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Category: Experiments

Eye Glasses Holder

Eye Glasses Holder

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Sounds like a quick and easy project, right? I thought so too. This is a case for my glasses to go in when I’m in bed. It will hang off the little bookcase beside my bed. Probably better than on the edge of the bed where they sit now.

I picked up some very pretty little batts at a local fibre shop. It is a combination of Canadian Ramboullet and Merino. It is sold as a wet felting wool, among other things. . The colours I picked were mottled and it is quite a short fibre. I did not do a sample as this is such a small project it is the sample. The batt is 50 grams and I don’t think I used half of it.

The other factor in doing this now was I knew I was going to the store to pick up wool for my workshop on the weekend and could pick up more if I liked it. I thought this small project would be just the thing.

 

This is the shape of the resist. I will fold the long part over to make a loop and use a button to hold it in place.

                                    

I split the bat so I could keep it thinner and still have it go in 2 directions. I am not used to using batts but they are a fast way to do simple layouts. After the first layer, I added some offcuts of cotton batting I thought might make an interesting raised texture. I wet it all out. It took a little more soap than expected to wet it out. I think there is some lanolin still in it but it is not greasy feeling.

I rubbed it for a while. it did get a skin but wasn’t starting to tighten up. I did a bit more and switched to rolling. I did that for a long time, flipping and changing direction, rolling on a ribbed mat all the usual stuff but no shrinkage. This was after about an hour rolling. You can see that it hasn’t shrunk at all

 

Next was heading home to the kitchen to rinse with hot water and get tough with it. I scrunched and rolled it in my hands and threw it in the sink. Maybe a little bit of shrinkage. It is definitely felt. It is holding together and I have removed the resist and the insides are not trying to stick to each other.

So what next? Time to do some laundry. I put it in a small delicates bag and tossed it in with a load of laundry, and then into the dryer. No pictures of that, I was too frustrated by then. I was also thinking that I would take it out and it would be 3 sizes too small.

This is the result, a very small amount of shrinkage, mostly in height. This is actually after it was dry and I had turned it inside out and then back because I forgot to take a picture.

I turned it inside out which made it stand open more so that is better for the purpose. I had to smooth out the edge divot from turning it inside out . the felt is quite thick.

                           

 

It will work for the purpose. My glasses ended up a little too far down in the holder so I stuffed a little wool roll in the bottom so my glasses are easier to get hold of. It’s not a big difference but I can grab them a bit better. more wool may be added.

                                    

I just need to add the button and I am good to go.

I did let the store know that the wool is not good for wet felting. They said the mill is trying different ratios of the wools to find what works best. I suggested it would be good to make socks that would be fine in the washer and it is still good for needle felting.

Spring is here, My hubby has veggie growing fever. He has half my table as one of the few cat-free areas. Why do cats like to lay on top of seedlings?

results of the dye experiments - closer view
Adventures in colour (Part 2)

Adventures in colour (Part 2)

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In my last post I talked about a 4 week dyeing course that I attended a while ago at Sharon Wells studio https://www.sharonwellsart.com/ . The first week was dedicated to acid dyeing and we have fantastic results from it. Week 2 was all about natural dyeing, our colours were more subtle and totally restful. If you missed part 1 you can catch it at adventures-in-colour-part-1

I talk about the third and fourth sessions in this blog. I hope you enjoy!

Week 3:

This week’s session was all about the production of pigment. Sharon started off by showing us some ‘tools of the trade’; the glass mulling tool and tempered glass which, along with an old coffee grinder, she uses to grind elements into powder. We learnt about the difference between dye (dissolves in water) and pigment (disperses in water and so needs a carrier). Then we discussed types of pigment; earth and animal both of which can be ground into powder and animal, which needs a totally different process. We mixed various powers and produced test sheets using the pigments as both oil and watercolour paints. We also tried artificial pigments. It was very exciting. Here is a quick look at some of the day.

  • All the processes for making earth pigments



































  • Linseed, used as the medium for oils
  • The water colour medium
  • A new student dropped in, but had other things on her mind
  • Ground down sea shells. There is still some grit in the mix so it was not fine enough
  • preparing the sea shells to accept the medium
  • Artificial pigments containing mica, they made delicious colours
  • The mulling tool is used for fine grinding and mixing the pigment with the medium.

