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Small Spiral Attempt 2

Small Spiral Attempt 2

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After the last less than successful attempt at making a small spiral, I thought I would try some prefelt. Here is the link to the last attempt. Small spiral fail

I have 2 kinds of prefelt. One is thin and almost transparent. The other is thick, and you can peel it into two layers if you want to.

I cut 3 circles from both types of prefelt. I also cut holes in the centres and a slit. You can really see the difference in thickness in this picture of the circles stacked together.

The green is very thin, so I just overlapped the ends of each circle and gave it a few jabs with my felting needle to hold it in place

The white is quite thick, so I split the ends, then cut one side off. I then overlapped the ends and needled them a little so they would stay in place.

I wet them and inserted the resists between the layers.

Then I tubbed them both for 5 min on each side.

5 min on each side seemed to be enough. They were stuck together and feeling more solid. They had shrunk a tiny bit.

I gently rolled them in my hands so they would full. I kept checking them. I didn’t want to turn them into felt balls or snakes.

They both had good shrinkage. I was worried about the hole in the centre getting too big, but they stayed about the same ratio to the outside circle.

 

They both turned out quite well.

 

I let them dry flat, and they hang about the same dry as wet. If I weighted them, they would stretch longer, but I like them like this.

My plan had been to add them to a beaded stick keychain like the ones with the sheep.

When I tried to add them to a beeded stick, they wanted to stick in between the beads, making it hard to get a nice spiral. I may try them without the beads, but I am wondering if I got some of just the keychain end part; they might just hang free with maybe a curly lock on the end.

Technique chat: Shingling

Technique chat: Shingling

Comments 18 comments

You may have seen my last post, making a fluffy llama. At the end of the last post I still needed to finish his eyes and add eyelashes. Today we were going to consider shingling; adding layers of small amounts of combed fibre or fibre locks in a pattern that mimics the coat on a creature, like that llama I was working on. The fur mimicked by shingling is usually on the longer side, but it can be used for shorter fur too.

When I first started to needle felt, there had been only one option suggested for making a long-ish coat: shingling, with the use of combed top.  I now know a number of variations on this technique and a few other options besides it. But let’s look at where I started and a couple of the variations.

As with all the projects I leap into, after the idea, it starts with a bit of fun research to find out what type of fur you want to mimic.   Remember to check if there is a summer or winter coat, or if there are regional variations to your animal. It will not look right if you mix the coat of a red wolf with a timber wolf, or have a winter coat on the shoulders and summer coat on the back and legs! Google image search will help, but you have to be careful; sometimes the image descriptions for photos on the internet are labelled wrong. Look for sites that are researching the animal, breed associations, or even hunting groups can have some helpful photos (although not the hunting or cooking parts).  It is also helpful to try to get shots from various angles. (I was extremely pleased when I found a picture of the underside of a polar bear foot!)

chart of lengths of coats examples of aimas and techneeks to consider5.0) chart of coats of animals examples and techniques

For those needle felters who don’t mind getting wet, Sara (of Sarafina fiberarts on YouTube) had been experimenting with making “Pelts”, which are wet felted skin pieces she adds over her shaped felt under structure. Her results have been effective and interesting but do involve getting wet (so I have stayed with the dry techniques for now. I promise I will get brave eventually!)

There are a few things to consider beyond just getting the colour you want and deciding on a working direction to add your shingles (bottom to top or top to bottom; I have seen other felters who work in both directions successfully).  Let’s look at some of my variables; you may have more considerations to add to this list.

Variables in shingling you may want to consider:

  • Which fibre will best suit your project (there is more than just colour to think about when picking fiber)
  • Fibre Staple Length
  • Blending your fibres and colours (Blended colour will look more natural than flat colours)
  • What scale to work in/ how big or small is your creature?
  • Working with locks
  • Amount of fibres used in each shingle
  • Stacking your shingles

Let’s expand each consideration.

Which fibre will best suit your project: (there is more than just colour to think about when picking fibre)

  • Stiff or softer fibre will give a different drape (use photo reference to decide which you need).
  • How likely is this fibre to felt to itself from handling or rubbing?
    • This is more important if the creature is repositioned regularly (handled).
    • Silk, viscose, alpaca, and llama don’t have scales as most wool does, so are less inclined to felt to itself. Wool that has less crimp and outer guard hairs like kemp and tog is also less inclined to cling to itself (felt easily) when handled.

amples of viscose fiber folded in 50/50, 25/75, 75/25 proportions as well as a sample using wool to help adhear at the fold location.5.1) samples in viscose

  • Trim or not to trim (embroidery curved blade, dog grooming scissors/ thinning sheers are options)
    • Trimming can occur to shorten the fibre length you are applying, or you can trim the fibres after you have applied the shingles.
    • A stiffer fibre vs a softer fibre will also react differently when trimmed by scissors. Stiff fibres can give a more bristle-like appearance when trimmed short.
  • Silk, Viscose and similar smooth fibres can be difficult to attach securely to the felted under structure:
    • Adding a bit of carded wool or soft spun wool yarn to the area you are securing will help adhere the slippery fibre, like a staple or glue. (You may not need to add assistance to adhere if you are finding it is embedding deeply and securely. Working the fibre in a bit deeper and varying the angle of needle insertion will help it stay without adding extra fibre as glue. If you can’t work a bit deeper, then try adding the staple or glue-like bit of fibre. Remember the extra embedding to secure the fibre will shorten the staple length showing as fur.

diagram devided 50/50 showing needle felting perpendicular to fiber lenght5.2 – fibre divided 50/50 felting across to create the shingle

5.3) Add a bit of carded wool or loose spun yarn to attach as glue or a staple to hold the shingle5.3) Add a bit of carded wool or loose spun yarn to attach as glue or a staple to hold the shingle

5.4)Alpaca fiber; folded, tacking folded fiber, and using extra fiber to help hold slippery fiber (staple or glue using loose spun wool yarn or carded fiber)5.4)Alpaca fibre; folded, tacking folded fibre, and using extra fibre to help hold slippery fibre (staple or glue using loose spun wool yarn or carded fibre)

5.5) Sample using Viscose5.5) sample using Viscose

Using a bit of carded wool as a stable, to help embed the viscose fibre. While a bit of the staple or glue fibre is visible in the sample, using a similar colour as the shingle will make the assisting fibre or yarn invisible. The next layer of shingle will also obscure the previous attachment site.

