larger than the freezer paper, then recut the edges. Maybe it won’t matter. (It didn’t). I definitely will need to scotch tape the feeding edge so it will hopefully go smoothly into the printer. Now…where is my tape?? Guess I need to buy some more of that. The first attempt to get this through the printer failed, the two pieces wouldn’t feed. But good to go on the second attempt, although I should have turned the piece I was copying from around so I had more space to hoop up flower #1.

drawing of sunflower petal layers

I’m going to use Sulky 30 wt 100% cotton thread on this sample.

Here I’ve got the washaway in the hoop, ready to start sewing. (I had to add a bit of washaway above petal layer #1 so it would stay tight in the hoop).

sunflower project in embroidery hoop

Ugh! My Bernina 770 is yelling at me! Oil me! Oil me! Oil me!

Don’t you just get ticked off when that happens??

error message on sewing machine

Oiling your sewing machine is a necessary evil, especially when doing this type of embroidery work. I just don’t like doing it, especially right when I want to start sewing! About 10 minutes later and a very bad language conversation with my bobbin case, I finally got to do some stitching.

I would straight stitch the petals, then go back and zigzag stitch over them.

yellow stitching

All the threads need to be connected to other threads otherwise they will just unravel when you rinse the washaway out.

yellow stitching

 

That being said, after I stitched the individual petals so they would hold together, I realized that I needed to somehow connect the petals in each one to the center, otherwise they’d just be flopping around after I removed the washaway. So, I cut a square of tulle, placed it behind each petal  layer and stitched it down hopefully enough to hold the petals together. I wasn’t too worried about how the center looked at this point in time, I just needed it to be structurally sound. Then I trimmed the tulle down in the shape of the center stitching. When I drop these into water to remove the washaway, the tulle should hold them together. Fingers crossed anyway!

yellow stitching on all three petal layers

I stitched over each layer with a darker thread to give a bit of contrast and then cut off the other flower drawing because I want to see how this is going to look before I make any more sunflowers. I’m not really happy with it so far. I don’t like how the thread is stitching up, nor the color.

3 petal layers stitched with yellow thread

After cutting most of the washaway off and rinsing the washaway out, I layered the 3 layers and I can see that some of the inkjet ink remained so the thread appears darker. I’m disappointed with that but maybe I can add some acrylic paint to the petals once they dry. It’s also very wet at this point and may lighten up when dry.

3 layers pinned together after rinsing

It did lighten up when dry. Looks more like a multi legged starfish to me.

3 layers dried

If I want to make a starfish in the future I think I can do it! My petals sure look like starfish legs to me!

multi legged orange starfish

I’m going to paint my sample.

I used my Posca acrylic pens and I like it better, but it’s still not what I am looking for in the flower I want to put into my project. This is about 2” wide. I think my layer idea was successful though and that this technique might work for a different type of flower. It does have lots of dimensionality. It’s quite stiff from the glue in the washaway that doesn’t all get rinsed out.

3 layers painted with yellow acrylic paint

That was a fun learning experience.

But, back to the drawing board…

Happy Creating!
Tesi Vaara

Photo of a 3D dragonfly created from machine stitched fabric. It’s painted in metallic colours of mainly green, pink and blue.
Felted Shells and Fabric Insects

Felted Shells and Fabric Insects

Comments 31 comments

In my last post I showed you my wet felted conch shell made from Merino and Corriedale fibres with ribs made from Sari silk yarn. I liked the shape of this and wanted to make another, this time in off white with pale coloured ribs. I found a site on Etsy selling a beautiful subtle coloured variegated sari yarn but unfortunately when it arrived it was so loosely spun I realised it wouldn’t be suitable for this particular project.

Pale neutral coloured Sari yarn layer out in rows


As I was in the mood for felting I didn’t want to have to reorder so decided to search for a pastel “slubby” knitting yarn which I knew was hidden somewhere in the depths of my yarn stash.

A ball of pale grey knitting yarn with slubs in shades of grey and peach.

It turned out to be far easier to work with than sari silk as it was less inclined to move while felting and it had just the right amount of colour and texture for the look I was after. I was intending to leave this shell plain white but now it’s made I think it will benefit from a bit of shading so that’ll get added at some point.

I increased the size of this one to approx 31cm long x 15cm wide x 6cm high. My spinning group has a coastal theme for our 2026 exhibition so there will be lots more shells being made in various fibres, fabrics, techniques, shapes and sizes.

Two wet felted conch shells. A small one in shades of red and blue. A larger one in white with pale grey and peach coloured ribs
A white wet felted conch shell with ribs in pale grey and peach.


Wet felted spiral shells crop up a lot online and I’d been wracking my brain for ages trying to work out how these are made. I had a light bulb moment back in December when I made this small spiral shell from 10gm of carded Corriedale. Since then I’ve worked out another way of achieving a similar shape and so made this larger version using 20gm of carded Corriedale fibre and measuring approx 13cm x 9cm.

Photo shows two wet felted spiral shells, the larger one is beige, the smaller one is grey.

At one point the shell was sitting next to this bowl and I wondered how the centre piece from the bowl would look inserted in the shell…..

Photo of a wet felted bowl made with blue and turquoise Bergschaf fibres. Felted cords radiate out from the centre of the bowl creating height and interest.

…..I quite liked it so I’m now wondering whether to leave it in there as an abstract hermit crab or make the effort to felt a more realistic looking crab, what do you think?

Beige coloured wet felted spiral shell. Lilac and pale green felt cords protrude from its opening suggesting an abstract life form.
Photo of a beige coloured Wet felted spiral shell with abstract hermit crab poking out of it.

