Other Fibers – Page 5 – Felting and Fiber Studio

Karakul

April 5, 2015 zedster66 Comments 16 comments

I was hoping to get some time for felting yesterday, but I had vertigo and felt rotten so I’m posting some pieces I made a few weeks ago. I got two different Karakul batts from wollknoll, one is just Karakul and the other is a Karakul and Merino blend. Just be warned if you google Karakul, you’ll probably get some pretty awful photos of dead lambs because their skin is used to make hats and coats because their wool is black and silky soft when they are born, and they don’t often make it that far so there’s quite a few photos of dead sheep too. This wool is sheared the usual way though. It is double coated and very wiry, it reminds me a lot of a Cairn Terrier my friend had when we were kids:

I used some dyed silvery flax with the Karakul, spreading it thinly across the top and bottom, and laid it vertically in the centre:

It looked like it was just sitting on the surface:

The contrast of the ‘dry’ looking Karakul and shiny flax, made the flax look like it was still wet:

The Karakul and Merino looked and felted similarly, though less ‘openly’ or loosely and was a lighter shade:

Both of the batts had bits of VM in which looked like porridge oats or tiny cornflakes. A few of the batts I got had similar VM:

I used some crimped Viscose fibre with this:

This is some Viscose which wasn’t teased apart much:

This is a patch where the Viscose was teased apart a lot and laid on quite thickly:

And this is where the teased out Viscose was laid quite sparsely:

Dutch and Russian Wool

March 20, 2015 zedster66 Comments 18 comments

I got some ‘Yellowish Dutch Wool‘ from wollknoll, 34 mic ‘not suitable for felting’, it said. It seemed to felt fine for me:

I don’t know what breed it is, I’d guess Texel, maybe someone who’s bought it knows? Here’s a close up of a corner:

I Thought I’d try a variety of fibres again, so the top row is a blend of black Viscose tops and Ingeo, the narrow band in the middle is Fake Angora, and the bottom is black Bamboo and White Bamboo blended.

Different angle:

This is a close up of the Viscose and Ingeo:

And close up of the fake Angora (it has a strange feel to it, and looks kind of waxy):

Another vaguely listed wool I bought was ‘Russian-Camelhair‘. I’m guessing from the way they describe things on wollknoll, that ‘Camelhair’ is the colour, it’s more reddish though. And this is also 34 mic but ‘This wool is especially suitable for felting’. Another guess is that this is Romanov wool. It seems to be double coated like a lot of the ones I ordered. I used Ramie fibre with this:

The circular parts are Ramie that I fluffed up then patted down into little discs:

This is a close up of Ramie just fluffed up and added:

The sun came out as I was taking this, I usually try not to take photos in the sun, but I liked this one:

Have you tried any new wools or fibres lately?

More New Wool

March 12, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

I got some wool tops listed as ‘Arctic Fox’, no other info about what the wool breed might be, just that it is 25 micron. It feels really soft, a lot like Bluefaced Leicester, and it felted really nicely too:

Though it’s soft and felts like a fine wool, it does have some wiry bits:

I tried a variety of fibres it, along the top is Soy top, below that is black Bamboo top (L) and Milk Protein (R), then some Hemp fibre, and at the bottom is Viscose top:

Interestingly it made the soy look like hemp or flax, which it only usually does with a coarser or curlier wool:

This is a closer picture of the Bamboo and Milk:

Hemp and Viscose:

Another wool I tried was Skudden or Skudde. I couldn’t find any info on it in English, but there’s a Facebook group with cute lambs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Skudden It isn’t in the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, but apparently it is in the Northern European short-tailed family. I used this straight off the batt without carding it first, so it’s a bit uneven:

It felted immediately, it was like it was felted as soon as it was all wet and soapy. It is weirdly hairy though. I was using new netting and thought frayed fibres had come off and got all over the felt. This photo is actually in focus, but the hairiness makes it look like it isn’t. I used black nylon tops, which are actually very black:

This is a close up of the hairy corner:

Close up of the left side:

Further up, it looks like diagrams of cell walls:

It’s different to any other wool I have, it’s unusual, but I like it.