5.6) using a wider attachment area for slippery fiber5.6) For slippery fiber you can also create a wider attachment area

Fibre Staple Length

  • If folded, what percentage of the fibre is used.
    • Folded in half (50/50 split) was what was first suggested to me. This can create a lot of loft or thickness in the shingle. If folded so cut end is under tips, it will lift the tips and give a thick dense coat.
    • Folded (25/75) folded tips on top of longer cut end, gives tips dispersed amongst longer cut end.
    • Folded (75/25) folded longer tips on top of cut end, gives lift from the cut end with longer draping tips.
    • * You can also use almost all your fibre as coat, and only secure one end (90/10). This is not exactly a folded shingle, but in some cases it’s the proportions that work. You still position it overlapping, as you would in any of the other shingles.

samples of alpaca fiber, various proportions folded6.1) alpaca samples

  • Single needle line of attachment or wider area of needle attachment (for slippery fibre, the wider attachment site can again help the fibre stay attached to your creature)
  • Using scissors to shorten the fibre length if needed (we are felters and like scissors!). If you are using combed top, it is easier if you pull off staple lengths then trim, rather than cutting the combed top itself, which will give mixed lengths to deal with (harder to blend and attach)

Pros:

  • Twice as fast (except for (90/10))
  • Under layer can lift the top layer and make a fluffy-looking coat
  • Works well for large colour gradations

Cons:

  • Can become heavy-looking depending on the scale of the sculpture
  • Can create small colour changes but can be a bit tricky to get exact location
  • Fluffy look can be out of scale to smaller figures.

 

Blending your fibres and colours (Blended colour will look more natural than flat colours)

  • Using the same fibre length will blend easily and produce a uniform length of coat.
  • Nature is not flat colour. It helps to mix shades and tints of colour to make your creature look more realistic. (Dyeing over a natural grey fibre will also give more depth and subtle variations within the colour)
  • Matching colours can be easier if you use a “window”. Cut out a small square in a piece of white or black card stock, leaving at least a 2-inch border to separate the window from the rest of the picture. This lets your eye and brain separate the isolated colour from the background, which makes it easier to colour match.
  • Areas with spots of colour change can be easier if switching to smaller amounts of fibre in your shingles (many little shingles). Your other option is to carefully blend the colour changes within the larger staples. The difference is more about the amount of control, suggesting a colour change or spots vs trying to mimic a specific animal’s colour patterns.
  • For stripes, you could try to lay in following the colour pattern. I have seen a felter who drew the pattern on her animal then just filled in each adjacent colour section, slowly working up the side of the animal.

blending colours of muskox fur. used alpaca to creat the fur7.0) muskox layers of alpaca to make the muskox coat

What scale to work in/ how big or small is your creature?

  • Smaller will have less detail but will need to suggest more with what you have. You will also have to use shorter fibers or trim to get the fur in proportion to the size of your creature.
  • Larger can have more detail but will require more work and attention to photo reference. Enjoy the process of needle felting and don’t rush.
  • As an example of scale, my fox picture has a problem with the whiskers. They are the wrong scale to the image. I used horsetail fibre for the whiskers, and the size is too light in visual weight. I need to find something a bit visually heavier ether a coarser horse tail or possibly the outer coat of a musk ox. I have heard of felters using the bristles from paint brushes (the house painting kind) as whiskers too. (The awl and glue method was used with the paint brush bristles. I used a large eye sewing needle to secure the horse hair.)

7.1) the visual weight of the whiskers is too light for the scale of the image7.1) the visual weight of the whiskers is too light for the scale of the image

 

Working with locks

  • Which part(s) of the fibre are you using, Tips only, tips and tails?

8.11-8.12-8.13) Samples with locks

  • Locks with crimp are easier to attach than locks with less crimp, like the hair I used on my Mer-people. It’s not a huge difference, but remember to check the fibre is adhering securely and will suit the purpose you intend to use it for. If your creature’s purpose is to sit in one pose on a shelf, you will not need the same security of attachment that a creature that is regularly reposed would require.
  • Crimpy curly little locks make fabulous outer coats for little sheep figures and pins. If you find little short locks with lots of crimp, put them aside for a later project if you don’t need them now.

 

Amount of fibres used in each shingle

  • Are you making a puff ball or something sleek? Sample thin layers of shingles vs fewer thicker layers. You may also find the thin layers helpful if you are working with stripes or subtle colour changes.

shows soap on a rope hedgehog wet felted understructure then needle fleted brisles9.1) ”Crevis” is a soap on a rope hedgehog. I used stiffer fibre and packed it quite tightly to give good scrub-ability. I had fun mixing light colours around the face. I wanted more of an emotional expression of hedgehog rather than an anatomical Hedgehog, since his soapy centre is rectangular and rather flat.