The real excitement happened when we started making botanical pigments. Sharon boiled up some onion skins and in no time we had a beautiful golden brown coloured liquid which she shared out among the group. She then dissolved aluminium sulphite (alum) and soda crystals in two containers. We added the alum to our onion skin liquid and then watched in fascination as the soda crystals reacted to the liquid when we poured it in. The pigment separated from the liquid and we were, in the end, left with clear liquid. We then strained our pigment and dried it. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the fun we had:

  • The onion skins were left to simmer for about an hour
    The onion skins were left to simmer for about an hour
  • The strained onion skin dye bath
  • measuring the aluminium sulphate before dissolving it
  • The aluminium Sulphate and soda crystals (in the peanut butter tub). The onion skin dye bath is in the background
  • The chemical reaction once the alum and soda crystals get going
  • Separation of the onion skin pigment.
  • The pigment attaches to the alum once the soda crystals are added to the mix.
  • The onion skin pigment drying at home
  • The final pigment was filtered through a coffee filter and left to dry
  • The bottle contains bluebell pigment which was prepared from the flowers in the tutor’s garden
  • Olive leaf pigment produced a lovely colour
  • Four botanical pigments: 1. Marigold 2. 'wild Eve' Rose 3. Olive leaf 4. bluebell
    Four botanical pigments: 1. Marigold 2. ‘wild Eve’ Rose 3. Olive leaf 4. bluebell
  • preparing the sea shells to accept the medium

The whole process had us all enthralled and ready to try it at home!

Week 4:

 

 

The final class in the dyeing series focussed on Procion Dyes . The class was led by Anne Jefferies, and Irish Textile artist and tutor. We used cold water dyes this time and worked with plant based fibre including different weights and textures of cotton, linen and silk. We also experimented dyeing a variety of different threads. Anne explained the full process and provided excellent notes so there was very little need to write which was good because our hands were very busy. Anne prepared the various solutions and we got to work using pure primary colours. We divided our samples into three lots and tied each piece of fabric into whatever shape we fancied then we got dyeing. We started with the lightest colour, yellow and dyed our first batch. Then we removed and rinsed these and retied a number of them, ones we wanted to overdye and popped these into the the dye bath to which some red dye had been added. We then added our second batch of undyed samples and watched the magic occur. We then removed all of these and set up a fresh dye bath for the blue. Here are some of the photos taken on the day:

 

 

  • Various small samples of white fabric which have been tied with string elastic bands paper clips and pegs
    Preparing the fabrics
  • Primary colour Procion dyes mixed with water and ready to be added to the fibres
    The prepared Procion dyes mixed and ready for use
  • First colour to be used yellow in basin along with various fabrics tied in various ways and prepared for dyeing
    Stirring the yellow dye into the fabric
  • table with two basins yellow dye added to fabric, participant stirring one of the basins
    Stirring in the yellow dye – starting with the lightest colour
  • Table covered in a towel, lots of dye spills fabric samples at various stages of dyeing
    Work in progress on a messy table. Good reason to keep everything covered!
  • Various white cotton silks linen and rayon threads tied to a card ready for experimental dyeing
    Dye testing a variety of threads
  • Primay colours have been added to the various cotton, silk linen and rayon threads
    The thread experiment with dye added
  • Syringe is used to measure out the amount of the dye. It is being added to the red dye bath
    Adding more red dye to the bath
  • fabric added to the second dye bath of red. Fabrics have been retied and added to the top bath. a second bath contains retied fabrics which are waiting to be added to the top bath
    Next experiment: red has been added to the mix and the fabrics have been retied
  • Bath of red dye being stirring by one person while a second person adds more fabric samples to the bath
    A two person job! stirring the bath and adding the fibre.
  • Various fabrics from the participants, dyed red, blue yellow and green
    Some nice surprises when we opened our little parcels
  • Lots of results of the dyes samples laid out on a table
    A colourful table!
  • results of the dye experiments - closer view
    More samples ready for dyeing

Here is a slideshow of my dried samples. I can’t decide which is my favourite! Having said that, I am showing them all as some were disasters but still deserve an airing.

  • Sample with dark green, light green light blue and yellow vertical lines
    Definitely one of my favourites. Reminds me of strobe lighting!
  • Blue on blue sunbursts. Heavy cotton
    I tied these with some string (but you guessed that already)!
  • Blue on blue abstract patters way too subtle to be of interest. I might over dye it. Yet to be decided
    Not a great result. If I stare at it long enough I might see something!
  • Light cotton. Light green with lighter green sunbursts. Pattern is a bit more uniform that other experiments
    This is a bigger piece of light cotton. The pattern is a little more uniform. I might use it for nuno. Decision yet to be finalised
  • Blues; the top section has series of vertical lines, the bottom section is very blotchy
    The pattern caught nicely in places but not in others
  • Different colour blues with some vertical boxes
    Subtle? Interesting? not sure
  • Light green background with three yellow and blue sunburst circles
    Sunburst circles a little too subtle I think!
  • Blue dye on fabric no great pattern
    Not a great result but it is one of the experiments so it is being included
  • dark blue and light blue blobs
    These look like clouds, lined up in rows!
  • Lines and circles on blue and green linen
    The longer I stare, the more patterns I see with this
  • Light and darker blue abstract finish on heavy cotton
    Interesting subtle finish on this one.
  • Green blue and yellow sample with squares running diagonally and vertically
    The colours are not as faded in the sample. Love all the squares.
  • Multicoloured samples with lots of different designs on it. Heavy cotton
    This one has a lot going on. Spot the paperclip!
  • Red white and blue sample that did not take well
    Perhaps not one of the best samples but it’s good to see this too!
  • Red heavy cotton with white thick lines and squares
    I find this quite attractive. I wish I could remember how I achieved the lines and squares!
  • Tie dye on silk red and yellow
    Lots going on here. The colours are richer than the photo
  • Warm colours on silk. Tie dyed to form circles
    A real sunburst, pity the piece was cut from the bottom corner!
  • Silk, red dye with vertical thick lines, similar to texture of bamboo cane
    One of my favourites! reminds me of bamboo cane
  • Salmon pink dye on heavy cotton lace
    A heavy cotton lace again a tiny piece. I might add it to some nuno sometime!
  • Heavy cotton abstract blue in top left forming diagonal lines, red and purple background
    I like the diagonal lines in this sample
  • Small sample silk abstract design in red blue and white
    This is a small piece of silk. I wish I had two meters as it would make a fabulous top!