Fox Sheep Wool

March 4, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

I ordered a lot of ‘new to me’ wool from wollknoll recently. I still haven’t had chance to open all the bags and look at them, but I did get a chance to look at a few the other day and make some batts. One of them was listed as ‘Fox Sheep wool‘. I’m guessing it is ‘Coburg Fox Sheep‘. I ordered this as ‘fleece’, which comes as pieces of a carded batt. This what mine looked like:

This is a close up:

And this is what it looked like after I made a batt:

I made a sample about 10 x 10″ and added some black viscope tops:

On the top half I added fluffed/mussed up viscose in various thicknesses and also laid it criss-cross in a couple of places:

On the bottom half, I fanned out the viscose tops:

This is a close up of the middle on the bottom:

And this is the middle of the top:

Whenever I’ve used black viscose it reminds me of ‘bubble painting’ – mixing washing up liquid with kids’ ready mix paint and bubbling it up with straws- but these middle parts remind me of seaweed 🙂 This is a close up of a part where I lay the viscose criss cross:

This is what the whole piece looks like on the back:

I suppose a good description of it would be spongey, but it really looks ‘frothy’ to me!

The staple length was really short and being so springy, it wasn’t easy to get a nice even felt with just a couple of layers as you can see when I hold it up to the window:

Ingeo

February 16, 2015 zedster66 Comments 15 comments

I haven’t had chance to get my felting stuff out for ages, so I’ve been working on my epic ‘Other fibres project’, which originally was going to be a simple e-book guide to embellishment fibres, but has turned into something of a 7 year journey to try every fibre with every breed of wool and animal fibre I can get my hands on, as it constantly gets shoved aside for other things. Looking through some of my samples, I found a couple of pieces using Ingeo. I like Ingeo fibre. All embellishment fibres have something which sets them apart from others, and for Ingeo, I think it’s the way it looks soft and fluffy, and slightly matt. Although it isn’t particularly shiny, but it does have a sheen. This first piece is natural grey Merino.

You can see on this closer pic how it pulls together where it’s laid out thicker:

Getting in closer, you can see the Merino migration through the Ingeo, and though the Ingeo is thick, it is still smooth:

This close up of the bottom shows what it looks like when it is sparser.

When I used Ingeo on this piece with dark grey Icelandic, I didn’t lay it so thickly:

I like the way it looks so different with the Icelandic, where it’s sparse it even looks a different colour.

There’s a lot more migration with the coarser Icelandic:

You can see on this close up where the Ingeo is quite dense, it pulls together in a similar way to on the Merino, but isn’t quite as smooth:

Do you have a favourite embellishment fibre or animal fibre and embellishment fibre combination?

Texture

September 25, 2014 zedster66 Comments 21 comments

A while ago I bought a weird fluffy, knitted, tubular scarf from Poundland to try felting with. If you ever buy one, make sure you cut it over a bucket or newspaper or something to catch all the bits! I laid out a couple of layers of very wispy pink Merino tops left over from a book cover I made last year, then I added the piece of scarf, and 2 more wispy layers of wool tops. It didn’t take long to felt. This is one side of it:

This is the other side:

And this is what it looked like holding it up to the sky:

I don’t remember how long after, but I decided the scarf sampler might make a nice sculptural piece similar to one I’d made before. I didn’t make it in exactly the same way, I concertina’d it and stitched in place, then twisted and felted and fulled more. This is the top:

Close up of the ridges:

Super close up of the texture:

This is the back:

A close up of the back:

And a super close up of the texture:

Now, what do I do with the other 8 square feet of fluffy knitted stuff? 🙂

Kapok Fibre

September 17, 2014 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

I bought a new fibre to try out a couple of weeks ago, Kapok fibre. Like cotton, it grows around the seed of the plant, but is much lighter and softer. As much as I like fibre tops, I do like the shorter staple fibres, especially with coarser wools for the way they interact with the wool and produce more ‘natural’ looking effects. They often seem to mimic things you find in nature such as cobwebs, fungus or mould, which look solid but are really soft or fluffy when you look closer. This first panel is natural white 23 Micron Merino. I took a ‘piece’ of the kapok fibres and teased it apart, sames as you would silk noil, and laid it across the wool. It’s hard to see the Kapok at all.

I know a lot of people don’t like curly or coarser wools for felting, especially if they mainly make felt paintings or want a brightly coloured, smooth, firm felt. But I’m the type of person who loves textures and shades and tones as much as colour, and love rocks and tree barks just as much as flowers or minerals. So, if you’re like me, you might like thse next couple of pieces which I made using Shetland and Finnish wools. For this first one, I used grey Shetland tops and added fluffed up, teased apart Kapok fibre:

I like the effect the thinner parts of fibre produces:

One of the areas where the fibre was denser:

I made the Finnish piece double sided. I first put some teased apart Kapok fibre on my template, then added the brown Finnish tops. I added a layer of black Finnish tops, then blended some Kapok fibre with black Finnish noil and added that. I added some Kapok fibre on its own in a few spaces and blended a small amount of Kapok With black Finnish top and added that too. This is the brown side:

Close up 1:

One of the denser areas:

This is the black Finnish side:

A close up of a dense fibre part:

This is a close up of the Fibre blended with the wool:

Do you have a favourite coarse of curly wool? What do you use it for? Do you have a favourite embellishment fibre? You’re welcome to link us to any pics or come and post about it on the forum.