 

Stacking your shingles (patterns)

  • You also can change either the spacing of the shingles or the way the shingles are staggered; (stacked / offset(running bond) / 1/3 offset/shingle pattern / random placement). Looking at the way tile is laid out can give a good reference for shingling patterns. Again, a bit of quick sampling will suggest your best option.

10.1) Wooden shingles, layers offset each row, not necessarily the same size adjacent shingle.10.1) Wooden shingles, layers offset each row, not necessarily the same size adjacent shingle.

tile patterns that we can use with shingleing10.2) patterns of subway tile to consider for felting layouts (Straight stack, offset or running bond, 1/3 offset)

10.3) alpaca shingle samples spacing10.3) alpaca shingle samples spacing

10.4) Alpaca shingle sample of spacing- side view10.4) Alpaca shingle sample of spacing- side view

  • Direction of work: Start from lowest furred area, working to highest, or the other way around. Both work; I just found the former easier than the latter, which requires you to lift the shingles above to position the next below. An example of starting at the lowest point and working up and forward would be my partly 3-D Muskox picture. I also check and see if there is a direction of hair growth and hair fall. This could indicate the direction to lay in the fur.
  • How much fibre will you use in each shingle section? If you have areas that have denser fur and areas that are sparser, you may be altering how much you use in different areas and /or the shingle pattern you chose to follow. An example of variations of fur on a single creature would be a Bison or Buffalo. You may also want to use different fibres to mimic the different sections (longer, softer and shorter, stiffer fibre). As long as the colours for the different fibres work cohesively together, your creature will look realistic.

 

There is also a way to add locks without shingling to create the illusion of fur. I used it to create part of the sheep pins, and Ann uses it on her little sheep figures. Those tiny crimpy curly locks are layered over the surface of the creature in swirls, then tacked down, catching bits of the crimp locks.

10.5) Ann’s Sheep using tight crimpy locks to creat the fur/fleece.10.5) Ann’s Sheep using tight crimpy locks to create the fur/fleece.

 

Let’s take a quick look at some of the tools I have collected that can be helpful when adding a needle felted fur to a creature.

Tools that may be helpful: (new toys you might like to try)

  • Sharp embroidery scissors: straight and curved bladed
    • Excellent for careful trimming and getting into difficult spots. The curvature can mimic the curve of your creature. There are various amounts of curvature and length of blade available, so it’s nice to have a couple choices.

11.1) there are a few brands of curved embroidery scissors, as well as fine sewing scissors and curved blade pet trimming scissor11.1) There are a few brands of curved embroidery scissors, as well as fine sewing scissors and curved blade pet trimming scissors

  • Pet trimming scissors for thinning coats/salon version for people (look like they have notches along one blade). They are used to thin bulk along the side of hair or at the ends, also for blend transitions, or give movement to hair. They are used teeth side on top and usually at an angle to the hair (perpendicular can give harsher lines if over trimmed).

11.2)Thinning scissors have different teeth spacing that removes different amounts of hair.11.2)Thinning scissors have different teeth spacing that removes different amounts of hair.

If you are really curious, this is a quick video on using them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEqi7qfZyOY

  • Eyebrow brush and comb (weird original idea, but great for felting). This tiny brush and comb allows you to do small adjustments to your creature’s coat. I saw a tiny mettle comb version, but haven’t seen it again now that I have a use for it.

11.3) Eye brow tools11.3) Eyebrow tools

  • Eyebrow trimmer – strange razor trimmer (again, why is this a thing? Ok I admit my eyebrows never fully arrived so why trim them? What if trimming scares them away and I wind up with none?!) Again, an option for doing fine trimming and adjusting.
  • The puffer for blowing lint off your camera lenses; it can help to fluff up a coat or blow out trimmed hairs after using the scissors. It comes in a number of variations, including an electric version that may blow away your creature!

11.4) air blower, originally for cleaning camera equipment11.4) air blower, originally for cleaning camera equipment

  • You could even consider Hair spray or styling gel, but sample first; you don’t want fibre to yellow over time!! (I was a cheap art student (many years ago) and some of the very cheap hair spray we used as fixative did yellow the pastel paper.)

 

I hope this has sparked a few ideas to consider when adding fur on your creatures. I am sure I had more to add, but the AC seems to be struggling; ok, it’s give up, since it is almost 30C in the house.  You may have more options or tools to share; please add your suggestions too.

I hope you have found a cool, possibly air-conditioned spot to felt.  Ottawa has been hot with repeated waves of aggressive thunderstorms and flooding (the street west of us had flooded basements; Glenn said ours is still dry, but we did lose the cover to our side door).  If you are South of us celebrating your 250th birthday, have fun on the 4th, and hopefully you will get to enjoy your fireworks. Canada Day had spectacular thunderstorms, but fireworks would have been more fun.  Have fun, stay cool and keep felting.

 

Test Felting New Materials

Test Felting New Materials

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My wonderful local arts centre (The Horsebridge Community Arts Centre in Whitstable) has an art bank.  People donate all sorts of lovely (and sometimes slightly odd) materials. Anyone can visit the art bank room, select things they’d like, then pay what they can.

I often have joint exhibitions in the arts centre’s galleries and do some volunteering for them too (mostly bar work). They work very hard to raise funds to keep the centre going and supporting the community. I live nearby so frequently pop into the art bank to see what’s there, and I sometimes walk away with a little challenge for myself. I’m going to talk today about felt testing two materials that are new to me: silk carrier rods and fine metal mesh.

A few months ago, I was unable to resist some beautifully dyed silk carrier rods. I enjoyed separating and sorting them; they reminded me of fish.