I loved these classes. They were a mix of great fun, camaraderie and fantastic learning. They have demystified some of the processes around dyeing and I now feel confident in trying them myself. Thank you Sharon https://www.sharonwellsart.com/ for facilitating this wonderful experience!

Adventures in colour (Part 1).

Adventures in colour (Part 1).

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Ions ago, I purchased all the bits and pieces that I needed for acid dyeing.  I never lost my enthusiasm for it (in principle!).  I listened to my textile friends waxing lyrical about dyeing. If I am to be perfectly honest here, I lacked both the knowledge and the confidence to try it.  So when I came across a dyeing course which was being run over the four Tuesdays in November, well, I didn’t have to think twice, I immediately booked it.  The workshops were run by an Irish Textile Artist and all round nice person, Sharon Wells (https://www.sharonwellsart.com/).  Sharon provided all the equipment and fibres but mentioned that we were free to bring along any fibres we wished to experiment with over the course of the workshop and of course our limitless curiosity!

Week 1:

During week 1 we worked with Jacquard Acid Dyes.  Once Sharon explained the basics of what would and would not work with these dyes, she set us to work, initially teaching us how to secure hanks for the dye pot.  We were each given our own pot to work with.  Then we got down to the fun work of choosing dyes, testing fibres and dyeing.

Our first experiment was with solid colour.  We each threw a variety of fibres into our respective pots and got to work.  It was great fun watching as the colours developed.  I had chosen orange for my first test and it was just so exciting watching the different hues develop.  I have prepared short slideshows of the results of each of the experiments over the four weeks.  Details of the fibres are included in the captions.

  • Kerry Mountain sheep – I carded the dyed sample which was a mistake as it blended all the lovely colours
  • Silk yarn which I bought in the Silk weaving shop on Granville Island Vancouver
  • Chunky woollen yarn, I don’t know the breed but I love the range of colour!
  • Locks again I love the way the dye has taken here
  • Three plant fibres. Not sure which is which but we have nettle, viscose and rose
  • This was given to me to tie my samples and I thought I would dye a sample. There’s definitely some wool in the yarn

Next, to some of my fellow participants horror, we saw Sharon cut into an old shrunk felted jumper.  We were each given squares and shown how to randomly sprinkle the dye powder onto the surface.  This time we used a minimum of 3 colours on the sample.  Once prepared it was popped into the dye pot and other fibres were thrown in not to waste the dye that came off the sample.  Here are my results.

  • Front view A cut off a felted jumper. We sprinkled various colours of dye powder on this before it went in the pot
  • Back view of the sample
  • Various locks: I love the way the colours took
  • Kerry mountain sheep breed: this time I did not card it so we can see it unblended!
  • Yarn: variety unknown
  • The chunky wool yarn which I threw into a different part of the pot

By this stage we were all getting really excited.  This was like alchemy or as one of us said, witchcraft (which is possibly a more accurate description as we all gathered round one of the cauldrons (yes there was one, the rest were pots))  and saw the reactions of the different coloured dyes we were adding to the pot full of fibres.  We were learning (among other things) how to control where the differed colour dye permeated the fibres and how the colours mixed throughout the process.  Here’s what I produced.

  • Industrial prefelt I tie dyed it for a bit of fun. Gorgeous results!
  • Kerry mountain sheep. More exciting colours
  • Locks from the same pot
  • Front view: Silk fibre. I can’t help thinking about Hubble when I see this photo!
  • Back view of the silk fibre
  • Nettle: same pot
  • Front view: Merino 19 micron roving (tops). More Hubble vibes coming through here
  • Back view: Merino roving (tops)

Week 2:

 

 

 

It is amazing how disciplines have their own languages. Mordants; fugitive colours; substantive dyes – Sharon quickly demystified all the terminology – a real confidence boost – then she produced a vat of fibres which she had been seeping in the mordant for some days.  She also gave us a variety of pots which we could work from.  Then came the fun ‘show and tell’.  Sharon had been growing and collecting various flowers and plants over the summer months.  She dried these especially for the session so we each got one to work with.  We had dried containers of marigolds, rose petals, sunflower petals, sunflower heads, and ground up nettle.  I got the nettle to try.  One of the participants opted for fresh eucalyptus.  We set pulling the dye out of the plants, straining it and then to dyeing our fibres.  Here’s our progress and the results:

 

  • A huge vat full of mordanted fibre Aluminium sulphate steeped for a few days in preparation for the course
  • nettle powder some of which has lost its colour from the sun, the remainder is a moss green
    The ground nettle which was dried over the summer
  • Dried roses, the dye produced a lovely perfume
  • Rose petals produced a really exciting pink colour dye
  • the lovely colour extracted from the sunflower heads
  • Here is the sunflower petal dye the final results were vibrant
  • The straining stage for one of the dyes (sorry can’t remember which one!)
  • The beautiful and patient dog Loki with his ball
    Loki oversaw all work and every now and again figured his new friends should stop for play
  • Everyone’s finished work laid out in the sun to dry
  • Result from dyeing with the dried nettles. Not very exciting
  • The marigold petals produced a delicate creamy result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
    The marigold petals produced a delicate creamy result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
  • The gorgeous results from the dye extracted from the sunflower petals
  • Lovely shades of yellow from the Sunflower heads
  • The pink was lost during rinsing which was a bit disappointing
  • The fresh eucalyptus produced a delicate green/yellow result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
    The fresh eucalyptus produced a delicate green/yellow result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used

 

 

 

Then as a further experiment we took dye from a couple of the dye baths and added different components to see how the dye reacted.  We used tin, chrome copper and vinegar.  The results were surprising.

Top is the rose dye
middle L/R vinegar, tin, chrome, copper
Bottom is the Sunflower petals

 

I was disappointed with the colour of the nettles which were a murky colour.  Also the powder from the nettles made the fibre really grainy and unattractive.  I thought I would see if I could use fresh nettles from the garden.  Sharon had offered me some mordant to bring home for this experiment and like an idiot I forgot it.  So, based on an earlier comment she had made during the class I decided to try using aluminium foil as a mordant.  I steeped the fibre overnight and made up the dye which I strained.  Then I dyed the fibre.  The result is a beautiful soft green which I am very pleased with.  I am not sure that the mordant took as only time will tell if the fibre loses its colour but it did not happen when I rinsed it.  The grains from the original nettle powder were still scattered throughout the wool fibre so I took my carders to the Kerry sheep fibre.  Although I have yet to be convinced that natural dye is an avenue I want to pursue further I really enjoyed the day and the learning.

  • a sample of the fresh nettle dye looks green brown, like weak tea
    A sample of the nettle dye from the fresh nettles
  • Overdyeing with the fresh nettle dye. I left it to cool in the dye pot overnight to give it the best chance
  • Result from dyeing with the dried nettles. Not very exciting
  • Final result with the fresh nettles lovely shades of green. photo taken before dyeing
  • The final result for the fresh nettle dye. I love the variety of tints!

I have so much to share from these four weeks that I will save weeks 3 and 4 for my next blog post. A million thanks to Sharon for facilitating such an interesting set of Tuesdays last November.

Working on my Tapestry Piece

Working on my Tapestry Piece

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The guild I belong to is 75 years old this year. One thing we are doing to celebrate is a group tapestry. We have a picture of our Parlement Buildings in the autumn, divided it into 24 pieces and 24 members are doing one square each, in whatever technique they would like. The picture is heavily pixelated to blur it and make it easy for people to use different techniques.

They are due March 4 2024. I thought I better get started. I am the one organising it so I shouldn’t be late with my piece. I should credit Jan Scott here, it was her idea. I also have to credit her with great cunning as I am not sure how I ended up being the organiser.

Anyway, this is the square I have. It is off to the side of the picture. Because I have put off doing it, I was wondering why I didn’t pick just sky or trees for myself.

pixelated picture of sky and leaves

I had to go look to figure out what the dark piece sticking up was. I thought it might be a statue but seemed too tall.  It is a pointed crenelation on the west block of the parliament. The building is hidden by trees and the angle of the shot. The pixelation and then enlarging added a white pixel where there shouldn’t be one.

I wanted to wet felt and nuno felt a piece so I started with some prefelt. A thicker piece of white with orange-yellow for the sky and green for the trees to start, then added some fibres

felt background with some loose fibres on top.

I realised this was going to end up too big so I moved everything in, then added the silk for foliage. I want them to have texture. I had to root through 3 large bins and a small bin to get all the colours I wanted. I do not know why no matter how much fabric you have it’s never the colour you need. I wet the background first and I wet the silk before putting it down. Wet silk stays where and how you put it.

