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Plastic Fibre twists

Plastic Fibre twists

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Plastic fibre twists

This is my finished twisted plastic piece for the Studio Challenge. I’d originally planned to make a smaller piece, but once I started making the twists, I really liked the look of them so I made more to make a larger piece. I blended merino wool and recycled plastic bottle fibre with hand carders, then separated small amounts and rolled into twists.  The base is 3 layers of merino tops, and the merino and plastic fibre twists were layed on top. I layed the twists so that the wispy ends met in the centre and went over the edge of the base by about an inch.

Plastic Fibre Twists Close Up
 
 
 

I’d used the plastic fibre a few times before and expected this to be more ‘spongy’ than it was, it does have a nice look and feel to it, it feels nice and thick, but lightweight. We’d love to see your work with twists, twirls or spirals 🙂

The Mobius Twist

The Mobius Twist

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When Zed first told us the theme of the challenge, twist, the first thing I thought of was making a Möbius scarf. I have seen lots of these types of scarves that have been knitted but hadn’t seen any that were felted. So I thought I’d give it a try.

mobiusscarf

This is the result, a scarf with a twist. I was supposed to leave the ends dry when I was making it so I could connect them but I somehow forgot about that when I was wetting the wool down. So I ended up using my handy sander to felt the inner portions of the scarf and leaving the connecting ends alone. Once most of the scarf passed the pinch test, I connected the two ends with a half twist in the scarf and felted the two ends together. I used Merino wool and have left the scarf its natural color.

mobiusscarf3

The scarf can be worn so that the top twist covers your head or it can be doubled around your neck. It is nice and warm and I’ve been wearing it with my black coat. So the scarf with a twist is a success. Have you been felting with a twist? We’d love to see what you’ve done. Just go to our Flickr group and post your twist challenge projects there.

Studio Challenge

Studio Challenge

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This is my version of the Studio Challenge Twist,Twirls & Spirals

This was going to be a flat felt piece for a wall hanging but i really wasnt happy with it and about to throw it out !  When i folded it up i realised that it would be perfect as a book cover

Blue is not my favorite color and i tried to liven it up with swirls of contrasting colors and then i added stitches and Beads in  spirals and some twisted yarn, although i’m not sure thats very noticable.

Studio Challenge

Studio Challenge

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A few months ago I revisited an idea I’d had a few years ago for using wool twists to add texture to felt. This led to developing the theme we’ve used for this quarter’s studio challenge: Twists, twirls and spirals. This could be anything from including coiled or twisted wool in felt or a mixed media piece, using or spinning yarns, creating a 3D object such as a twisty hat or vessel, or using a spiral design on a flat needle-felted piece. There’s no size limit and the piece can be in any medium.

I’m still working on my piece, but here’s a sneak preview of some of the merino and plastic fibre blends I’ll be using.

If you’d like to join in with the challenge, there’s a couple of ways you can do this. Firstly, we have a flickr group, if you have a flickr account, click to ‘Join This Group’ then add your photos. Don’t forget to tag them “Felting and Fiber Studio” and also “Twists, Twirls and Spirals” (using quotations around the tags keeps the words separate). The second way you can join in is by commenting on any of our Challenge posts and linking to your blog, website or photo hosting site so we can see your photo.

These challenges are just for fun, to make us think and try out new things, or even revisit old ideas with fresh eyes or different fibres. We look forward to seeing what you make 🙂