Another theme I’m working on right now is insects, particularly dragonflies and butterflies. It all stemmed from a tutorial by textile artist Anastasiya Goleneva to make this beautiful dragonfly brooch. It’s made from hand and machine stitched and painted calico. At 16cm long x 21cm wide it worked out a bit too big for me to wear as a brooch so instead I’ve put a Command strip on the back and mounted it to the wall.

Having enjoyed making it I decided to do another but using interfacing and my own technique for the body and legs that would allow it to stand and give it a more delicate, longer, slimmer look. One thing I’m not happy with is the “flat” face which suited the brooch but doesn’t look right on the standing dragonfly so version three is underway!

Photo of a 3D dragonfly made from machine stitched fabric and hand painted. It’s standing on an outside table with greenery in the background.
Photo of a 3D dragonfly created from machine stitched fabric. It’s painted in metallic colours of mainly green, pink and blue.

The dragonflies led to my friend Diane asking me to show her how to make a simple butterfly brooch so I made a couple of samples with body and wings made from painted cotton velvet. This fabric takes on a beautiful leather like look and feel when painted with fabric paints or acrylics and remains very soft and flexible. I was thinking of hand embroidering the wings but decided to keep it basic as Diane could add more detail if she wanted to.

…

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Upgrading my Fiber Prep system

Upgrading my Fiber Prep system

Comments 21 comments

Earlier this spring we went out to Princess Auto to look at some fiber prep equipment, who would have thot they would have such fabulous fiber equipment. The item I was considering was on sale, but Glenn thought he could modify my small fleece washing bins. I was getting sore, so we headed home without it. I had not-buyers-Regret.

It’s now June, last week was very hot, sunny and perfect for washing fleeces, but I had no buckets ready to go.  I was finding it more and more difficult to use the large buckets and strainer baskets. Tipping the buckets when they were full of water was getting challenging. What I was looking at has a drainage system that a tap and hose could be attached to. That would eliminate the tipping of heavy buckets full of very dirty water.

We are very lucky, we live in a city with two Princess autos. I went online to see if the West End store had one in stock, nope, but the East End store has four. So off we went in my little KIA soul to find “the item”.

75galon stock tank black with a drain.1) LITTLE GIANT 75 Gallon Black Poly Stock Tank, SKU: 9281205, In Stock Online, 4 available for In Store $129.99

This is called a stock tank. It is meant to hold water for cows or horses. This seems to be the smallest size with a drain option.  This one is 48 x 34.5 x 18 in. (L x W x H). In larger sizes, they are also used by athletes for ice baths, and by koi as a backyard pool.

When we arrived at Princess Auto, we headed to the customer service desk. The nice lady immediately asked what I was driving. I said “a KIA”! Her response was “I hope it’s not a Soul”. “Why yes, my soul is grey, not black!” I replied. She looked worried and called the warehouse. She asked if they thought it might fit in a Kia Soul. They were sure it would. I added “with a walker?”  The answer was still “it should”. We were to browse for about 5 minutes, and then go pick it up at the back of the store.

Ooh Lovely!! Yes, that will probably fit in the car. I purchased it and a couple of other things we found while browsing and headed back to the car.  Glenn was able to put it in the back of the Kia Soul, and stuff the grocery bags in the tub and still have room for the walker too!

When the last renter next door moved out, he left a metal backless bench. It’s very rusted and doesn’t have a cushion. I was going to put plants on it. I think I have a better idea. Glenn found the hose extension and the tap attachment, which we hooked up to the tank, which is now sitting on the bench with a base of 3 4×4’s for extra support.

close up vew of tap and hose extender 2.1) The stock tank sitting on 3 4X4s on top of the metal bench. Connected to the drain is a hose extender, then the tap valve and the old hose to send the water down the driveway.

All right, I have a hypothesis. This should be easier to use than the big round bins I had been trying to bend over to lift baskets and tip the bin to drain. (Lately, it tended to get me wet and make me sore. But, they did work!) You have seen me use the strainer baskets in previous posts, but I have to go one basket at a time. I think I can do at least 3 baskets per wash in the stock tub, and just turning the drain should be much easier on my back.

Now I need a volunteer fleece to help me test out the new tub. Cupcake has volunteered! Thank you, Cupcake!

flece a mix of colours from dark brown to bage and grey 3.1) Cupcake is a BFL X Romney fleece, which was 6.4lbs. 

Normally, I would set up my skirting table, but I gave away the extra small rain barrels, which were part of its supports. Ok, it looks like it was well skirted, and not too much Vegi-matter. So let’s see if I can sort directly into the strainer baskets.

I gave the stock bin a quick rinse and realised the drain is over an inch up the side….. ok, there will need to be a bit of tipping to get the last bit of water out. Silly me, I got too excited to be fleece washing again and put the soap in before getting a couple of inches of water added. Oh well, the suds will dissipate, eventually.

added soap too soon as i added water stock tank now has water covered in suds3.2) Too many suds, I guess the fleece is about to have a bubble bath instead of scouring.

Since I don’t have hot water outside and I don’t have a space inside to set up to wash fleeces, the fleeces get a bath in the ambient temperature water. That’s ok, if there is a bit of lanolin left in the fleece, it works wonderfully to wind bird feet and toes.

Now let’s see how many bins I can fit in. I think I may be able to get four in the stock tank! The fleece is (6.4 lbs), and I split it into five bins. It’s a bit tight, but I can get 5 bins in.

5 strainer baskets in soap filled stock tank3.3) 5 bins just fit in this size!

