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Month: August 2025

Mitred squares detail view
Memories Sweater (Work in progress)

Memories Sweater (Work in progress)

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This blog talks about my attempts to knit the Memories Sweater pattern by Sally Melville.  I will start by sharing the project photos of Sally’s inspiring sweater.  As you can see, this is a neat pattern and a great way to use up random bits of sock yarn.

My first attempt with the pattern was in May 2022.  I dug out some sock yarn and started.  After 5 weeks, this is all the progress I managed.  I had a few hiccups… one was that the various sock yarns had slightly different gauges.  And the bigger problem was the square itself.  The mitred square in the pattern had a spine going down the middle of the square.  I found making squares in this style to be frustrating.  And so the project got put into a bag on a time out.  Three years later it has not been retrieved.

Modular knitting panel
First attempt (June 2022)

Now we advance to June 2025.  My husband I and were going on a long car trip to visit family.  I wanted to find a project that would be good trip knitting and also that would not take too much space.  I began to wonder if maybe I should attempt the Memories Sweater again.

To try and avoid the gauge problem, I decided to use a single brand of sock yarn.  I had this selection of Patons Stretch Socks, which is a fingering yarn with lots of cotton (41% Cotton, 39% Wool, 13% Nylon, 7% Other).  I thought it would be a good match for a summer top like this.

Patons Stretch Socks
Patons Stretch Socks

Next I decided to look around for another mitred square pattern to use as a substitute.  I found the Knitted Patchwork Recipe by Martine Ellis and gave it a try.  I was very happy with my first square.

Knitted patchwork recipe and first square
Knitted patchwork recipe and first square

And in late June I started knitting in earnest.  I knit steadily from June 30th to mid August.

Along the way I began to worry that I would run out of yarn.  I posted an ISO (In Search Of) post on Ravelry and a few people came to my aid and sold me spare balls from their stash.  These new colours got added into the panels.

 

Eventually I had 2 completed panels and then I began to add edging on 3 sides as the pattern instructed.

And here is a view of the panels with edging complete.

Completed panels (edging complete)
Completed panels (edging complete)

I then tried to figure out what to do next.  I read and re-read the pattern for the shoulder/sleeve section and was stumped.  In the original sweater the designer had more squares in her panels than I had in mine.  So after searching through pattern notes and looking online I resorted to emailing the designer for help.  Luckily Sally Melville kindly answered my questions and has provided some clarifications to help me move forward.  However, I have not yet had the time to devote to implementing her directions and starting the shoulder section of the sweater.  But I am hoping to get to that soon.  I look forward to sharing my finished sweater in a future blog post.

 

 

 

 

A Summer Round Up

A Summer Round Up

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As I sit down to begin this post the sky has darkened and the rain (fingers crossed) is about to fall, heaven knows we need it, but what a fabulous summer it’s been so far here in sunny Lincolnshire! I don’t know about you but I tend to not do too much in the way of creative stuff through July and August as there are too many distractions and this year the intense heat has made me feel very lazy so lots of time spent relaxing, reading and watching creative videos. Consequently I’ve now got a table of projects I want to finish and a head full of others I want to start!

A couple of projects I did do this summer are two wet felted vessels. The first one, inspired by a shrivelled seed pod, was made at the İFA Region 8’s Summer School in Arnesby near Leicester. Our region encompasses several counties and is so spread out we struggle to get our İFA members to attend. On the other hand we have a regular group of creative ‘non members’ in the locality who are more than welcome to come along to our events, and thankfully they do! It was a busy and fun two days…..

My seed pod began life as five leaf book resist measuring 27cm x 36cm and various colours of Merino and Corriedale fibres.

It’s final shape was formed after lots of pushing and pulling and using strong clips to get it to stay as I wanted it.I decided to keep the opening as tiny as possible and, as a consequence, the resist had to be ripped to shreds in order to remove it! I’m wondering about adding some hand embroidery here and there in the shape of circles using a dull gold thread, I think it’s lacking something but is that it?

Photo of a wet felted 3D multicoloured seed pod with a shrivelled appearance.
Photo of a wet felted 3D multicoloured seed pod with a shrivelled appearance.

The second vessel was started last Friday when I was working at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln. I’d seen a post somewhere mentioning they were having their second Artist Studio Day and inviting local artists to apply. If successful it meant I would get the use of a table in their ground floor workspace and get to spend the day with four other artists. It sounded like a great opportunity and I’m so glad I applied! Only four artists turned up on the day and unfortunately one of those had to leave early. My other two companions were both painters and it was nice to get to know a bit about them and watch them work. We had a few members of the public come in to see what we were doing but for most of the time it was very quiet which allowed us to focus on what we were doing.

Knowing I wouldn’t get finished, but would need to get my vessel to a stable state before leaving the gallery, meant I needed to do a bit of prep the day before. So I decided on a size, cut my circular resist and made this piece of prefelt combining threads, fabrics and fibres to cut up and use as surface decoration.

Prefelt for surface decoration
By the time we had to leave I had a stable prefelt that looked like a pizza and could be folded into my bag….it was too large to carry it flat!
The finished rock inspired vessel

One of the Summer pieces I’ve yet to finish is an Iris which I started at the end of July. This is going to be for the Lincolnshire Textile Groups Bountiful Botanicals competition taking place in October. I’m creating it from hand painted Tyvek fabric and wire and the flower will be approximately 30cm dia by 115cm tall. I’ve just got the leaves to do now and then I’ve got the perfect spot for it in my lounge when it’s finished. I don’t want to reveal too much before the competition so this is a sneak preview for now…..

 Finally I’ll leave you with some images from this year’s fabulous Asylum Steampunk Festival. As ever there were some outstanding costumes, some very strange costumes and some that looked like they’d missed the theme altogether but it really didn’t matter! There were steampunk enthusiasts represented from all over the UK and from various European countries. One lady said she had come over from Hong Kong especially to join in the festival! The atmosphere is the friendliest you could imagine and the whole Cathedral Quarter was buzzing!

True to form I didn’t make time to create a costume but this year I did dig out a long skirt and a waistcoat as a (very) token gesture in order to wear my oversized steampunk dragonfly brooch.

 

Snape Textile Group exhibition – prep

Snape Textile Group exhibition – prep

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This is just a very simple post as I frantically prepare for our Snape Textile Group’s exhibition of work, showcasing our work from a year’s worth of interesting monthly workshops. These are given mostly by external tutors, but we usually have two ‘in house’ lead activities and an annual challenge. I must admit I haven’t completed the latter….I simply can’t get my head around altered books, no matter how I try!

I have enjoyed many of the workshops with the keen intention of finishing them at home, but life has a habit of dictating otherwise and then suddenly I am up to my elbows in the next workshop. So, anyone remembering the subject of two previous posts relating to Decovil, one of this year’s workshops….NO, I haven’t finished it and….YES, I can hear you nattering at me from here! One day I will surprise you all 😁

Our hardworking group leader always plans our workshops 12+ months ahead and once booked, sends out our group programme complete with the websites for all our tutors. Over the last few years, I have taken this opportunity to see what our tutors are creating, what their tastes are and what we might be doing. The result of my homework and exploring ‘G’ online (thank you to all the authors of the info/pix I have used for inspiration) is that I usually go to the workshop armed with lots of inspiration photos….it helps me consolidate my thoughts.