 

wet felt background and wet silk scrunched up on top

This is what it looked like when I quit for dinner and the next morning dry. Everything looks so much darker when it’s wet.

wet and nuno felt progress.   wet and nuno felt progression, dry

 

The next morning I rinsed the soap out with hot water and started some hard fulling to get it shrunk to the right size.

felt rolled up in plastic, ready to full

ready for cutting

finished felt ready to cut

And finally the cutting. You can sort of see how much it shrank. The whole piece started out the same size as the red mat. the cut pic is 6.6 inches (16.75 cm) long and 6  inches (15.24 cm) high.

felt tapestry piece cut to size

and the picture and the piece side by side. You can see one section of double layer silk didn’t stick down so I will fix that with a needle. I need to add in the crenellation as well with a needle.

With any luck by my next post, I should have it done.

And to lift everyone’s spirits and as proof spring will come here are early (sneaky ram) lambs born just a few days ago on a lovely warm and sunny day. they are not great pictures but the moms were sure I was a secret axe murderer or perhaps a wolf in people clothing and the lambs pick up on that and no one will give you a decent pose. and then add a very scary phone camera and there really is no hope. Good thing they are cute anyway.

2 black lambs with their mom 1 black lamb and 1 white lamb with their mom

 

Samples for my Valentines class.

Samples for my Valentines class.

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I was asked to give a Valentine-themed workshop, specifically hearts. No surprise there. This is a short evening class. I am teaching in person in Ottawa at my guild on Feb 7, 2024. https://www.ovwsg.com/events/event/2407-felted-hearts/I had no pictures to put with the workshop so I had to create something. I decided on heart-shaped baskets with rope handles.

I started by finding a heart shape on the internet and sizing it up to about 6 inches across. I decided to do one this size and one bigger to end up at 6 inches.

 

they will fit nicely onto my rolling mat. I need to keep an eye out for a bigger one of these. This one is supposed to be for drying dishes. It might do for one person for their lunch dishes.

I decided on one in red and one in this year’s Pantone colour of the year coral pink. The colour doesn’t show well wet but you will see it when it’s dry

Next was adding embellishments. Coral pink is one of my least favourite colours so I added some sari silk in the colour Salsa. It is primarily red with bits of other colour in it.

The red looked pretty plain so I added a pale pink heart

Next of course was all the rubbing and rolling and cutting it out and rubbing and rolling and fulling. The red one is now 6 inches across and the pink one is 4 inches across.

 

I rolled a couple of snakes for handles. The idea was to poke holes in the hearts to poke the snake ends through and tie a knot. the pink one was okay, but the red one wasn’t long enough so I just felted the ends in. Jan thinks they should have a bell on the tip but I am not sure. I think I will offer them to the student but I don’t think I will add them.

And here they are on Jan’s new photography backdrop which I am sure she will be telling you all about in a later post.

Tada!

I like the picture of the pink one best. The angle is good. The red one is more from over the top of the heart. The chocolate hugs are some Jan gave me as a librarian present. Perfect for a Valentine’s photo shoot.

 

 

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

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This year, our merry (see what I did there?) group of crafters/blog writers decided to do a card swap among us. It didn’t really have to be Christmassy, it just needed to somewhat resemble a card.

The idea is to overthrow the ephemeral notion of a Seasons Greetings card on its head and make something with your own hands that a fellow crafter will appreciate and want to keep.

I was partnered with Hélène, felter extraordinaire, so I was naturally stressed out. I knew my card wouldn’t begin to compare with anything she created, but I put those pesky defeating voices aside and got to work.

It took me a few days to come up with a jolly (ha, again!, I crack myself up) theme for the time of year, and decided to join two strengths of mine: pattern search and knitting. Off to Ravelry I went browsing, and settled on Stay Cool  by Drops Yarn.

Ravelry first page results for patterns with the term "snowflake"
First page results on Ravelry for the term “Snowflake.” Pretty, but not very card-like…

Stay Cool is meant to be a pot holder but I adapted it to be slightly longer on two sides and kept the back plain so I could attach it to cardboard. In hindsight, I could have knitted both sides in pattern, but at this point I was still a little fuzzy on my end goal. (Sorry, Hélène!)

I used my own hand spun yarn because I wanted the “card” to be as handmade and personal as I could possibly make it. If you want to get geeky with me with specs, I used white Shetland spun woollen from pencil roving for one yarn, and an Alpaca/Polwarth blend spun worsted for the brown.

A printed version of the pattern on top and the finished knitted snowflake "card" on the bottom

Not unsurprisingly, the back came out “longer” than the front, despite having the same number of stitches. I should’ve predicted this because fair isle knitting constricts patterns a bit, but alas, I didn’t remember.

Now came the daunting part for me: wet felting. I wanted the end result to be a fuzzy and smaller version of the knit, so off I went to the kitchen sink armed with bubble wrap, soap and very hot water.

If you think this felted right away, you’d be wrong. Nothing happened for the longest time! In fact, I nearly despaired because my idea was to fuse the back to the front, and that never happened. Apparently, knitted jumpers accidentally machine washed only become tiny versions of themselves if you never intended for them to shrink – Sod’s law!