There is a smaller size of strainer basket if I want to work in smaller amounts. What I have now is the larger one from Dollarama.

the soap is helping the wool get wet 3.4) The soap (not Detergent) helps with wetting the fibre as well as releasing the dirt. Look at all the fabulous colours in this fleece

soap has disapated, water is a shade of dark brown, the 5 bins sit in the stock tub3.5) A good soaking and suds-be-gone, so time to get out of the bath.

draining one bucket before hanging it up to finish dripping, the dark brown water is visible in the stock tank.3.6) Look at the dark brown colour of the soap wash water as fleece-filled strainer buckets are coming out. That sheep was dirtier than it looked!

starting to refill the stock tank (the tank has 3 rings each suggests it is 25 gallons. i will be filling to the first line so 25 gallons3.7) Rinse #1 refilling stock tank to the first ledge.

lighter brown water after fist rince 3.8) Rinse #1, after the strainer baskets have been removed, inside the stock tank, the water is getting closer to clean!

The inside of the stock tank has 3 stepped edges, which are spaced to suggest each is 25 gallons, since the total it can hold is 75 gallons. So, I am using about 25 gallons for each wash and rinse of five strainer buckets.

Rinse #2 cleaner still, but we were rushing against the weather, which was threatening rain. I also had a camera malfunction…. Both the battery died (I can recharge it) and the lens cap I just bought a week ago broke. I will order another one.

2 stranier buckets saoking in second rince Draing strainer basket by resting it on the edge of teh stock tank. you can see the water is closer to clean then rince 13.91-3.92) End of rinse #2. And resting the strainer bucket on the side of the rim to drain most of the water out before hanging it up to finish dripping.

I can not feel the lanolin, and the fibre feels quite clean. I have had to rinse out fine sand each time I clean out the stock tank. Did this sheep have a fabulous beach holiday?

Glenn is on holiday, and since we are not going to the States, he is helping me today. Two of the strainer baskets look like they need another rinse, but three are looking good. So each basket that seems clean gets gently dumped into the spin dryer.

RV hand washer spinner for cloths4.1) This is an RV washer/spin dryer.

Think of it like a giant salad spinner for clothes, er.. Fleece! There is a dial at the lower edge that can turn on the drain or keep the water in and rotate your clothes.  I set it to drain, and Glenn spun it for me! I found this at a second-hand store, recognised it as a wonderful fibre prep equipment, and bought it!!

the lid off teh RV washer spinner showing fleece inside4.2) just like a giant salad spinner (but I don’t advise it for clothes or salad after all the fleeces it’s been washing.

Glenn brought the drying racks (from Ikea) up from the basement and put them under the covered area of the back patio (the part that doesn’t have blacksmithing stuff)

sears Robuck light dutie farm forge, and larger forge under cover.5.1) the small forge, Sears-Roebuck light duty farm forge and the bigger forge under the large black cover.

We set one drying rack up behind the large forge and the other on the other side by the house.

the green strainer bucket is from the RV spin washer 5.2) The green bucket is handy to move the fleece to the drying racks.

first bucket full on driying rack with plastic owl watching in back grond wool is on ike cloths drying rack5.3) The plastic owl takes his job of guarding the wool seriously.

the patio behind the bigger forge, has 2 drying racks full of fleece, a rain barrel and wooden fence in background  5.4) Two buckets on the right drying rack, and one on the Left. The plastic owl is still supervising. I hope it keeps the evil chipmunk from “Helping”. He will be eating all my blackberries shortly!

blackbarry plants with flowers along the back of the brick house, blue tarp covers blacksmiths foot vice5.5) This is part of the blackberries along the house, and one of Glenn’s blacksmith footed vices under the blue tarp. It could be a very good crop of blackberries (which will make up for the rabbit cutting all the canes off at about a foot for the raspberries.

We pulled out the last two buckets to drain a bit before going onto the racks. And I got busy weeding and then adding more little plants of Tie basil and parsley to the planters. There is a bit more Thai basil and weeding to do, but it’s starting to drip.  What have we learned in previous summers about drying wool?  If you put wool out to dry, it will probably rain….

We moved the 2 draining buckets a bit closer to the overhang, moved the umbrella to give more cover and then put the drying fleeces back in their buckets and moved them and the racks under the cover of the dog-covered area of the side yard. I had a barking Cat, not a dog. He didn’t like to go out if it was raining, so we had to cover a section for him. It’s where I set up my outdoor studio. I haven’t got that sorted out yet this summer.

2 ikea cloths driying rack full of drying fleece5.6) Moved drying racks under cover to avoid the rain.

In the morning, the wind is up, and the fibre is still there, but still not dry. Ok, one drying rack when in front of the garage under the last umbrella, and the other went by the side door.

one drying rack moved under umbrella by garage one rack by side door wool is getting closer to dry but still is a bit damp5.7-5.8) I still have one strainer basket to put out to dry.

strainer basket of wool wating for space to put wool on drying rack5.9) The last strainer basket waiting for space on the drying racks.

I have been ready to start another fleece, but with the drying racks being full, I don’t have a spot to put them once they are washed. So this is the new bottleneck in fleece washing.

Let’s review the Stock tank: Pros /Cons

chart of pros and cons of the stock tank

6.1) Chart of pros and cons that I can think of for the stock tank as a fleece washing tool.

For those who want to see if the washing worked, let’s take a last look at this lovely fleece.

locks of wool draped accross fingers locks of wool Blue faced lester cross romni draped on ruler very crimpy lenght is up to about 3.5inches long7.1-7.2) Washed locks of BFL X Romni. The locks are very soft and crimpy. Unstretched, the locks range up to 3.5 inches

If you think this may work for you and are now thinking about a quest for a stock tank, look at farm supply stores if you don’t have access to such a diverse store like Princess Auto (they also have some blacksmithing equipment).