Herewith the projects (in no particular order) I have finally managed to complete and will enter into our 2025 exhibition –

Paper Collage with Sharron Bates

From her work online I knew it was to be a ‘whimsical’ theme on houses, many of which were seaside based. Exploring, I found many other whimsical houses to whet my appetite.

That set me off thinking about my past and very happy times living by the sea (I now live smack bang in the middle between coasts!), resulting in a collection of photo views of my most memorable locations.

The bottom set are of Langstone Harbour (South England). The Royal Oak pub (extreme bottom right) was a favourite late teenage venue, sitting on the footpath dangling our legs over the edge with the tide coming in, particularly when cars parked on the sand were being slowly swallowed by the rising water. The publican would always be shouting for the owner/s to retrieve their car/s. It was extremely entertaining watching the shenanigans as ‘unfamiliar’ motorists tried to rescue their cars particularly those who didn’t want to get their shoes or trousers wet!!! It was hysterical at times and great entertainment. Sadly (er-hmm) they have now got barriers to stop folk parking on the sand – spoilsports! But I digress….

Top is a view across the water to Bosham, further east along the south coast (Bosham is pronounced Boz-am – we always took great delight in listening if folk were local as not far away there is a Cosham pronounced Cosh-um!). Please forgive another digression again related to water…. On the seaward side there is a lower tarmac road which you can access from either end of the village. However, when the tide is in, the road is totally covered. You are probably ahead of me here….we have seen many folk removing socks and shoes and rolling up their trousers to avoid the inevitable knee-deep soaking – sometimes folk just won’t listen to the locals 🤣

Back to the workshop….

Our tutor provided us with ample supplies and examples of how to achieve her houses which we would work onto a page/s of an old book.

There was an amazing collection of houses at the end of the day.

As always, I did follow all the instructions but with my twist on Bosham as my subject! I was lucky as my chosen book had fold out pages allowing me to create the wider landscape format. It does however remain the only picture in what should be another altered book!

 

Cyanotype explorations with Kim Tillyer

I have not experimented with cyanotype before, in fact very few of our group had, so for me this was to be quite an exciting day of exploration. Our tutor had certainly gone above and beyond in terms of preparation, having pre-painted about six A5 sheets of artist water colour paper of various thicknesses, plus some fabric for everyone, before we then painted our own remaining sheets of paper and fabric.

I was so wrapped up in the process I didn’t take any photos at all.

For those who are new to cyanotype – it is a light sensitive solution made by combining two chemicals (ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide) with water. From the moment it is mixed, and the yellow liquid is applied to the surface it is reacting, so it needs to be placed in total darkness to dry. Then the fun begins….

Objects – vegetation, hard objects (keys, stencils, plastic etc) – are placed on the dry painted surface and to assist holding the objects in position, a glass or Perspex sheet is placed over the top. More can be added on top of this sheet, but it won’t be quite so clearly defined. The whole package is taken into the sun and the magic happens….the yellow surface becomes blue with white impressions of the objects. Once this has happened the painted sheet must be washed thoroughly.

It is a quick reaction, only 2-4 mins, and a very addictive process!

I later stitched into two of my watercolour paper pieces with white and copper threads and was honoured that one of them was used for the exhibition promotion poster.

I didn’t really know what to do with my lovely blue pieces but then had an idea – to use most of them (90%) in a collage, which then ended up as a machine stitched patchwork combined with other plain and eco-printed fabric pieces. When I say I used most….I included all the watercolour paper and even the under-paper (used to protect the table) which instead of throwing away I had washed! Everything was carefully machine stitched into and ironed!

The actual patchwork is A2 (420x594mm/16.5×23.4in) in size, so the framed piece is quite large!

 

Fabric boxes with Suzette Smart

We have had the pleasure of Suzette’s tutorage before, this time it was to be boxes. She has a lovely collage style of work often with birds, which, whilst I’m impressed by and admire, isn’t exactly my cup of tea so to speak.

However, I followed all the making instructions (almost) but did the collage as something I would happily have at home.

We were given two pieces of iron-on pelmet Vilene, kindly pre-marked, one slightly smaller than the other. The idea being that two half boxes would be created allowing one to be the base sliding into the other. We created collages of our fabric (brought from home) which we ironed onto the Vilene and then machine stitched over.

Having examined the tutor’s example completed boxes, I noticed that cutting the shape to her design, meant that the stitching would also be cut and the corners would have raw fraying edges….remember, I’m a neat-nic so, ‘fraying’ struggles to get a place in my vocabulary! Uh hmmm….my brain told me if I cut it differently, I would not cut my precious stitching, and the corners would be folded. I did say ‘almost’! I spoke with the tutor and having drawn and then cut my idea out of rough paper she gave her approval and even took a photo! I have placed both templates in my records file for future reference.

At home I completed both half boxes as fully decorated ‘tops’ having decided to make card/paper bottoms for each, using my fiddly template.

 

 

Sea and stones with Rachel Singleton  

I have followed Rachel for several years and was looking forward to meeting her in person. She came armed with so many examples, which I loved seeing in the flesh. I was not disappointed.

We had to bring fabric and potatoes….yes, we were going back to our childhood doing potato printing using just a limited palette of acrylic paints….woohoo! It was fun swapping cut potatoes too, which enabled many stacked stone images to be created that day.

I made mostly single prints rather than immediately printing stacked stones, as I had an idea in my head to create a stack out of more 3D stones. I even printed on some very textured fabric as an experiment….both the tutor and I were pleased that it worked. The texture gave me a good starting point for stitching into the stone which I then padded. Thus far I have two 3D stones….I need to make more….so this project remains a WIP.

 

From sketch to wall with Tansy Hargan

Tansy is another artist I have followed for many years and looked forward to her workshop. She had brought numerous examples of her vibrant collages.

It was a very different workshop in that we had to sketch from real life outside using a ‘viewfinder’ (for want of a description) and a combination of only 3 pens of different colours, types and thicknesses, onto pre-drawn small rectangles on our sheet of paper. We then had to translate our sketches into mini collages, with small scraps of paper.

Setting our mini paper collages aside, we randomly painted larger scraps of fabric with acrylic paint. Finally, using our, now dry, painted fabric and other fabric scraps, we had to produce a larger collage based on our original sketches/mini paper collages, into which we machine and hand stitched.

By the end, although not complete, I had laid out two collages, the smaller (15x15cm) came from one of my original sketches! The larger (23x23cm) was based on the lavender and its shadows. In hindsight, studying the now framed lavender collage against Tansy’s work, I think I could certainly have added even more vibrant coloured stitching….workshops are a learning curve!

 

Finally – Autumn trees with Fiona Robertson

As I have already written more than intended, I will leave you with my final submitted piece (with a hastily cut paper mount), which is still a WIP, and hope that you will follow its progress in another post!

 

 

I’m skidding in on the seat of my pants with this post and almost as a post script….I have just returned from seeing our group’s exhibition which is always very popular and well attended by visitors. We have so many talented members….I will always be in awe and learning all the way.