A Bit Of Colour

September 9, 2014 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

I thought I’d do some colourful pieces this week. The last time I ordered from World of Wool, I got some dyed Shetland wool tops, and some dyed 18.5 mic Merino. I used the dyed Shetland tops for this first piece, and a variety of cellulose fibres that I dyed a while ago, using rosiepink’s tutorial. I think I used Bamboo, Banana, Ramie, Flax, Hemp and Viscose, and there are a few wisps of soybean top too.

I didn’t add the fibres in any particular way, just lay the tops out and added more until the spaces were filled in. Overlapping in some places.

I like this close up, I like the way the fibres appear to be just sitting on top of the wool, which my girlfriend thinks looks like grass.

I wanted to try out some of the 18.5 mic merino, and some crimped nylon before I made a large scarf. I won’t be using these colours together, but thought it would help to see them better.

The way the thinner areas of fibre contour the ripples of the felt reminds me of felting with those stringy produce bags that oranges and onions often come in.

I thought this was an unusual contrast, the denser matte nylon around the shiny Merino gives the Merino a synthetic look.

A close up of some of the crimped fibre:

I really liked the way this turned out, I even like the two colours together 🙂

Yak and Bamboo Staple Fibre

September 1, 2014 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

I retook the photos of my Yak and Bluefaced Leicester pieces last week, but I’m only going to post about the Yak today. If I get chance I’ll post the BFL on my feltbyzed blog later in the week. I used Bamboo staple fibre with the Yak fibre, it is creamy white, soft and shiny just like bamboo top, but not being combed, it has more ‘character’. I added the fibre in different ways, some places more dense than others, and tried to keep some of the bamboo’s character.

The bamboo fibre is really shiny and the crimp catches the light.

This is the part in the middle at the top, I separated and fluffed up the bamboo fibre, but laid it on quite thickly:

This is the area just to the right and a bit further down. The fibres were teased a part a little, so are quite dense here too:

These next two pictures are were I added parts of bamboo fibre which had more curl or were crimped:

This is the patch mid to lower right where the bamboo fibres were fluffed up and less dense than in other areas:

I like the way bamboo fibre can be used so densely it almost appears like a layer of fabric, or sparsely so it isn’t quite so obvious until the light catches it. I thought it really ‘matched’ well with the Yak because they both felt soft and smooth.

Norwegian, Devon, Cotton and Bamboo

August 24, 2014 zedster66 Comments 22 comments

I was going to do a post about Yak fibre and Bluefaced Leicester today, but I messed up the photos, so I’ll do that next time. This first piece is grey Norwegian wool tops with Egyptian Cotton. For the top two thirds, I used Egyptian cotton tops. The staple length is very short, so I started pulling off short wispy bits from the end as you would wool tops, and laid those on the right hand side. I also pulled off a longer length, then carefully teased it out and laid parts of it down the left. The bottom is Egyptian cotton fibre, it comes as thicker, shorter lengths. I teased some out, fluffed some up a little, then laid them on the wool.

This is a close up of some of the wispy parts:

This is an area of denser wispy cotton:

This is a close up of the longer lengths of cotton:

Close up of the cotton fibre:

I’ve probably mentioned more than once or twice how much I love curly wools 🙂 For this next piece I used Devon Wool tops and Black Bamboo tops. The top part has the bamboo laid on the surface, the bottom is a blend of Devon and Bamboo.

The black bamboo is more of a matte charcoal grey than black, and seems to be ‘fluffier’ than white bamboo tops:

Close up:

It looks a lot paler when blended with the wool tops:

It doesn’t completely disappear when blended in, though:

And just because I love curly wools, the back:

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Category: Other Fibers

Karakul

April 5, 2015 zedster66 Comments 16 comments

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Dutch and Russian Wool

March 20, 2015 zedster66 Comments 18 comments

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More New Wool

March 12, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

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Fox Sheep Wool

March 4, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

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Ingeo

February 16, 2015 zedster66 Comments 15 comments

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Texture

September 25, 2014 zedster66 Comments 21 comments

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Kapok Fibre

September 17, 2014 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

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A Bit Of Colour

September 9, 2014 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

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Yak and Bamboo Staple Fibre

September 1, 2014 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

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Norwegian, Devon, Cotton and Bamboo

August 24, 2014 zedster66 Comments 22 comments

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