So I think the stock tank will be a great improvement to fleece washing. I will now have to figure out an upgrade to my fleece drying equipment. Maybe I will have to take the long, arduous, 7-stop sign (one is in their parking lot) trip to IKEA and get a third drying rack. I love an excuse to go to IKEA!!! (and it is just down the street, dangerously close to home.) I hope you are enjoying lovely fleece washing weather and getting some fun felting done while the fleeces are drying!

UPDATE: the Princess Auto Flyer just arrived. the 75 Gallon stock tack will be going on sale July 1-13th 2025, but the store is closed July 1st for Canada day. check on line, there may be a free shipping option. or watch for one at a garage sale!

Mostly just a question.

Mostly just a question.

Comments 26 comments

School is almost finished, this is the last week. I hope that school ending will let me get back to my felting life. I have managed to finish the first part of my planned book resistance workshop, but haven’t had time for much else.  I want to get your opinions on the best background to take the pictures for the next part of the workshop. I can’t use my tabletop as it is much to reflective.

 

I will be using pink wool for the workshop. Please ignore the fold lines, I will wash and iron the cloth before using it for taking pictures. Here are the choices

Grey

Blue stripes

multi coloured stripes

and Poka dots

 

I am leaning towards the grey. The white resist shows up well, and the pink does too. I kinda like the blue stripes (they look grey on my screen)as it gives me something to line up with.

 

I will need to add something to the background to let me know I am in the frame properly. I think just some painter’s tape will do it. This is the view from the tripod, right now.

 

Jan bought me this doohickey to extend my camera further away from the tripod. It works with the ring light, but the ring light is too tall.  The screw on the tripod is to short to add the ring light I have. I will have to find out the name of this thing and see if I can find one with a hole at one end and a screw at the other. It adds about 2.5 inches of reach for the phone/camera.

Back to the original question, which background do you like best?

 

 

 

Wool mini landscape on red prefelt after wet felting.
Miniature Wool Landscapes

Miniature Wool Landscapes

Comments 15 comments

A few posts ago, I showed you some painted miniature landscapes. Why not try the same idea in felt? So off to my stash to figure out what I had to create these.

Supplies for wool paintings laid out on work bench including various colors of wool roving, locks and colored prefelts.

I found a variety of green wool as well as white, grey and blue for the skies. I also had some locks in black and dark grey and thought they might work well for tree trunks. I had a few sheets of various colors of commercial prefelt to use as a base.

5" x 7" colored prefelts for wool paintings laid out on work bench.

I cut the prefelt into 5″ x 7″ pieces. I thought any smaller might really get difficult getting the wool to cooperate.

Beginning layout of wool on pink prefelt for mini landscape.

I decided to try one first before I made all of the landscapes. I used the pink prefelt and laid out a variety of greens for the foreground and white with a tiny bit of blue and grey for the sky.

Final layout of wool on pink prefelt for mini landscape.

I then laid out the trees with a very small bit of locks for the trunk and a bit of green for the leaves. Now on to wet felting it.

Mini wool painting of landscape after wet felting.

I wasn’t particularly happy with the locks after felting. They went right through the merino and I wasn’t careful enough, as they moved about. Now I had really hairy dark spots that looked nothing like tree trunks. But I was happy with the rest of the landscape. These shrank down to about 4″ x 6″. I probably could have shrunk them down further but since it’s a “painting” and not functional, I decided 4″ x 6″ was a good size. They will fit into 5″ x 7″ frames easily.

Mini wool painting after shaving off excess "hairy" fibers.

Since I wasn’t happy with the hairiness, I decided to shave the piece. I think it looks a bit better now. So on to the other six landscapes.

Final layout of wool on various prefelts for other six mini landscapes.

I laid out the other prefelts and added wool to create more landscapes. Then wet felting them all at the same time. The entire process took me about four hours.

Here they are completed. I like seeing them at thumbnail size as it doesn’t bring out any small details. But I will show you them in a bigger format for those of you who would like to see the details.

Wool mini landscape on red prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on yellow prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on red prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on green prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on yellow prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on white prefelt after wet felting.

The plan is to get some frames for these and take them to the gallery. My bigger pieces haven’t been selling very well lately so I thought a smaller size option might be an easier purchase for people.

Experimenting with household/garden stuff …… and fibre!

Experimenting with household/garden stuff …… and fibre!

Comments 15 comments

I think I might have had too much time on my hands a while ago. As we say here ‘What’s seldom is wonderful!’ So I got a little curious about some things. Fibre of course had to be involved.

We don’t drink coffee in our house – my husband was never a fan and I found myself to be allergic to it after going cold turkey in China back in the 80s. I do love the coffee aroma and I can be sometimes found near one of our oldest coffee houses in Dublin, Bewleys, just sniffing the air.  At this point, I really have to post a link to their rather famous cafe in the heart of Dublin.  It’s a haunt of mine, even though I can’t drink it.  It is worth calling in to if you are on vacation (the food is amazing).  There can be queues so it is worth going early.  Besides the food, the original works of art are breath taking.  https://bewleysgraftonstreet.com/

What has this got to do with my post – absolutely nothing – but I just had to share so you have a special spot to add to your itinerary when you visit Dublin, Ireland.

But, I digress. We drink a lot of tea in the house and while I like lots of different flavours, I tend to consume mostly an Irish brand, Barrys. It, along with an Irish brand of crisps (potato chips) called Tayto are two products most requested when visiting ex-pats. We use tea bags rather than leaf tea and we compost the remainder as the bags are now biodegradable.