They got bagged up and filed in the ‘to do sometime’ section of my brain.

A couple of weeks ago, their time had come. If you’re not familiar with silk carrier rods, they’re a waste product of silk production. When silk is removed from silk cocoons, it is reeled onto a machine. Some of the silk thread and gum gets caught on the winding rods and has to be cut away. They resultant silk carrier ‘rods’ are quite thick and stiff with sericin gum.  You can peel each one into layers.  You can also stretch them length-ways to thin them out, but they don’t have any appreciable movement across the width of the rod. I suppose it’s because that’s the direction the individual silk threads lie and silk thread is strong.

I checked the internet for felting with silk carrier rods and although there were some images, it wasn’t clear to me how thin the rods that had successfully been felted were. I’d peeled mine as much as I was able but I didn’t want to stretch them out too far along the length as I wanted to keep as much of the shine and colour of the silk as possible.

I’d like to felt a school of fish shooting up through the ocean so decided I’d better make a small test picture to see how the carrier rods felted.

I selected a lovely red / yellow / green rod layer and trimmed it slightly to create a fish shape.

 Here it is with a non-trimmed layer for comparison

 I laid out 2 layers of merino to look sort of ‘watery’, placed the trimmed shape more or less in the middle and popped on a small eye using tiny bits of wet & rolled dark grey and white wool.

The felting went pretty well, though I started to worry that they eye wouldn’t attach so gave it a few stabs with a felting needle before I started the fulling.

Here it is after felting, still wet, with the other piece of silk for comparison.

 

You can see it has shrunk a lot along the length but only a small amount across the width, which is what I’d expected

And here it is dry.

So, what did I learn from my sample?

I’d soaked the silk briefly in water before I used it to see if it was dye-fast.  It was.  I also thought the water might soften it a bit, though I don’t actually know if this made any difference as I didn’t try felting with an un-soaked piece (good job I’m not a scientist).

I deliberately only pulled it out a little lengthways so I was running the risk of it not felting in well.  I also didn’t trap the silk with fine wool fibres: the idea was to try it and adapt if necessary for a future picture. The fish is fairly secure – I couldn’t easily pull it off – but I’d say it’s not fully integrated in the felt. There’s some movement if you rub it, especially in the central body section.  It feels like it’s partially sitting on the surface. The tail is the most integrated part; I probably pulled that bit out the furthest.

It’s probably OK for a picture but I wouldn’t want to subject it to a lot of wear and tear. Ideally it should be felted in more firmly.

Things to consider for a future picture.

  • Soak for longer
  • Stretch out more
  • Add some fine strands of wool to trap it across the fish
  • Scuff up the under-side slightly
  • Put some light clouds of wool in similar colours to fish behind it (poss in addition to scuffing up the back)
  • Trap it with wool strands round the edges

I may not do all of these but would probably do some and almost certainly stretch it out more.

I’m also not keen on the eye: it’s a bit cartoonish & feels like it should be slightly higher up on its head. Maybe next time I will bead the eye on at the end, or use grey wool instead of white. I’m not sure if I will ever make the school of fish, but I’m satisfied that the sample did its job.

My second test piece is a very small one.  I recently saw in the art bank some tubes of fine metal mesh and, as I often do, wondered if I could felt them.

 

The mesh is in different coloured tubular strips: I think they are intended for jewellery making.  You could put some beads inside the mesh tubes and place other, perhaps smaller, beads between them, on the outside of the mesh.

I like the idea of having the mesh on the outside of some felt, perhaps to make a seed head. You can see the mesh can be stretched out.

Again, a sample seemed like a good idea. I made it quite small, just to see if and how it felted. I didn’t want to waste too much.

I cut a small square each of merino prefelt and metal mesh, approximately 6 x 6 cm (or 2.36 inches)

 

Although it doesn’t look like it in this photo, the mesh is light blue.

And here it is when felted & dry.

Conclusions? It felted very securely: the metal mesh is well embedded into the felt. I managed to get 1/3 shrinkage. I tried for a while but it just wouldn’t shrink more. Perhaps I need a larger sample to test this.  The mesh didn’t give the felt as much additional structure as I’d expected.  It does fold into a slight crease and it bends a little to hold a curve.  Again, I think I’d need a bigger sample to test these properly. On the other hand, it looks pretty and is quite sparkly.  Perhaps even a bit like fish scales?

For now I’m parking this experiment too.  One day I’ll think of a really good use for it.

I do wander around thinking about what would happen if I tried to felt different materials. It’s always pleasing to have a go and make a little sample. It doesn’t always behave as I expect – which is exactly the point of a sample – but the results get stored away in my imagination for the next time I need exactly that effect.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried felting with a new or unusual material and what happened.

 

 

Fish should not have squishy centers!

Fish should not have squishy centers!

Comments 13 comments

A few weeks ago, I turned my attention back to working on the latest Mer-person (the boyfriend for Miss Mer) and realised I had a small problem. It is very fixable, but I thought you might like to chat about what and how it happened.

 

A quick review of the newest Mer-persons progress so far;

3 fotos, the armature, head body and fist arm initial wrapping in white wool, second hand close up has 5 fingers and a thrumb... 3 photos: front and back of upperbody and head, adding first wrapping on tail1.1-1.2) 05-2025 Cangames (you can see what happens if you get distracted winding fingers…I fixed that too.)

mer-person (under layer underway) self stabing while holding a ball of core wool 1.3) 06-04-2025 Mer-boyfriend trying to get me to rush his felting

adding more fiber to fish parts at demo in Dunvagon Museum1.4) 06-15-2025 Blacksmithing weekend and felting the mer-boyfriend

visiting the guild mer-person lounging langudly on table (back vew)1.5) 07-14-2025 Social

Mer-Person with felting needle self felting his 6pack abs.1.6) 08-08-2025 Friday Twist shop and demo

As you can see in the review, I had a few problems with counting fingers and rushing to build up the shape. I do have an excuse, as I started this project, I was still heavily distracted by lingering anaesthetic. I think there may be a few tendrils of the stuff still clinging to bits of brain, but most of it has now left the building. (Yah!)