After what seemed like four years of wet felting, here’s what my snowflake looked like:

Knitted snowflake after wet felting, on cardstock background with "Merry Xmas" written on top with iridescent ink

Hopefully it still looks like a snowflake to the untrained eye. I punched holes onto the thickest paper I could find and attached the wool to it with string, because I want Hélène to be able to take it out and use it as a coaster (or something else functional of her choice). This way she can always have a laugh every time she reaches for a hot drink and sees my meagre wet felting technique.

Detail of "Merry Xmas" wording on card showcasing the ink's shimmer qualities

The ink I chose has gold shimmer in it, which I found quite Christmassy. I hope Hélène can forgive the “Xmas” instead of the word proper – I ran out of space.

(Aaand, a little confession: I cheated and sent my card swap partner something extra… ‘Tis the season, after all!)

A very cute needle felted Christmas tree with baubles and a star on top, made by Eleanor Shadow

That’s it from me. I have a newfound respect for anyone who takes the never-ending task of wet felting. What advice would you give me for future soapy endeavours?

Making sheep

Making sheep

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Last time you saw all the lovely Bluefaced Leicester curls I dyed. It’s here if you missed it. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/11/23/felted-sheep/  The next step was to take them to class for the students to use.

I had 6 lovely ladies. All but one ad not felted before. This is a short class 7:00-9:00 in the evening. so it moves quickly and I didn’t get a lot of pictures. I often forget to take pictures until someone else takes out their phone to snap a few.  the first thing we talk about is the legs. I show them how to go about needle felting them. then I explain how to wet felt them. Then I showed them the snakes I made so they could all have legs without making them. everyone is thrilled. It is a boring and surprisingly time-consuming job even wet felting them.

sorry no pictures of any of that.

First, they have to make the bodies. We are using corriedale wool. It felts up quicker than merino.

 

 

and then onto the heads

And attaching them

 

They added the legs and the ears. Sorry, no pictures of that.

And then they start adding curls. s o this was the end of the class. some finished and some went home with a needle and a handful of curls so they could finish them up later.

and lastly this cute one with a heart on his hip.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and I may have a few new addicts.

Dyeing curls for felted sheep

Dyeing curls for felted sheep

Comments 22 comments

I am getting ready to teach a group how to make felted sheep, Like these I used for a post, quite a while ago.

The class is this evening( Wednesday) so freshly made cute sheep will be next week. I like to use Blue Faced Leicester sheep curls for this as they are nice small curls. I had a few colours but not enough variety.

I had a couple hundred grams of the white so it was time to dye. My usual dye pot is really big. a stock pot. Much too big for this job. YOu will have to trust me on the next part as I forgot to take pictures. I was doing too many things at once. I have a nice large stew pot that isn’t too deep but I want to use it for stew again so I got a metal bowl that could be sacrificed and created a double boiler.  I placed handfuls of soaked white locks into a medium freezer bag. I made up a small amount of dye poured it on top of the locks and topped it up with water until everything was submerged. I  squeezed most of the are out and popped the bag into the water on the top of the double boiler. I did the next colour the same and popped it in as well. I could do 2 at a time.  I made up 3 more colours. the aim was to have dark purple, lilac, lime green, pink and magenta. this method was great. the top edge of the bag was above the water so I could easily pick it up to see if the water was clear. Once clear I took it out and put it aside to cool. this is also a good idea when you dye. to leave the wool in the dye bath until cool, especially if it refuses to take up all the colour. You will usually find that when cooled it often has taken up the extra dye. I have to admit I seldom do this as I need to get the next batch of wool into the dye pot, reusing the dye water. With the small bags, it was easy to put them aside to cool.

This is the result.

Now, you are probably thinking that there seems to be more than one dark purple. That is because I used way too much lilac in the lilac dye bag.  I ended up with the 2 purples in the middle. the top one in truth is quite vibrant and the bottom one more deep with a little lilac leaning wool on one edge. I had hoped it would split giving me a purple and blue mix. There is even a warning on the Dharma chart saying it can split. No such luck, isn’t that always the way?  They looked so much the same when they were wet I did another batch and although it looks kind of dark here on my screen, it is pretty much lilac. I tried to adjust the colour but then the green started to look kinda funky.

So that’s my prep for the class. This is an easy class for me because everything I need fits in one small bin.

I will show you the results next week.

 

 

Finishing up my Visor Mirror Cover

Finishing up my Visor Mirror Cover

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It has been a busy few weeks getting everything ready for our Guild Sale. Now that’s done and over and I am sure Jan will show you lots of pictures. For me, I found the time to finish embellishing my visor mirror cover. For those that don’t remember the cover on the mirror of my car visor was broken when we bought it. When you flip the visor down while driving the mirror is there. It’s distracting.  I decided it needed a cover. Nothing so simple as making a plain piece of felt to match the visor. That is much too easy. Here is a link to my last post showing how I created the cover. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/08/31/a-cover-for-my-visor-mirror-part-2/

I have continued on with my stitching. I wanted to use lots of different open background stitches. I didn’t want to cover up anything. I started working on the flower that looked like a superhero in flight.