My first thought during this time of being busy doing nothing was, would the tea bags (without the tea) felt into merino fibre. Before I could experiment I had to empty the tea bags and wash and dry them. I have to admit this was not a favourite job. The smell of the used bags assaulted my nostrils, so I worked quickly (every cloud, silver lining and all that!). Once dry I divided the bags into two groups and I made marks on one group with what I thought was alcohol based walnut ink and let it dry. Then I went to work laying down the ‘marked’ tea bags and adding 10g of merino fibre on top (4 layers) I finished off with the unmarked tea bags, layering them so that I could see how thick it could make them before the fibre would stop permeating them.

It was a successful experiment. The bags fully felted into the fibre and the sample shrank by 45%. The marks, however disappeared, so I will add them again. It turns out the ink was acrylic – note to self: next time, read the label before buying!   

I do like the textural finish on this piece and it is good to see that something as mundane and ordinary as a used tea bag can yield a successful result.  Here’s a very quick peak at the bags and outcome:

Marking on teabags with ink

Felted sample plain tea bag up

Felted sample mark side up – lots of the marks washed out

Recently, I’ve been doing a bit of reading up on the science behind making felt. What we usually do is add soap to water, in my own case, I use olive oil soap which has a pH of 8. The paper I read maintained that wool fibre would felt once the pH value was moved from neutral. This meant that I should be able to felt a sample by adding an acid solution to the fibre. I was keen to try it to see what would happen.

First of all, I rinsed off all my equipment, my water bowl, ball brause, bubble wrap and fulling cloth to make sure there was no soapy residue around. Then I laid out my sample (4 layers). I checked the pH of the water, which was neutral. I then added a quarter cup of vinegar to my water and checked the pH value which was now 4. The water was tepid. I wet out the sample. The first thing I noticed was that the water did not soak into the fibre as it usually does when soap is added and it took a lot more water and pushing on the fibres to encourage them to soak up the water. When I turned the sample over, there were still dry patches so even more water was needed! That (plus the smell) were the only differences I noticed. It felted easily and shrank down 47%. When it came to fulling the sample, I heated up the water/vinegar solution in the microwave. One advantage of using the acid solution is that the ‘water’ could be used for the next project. That said, I reckon it could be very hard on the hands if this was my main way of making felt. So I am going to decant it into a spray bottle and use it to clean windows, no waste!

  • Sample of layout for acid experiment
  • Checking the PH of the water before I start
  • Ph of sample during felting

We have a beautiful Norweigan Spruce tree growing in our front garden.  I like to refer to it as the gift that keeps on giving because it constantly suprises us.  For example, last year, while I was mindlessly staring into the garden, it launched a pollen bomb.  For those of us (this included myself up to this  point) unfamiliar with the term, the tree released it pollen all in one go.  So the whole tree was suddenly surrounded by a yellow haze.  In an instant, the haze lifted into the sky and was carried off in the wind.  It was truly spectacular.  I have lots of allergies and pollen would be one of my nemesis but I would put up with the discomfort to see this again.  Here’s a short Youtube video on the topic.  Our tree did it on its own while this one was shook but you will get the picture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh2Da8Ms45M

Anyway, back to my story.  I found I had lots of fallen pine cones at the base of the tree so I gathered only some of them and put them on to boil in my dyepot.  The house was filled with a gorgeous pine scent during this process. Once I had extracted the dye from the cones, I filtered the mix through some muslin to remove the resin. The colour was absolutely stunning – a jewel red. I used it for four experiments; first of all, I extracted a litre of the liquid to make a pigment, then I used the remainder of the dyebath to dye some fibres (unfortunately I do not have a photo of the results and they are now added to my mountain of experiments (unlabelled – what was I thinking!). Experiment number three involved adding some of the leftover dye bath to citric acid to make a pigment. In the last experiment I left the liquid alone and just added the alum and soda crystals to separate the dye from the liquid base. Once separated, I filtered the liquid out of the pigment, then dried and ground all the results. So, I ended up with three different pigments and some dyed fibre experiments. I have inclluded a photo of the pigment made last summer and the result of the latest experiment in winter. There is quite a difference in the colour as you will see from the slide slow:

  • Gathered pine cones in the dye pot
  • Filtering the resin during dye extraction
  • Glorious colour from the cones!
  • Catching the dye colour in the sunshine!
  • Making pigment
  • I threw a variety of fibres into the dyepot
  • Cone pigment before it dries
  • Not sure which experiment with pine cones this photo related to
  • The filtering process with the pine cones
  • pigment comparison on pine cones: summer one is to the right winter to the left – same tree, different result
  • Pine cone – liquid extracted before using the dyebath.
  • leftover dye bath from the pine cones with citric acid added
  • pine cone pigment from leftover dye bath

There’s a back story to the last project. We have a number of fruit trees in our garden. Unfortunately we lost one of our plum trees last year. This was despite our eldest son’s (naturally green fingered which he inherited from paternal grandmother having skipped a generation) efforts to save it. Finally, there was no other option but to fell it. He also decided to remove the roots which was a big job as the tree had been there a number of years. It became the focus for my last household and garden project. I wanted to find out if the dye from plum tree bark differs from the dye from plum tree root. To find out, I decided to peel some of the bark off one of the branches. I did the same with the outer cover of the root. I soaked these in different containers for up to a week. Now, here’s what I found interesting. Whereas I needed to heat the pine cone liquid to extract the dye in my previous project, this was not needed for the bark/root projects; the dye naturally extracted sitting in its vessel and the high tannin level meant that all I needed to do was soak my fibres and fabric. It was like magic! I wanted to use the dye in some small vessels I made for the 10g challenge I spoke about in my last post. Then, I took what remained in the dye pot and made pigment from it. I found it interesting that the result from the plum bark dye yielded a lighter colour dye but a richer pigment – the root was the opposite. The fabric/fibre experiment produced is a lovely rich golden hue on the different surfaces. Also, it turned out to be another gift that kept on giving as each time I used up all the dye, I added more water to the two mixes and it kept extracting dye – I could not even notice if the dye was weaker in the second round than it was in the first. In the end I composted the bark and roots as I needed to move on with life (I got busy again!)