 

For those familiar with my posts, you’ll know I often think at a tangent, but I was beaten hands down with this one. One of our members completed the altered book challenge by altering hers into a ‘FULL-size’ Kimono. It is stunning. She has backed the pages with iron-on Vilene and even stitched a long plant design onto it. The handbag is made from the original book’s hardcover.

Now why didn’t I think that an altered book could also be altered into 3 dimensions? As I said above, I’m always learning 😁

I hope you’ve learnt something new lately!

Twist 2025, Part 1 new booths of interests

Twist 2025, Part 1 new booths of interests

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Twist 2025 new booths of interest

Some of you have joined me in previous years on the trip to Twist Fibre Festival in Saint-André-Avellin, QC. It’s about an hour and 15 minutes from home, a bit longer with construction detours this year. It is worth the drive in shopping opportunities and usually has lovely scenery. (We had some of the smoke from fires much further west so it was too hazy for the views overlooking the river). Twist is also the largest of the close fiber events to Ottawa.  Please join me as we take a peek, first at the demos and a new booth that I hope will catch your interest too. We will take a look at more of the event in the next post. Don’t forget to meet me at La Toquade restaurant for after shopping Dinner of comfy duck sandwiches.

photo montoge of line up getting into Twist on friday morning (it was very hot) and close ups of the decorations by the sign which is a sheep on a rocket1)Lining up to get into Twist 2025

Demo Hall way,

There are two halls (Gym and Arena), one on either side of a main hall, which also leads to the back of the building, where more vendors in a large tent were located. The hallway is where the demos from various fiber arts groups are located, including the local weaving guild and our neighbour guild across the river. Let’s take a quick peek before heading into the main hall. I was sure I had taken pictures of the knitting guild, and author and one other group at the end of the hall by the tent but I don’t seem to see them. This year we had examples of weaving, spinning, and a bit of felting at the guild table.

OVWSG Demo table table loom on table OVWSG Demo table Suport spindle spinning2.1-2.2) OVWSG Demo table

Gatineau Guild of weavers banner and table display2.3) Guilde des tisserandes de Gatineau; our neighbour guild on the other side of the Ottawa River

lace makeing pillow with hands moving bobins2.4) The Lace makers guild

Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere banner Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere table of finger woven bands2.5-2.6) Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere

While at Twist fiber festival, I spotted a few new booths which caught my attention and I thought you would also find interesting. So I am going to focus on one of the booths today but we will look at the rest of the event hopefully in the next post.

New Vendor has felt

At this point, we had arrived, said hi to the morning demo team, and started looking for booths selling fiber or (Needle) felting supplies.  It was close to opening time, and was still quite busy with a rush of shoppers.  I had to wait to get into the booth. The little I could see from outside had me curious as to what else might be in there. I was sure it would be worth the wait.

glimps of wool felt between people stopping and walking in front of where i was trying to see in3.1)I see wool! Yes, that definitely looks like wool. I wonder which booth this is?

As the crowd parted, I could see the signage “Field & Fleece” and “WoolGrown”.  Behind the sign was a 3 foot tall roll of felt!! As well as bags of fiber (I think I overheard the bags of fleece were mixed rideau-arcott sheep fleeces?)

montage of photos, signage and bags of wool, lamb covers, wool pellets for gardening3.2) When the crowd parted and I could see part of the booth!

rolls of various lenths and widths of horticultural felt.3.3) Precut lengths of felt, some have holes cut out for planting plants, others are solid.

samples in booth of poducts made from this felt, jacket bag, art, and small bags of fiber 3.4) There were examples of wool Felt use; Jacket, purses, art, small batts in bags

There were also small strips of wool rolled up on the table. They were selling them to start seeds in. I looked at them and saw name tags!!!

3" and 4" widths of felt in long strips, they are to plant seeds but i am going to make name tages 3.5) wool strips  for sale in the booth

The strips were being sold as “Seed starting wool strips the eco-friendly evolution of the innovative seed-starting method known as the “Seed Snail.”” The concept seems to be to un-roll the wool strip about 4” x 4’ long, add moistened potting soil mix, roll up the dirt with wool, making something that looks like a less tasty cinnamon roll. Plant the seeds at the top of the roll, so the roots will grow down between the circles of wool. That sounds like an interesting concept but I still see name tags when I look at these rolls. There were a few different widths so I selected a few of the wider (about 4”) and a couple of the cheaper 3-ish” ones.

If you noticed the little square about an inch thick by about 4 inches, I picked up one of those too. I will try it out as a felting surface later.

Since I had finally got to the front of the booth and had already found a small selection of items, I kept looking.

ceramic sheep bole with blacksmith made masonre nails. (to use for mordenting dies)3.6) OH my! What is that?

Not the prins, look in the cup! I was just apologising to Glenn, as we drove here, that I suspected the booths selling blacksmithing items or supplies would again be rather thin.(ok, None. I am sure it’s just an unintentional oversight that will be fixed at some point in the future.) Those rusty items are square-headed nails, and look like blacksmith-made objects! I asked about them and was enlightened that they were the “nails” from a brick wall that had been taken down and she didn’t have the heart to toss them. She was selling them for dyers to mordant their dye baths. I bought a little bundle for Glenn so his day was not just carrying my packages and taking naps on a bench while I shopped or photographed.

Since you have seen the extreme relaxation (napping) demonstrated at various fiber festivals I should not deprive you of another sighting.

Husband sitting on bench sleeping peicefuly while shopping happens behind him4.1) Fibre festivals are a good spot for extreme relaxation.

Mer-Boyfrend self-feling his own abbs Mer-Boyfrend self-feling his own abbs another vew4.2-4.3) The Mer-boyfriend got impatient and started to work on his own abbs. I spent too much time explaining why I was making another mer-person to people stopping to ask what I was doing and how did it work? (Yes, I got another voodoo comment too!)

I filled in at the OVWSG Demo Friday afternoon, as the demo started to pack up, I “rushed” back to buy the roll of felt but they were unfortunately closed…. Drat. Ok almost everyone is faster than I am at the moment.

While we are still in town, we can go enjoy the comfy duck sandwiches at the La Toquade Restaurant. It’s part of the enjoyment of going to twist, and I think about this sandwich for a year between twists, so let’s go see it they are still as memorably delicious as it was last year. (Oh yes it was!!)

on a long rectangle plate, good fries, a small salid with rasbary balsamic vinagret, frenchfrie dipp and the amazing sandwich ingredients listed below photo5)“Club sandwich au confit de canard- Servi dans un pain abricot-raisin-tournesol garni de bacons, oignons, pommes vertes, céleris et mayonnaise maison et un choix de frites ou de salade mesclun” / (Google helped and translated the above to English for me: “Duck Confit Club Sandwich – Served in an apricot-raisin-sunflower bun topped with bacon, onions, green apples, celery and homemade mayonnaise and a choice of fries or mesclun salad”.  the dip for the very tasty french fries was “choix de mayonnaise maison” and the small salid had a fabulouse rasbary baslamic vinigret. Desert was Mousse au chocolat (I think that has to be one of the best types of Moose). If you make it to twist, this may tempt you to stay in town for dinner or a late lunch.