 

When I was wrapping, especially in the Fish parts, I had not kept the second layers of wrapping as tight as I would have liked. This was exacerbated by starting to block in the superficial features before getting the understructure as firm as I would like. This meant that the Fish parts were now close to the correct shape at the surface, but squishy if you applied pressure to the felt. Squishy does not suggest strong young fish!!! (Fish also usually do not have the ability to fold mid fish.)

 

Working on superficial features (shallow poking of the wool with 38T333 and 42T222 needles) gave me a nicely felted surface with a much more loosely felted under layer. (I got excited, I jumped ahead and started into the fun sculpting, before a firm under layer was achieved!)  Well, that is not what I was wanting. How am I going to fix that?

 

Diagram of superficial felting with a less felted core.2.1) Diagram of superficial felting with a less felted core.

 

Since I am still working on the understructure, I can fix this now without too much difficulty. I will need to move fibre at a deeper layer, and since I am making the under structure, not the finished surface layer, I don’t have to worry about surface pitting if I move to a courser needle (a 36T-333). Pitting is telling you to keep felting, until the raised area (the parts not yet felted) is even with the lower spot (which is felted more).

 

Why would I move to a courser needle? I want to move fibre, but I will not be adding more fibre superficially at this point. Also, if I work deeply with a finer needle, it is more sensitive to minor directional changes (which can lead to OOPS!!) I would prefer not to have to go searching out broken needle bits from his fishy parts.

Synopsis: A Courser needle is more aggressive when moving fibre, and is less fragile than a finer needle, especially when working deep into the under layers.

 

Diagram inserting the needle deeper to affect the under layer 2.2) Diagram inserting the needle deeper to affect the under layer

 

Synopsis: The barbs affect the fibre by grabbing one to a few fibres as they are passing through. If you only work to a shallow depth, you will only be affecting those fibres. If you are working to a greater depth, you will affect the fibres that are located there and some of the fibres above them.

 

There is another way squishy interior felt can occur;

As with Wet felting, some breeds of sheep have fleece that is less inclined to create a dense felt than other breeds. I have had trouble with a couple of the Rideau Arcott fleeces (created with a mix of breeds) I have used. No matter how much needle felting of that wool I did, it remained spongy, but it was holding together, so it was felted.  A Less than appropriate wool choice is not the problem this time, since I am using Corradale carded roving, which I have used before without problems.

 

Before I started to firm up the understructure of my fish person, he was able to fold his tail tightly in half and fit in the smaller project bag. Now, after hours of poking, he will have to go into the big project bag.

 

mer-person at wet felting workshop. he is face down on the table and may have fainted?3.1) 10-05-2025 Slipper workshop (I think the wetness was too much for him?)

 

He now bends and stays in position, but no longer stays when the bend is extreme. (The increase in felt stiffness has strengthened the wool. He is poseable, but the wool felt is getting closer to overpowering the wire. I can stop increasing the firmness now, and work on adding more of the understructure superficial detail and the missing fins. (I will return to shallow poking rather than deep stabbing!)

 

I should mention the importance of gauge choice and wire type for your armature. It is important to figure out the gauge of wire you need for the size of your sculpture, and the pose or position you would like your figure to be in. You can make a blind guess, an educated guess from previous experience, or you can make samples. (I know some fiber artists, I am looking at a couple of my weaver friends, who are vary avers to sampling but it can be both educational and inspirational even if you don’t get the result you expected.) 

 

I organised a study group during COVID to make samples of various gauges of mainly aluminium and Steel (floral) wire. It gives me a reference sample I can use to select a good wire gauge to try for a new project.  (Before the samples, I could adjust the armature to make it stronger by adding steel floral wire to a limb to give it more strength. This can be done over part of the wool under structure, as long as more wool would be added on top.) I have also had to add lateral supports when the lumbar spine of Mr. Mer broke (I wound up doing surgery with a sharp awl, inserting Harrington rods running up each erector spinae muscle and down into the upper Hamstrings.)

  awl inserting harrington rods (10g aluminum coated wire) lower section is imbeded from lower lumbar to below his glutes Mr Mer showing where the two rods is hidden on one side of his back4.1-4.3) 01-19-2022 Mr. Mer’s Fishy parts, augmenting armature after felting is well underway. (Insertion of Harrington rods in progress) fixing this far into felting becomes harder to hide the surgery, but not impossible.

 

With armature wire gauges and felting, you have 3 options for outcome.

1) Wire overpowers wool (felt):

  • The wire holds the wool/felt staying in position when posed.
  • A lighter gauge of wire could have been used and still held the wool in position (working with heavier wire than you need can stress your hands and may develop metal fatigue if you are moving the figure often)

2) Wire = wool (felt):

  • The wire holds the wool staying in position when posed

This is the balance you would like to achieve, since you will not have worked with over-stiff wire.

3) Wool overpowers wire (felt):

  • When posed, the wire is moved out of position by the density or strength of the wool.
  • Augmenting the armature might be possible if you catch the imbalance before you finish the understructure. It is increasingly difficult to strengthen the wire the closer you are to finishing the sculpture. (but you can see with Mr. Mer it is not impossible to strengthen the armature quite far into the felting.)