Here’s a quick run through in photos:

  • Paring back the plum bark
  • Paring the plum root
  • time to play with dyeing fibre plum root
  • Trying Shibori – not particularly satisfactory when opened up
  • sample of all the different fibres I played with – plum root
  • Dye -v- pigment comparison plum bark
  • dye -v- pigment comparison plum root
  • Plum root final colour when rinsed and dried – Yum!

Do you use household or garden items in your textile practice? Have they ever surprised you? I would love to hear about your experiences.

Helene x

skeleton of a hare standing on hind legs
Hare Today !!!

Hare Today !!!

Comments 14 comments

I had been wanting to go back to needle felting sculptures for some time, so when I came across a tiny picture of a hare in our local free newspaper New Blackmore Vale Magazine,  I knew I’d found what I wanted to do.  Rather than the usual boxing hares, which I may well have a go at sometime in the future, I felt called to this solitary speeding hare.  He only had one fore foot on the ground and was obviously in a great hurry.

Brown Hare running on snowy ground
Original Inspiration

On getting my necessary supplies together, it was clear that I would obviously need a good strong armature for him and a solid base to hold it steady.  Trawling through my drawer of wires, I found what looked like an unused coil of old, cotton covered, bonnet wire (probably pre-WW2).  I’ve no idea what gauge it was but it was obviously strong enough to hold up an old fashioned bonnet brim, so I was sure it would keep the hare upright.  Having  resorted to Google for images of hare skeletons (naturally I wasn’t able to find one in the actual pose I needed, but I did find a couple of useful references) I looked out some other wires which would probably do for the pelvis and rib cage.  I fiddled with the images and printed off one enlarged to the size I wanted to make the hare and then made a tracing/drawing to use as a working pattern.

My idea was to have a base made from two pieces of wood, with  extended leg wire from the only leg actually touching the ground passing though a hole drilled in one piece of wood, and then bent at an angle of 90º. The wire would then be pressed into a slot cut into the underside to stop the hare swinging around when mounted.

image of wire protruding from bottom of piece of wood
Showing the extension of the armature from the grounded foot protruding from the bottom of the base

The second piece of wood would be fixed under the first piece to keep the wire in place and also to add extra weight to avoid the whole thing being top (or hare) heavy.

I would use the bonnet wire for the spine and head, and pipe cleaners for the pelvis and ear armatures, then go back to bonnet wire for the limbs.

While I was working up the armature I first had the leg wire stuck in a heavy reel of wire.

Subsequently, when I was needle felting, the leg wire was passed through a newly made slot in my felt needle felting cushion.

Using more of my scoured merino, which I had bought quite some years ago now from Wingham Woolwork, I started to fill in the inner body.  The wool is scoured but not otherwise prepared, so it required quite some carding to get it into a state where I could use it to wrap the armatures and to fill in the muscles to give some substance to the animal.  Here are some views of that work in progress.

I had of course gone to Google Images for reference pictures of hares from an all round perspective, both for body shape and for colour, from which I blended various colours for my palette.  Here are a few of those.

Then I started adding the “top coat”.  Working on a sculpture rather than on a “painting” was a bit complicated (and painful at times) until I found myself a small piece of polystyrene packing foam to use when I couldn’t rest the part of the hare I was needling onto my felt cushion.

Another complication was transporting the hare from home to the various venues where I was working on him.  In the end I used an empty plastic box and turned him upside down into it.  It was a bit of a squeeze but he just about got in safely.

Bit by bit, over several months, he began to emerge from the fibres.

I had originally thought to use a pair of glass eyes which I had in stock as they were the right colour and had the black surround which can be seen on a real hare.  Unfortunately they were too big so I fell back on giving the hare orange woollen eyeballs and working them up from there.

When he was substantially finished, I added some “grass” and “rough undergrowth” to the “soil” on top of the wooden base.  This consisted of all sorts of odd bits of fluff, fibre, yarn and fabric selvedges, plus some suitable acrylic paint.

4 different images of waste fibres and yarns in greens, creams and browns
Some of the bits and pieces of scrub and grass

The footwire was poked into the hole in the ground and bent under so that he was running across the scrub land. Then, using his carry box as a stand, I added and secured the second piece of wood.

showing clear plastic box topped with 2 blocks of wood on top with needle felted hare attached upside down inside the box. The two pieces of wood are stuck together with masking tape and partly screwed together
showing his carry box and adding the 2nd part of the base

Although the 2 pieces of wood were from the same larger piece they did not look good when screwed together so I painted them green, obscuring the fact that they were not one large piece.  I thought I was done then, but unfortunately one of the pieces of wood started to warp and spoiled the illusion.  Eventually, after some thought, I removed the bottom piece of wood and glued some non-slip matting over the base (having first taped the footwire into its slot in the bottom of the base) and painted the underside the same green as the sides.

Whilst working and looking at the reference pictures of the whole animal, I realised that he probably had had lots of whiskers.  So I looked for more reference pictures of hare(y) faces and saw that indeed he did.  So how to add these essential appendages?

4 images of close up pictures of whiskery hares' faces
harey faces

I have for some years now been collecting cats’ whiskers.  (They make great fishing rods for fishermen living in the countryside of 00 gauge model railway layouts!)