I thought I better tackle the head next to stop it from looking like a person. I broke it into 2 areas. I think it worked well

Then I did this interesting stitch in the purple. Make 3 parallel lines and then come up in the middle go around all the threads and back down in the middle. I thought it was effective.

Then when I had just about finished everything else I decided to add 3 dots. I am not sure it looks like a flower but it looks a lot less like a superhero.

Next, it was this leaf. I thought I would do small stitches and go all the way around the middle but after a short distance, I didn’t like how the small stitches looked following the line exactly. I ripped them out.

 

I decided to use more threads and larger stitches and only follow one side.

 

And around the outside.

 

I liked it and I am getting very good at outline stitch. It was still a little plain so I added some colonial knots. Also in between I added some stitching to the small leaves. You can see a few in the picture.

 

I finished off this leaf and was thinking I was done, but…

My hubby said I needed to do the sheep and give him eyes and a nose. I had been going to leave him minimalist. It took 3 tries to get his eyes in the right place and the same size.

Now for the finished piece.

I had thought of cutting off the wonky outline but decided against it. Here it is installed. I used the hook side of some stick-on velcro dots, to attach it to the visor. It is a bit big but if it had been smaller the velcro dots wouldn’t have had a flat surface to stick to. Anyway, I like it and I will definitely do the wet wool technique again.

 

 

 

 

 

felt bat with wire armature arms (no webbing yet) hanging from rear view meror
Bat on a stick…..

Bat on a stick…..

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One of the things that I have enjoyed doing over the last few years, is watching and chatting during live YouTube felting tutorials from Sara (Sarafina Fiber Art) and Marie (Living Felt). I have been inspired by projects shown by both felters.

As you probably have noticed, when seeing my adventures with the four-person Mer-family and their Mer-family pets, I don’t always follow the instructions exactly as suggested. In fact, I tend to fall off the rails…., wander off into left field, or was that right field?… ok, I tend to get distracted part way through a tutorial and wind up doing my own possibly completely different thing.  I am not saying that is a bad thing. It can open new options and create something that is vastly different than the original tutorial goal.

For Sara’s Mermaid project (google You Tube “Mermaid Felt Along 1: Armature”, “Mermaid Felt Along 2 – Body Shapes”, “Mermaid 3: Wet Felted Tail” and “Mermaid 4: Finishing” to see what I was supposed to do), I deviated first by wanting to do a merman but felt he needed a family. Instead of using both wet and dry felting, I used only dry felting.  With the change of scale and shape, I needed to augment the armature strength. Lastly, I made them Fish-People (Pike, Koi, Shark, and Arctic Char) rather than the more traditional mermaid shapes Sara was creating. I created some accessories for them and more will be needed. For the Mers themselves, I wandered off into thoughts of what kind of family pets would a Mer family have.  So the addition of family pets was created, Miss Manta and Sharkette. This could continue to spiral outwards from the original tutorial with Mer-Nabours and other yet unthought-of Mer-friends and accessories! Years of enjoyment even for someone who really would rather not get wet.

 

Two weeks ago Marie, from Living Felt, out of Texas, sent me off on another spiral with her “Needle Felt Simple Animals: Bat, Owl, and Red Panda Forest Friends!”.  This is a very beginner-friendly project, with simplified shapes and lots of explanations of tight wrapping to build up the core understructure. She did examples of blending and layering colours of fibre. All three projects were extremely cute. I am not sure I do cute, especially extreme cute, well not as cute and friendly as Marie can do at least.

Marie started by using a wooden skewer to tightly warp her layers of core wool, creating the basic shape. This got me wondering about other skewer like objects that you could use which I had on hand *actually I looked as far as the shelf beside my desk to find 3 options. I had also purchased at the Almonte Fibre Fest in early September, some short fibre Maori batts, one of which was white and another was charcoal. I had wanted to investigate working with short, somewhat springy, fibre and this seemed to be an excellent opportunity.

1) White Maori Batt, wooden skewer, knitting needle, one mettle chopstick

I decided to try the chopstick. It doesn’t have quite as much grip as the wood, but it’s not quite as slippery as the knitting needle.  I like the slight taper,  it was comfortable in my hand and oddly like the single knitting needle it happened to be sitting in a cup with my pens, markers, small files and metal pick set (that was for cleaning my drum carder, I don’t know why it’s here) by my desk.

 

one mettle chopstick on white batt of Maori short stale lenght fiber 2) selected a chopstick and Maori batt

using a chopstick to wrap fiber around and build up the core structure.3) using a chopstick to wrap fibre around and build up the core structure.

Adding thin layers of roving, wrapping tightly and tacking down, then poking from the base to further firm core layer.

Tearing off thin strips from the batt then drafting them to a narrow roving. This shows the VM and makes it easy to remove.4) Tearing off thin strips from the batt then drafting them to a narrow roving. This shows the VM and makes it easy to remove.