After a delicious dinner, we headed for the highway, through rolling hills and past a very picturesque stream, which I keep meaning to stop and take pictures. Unfortunately, shortly after getting on the highway, we found the highway was closed, so wound up enjoying rock cuttings and farm land while following a very round about detour. (We eventually found out the road was closed for paving.)

pick up truck (licence plate obsured) has bound (tied up) small couch in back.6) I suspect I have been watching/listening to too much US political news on you tube. We saw this in front of us on the detour. Can you guess my first thought as to who must be having a quick getaway visit to Canada?

We did make it home after enjoying parts of Quebec we had not seen before. I spent the rest of the evening reviewing Fridays photos and posting some on the OVWSG Group FB page, I did a bit of investigating on the internet since I regretted not buying one of the rolls of felt.

WoolGrown Company web site: www.woolgrowncompany.com

WoolGrown Company on Face book: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568471715075

This is a Canadian company, based in southern Ontario. It is a lot closer to drive to Twist (Just over 1 hour east), than to drive west, well past Toronto (Over 6 hours south-west of Ottawa). (Which is why I was trying to get back to twist on Sunday.)

As I heard at twist and saw on their web site, they were looking at ways to diversify their farm production (sheep farming).  On their web site i found links for Wool pellets for mulch, Garden & Horticulture Felt (which was the felt I purchased on Friday, but not the option with holes precut in it for plants) and Sheep Tea Pouches. In their booth, were also examples of; felt art, Felt Jackets, Felt Bags and felt Pots as well as the felt itself.

I tried messaging the company on their Facebook page (but they were likely very busy recovering from day 1 of twist) since I knew going back on Saturday was not an option. I would have to hope to be up and running… er, walking… ok rolling on Sunday.  Glenn said he was up to joining me again, (he was hoping for more Comfy duck), so off we went back to Twist early Sunday morning.

large roll of felt (hordicultural) 3' tall and very long. sitting partly behind sign saying Feild and Fleece7.1) 3 foot tall roll of wool felt!

Ah good they have not sold out, but as I got closer, there was a lot of stock missing. The 10 foot by 1 foot rolls were gone and so were the other sizes I had seen on Friday (Drat). Luckily, Sunday morning at opening was not as busy as Friday, or I heard Saturday had been, so they said they could cut me a piece from the big roll.

mesureing out 4 feet of the lenght from the roll mesureing out 4 feet of the lenght from the roll7.2-7.3) I got 4 feet of the big roll.

I am hopeful I will be able to use this with my picture felting students. I need cut pieces that are a bit bigger than 5”x7” finished picture size.  I want my students to feel the difference 100% wool felt feels, when compared to the cheap part wool, to full acrylic non-woven options for picture felting bases.

close up of some of the pices i purched from this vendor. 8.1) “Horticultural”, as you can see there is some kemp and a bit of VM. Even so, it looks like it will make a good base for picture Needle felting.

Let me show you some of what I wound up with from this vendor, I will show you the rest later. I am looking forward to investigating this wool felt, hopefully soon.

Today (which will be yesterday as you read this) we headed south of Ottawa to Kemptville for a much more intimate fiber festival. I had wonderful chats about felting and fiber and thoroughly enjoyed myself. (Glenn read a book and had another nap, I told you fiber events were extremely relaxing, soon all husbands will want to attend with us, just for the quality napping!!) I would like to show you a couple of interesting displays and booths there too, but let’s finish off visiting Twist next. Don’t forget to save a bit of virtual or actual money for shopping at Almonte Fiberfest on Sept 6th 2025 if you are in the area!!

Silk Hanky Dyeing

Silk Hanky Dyeing

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I have a Flower Workshop coming up in September at a local museum. Just outside Ottawa, at Pinheys Point. If you’re interested, sign up here.

One of the flowers we make uses a silk hanky. I was running low on most of my colours, so it was time for a dye day.

New undyed silk hankies are hard to get wet. There is still a lot of sericin in the hankies. Particularly in the thicker edges. For those who don’t know, silk hankies are usually made from the cocoons of silk moths that hatch. The cocoons are stretched out into rectangles or caps. The cocoons are held together with sericin, it is like a glue that doesn’t easily dissolve in water.

In order to get them properly wet, I use a little soap in the water and let them soak overnight.

 

 

Here is what I had in my box of hankies

I had quite a few of the pink and grey. It’s not a popular pick for anyone in classes. I don’t know why I think it’s really pretty.  There is quite a bit of magenta the purple, and pink. I will over-dye some of those.

For silk dying, you can use either acid dye, like you use for wool or other animal fibres, or MX dye (fibre reactive dye), like you use for cotton or other plant fibres. I use a variation of low water immersion dying with MX dyes.  The site I like for dye information is Paula Burches’ All about Hand Dying

Then I added colour to the new ones.

This one, I added the kelly green first in a few spots, and then a mix of the amethyst and navy to get a blue-purple.

This one folded the hanky by pinching the middle and folding the edges down. I added the yellow where the point is.  and a little at the bottom. I mixed some red to the peach to get a more burnt orange colour and poured it over the rest. I elevated the pointy end a bit so the red-orange wouldn’t flow over it.

For this one again, an orangy red and ice blue.

And lastly, seafoam and plum blossom. I don’t use seafoam often; I always think it will be an icky pale green colour, but as you see, it is not. I need to find my dye chart and hang it up somewhere. I almost forgot to take a picture of this one.

 

I didn’t take pictures of rinsing.  So you don’t get to see where I forgot to put my gloves on and turned my hands blue. The one thing to note with MX dye is that the colours do not exhaust.

Then it was onto the drying racks.

Have you been dying lately?

 

 

Flour Paste Resist Tutorial

Flour Paste Resist Tutorial

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I have been out of town and didn’t have time to write a new post. So I thought I would share a post from my personal blog that is a flour paste tutorial. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I wrote this post in 2011 and my photo taking was not really very good at that point in my life.

Put plastic over your surface on which you will be working. This is very messy so lots of plastic, much wider than your fabric. Pin the top edge of the fabric. You can see it in this photo but I have pinned the edge that is closest to the bucket of flour paste. Mix 1 cup cold water and 1 cup flour in a tub. Use cold water as to make the paste a better consistency. For this silk scarf, I used two recipes of flour paste. I forgot to take a photo before I put flour paste on but you get the idea.

I just pour the paste straight out of the container on to the fabric. Pour along the top edge where you pinned the fabric down. It takes quite a bit so pour generously (more than this photo).

Then use a squeegee or some flat tool to scrape a layer of flour paste over the entire piece of fabric. This process stretches the fabric and is why you only pin the top edge.

Here’s better photo of a generous pour of flour paste.

Once you have your entire surface covered with flour paste, pin the bottom edge and ends of fabric. Make sure you have covered all your edges well. I have this on my “new” print table that I made by stapling a large piece of black felt to the table. Therefore, I can pin right through the plastic and into the felt

If your table is too low, just add four pieces of PVC pipe. Works a charm to prevent your back from bothering when working.

Then let the piece dry for at least 24 hours. I had the fan going on this and it only took 12 hours to dry. It should all be the same color with no translucent looking spots when it is dry. If you look closely, you can see that almost all the pins have been pulled up due to shrinkage. If you don’t pin it down, the entire piece will curl up and be a big mess. Ask me how I know!!