Black paper with many white cats' whiskers
It’s the cat’s whiskers

I would use some of these for the hare.  Initially I was adding a dot of glue to the end of the whisker, poking a hole in the hare’s muzzle and pushing in the whisker.  The problem was that the whiskers were life-size for a cat, but too big for my hare.  The whiskers were actually strong enough to be poked into the hare’s muzzle without first making a hole, (provided there wasn’t a bit of armature in the way), so in the end I just poked them in and through and out the other side, chopping off the protruding bit and leaving the right length behind.  In fact, unless someone tries to pull them out, the whiskers will stay where they are.

needle felted hare's head with whiskers poked through muzzle and protruding ends being cut off with scissors
cutting the poked through whisker ends

I am hoping to find some form of clear box to cover the hare and stand, if only so I don’t have to keep dusting him.

Here he is.

completed and mounted needle felted hare placed on juniper branches to resemble running free
Out enjoying his run, whiskers and all

Since making him, I have inherited a book all about gnomes.

front cover of book "Gnomes" showing front and back images of gnome with pointed red hat, leather belted blue coat, brown trousers and "deer skin" boots. Gnome has brown face and white hair, eyebrows, moustache and beard
Cover of Gnome book

One of the fascinating things I have learned about them is that they can run as fast as a hare and are small enough to take a ride.  So you never know my hare may gain some friends some day.

Final thought – what should I name him, any ideas?  (Don’t say Harry, I don’t think the Prince would be amused.)  I understand that Hares were introduced to the UK, probably by the Romans, so perhaps he might be named after a Caeser!

 

Extra busy on Fathers day! Sheering demo and Blacksmithing!!

Extra busy on Fathers day! Sheering demo and Blacksmithing!!

Comments 6 comments

Happy Father’s Day for those who are celebrating today!

Today, which will be yesterday, by the time you are reading this, tomorrow, was a bit overbooked. I hope you will come along and check out the day.  At 8:30am, We were to be at the log farm, where Ann has a stall at the farmers market (Yummy goodness!!!). the Farm has barns and other out buildings past the trees and fields beyond the market area.  Today was sheering day for their sheep! They had been very generous and given us previous sheerings form their flock so I really did want to go demo for them.

We packed up the Mer-Boyfriend, the mostly finished picture of the sheep and the moose back with landscape. I could not find where Glenn had put my Core wool from WOW so grabbed the last of a bump of coreidale. No not what I want its combed top not carded roving. Drat.

It was quite the hike for me into the farm but the ground was flat until we reached the farm. We saw lots of grape vines and little apples on the way.

path leading to old farm buildings trees on one side 1.1) the end of the path heading to the farm

aples and grapes1.2) apples and grape vines with tiny buds of grapes

It has some old log buildings and lots of different types of animals. Including the volunteers of honor the adult sheep. They were quite loud so someone may have tipped them off the Shearing was happening today.

chickens, ducks, cat bunny and turky2.1) some of the animals on the farm

sheep in frield and standing by fence2.2) The guests of honor, one of whom thought my walker wheel a tasty snack!

For very early on a Saturday morning there was quite a crowd to watch the sheep loose there winter coats. A new volunteer was brought forward about every 20 minutes until noon.

crowd at sheering 3.1) shearing in front of an audience.

While this was going on we were next door in a 3 sided barn, I was a bit farther back and could not see the sheering happening until I went out to take a peek.

demoing drop spindle, 4.1) Demoing spinning and felting

samples to touch4.2) touch samples of various fibers

display table by guild4.3) the sample table

demoing inkle weaving and electric spinning wheel4.4)  Inkle weaving and electric spinning wheel (with portable battery power source)

stuffed sheep looks like its being added to the flock5.1) sheep may be having an Instagram moment after a strange seep trys to sneak into the herd

Post sheering the sheep were looking for food.

feeding sheep grass5.2) small girl in yellow dress gives hands full of grass to sheep wating at fence

snoozing and resting lambs 5.3) The lambs having a nap after the sheerer relieve there moms of all there fleece

Just past the sheep were the Alpaca. They had already been sheered

3 alpaca eating along fence 5.4) Alpaca

It was after noon by the time I packed up my felting and we headed back to the car. Unfortunately we  had another place to go today and a long drive through traffic to get there.

snow ball bush? prity white flowers 5.5) some form of snow ball bush I think, it was very pretty and there were variations near the farm

5.6) it was a very pretty walk but it felt like it was much longer on the way back.

They may have snuck in more trees while we were demoing? We passed Ann on our way out, she still had some of the cookies and a few tarts. We would have got a beef and mushroom pie but I knew it would have to sit in a hot car for the rest of the day so not a good idea. (The AC seems to have stopped working, oh no back to the old fashion windows!)

Ann selling a cookie!!5.7) Ann at the Farmers market

Did you want to follow us to our next and more appropriate fathers day location? We are off to well past Ottawa heading towards Montreal to the town of Dunvagen (still in Ontario). The Glengarry Museum is located there and they have an annual Blacksmith group teach a workshop on father’s day weekend. This year they are making scissors.

Since we had been at the sheering this morning we are running late to watch the making of scissors. We arrived and they had made the blades ends and were doing the offset and starting to do the tapper for the handles. Glenn went to check that out and I headed for the ramp to the school house where the lady with alpaca fiber usually is. I missed the bag of black and the dark brown but got a bag of a light creamy badge.

seller of alpaca products and fiber7.1) Alpaca seller

Pottery seller 7.2) Pottery vendor

reson figures7.3) Sassy by Nicci had figures made of resin. I like these little guys

bat house and bee house7.4) this woodworker had bird houses, as well as these bat and bee houses

vender tent with weaving7.5) This one had some weaving

7.6) horns and horn cups. They are finished so you can drink hot or cold drinks or pop in them.

blacksmith display7.7) There even was a vendor selling blacksmith made stuff. Do you see the woven centure fleshay belt?