 

If you have the opportunity, you may also want to make samples of various gauges of wire or combinations of gauges if you don’t have access to a full range of aluminum and floral wire (there are sources online if you can’t find a range of wire locally).

 

Investigate locally easily available types of wire first. One of the English felters uses rubber-coated garden wire for armatures.  A few felters on YouTube, like pipe cleaners, but craft pipe cleaners are weak compared to the strength of other options. If you are doing very lightly felted structures  (a lot of the faceless fairies are only lightly felted), pipe cleaners might work to su0pport the wool. What pipe cleaners are very helpful for is wrapping around your armature, to help secure the wool as you wrap it. Cheap quality pipe cleaners, in areas of high humidity, have another problem: they can rust.

As you find more gauges and types of wire, make samples of them too. Keep notes, was it easy to shape or twist, or did your hands tire quickly? (Note: Uncoated aluminium will leave marks on your hands.) Also, try a gauge and augment it with a second finer wire too; it will give you more options if you don’t have access to a full range of aluminium and floral wires. I made a series of legs, with feet, and to test floral wire as fingers, I made arms with hands. I can now refer to the samples when I start a new project.

 

I have been puttering along, firming up his fishy bits and then moved on to work on his upper musculature. I will have to print off another set of photo-reference if I cannot find the book with the last set. (found it!)

 

Front vew of the firmer fish bits back vew of the firmer fish bits5.1-5.2) The fish parts are now quite firm. I think I am almost ready to start adding the little spikes.

I will try to remember to take some more in-progress shots while I figure out the fish details. I apologise! I am afraid that for this part of “stiffening-of-the-Fishy-under-structure” felting, I climbed into bed with a big pile of pillows and felted while listening to the end of the new Lynsay Sands vampire book. Then started the latest Wen Spencer (this one has a vampire and werewolves) audiobook, and forgot to bring the camera! (Needle felting in bed is not the suggested location for optimal felting and avoiding self-stabbing as you fall asleep while felting…. a table is really a better choice)

 

Photographic collection of some of the refference photos i have collected to help with the next part of the project adding the spikey parts5.3)Some of the sturgeon reference photos I have collected, focusing on the spines/spikes.

 

 

What’s next;

You may remember last year, about this time, was the Kanata games (and felting) convention (last year I found a sheep game). It is coming up, and I wanted to have most of the basic shape blocked in and firmed up so I could start working on the fiddly bits of the ridges and rows of spikes. If all is going really well, I hope I can start to add some of the colour layers during the convention.

 

PS: I can think of a reason you may like to have that firm outside and softer felted inside. I am sure one of my cats would have appreciated something to pounce on that squished in a satisfying way.

One way to achieve this would be; wrap your fist layer securely (around the armature, if you are using one, which will keep the felt from rotating around the armature), then wrap the next layer a bit looser. Then, focus the majority of your felting on the shallow depths, and you could recreate the squishy inside effect. If you wrap around a bundle of fresh catnip leaves, it will be even more appealing. Just make sure the outside is well felted, so no one can tear off and eat the wool, to get to the catnip!

 

Even from what is technically an anaesthetic-incused mistake, you can notice something and save that thought for later use. Who knows when it may be a useful idea?

 

I will update you on his progress at the convention!  Maybe there will be more felters this year! Stop by between games if you are there. I hope you too are enjoying this late summer/not-really-fall and getting the last of your summer fibre purchases washed, before the weather remembers to look at the calendar and realise we used to have snow in about 2 weeks from now. (Really, there is no rush! I am enjoying this not-fall and am perfectly happy not to be having snow any time soon!)

PSS, if you would like to comment on any of the posts you read in the blog but cant find the comments button, it has vanished from the end of the post! (it is either very shy, or trying to avoid work) since it is now hiding all the way back at the top of the post (where no one would ever think to look for it! silly button you have been found and will hopefully be put to work!)

 

A Sample for my Seat Cushion

A Sample for my Seat Cushion

Comments 11 comments

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?

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

Felted Shells and Fabric Insects

Comments 31 comments

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

Pale neutral coloured Sari yarn layer out in rows


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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A little Progress on the Workshop and Some Nice Yarn.

A little Progress on the Workshop and Some Nice Yarn.

Comments 13 comments

I have finished the first draft of the resist workshop. 6 pages, and I haven’t added any pictures yet. I printed it out, and I am working on the first sample. I will add notes to the draft and add in anything I missed. The first sample is a circle resist.

stack of wool resists
All stacked and ready to go

stack of resists and rubbing tool
Time to start rubbing

That is how far I got, one set of all the surfaces rubbed. I am going to have to find my studio microwave and set it up so I can reheat these when I get back to them.

 

The only other fibery thing I have done lately is spin on my drop spindle. I do this mostly when I go to guild socials. It’s a nice, portable way to work.

Here are some balls I made earlier,

 

The dark pink has some silk in it, I think it came from Louet a long time ago.  The light blue and purple is from a batt I bought at a fiber show. The other three I made on my blending board. They are meino and sari silk. I like the pops of colour and slight slubbiness it gives the yarn.

Now, I am working on a sample pack from World of Wool. I got it last year. I am just getting to it now. They no longer sell this wool. It is Merino and Stelina (metallic-coated nylon). The Stelina is very sparlkely.

                       

 

I did the yellow first, mostly for a change. I don’t do much yellow. It is hard to get the sparkle with the camera but there is lots of it.  As usual, I found it stuck to several things when I pulled my laundry out of the dryer. It really does get everywhere.