This is how stiff it is when the flour paste is dry. This is an 8mm silk scarf – now turned into a flour paste plank

Here I am holding the end of the scarf. If you haven’t tried this technique, it seems really bizarre.

Next, you need to crack the flour paste. The more you bend, roll or push on the fabric, the more cracking you will get.

These are just a few photos showing the cracked flour paste.

Then you can either use fabric paint or thickened dye. I used Jacquard Textile paint mixed with half water and half paint. Paint over the entire surface making sure that your paint is covering all the flour paste resist.

 

Here’s a peak on the back after painting. This is about how it will look when you wash it out. If that isn’t enough crackling, carefully (you’ll get paint all over yourself) crack it some more and add more paint. Let paint dry for 24 hours. Most textile paints are supposed to be heat set but it doesn’t work to iron this mess. You could try it on the back but both times I’ve tried it, the paint was pretty well set after 24 hours dry time. If you’re using dye, batch like you normally do.

Then fill a bucket with cold water. You don’t want to put the water directly in the sink because you won’t want this flour paste/paint gunk going down your sink. I just rolled the scarf up into a roll and dunked it in the water. It starts loosening almost immediately and you can peel it right off. Just let the gunk settle to the bottom of the bucket.

Can you see the black stuff peeling off in pieces?

Here’s what it looks like.

Once you’ve got as much gunk off as possible, wash with mild detergent in the washing machine. Then iron and you’ll have a lovely crackled effect. I just love the look of these. I have to try some more with different colored paint. Don’t forget to pour the water and flour paste gunk outside. Do not pour it down your sink unless you have a crush on your plumber!

Here’s a few close ups. Can you see the discharged ammonite?

Here’s another look.

I get carried away.

Because I really like this effect. I certainly did not come up with this idea and I got all instructions from Jane Dunnewold’s latest book (this post was written in 2011). If you give it a try, let me know and show us some photos. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Is this compost or dye material? Actually it’s both! (Part 1)

Is this compost or dye material? Actually it’s both! (Part 1)

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This particular post has been inspired by some of our regular readers so here’s a quick advance thank you. I really love it when comments lead to further exploration and sharing!

Just a few cautionary words before I go on. I dip in and out of dyeing, definitely a hobbyist and I purely play so my dyeing exploits are experimental. There are lots of great sites out there if you really want to dig deep or if, like me you sometimes just love to watch someone’s process on social media you could check out @thedogwooddyer or @sashaduerr or @joanne_green_art on Instagram. Joanne has recently published a book which I would love to get hold of – it’s all about pigments. I have Sasha Duerr’s book; Natural Palettes and although it focuses on plants grown around California, there’s plenty of botanical commonality going on. It can be hard to believe that it’s Ireland I am talking about – and yes we do have some specimen Californian Redwoods here!

Second cautionary note: please exercise caution when dyeing and keep all of your dyeing equipment separate to your cooking equipment. It’s very important. Also, just because something is natural doesn’t automatically mean it is safe to handle without gloves or a mask. We recently had to burn wood in our pit. I extracted the charcoal and made some lye as an experiment. The pH is such that if it lands on skin it will feel like soap, lovely and soft, but what is happening is that it is dissolving the outer layer of skin! But please don’t be deterred by this. Just exercise caution and common sense and all will be grand!

When I started looking around for something to play with for this blog post I found some fallen branches from one of our cedar trees. I stripped the bark and left it to soak with the intention of throwing some fibres straight into the mix as the high level of tannins in the dye lot would mean that I did not have to heat the mix for it to work. After about a week soaking the mix I made the mistake of stirring it without gloves on. The resin in the mix started irritating my skin (yes, I learned a lesson that day). So it was back to the drawing board to find something safer to extract the dye from. (I haven’t yet learned how to extract the resin from the mix!)

This time I decided to opt for something most of us have at our disposal – compost! Onion skins to be more precise. I have been collecting these for quite some time (we are talking months here – I have been storing them in a cotton bag and they kept perfectly!). I had approximately 110g of skins which I just threw in a huge stock pot (used only for dyeing). I filled it three quarters way with water – not particularly scientific, probably around 6 litres, and put it on a low heat for about 4 hours. During this time I should have checked it (oops, I forgot!) but it was fine. It came to a rolling simmer. By this time it was bed time so I just turned it off and left it overnight to cool and then drained off the skins. There still appears to be colour left in the skins so I popped them into a nylon bag and left them to dry on the washing line – I will try to extract more dye another day.

The colour was a lovely rich colour – like a golden red. So I decided to extract the pigment from 1 litre of the liquid and use the rest for sample dyeing. I will hold on to the dyeing section for my next post as otherwise this will get a little too long and boring for you to read.

 

  • 110g of onion skins ready for dye extraction
  • Overview Yummy colour.
  • Yummy colour against the light
  • Discarded onion skins. I dried these and I will dye with them again before composting them

Let’s start with the pigment making. We are talking natural dyeing here. Extracting the pigment from the dye liquid involves introducing a few ingredients which bind the molecules to themselves and cause them to separate from the liquid. First I am using an acid (alum) (which can also be used as a mordant on fabric and fibre to prepare the surface for dyeing). Then I add an alkaline solution (soda crystals). The two chemicals react and the pigment separates and sinks to the bottom. This can fizz up so make sure there’s plenty of room in the container.  (Remember those great lava making experiments done back in the to encourage kids into science? You get my drift). The liquid is drained off then the remaining pigment is left to drain in a coffee filter. Once drained, the colour can be filtered in distilled water, dried, ground et voila! Pigment.

So, what do you need for this. As we are playing we will work in small quantities:

  • 1 litre of dye liquid (filtered to remove all the plant material)
  • Alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) You will have to check where you can source this as it differs depending on location. Like me, you may need to buy online.
  • Soda crystals (I also use these to clean my washing machine so I can buy them in homeware shops)
  • pot and cooker to heat the liquid
  • 2 Litre jug that can withstand hot liquid.
  • Glass jars (if you are patient, you will fit everything in 1 jar
  • Funnel
  • Coffee filter
  • Spoons (measuring and stirring)
  • weighing scales
  • pestle and mortar
  • boiling water
  • distilled water
  1. Heat the dye liquid but don’t let it boil
  2. Add the alum to a container then add boiling water and stir to dissolve the crystals. This may take a little while so be patient and make sure they are thoroughly dissolved. Quantities? My research has shown that this very much depends on the plant material, but a good starting point is 10% alum to liquid. I used 10 grams here.
  3. Carefully (don’t burn yourself!) pour the dye liquid into the large jug. I tend to do this at the sink. Then add the alum liquid and stir well.
  4. Now dissolve the soda crystals in boiling water. I used 5g here. Once dissolved add this to the big jug and stir. You may notice a fizzing chemical reaction.
  5. Leave the solution to cool and separate. The pigments will sink to the bottom of the jug. The liquid on top should be clear. If it is not, it means that there is some pigment left in it and you could choose to play further with this liquid, once it is drained off. (In other words, repeat the steps outlined above).
  6. Carefully pour off as much of the liquid as you can, without disturbing the pigment.
  7. Set up your glass jar: place the funnel into it and then add the coffee filter to the funnel. Make sure that the funnel is not hitting the bottom of the jar – we want the drained liquid to escape through the bottom
  8. Next slowly pour the wet pigment into the coffee filter. I find if I hurry at this, the filter can disintegrate so I let the filter soak up some of the damp as I am pouring.
  9. Leave this overnight so that the water has mostly drained off and the pigment remains.
  10. Now if you are planning to store your pigment, it is recommended that it is washed at least twice with distilled water and filtered through fresh coffee filters. This is to remove any unwanted mineral salts from the pigment. I am only playing so I did not bother with this step. I know that if this whets your appetite to find out more, you will remember this step.
  11. The next step can be done either when the pigment is completely dry or getting there, scrape it into a mortar (bowl). Once completely dry start grinding using the pestle but be sure to wear a mask for this part as the dust is quite fine.
  12. I store my pigments in tiny glass jars (yes, you guessed 1 litre doesn’t produce a lot but it makes up for it in satisfaction!).  Make sure to label and date.
  13. These can be mixed with a binding agent (note: they are insoluble in water). Here is a good article if you would like to find out more about different binding agents https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/i-pigments-a-little-bit-about-binders-and-making-your-paint/