Now to the main event the usually very photogenic blacksmiths. There were 2 groups, one in the log building with a forge. They were again working on making a musket. (I think it was a musket it was a gun barrel of an old design.)

8.1) smithing a gun barrel

The other group of blacksmiths were taking a workshop on making a pair of scissors.

Building the class was in9.1-9.2) the blacksmithing class

We arrived as they were discussing forging the handle loops. They could decide the shape and cross section to fit their hands.

looking at sample of sizors9.3)  inspecting samples of scissors looking at the handle loops

outlining sample sixor handle to make matching pair9.4) The instructor traced a sample scissor handle on his anvil so he had a pattern to work from

I gave Glenn my old camera and he was having fun trying it out.

New camera is used to take photos of samples of sizor making 9.5) Glenn trying out his new camera

samples of sizor makeing 9.6) some of the sample scissors and scissor parts

balencing stock on knee to trim to correct lenght9.7) this is one of the students, we saw her last year. She had an ingenious way of working when she ran out of hands.

cutting mettle to lenth requiered by using guiliteen tool9.8) a guillotine tool in the hardy hole

On our way to the museum, we got stuck behind an agricultural parade going very slowly. I am pretty sure we saw the same Vehicles in the field behind the museum. One tractor pulling swirling round rakes that gathered the hay and the second tractor pulled a strange machine that made hay bales that it gathered then dumped behind it.  It was fun to watch them work too.

raking and bundleing the hay into bails by 2 tractor pulled macheens10.1) the field behind the museum

It was a fun day, lots of driving, now I’m sore and its getting close to bed time. I want to leave you with traditional blacksmithing imagery, coal and flames ready to bend mettle to your will. I think I will stick to bending wool to my will but its fun to see the skill involved to move mettle where you want it to go and make useful things, like scissors.

two vews of fire in the forge. cole and glowing embers 11.1) lovely fire in the forge. just remember not to breath the green smoke!!

I hope you have a wonderful father’s day and get to do some felting ether wet or dry! maybe you made something cool for your Dad?

Sheep Keychain

Sheep Keychain

Comments 11 comments

I started working on this a while ago and have managed to do one. I can hardly wait until school’s done at the end of the month. I don’t seem to have any time to do anything at the moment. Oh well, enough griping.

You may remember that for my Guild’s anniversary exhibition, I made a little flock of sheep. What to do with them now? I could just put them away or make a display, not that I have room for that.

In the past, I made key chains by threading a cord down and back up through the sheep and then adding a split ring. It worked, but the cords wear too quickly. Then I saw some cool headwear for keychains. They seem to just put beads on them, but what do they know? I bought a multi-coloured pack.

Of course, I also had to buy some new beads for this. Really, I did, I didn’t have any large hole beads that would fit on the pole. Sorry about the bad picture, way too much reflection on the left one, and I didn’t want to dump them out. The one on the left is mixed, so there are solids, stripes, crystals and some different textures.

I picked a green keychain to go with the green sheep.

 

The first thing to do is to make a hole in the sheep. For this, I used a leather awl. It worked quite well; I only had to fiddle a little to get the post through the sheep. You can see that the beads unscrew at both ends. This makes it easier to add the beads on the top and bottom after adding the sheep.

Then add some beads and and screw the ends back on.

I like the way it looks. I need to give him some eyes and probably a nose. None of the sheep or the shepherdess had facial features for the display.

The other thing I want to do is fix some of the ears. I was running out of time, and I knew they wouldn’t be handled, so I didn’t worry about some of the ears not being as sturdy as I would like.  Some of them are too fluffy and underfelted, so they will not last as key chains.

The other thing I bought was a little stand and some cards to attach the keychains to. I hope that it makes them look a little more finished and worth what I want for them.

They are too big to fit in the little bags that came with the cards. I will have to look for some different ones.

P.S. I have not picked a name for the little ram lamb yet. Nothing has really jumped out at me as the right one, yet.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.
Altered Tree Book Page Spreads

Altered Tree Book Page Spreads

Comments 18 comments

I have been slowly working on my tree book and got a few more pages completed. You can read about the beginnings if you missed it here and here.

Three page spreads from altered book about trees.

I start with pages from the old tree book that have been gessoed and then painted or dyed. I used walnut ink on most of the pages but I decided I would try the tumeric ink we made a couple of years ago. That was so bright yellow, I added a layer of walnut ink and it is still candescent. I will have to cover up most of the yellow so I don’t overwhelm the book with so much yellow. I have a pile of painted papers and some of the mark making we have been doing over the last 3-4 months.

Three page spreads from altered book about trees.

Then I move bits around until I am happy with the outcome. You can see that I tried adding my little landscapes that I painted recently but I didn’t end up using them. They didn’t feel right to me, most likely because of the very white borders.

Page spread try outs for altered book about trees.

Here’s one of the pages before I glued things down. The yellow and black paper are shreds left over from our paper layering experiments.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

Here’s a finished page spread. You can see the same paper layering end product on the right. This is the candescent yellow background page. It has been toned down by layering tissue paper over it.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

Here’s one that I used one of Paula’s eco prints on the right. It was perfect for my color scheme. The left reminds me of a feather but it is torn paper that accidentally turned out that shape.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

Here’s another layered paper one with some other off cuts and mark making.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

And here’s the layout I showed you above once it was glued. I like how the tissue paper allows you to see through to the original book page. I am enjoying the imprecise nature of this book and playing with mark making, color and shapes.