That’s it for my fiberiness for the last little while. I hope everyone is coming out of the winter blues and into the joys of spring. I am looking forward to being able to sit in the garden, in the sun and enjoy my felting and fibers among the flowers and bird song.

Self-Felting; a Fictitious Fun Felting Class for The Fur-bearing Who Lack Thumbs

Self-Felting; a Fictitious Fun Felting Class for The Fur-bearing Who Lack Thumbs

Comments 21 comments

Here’s a quick update: I am improving, but it’s two steps forward and a step and a half back.  Unfortunately, the two blog posts I have been working on are just not ready to go yet. So I wanted to tell you about something a bit different, I have been working on. It is felting adjacent and made Glenn laugh a lot.

The local guild is working on recruiting new teachers for our workshops. One of the barriers suggested to the acquisition of new teachers is “the paperwork requirements are intimidating”.  I am easily intimidated by forms, but I didn’t find this process at all scary.

The request was:

  • Craft CV (basically, what’s your background in your craft and how long have you been doing it?)
  • A lesson plan for your first workshop. Giving a suggestion of what you will be teaching, outcome goals for the students and a very basic idea of how you will do this.

Later all the teachers will fill out a spreadsheet that is used to create the schedule, and the web pages.  I made a yearlong catalogue of workshops to be displayed at demos and the guild sale. I used the information the teachers provided, and the schedule the team put together to produce it. After I had all the cut and paste and layout done, there were always lots of spelling mistakes that would be attributed to me….. I cut and pasted! Not my spelling problems!!  Since the pandemic, we are no longer doing a full catalogue, but I am no longer in trouble for other people’s spelling problems.  I do miss the fun of layout.

Now, on to the point of this very odd post.

I wanted to help by giving a non-intimidating sample form, for “New teacher”, of a new yet fictitious felting class. After writing this, I had this odd idea that actual felters might enjoy reading about this very unlikely felting workshop I created as a sample to make the forms less scary for potential new teachers. I have simplified the wording of the original questions again to reduce fear.

__________________

This is a craft CV ( which is just a fancy way of saying “what you have been doing in your craft”). It’s a way to find out about the potential new teacher’s background in what they want to teach. (it doesn’t have to be a stuffy list of all relevant education and exhibitions!) So let’s see what Miaka has to say about herself and her felting background. She has added some extra remarks beyond the questions that she hopes the teacher acquisition committee will take into consideration.

Fiber CV for Miaka Scott-Martin,

Education: Home schooled and self-taught felter.   I have been the Center of the universe for many years, directing my staff in its running. Unfortunately, my staff are not too bright and refuse to do my carefully explained bidding.  I use my love of felting to relieve this stress and utter disappointment.

o             When did you start the craft you are going to teach? In my teens.

o             Have you taken workshops on this topic, or are you self-taught? I developed this technique myself.

Craft experience: I watched my mother weave, felt and spin and assisted in some of these activities. Then, in my teens, I started to experiment with techniques of self-felting. After years of experimentation, I have come up with a style of felting suitable to those of us inflicted by a lack of thumbs.

My technique is suitable for most fur-bearing people who shed. It is easier if you are also able to purr. I practiced my felting for close to 20 years.

Teaching experience: my full-time job has me instructing and supervising the staff, but I must be patient with their inadequacies. I have extensive experience successfully instructing the big barking bad smelling new sibling on how to be the perfect cat.

o             Do you have teaching experience (with adults)? Great success with other fur-bearing people, the furless ones have proved a bit dim.

o             If you do not have previous teaching experience, you can partner with a guild teacher in your field to help give you experience.

Shows and exhibitions: This is not essential. Guild members can participate in guild shows and exhibitions if you would like the experience.

o             Have you participated in any art shows or exhibitions in your field? Alas, with my busy schedule of keeping the universe running, I was unable to enter any shows or exhibits even though I was a family member of the guild my entire life.  I was also unable to make anyone understand my superior typing style of body slamming the keyboard, so all the needed letters were there; you just needed to sort them out on your own.

Portfolio: Show examples of their work in the field of their workshop. (shows that the prospective teacher has not just taken a workshop on a topic, and after one piece is wanting to teach the topic.) Some teachers have a web presence and we can be directed to see their work there.

o             Do you have a portfolio to show us or a website to direct us to? Due to the ephemeral nature of my work and the horror of passing vacuum cleaners, most of my art installations have not survived. Please talk to my mother (one of the Guild librarians) for further details on them. I was particularly proud of my master-work, “Self-felting on white Dining room chair cover”. Alas, this great work too was lost to the horrid vacuum.

o             Please provide a good quality digital photo of yourself for web publicity and teacher bios.

Possible teacher photos:

small black and white cat sitting on cow hide in a spot of sunlight1) Miaka, taking a break from work,

small black and white cat leaning out the back of a cardbord sports car. licene plate says Miaka Rules and has a helow kitty skull and crossbones beside the licence plate car made of the finest cardbord box. 2) Miaka, looking out back of her sports car,

small black and white cat lownging in a patch of sunlight staring at vewer. 3) Miaka, center of the Universe, “Don’t interrupt me I’m Busy!”

____________________________________________________________________

New instructors were asked to write a very basic lesson plan of their workshop, giving an overview, goals and objectives. This gives the committee an idea of how the topic will be covered and that the teacher has thought through and has an organized presentation. This is Miaka’s plan to teach her workshop on self felting.

Outline of lesson plan for workshop

1 day  workshop with longer homework project

Class size; maximum number of fabric-covered chairs that can sit in good direct sunlight. Any Students who are too big to lounge on a chair are required to bring a blanket or pillow that they will fit on.