I have put together a slide show on the process I used.

  • Materials for making pigment
  • Heating up the liquid dye
  • Dissolving the alum – be patient, it takes time
  • Alum and soda crystals are getting to work
  • The pigment has sunk to the bottom of the jug
  • I do like this colour!
  • A bit blurred but here we can see the settled pigment
  • Here’s a photo of the filtration system
  • Slowly pouring the pigment into the coffee filter
  • The filter has soaked up some of the liquid
  • Here you can see the clear liquid draining off the pigment
  • Pigment is still draining
  • Checking on the pigment as it dries
  • Opening the coffee filters before scaping them clean
  • Scraping the pigment into the bowl. This will be left to dry
  • It takes time to grind down the pigment particles, patience is needed.
  • The yield is quite small but it’s still rewarding

This is the basic process. Colours can be altered before making the pigment by introducing an acid or an alkali and if this is of interest to you, it will be worth doing a bit of research.

I have, in a way, put the cart before the horse here, as I am showing you the process of making the pigment before running through the fabulous colours I achieved with this in dye form. But a promise is a promise and I wanted to deliver so I hope on this occasion you can forgive me. The general ‘rule’ that I have found is to use 10% of the volume of the dye as the binder. So for every 1 litre of dye liquid use 10 grams of alum. Then use 5 grams of soda crystals (or similar) and let the substance perform its magic. This is a good starting point. But like all rules a bit of flexibility can be needed so these figures can change and this is where experience comes into play (knowing what adjustment is needed for different plants). Most importantly, your curiousity and willingness to play comes to the fore here. Just give it a go and have lots of fun.

Helene

A little post script before this blog is published:

Since my adventures with onion skins, I decided to experiment with the yellow Chrysanthemums flowers from a lovely bouquet that had seen better days and was destined for the compost heap. I used the same ratio of alum and soda crystals only this time I didn’t hold back some of the dye material for fabrib experimentation and I made up pigment with the full dye bath. Here is the result:

Chrysanths pigment made from the yelow flower head

I may have mentioned this last year, but we have a farmer who grows a number of acres of sunflowers every summer. It’s done for charity and it is open to the public to come along, pick the sunflowers and make a donation to the Hospice Foundation. There’s an honesty box on site. It is a form of Meitheal – part of Irish culture where people help others out. By the time I arrived last week, a lot of the sunflowers had ‘gone over’. That said, after a lot of searching I found some that had yet to open and I was very pleased. So I picked and made my donation. Once home I started cutting off the lower leaves and I cut some of the stems so that they would look better in the vase. Rather than discard the waste I decided to run a little experiment. I slowly brought them to the boil. The smell was not particularly nice so I let everything cool down outside. I found I had a lot of liquid (and plenty of dark green dye), so I reduced down the liquid by heating it up again. (I did this out doors this time!). Then I made my pigment. It’s hard to see from the photos but it is a lovely dark green. I worked with a little over 2 litres of liquid. As you can see, it doesn’t produce a lot of pigment but it is very concentrated:

Sunflower leaf and stem pigment

I have decided to treat myself to Joanne Green’s new book Natural Watercolor Paint Making. I have followed her for a long time on Instagram and love her short videos on how she makes pigment. She had followed this up with a book about the process and I could not be happier. I heard from the book store that it is on its way to me so I’m quite excited about that. Please let me know if you would like me to review it in my next post.

hugs

Helene

FELT SWAPPING

FELT SWAPPING

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The International Feltmakers Association has been running an annual Felt Swap – setting a theme and linking members who’ve elected to join the challenge with a “swap partner” from somewhere in the world – since 2020.  I spotted the invitation to join in the 2025 swap on one of the regular emailed Newsletters and decided to have a go.  I started to write this post about the entry and remembered that I’d entered the first Swap and had posted about it.  However, when I trawled back through my posts to find the link for you, I found that I hadn’t actually written the post, let alone published it.  So we’d better start there.

The subject of that challenge was “Light”.  I thought a lot about this as it seemed such a wide subject and I didn’t know where to go with it.

To begin with I listed as many things as I could think of that could have anything at all to do with light and came up with: Light bulbs;   Bright light – dazzling – blurred;   Rainbow;   Prisms and light splitting;   Dark area with light coming in from one side;  Sun beams from behind clouds;   Fire light;   Moon light;   Lighthouse;   Northern Lights.

Clouds and especially stormy skies fascinate me and I thought that I could do something with this idea.  Initially I went for a sun low on the horizon just showing through some dark clouds but with rays going upwards behind the clouds.  For some reason this was not a success so was abandoned.

Then we had a thunderstorm and I had a lightbulb moment!  So I looked through some of Mr Google’s images just to remind myself what forked lightning looked like and then went for a storm over the sea, and used this image for reference.

dark sea, dark stormy clouds with forked lightning running from clouds to sea
Lightning at Sea

I have a collection of fibres, yarns and fabrics in my “stormy” project sack – too big to call a bag – and my first thought was to use some of those in the picture I had in mind.  I had already made a mixed media image of a storm at sea using various textiles and fibres and thought of doing something similar.

Mixed media picture of stormy clouds, rough sea, rocks, spray and wind tossed seagulls
Storm at the Coast

So I looked out some of the fabrics and yarns and other bits and pieces to see what I might use.

But in the end I decided that I wouldn’t use these for a couple of reasons: 1. this was supposed to be a “felt” swap; and 2. using the mixed media would possibly need a larger picture than I was making – we were limited to A5 size – 5.8 x 8.3 inches (sorry I don’t work in “the foreign” if I can help it).  I did use my stormy fibres though.

I was reasonably happy with the picture after it had dried, but decided to do a bit of tidying up and embellishing with some needle felting.

This is the final result

completed felt picture of storm at sea with dark clouds and forked lightning running down into the sea
The swap picture of LIGHTning

 

My swap partner, from Denmark,  sent me a felt bag, which was really good.  I didn’t want it to get dirty or damaged before I was able to use it and show it off so I wrapped it up and put it in a safe place.  So safe that …..!

Anyway, back to this year’s swap.  The theme for this one is “Inspired by an Artist”.