I found the white short-fibre Maori batt had more bits of VM than most of my spinning fibre. It was not a large problem and easily picked out before wrapping it to the core. It compacted to a firm core shape and was easy to work with.

Looking at Marie’s bat she used commercial felt to make the wings. While extremely cute you can’t pose or position the wings. Ok, I am going off instructions already!  There are a few ways to add an appendage with wire to a body. This time, since I was adding a symmetrical structure, I chose to pierce the body with a floral wire (unlabeled but suspect it is 22g). I centred the body on the wire then folded each wire up at the point it pierced the body on each side. I then folded each half, in half, twisting to create the leading edge of the arm, leaving a loop to add the “fingers” at the end of each wing.

wire piercing body, center body on wire and bend the wires5) wire piercing body, centre body on wire and bend the wires

folding each wing wire in half6)folding each wing wire in half

Next, I needed to add the “fingers”  to the end loops.

wing one armature with fingers added and wire bent ready to add to bats right palm loop.7) wing one armature with fingers added and wire bent ready to add to bat’s right palm loop.

both wings have full arm armatures. note that the fingers have 3 different lengths.8) both wings have full arm armatures. note that the fingers have 3 different lengths.

I often make very thin wings for the little dragons I’ve been making. I usually wind up using a fine fibre combed top laid in thin wisps in various directions. I have also used hand-carded fibre such as on Mrs Mer’s Finns effectively.  I was curious how the short fibre of the Maori batt would work for a top coat as well as for thin wings.

The Charcoal coloured Maori batt beside the small white Maori batt9) The Charcoal coloured Maori batt beside the small white Maori batt

I started with wrapping the body and armature.

wing/ arm armature and body covered in the short staple Maori10) wing/ arm armature and body covered in the short staple Maori

It was a bit fuzzy, but with further poking the surface became smooth and firm.

At this point, I again became quite distracted with another thought. Those scrawny arms are not going to be able to move those wings!!! So I had to add deltoids and bicep muscles, now he could try out his arms as we went to enjoy hamburgers at the butcher shop in Bell Corners (he did not have any since he doesn’t have a mouth or eyes yet it could get messy.)

You Tube Video link  

11) Video: bat on a stick in KIA trying out his muscles before he gets his wing membranes

Ann checks out Bat in progress12) Ann checked how firm he was and laughed at his fabulous physique.  (don’t tell bat!)

I made a couple of attempts with just the Maori but was finding I was not getting as firm and thin as I would like, so added a longer fibre in a thin web to let the Maori attach to it. when I had a thin layer of felt  I carefully attached it to the fibre wrapping the wing armature. I bent the armature and then sculpted the wing membrane further.  Once I had the wings looking more wing-ish, I made quick ears and added them.

I decided I wanted a more three-dimensional face (oh no deviating again!) so added a small nose and eye sockets which I filled with small beads for eyes.

Marie’s Bat only had its stick stuck in while she was creating the core shape. It kept your fingers and the sharp end of the needle well away from each other. She then removed it and added the layers of colour to make her cute bat. I like the bat-on-a-stick look and have kept it so far. Bat on a stick may be a cool Halloween hair ornament or a felting supervisor in a demo basket.

I have not had time to finish off the last bits for Bat on a stick he still needs his teeth, I tried to make them with the Maori white but was not happy with the first attempts. Next, I resorted to wet felting but I was still not happy.  I have a couple more options to try to make tiny teeth. I am also considering feet or legs and feet, so I may be adding another part armature to finish him off.

In the meantime, I have been taking him with me to the OVWSG guild library. I am working through the last few years of donations, sorting ones to keep in the collection and getting the rest ready to sell. Bat has supervised as I wrote the database for the sale books. I am almost finished with the data entry for the books. The magazines that are extra I have sorted by title and year ready for shopping! (it was a big job)

box of magazines sorted by year 13)just a few of the magazines being prepped for sale.

He also watched as I had my last of 4 evenings of nalbinding workshops which has been fabulously fun. I now know I can’t count since I keep losing track of where I am in my increases for my hat. I am off to find a stitch counter so I have a hope of getting the mythical (in my case) flat starting disk to make my hat. For this workshop, I do want to follow the instructions. (I have had a blast wandering off instructions for the felting though)

Felt Bat on a mettle chop stick with articulated wings  14)Thumbs up!  Bat on his chopstick supervising from the shelf above the desk at the OVWSG Library.

Each trip to work on the library bat has accompanied me. He has found a spot on the shelf above the desk where he can sit in a clip on the extending magnet. He is giving me a thumbs-up on all the work! Even without his teeth or feet, he is very supportive.

 

I hope you too get a chance to watch some of the various online felt-alongs. You may also find inspiration in previous blog posts by all the fibre artists here. You never know what might inspire your next project, maybe you too will find a multi-year project! Or maybe just a quick little bat! (with or without a stick).