Again this was a very wide subject, first choose your favourite artist then find a piece of their work that sparks an idea.  I don’t actually have a “favourite” artist, I love the work of many: Constable; Canaletto; Turner; Rowland Hilder; William Morris and most of the Arts and Crafts artists and architects; Rennie Mackintosh….  I could fill up the page with names.  I trawled through works by most of these, bearing in mind the maximum size of the piece I was to make (8″ x 8″) the while.  In the end I decided that I would go with Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

I searched google and found several stained glass windows, one wall carving and a draft fabric design that I liked.

In the end though, I decided to go with a section of the last one, which I squared up and manipulated to make it the right shape and size.  The window is typical of the Art Nouveau period and “attributed to Mackintosh”.  I could not find out if it is actually his design but it is certainly very like his work.

I picked the centre of the window to work on and the enlarged and reshaped (slightly) design was printed off in greyscale and laminated.  I would be able to use the laminated design as a base on which to lay out the fibres.

a monochrome image of the window section covered in polythene sheet and the original image in colour
All ready to lay out the fibres

While I was looking through my stash for suitable fibres and pre-felts for the project I  happened to glance at the design which was inverted.  I immediately saw a face with an extremely runny nose!

the monochrome image rotated 15 80 degrees
This was when I spotted the runny nose!

Nevertheless I thought it would be fun to use the design of the face, since we were to produce something “inspired by” a favourite artist, rather than copy what s/he had produced.  This would allow me to get rid of the runny nose and I also wanted to change the colour scheme.

I had decided to use a piece of pre-felt which I had bought from Wingham Woolwork some years ago, especially as it was slightly moth eaten and I could use what I might otherwise have to throw away.  This was a lovely strong purple colour so I decided that my colour palette should be purple, turquoise and orange.

various fibres, yarns in purple, orange and turquoise, and an orange chiffon scarf
Picking colours and materials

The basic design was laid out in reverse, that is with turquoise knitting/felting yarn “face down” on  the design, with some fillings-in of orange fibres on top and two squares of turquoise where the “eyes” would be.  The purple pre-felt backing was placed on top of that and the whole wet felted.  Unfortunately this resulted in the straight lines becoming distinctly wavy – a good job this wasn’t a straight copy of the original!

After the piece was rinsed, dried and ironed, the remainder of the design was added by needle felting (which, together with the shrinkage during wet felting, had effectively removed the moth holes) and finally some simple embroidery stitches.

The piece has been mounted on foam board for stability.

finished face - orange eyebrows, nose and eyes with turquoise moustache, and facial features on a purple background
Finally – the Swap piece

This is the piece I received from my Canadian (Calgary) swap mate.  It is inspired by “Violet Poppies” by Emile Nolde https://arthur.io/art/emil-nolde/violet-poppy

Isn’t it gorgeous?

3 felted poppies with dark leaves on a yellow felted background, displayed in a circular embroidery frame
Swap piece received from Canada

Cyanotone print on paper then felted with Fiona Duthie

Cyanotone print on paper then felted with Fiona Duthie

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08-06-2025 Cyanotone print on paper, then felted with Fiona Duthie – fine felt

On August 6th 2025,  The Great Canadian Felt Project, using Cyanotype paper dying with wet felting, arrived in Ottawa, Canada. This is an ongoing project moving across Canada, starting in the Maritimes (east coast) and moving west.  Small 3-hour mini-workshops are set up as Fiona and her husband travel across the country in a vintage VW bus. The workshops are being arranged on slightly short notice, due to allowing for travel time to reach the next area where felters will be gathering.  (If you are west or north west of us, you can see if she is heading your way. She has a web presence, you can try to connect with her as she is moving west. https://www.fionaduthie.com/great-canadian-felt-project-2025/)

Liane contacted her and ultimately arranged for two sessions in the OVWSG guild studio for Wednesday.

I have worked in a darkroom at university, so I am familiar with the concept of Cyanotype printing. It’s a little like playing with the enlarger in the dark room, but more blue.  I also preferred keeping my fibres dry when I felt. Since I can have fabulous fun with photo-documenting the event, I suggested I photograph and let someone else enjoy the fun of felting. (If they were short students, I could switch, and there would be fewer photos.)  There was a lot of enthusiasm for such a short notice, mid-week event, and we wound up with 2 groups of 11 students, one in the morning, one in the afternoon.  We only had a few days to get it all organised. The guild is also in the middle of moving rooms and looms, so tables had to be tracked down, a quick clean-up of the studio, and we were ready to have fun. You may recognise a few of the students from previous times you have joined me on shopping and at guild activities!

By the time I arrived early Wednesday morning, hoping to get a tiny bit of library work done before starting the photography fun, Liane had the room all set, ready for the workshop. She arrived shortly after I did, and was quickly followed by the teacher and her husband. The students arrived soon after that. Everyone was very excited, and almost everyone was early.

FIona and husband arives in OVWSG Studio with tables set up ready for teaching1.1) The room arranged, and the teacher and her TA setting up

Fiona Duthie and her husband both used to work in Ottawa, but are now located in BC. They had been on the East Coast, giving a felting workshop and visiting family.  She gave a brief overview of the order of operations, and the students quickly got into laying out their local plants and other objects they had brought.

on table covered in striped blue and white plastic cover Trays (cat litter trays) for rinsing, hand laundry scrubbers, Ballbrasa, Soap and water buckets2.1) Equipment: Trays (cat litter trays) for rinsing, hand laundry scrubbers, Ballbrasa, Soap and water buckets

close up of the hand laundry scrubbers2.2) close up of the hand laundry scrubbers. I think these were made in Germany. They remind me of a sewing clapper (it’s used on seams to flatten them)

the magic chemicals that make the wonderful blue colour the magic chemicals that make the wonderful blue colour2.3-2.4) the magic chemicals that make the wonderful blue colour (Chemicals: The primary chemicals used are ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. These are mixed to create a light-sensitive solution.) She had examples of two ways the chemicals were sold. Fiona pre-prepared the treated paper for the class.

The Cyanotype printing process uses a light-sensitive prepared paper,  with something that will block light, making a silhouette, in this case with local plants and found objects. The paper with objects sitting on it is then exposed to (UV) light, which will create an image on the paper.  The students were instructed to lay out their designs on the Plexiglas, then, when ready, the light-sensitive paper would be provided and the plants/stuff would be moved to it. But first, get the design they liked laid out.

Fiona gave an the overview of what they would be doing today shows 2 previous prints on felt 2.5) The overview of what they would be doing today

morning and afternoon students for the workshop3) the morning and afternoon workshop groups

Laying out the design on the plexi

A board, a piece of plexiglass and bubble wrap were at each spot. Students brought plants, lace, stones, weaving tools, and found objects.

4.1-4.6) laying out the design

Magic Paper time!

When the composition was the way the students wanted, Fiona handed out 2 sheets of the pre-prepared light-sensitive paper. (Note she has it hidden from the light between two boards.) One page the students will keep, and the other will go into Fiona’s Group project.

Since as soon as the paper is exposed to light, it will start to etch (like photo paper in an enlarger). So pre-laying out the design made it faster to get the composition moved from the plexi, which had been moved out of the way, so the magic paper on the wooden board could be quickly covered with their selected stuff. Fiona was very calm, and although it is time sensitive, no one seemed to be looking rushed.

The paper itself is also important. Fiona talked about what she had found most effective that allowed the wool fibre to bond with the paper (I promise I will get to the felting!). She mentioned my favourite place to get paper when I was taking Printmaking at the University of Toronto, the Japanese paper shop in Toronto (Queen Street West). A couple of the papers sounded familiar, so I probably did use them for school.  Alisa remembered Lokta paper and Kita Kata paper. There was another suggestion, but I should have been smart and taken notes, not just photos. You will have to take her mini workshop to get a list she has found works with felting, or Ann says Ruth does felting with paper, too.

handing out the magic paper5.1) Handing out the magic paper

The plexi gets used again:

Once the foliage and other items were transferred to the magic paper, the plexi sheet was put on top to keep anything from shifting. A couple of boards had things that were lumpy; some were placed on top of the plexi, others were under, but a bit of masking tape was added to ensure nothing shifted.

plexi is now used to hold the plants down on the paper so it wount shift5.2) Plexiglass added to keep plants in place

Now it’s time to face the sun!!

Since I was just doing the photo documentation, I was volunteered as Door holder. Unfortunately, this presented a problem. I know the rules, no but shots!! I had a lot of trouble trying to get shots that kept to at least the essence of the rule.

students putting bords with paper plants and plexi on ground in the sun6.1) putting the light-sensitive paper in the sunlight

As with photo paper, Cyanotype is activated by light. So the prints were left out for the required time. (It was sunny and the smog from forest fires was less today.) Let’s take a peek at a few of the cooking prints.

sitting in the sun sitting in the sun sitting in the sun6.2- 6.4)  sitting in the sun

When the time was up, the boards were carefully brought back into the studio. (trying not to move anything) .

bringing the plexi covered paper and plants on board back into classroom6.5) back into the studio, leaving the plexi on and trying not to shift the leaves and objects

A couple of students at a time would remove their objects from the papers, then add them to the first of two rinse baths.  After the correct time, it was transferred into the second bath. This was to remove the extra active chemicals. This took a while to get through, 22 pictures, 4 at a time, but it was very interesting to see what had been created by the cast shadow of the plants and other objects.

the rinces baths of water and placing the papers back on the board after the rince baths7.1-  7.2)

Felting!!

When most of the images were through their baths, it was time to set up for felting. (I bet you didn’t think  I would ever get to the felting!) Fiona explained which direction to lay the paper images down on the bubble wrap, then demonstrated laying out the wool, which was limited to a measured amount, so all the pieces would be close in weight.

holding combed top and showing how to pull out shingles of fiber to lay on paper8.1) explaining laying out fibre for wet felting.

continuing to demonstrate laying out the fiber on the paper8.2) Laying out the fibre demonstration

Then the students worked in white or blue Merino wool. Most had combed top, but one had merino that may have been a batt at some point, but was now more tufts and clumps.

the students start to lay out fiber, teacher helps as needed8.3)

wetting the fiber covering with buble wrap and then gently rubbing with landry scrubber8.4)

Water was added, then gentle rubbing (effleurage), then gently using the scrubber. Once it was starting to hold together, it was time to roll, first one way, then rotate and roll again. They were not wanting to make a hard felt. The students will be stopping at the pre-felt stage, so Fiona will have options as she felts all the pieces together when she gets home.

rubbing on bubble wrap and students on far side of table rolling 8.5) various stages of rubbing and rolling

Rolling must be done carefully so the paper doesn’t wrinkle as the wool starts to felt and the paper gets entangled with it.

various students rolling felt8.6) more rolling and rubbing

gental tugging with flattened palms to remove wrinkles8.7)  Gentle persuasion removed a small wrinkle that was developing

Sander

We also got a demonstration of using a sander for felting. This speeds up the felting, but especially with this, you can not drag the sander, or you may damage the paper.

demonstrating using sander while felting9.1) Fiona shows the Makita sander

close ups of sander working9.2) Sander working

showing under side of sander with ikea shelf liner instead of sandpaper. there is tuck tape under the plate to keep water from entering the main part of the sander9.3) Under side view of Makita sander

Makita, variable speed sander, with tuck tape applied to the under plate and Ikea Shelf liner where the sandpaper would go.  This is the Expensive model, but it’s much quieter than the less expensive version. (Or the little one I have.) I was told they go on sale around Father’s Day if you are wanting to go hunting for one.

The final result

When the images were the requested size, and had reached the pre-felt stage (holds together but is not yet fully felted, so she can join them together when she gets home, they were finished.)

meusing to make sure size was correct, cutting excess and finished pices more finished pices checking out eachothers pices10.1-10.3) the finished pieces

Samples with this and variations on this technique

Fiona brought with her some samples, which she shared with the students

11.1-11.4 samples

Fiona has not made a final decision as to how she will put all the pieces together when all the group projects have been completed. I think either a medieval rose window, adding felt to make the stone traceries, or maybe a tall Gothic medieval stained glass window, which would give an interesting grid pattern and could be done in a series of windows. (a tryptic or more?) It will be fun to see what she decides to create.

You may have noticed I have a new camera, a Nikon with a wicked zoom lens and extra stabilising. It’s a steep learning curve from my Lumex, but I am trying my best to climb it! You may be muttering about my love of words (many of which I can’t spell), but also my love of photos. I did have a bit of restraint. For this event, I took 618 shots; there were a few with focus problems (stupid essential tremors), but also a few more with odd facial expressions that I ignored. That still left a lot of photos to choose from!

This was fun to photograph, and it looked like the students had both fun and learned a technique they can add to their felting skills. If you are somewhere West or north-west of Ottawa, check and see if Fiona will be somewhere near you too! (Her web contact is at the top of the post.) Have fun and keep felting!

A Sample for my Seat Cushion

A Sample for my Seat Cushion

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I decided to make a sample before plunging into making a seat cushion. I decided this for 2 reasons. First, I am not sure where most of the batts are hiding, so I only had a small batt handy. Second, I needed to do some quick felting for the blog today. The sample fit the bill perfectly.

This is a Swiss Mountain batt. I got it off Etsy a few years ago.

I decided 10 inches by 10 inches is a good size for a sample and makes shrinkage easy to calculate. Please excuse my dirty-looking table; it’s some sort of glue that won’t come off.

The edges a thin, so I folded them down to make it square.

I added a layer going up and down.

Once it was wet down, I folded the thin edge top and bottom to square it to 10 inches. That would have been enough to make a sample, but it would also be very boring.

I got out some balls of my handspun and made a spiral. Who doesn’t like a spiral?

I spent longer than normal rubbing so the yarn would stick without moving too much. My impatience usually results in wobbly lines.

Then, of course, lots of rolling to full it properly.

The finished sample ended up just about  7 by 7 inches

It ended up fairly sturdy. The spiral ended up holding its shape very well. However, it is quite hairy and I think it would be a bit prickly to sit on with thin pants or a dress. Once it is dry, I will try shaving it, but I don’t think it will work. There will still be short, strong fibres on the surface. I may have to try some Blue-faced Leicester or maybe some Corriedale. What’s your favourite strong wool for sturdy applications?