Prerequisites for this workshop:

  • No experience in felting necessary
  • Must have shed-able fur

Housekeeping

  • introduction of the teacher and what the workshop is about
  • where the washrooms are
  • point out the coffee maker, microwave and fridge
  • Mention local food sources.
  • Gets students to say their names and felting experience

Overview of the course

  • what students will be expected to do and learn
  • What the final project will be.
  • Notes can be given at the beginning or end of the workshop
  • Contact information for the teacher in case the students have questions

Introduction to felting,  (fibres and how it works)

How to grow your own fiber (good diet, lots of naps, dual coat, good grooming, etc)

Tools required

  • Sunny spot with a comfortable sitting item (Chair, couch, other fabric covered object)
  • An un-sunny spot can also be used, but it’s not as warm. This is sometimes the better location to felt, depending on your home cleaning staff.

Shedding

  • Practice shedding with suggestion from the teacher. (use of music, turning and repositioning regularly, long yawns and brief naps may be helpful)
  • Some find shedding easiest at certain times of the year, others are more fortunate and can shed whenever and on whatever they like.
  • Professional shedders can shed a single colour to stand out most on what someone else is wearing.

Self-felting

  • Regular turning and repositioning with constant purring will improve speed of felting.
  • Drool may also be applied but is not necessary for felt integrity.
  • This is not a quick process, and may be best achieved on a fabric surface not regularly used by others.

Problems you may encounter

  • BEWARE of the Vacuum, which can ruin months of good shedding and felting! I suggest “vomit in shoe” revenge if this happens.

Inspection and Positively critique the sample felting produced today.

  • Be positive and make suggestions for use on their masterwork home project. Answer any questions the students may still have.
  • Fill out the workshop questionnaire, since the students lack thumbs, their staff may assist them.

homework student master pieces

  • Students will practice what they have learned in the workshop at home, in a location of their choosing.
  • Suggested time line is working over the summer and have your self-shredded felt ready for the September show and tell meeting.
  • Students will bring in their finished felt for show and tell to a guild meeting. (get your staff to drive you back on the meeting Monday)

________________________________________________

After a teacher has done their CV and Sample lesson plan, the teacher acquisition committee will review the information provided and, if accepted, will pass along to The Workshop Coordinator a list of new teachers. The Coordinator will send out a spreadsheet of questions to fill in for each workshop that the teachers are offering for the time frame she has requested. That looks a bit scary but the questions are not too hard. Like, what time do you want to start your workshop, when do you want it to end? After teachers spend a bit of time answering all these odd seeming questions and sending it back, the workshop team will create the schedule.

  • Fill in the spreadsheet sent to teachers, it will have questions about the workshop and your teaching availability, and what level of students you want to teach.
  • You will also be asked for a couple of high resolution (good number of megapixels) photos for your workshop. What you are making is ideal. Miaka has elected to show an example of shedding for both cats and barking cats, as well as a shot of her wanting to felt but not having thumbs.
  • Availability: Let the coordinator know when in the next workshop time period you will be available. Eg: evening workshops, but not Friday, weekends good, not in March or September. Have holiday plans for April 1 to 4th so not available.

Workshop description (this information is used to publicize the workshop, on the web, at demos, or at guild meetings) Here is an example of what Miaka’s workshop might look.

 

Title: Self-Felting: for those who are lacking opposable thumbs

Instructor: Miaka Scott-Martin
Level: Beginner (B)

Prerequisite: no felting experience necessary, must have own fur, ability to purr is an asset.
Cost: (to be determined by Workshop team, by the number of hours the class runs)

Class size: 10, determined by the maximum number of fabric covered chairs and good direct sunlight. Students who are too big to lounge on a chair are required to bring a blanket or pillow that they will fit on.
Venue: Studio

 

small black and white cat hiding partly under a white comferter while looking at two needle felted sheep4) Don’t let the lack of opposable thumbs get you down and keep you from enjoying the wonders of 2-D felting

Description: 

Have you always wanted to felt, but lack opposable thumbs? This is the workshop for you! We will be creating a self-made 2-D felt. Taught in the guild studio, we will spend the day covering the topics of growing your own fiber, how felt happens, strategies for shedding, and where to shed for best felting outcome. We will make a small sample in class, then produce your masterwork at home. The teacher will provide notes and be available to answer questions if you have trouble during your homework.

Start your self-felting fun today!!!

Example of group self-felting project, in progress, tragically destroyed by a passing vacuum

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5.1) Barking Cat and 5.2) the Center of the Universe,  collaborative felting project in progress

 

Students should bring: On the day of the workshop, bring your own un-brushed fur (to produce the best effect, avoid the brush for a few days to a week before the workshop)

Materials fee: $3 includes all the materials required for the workshop. To be paid to the teacher.

___________________________________

I hope you have enjoyed reading about Miaka’s proposed self-felting workshop, even if you are not self-producing your own fiber to self-felt. There may be a fur-bearing instructor near you, who is willing to provide a similar workshop that you could investigate.

As to her technique, the purring defiantly helps the felting, but I’m not convinced you have to listen to progressive new opera for the best results. This is a slow, careful build up of fiber, and requires time to get just the cohesive layering you are going for. It requires long periods of napping and body readjusting to perfect the felting process. This technique is not advised for those with fur allergies or those who lack fur. <Grin>

Miaka lived to just short of her 20th birthday. Luckily she got her Giant fish cat cave, which I told you about before, early and got to enjoy it for a short time. She continued her self-felting projects, experimenting with various work surfaces, into her very senior years. I am sure if she had run this workshop, it would have been successful, (I would have helped her with notes and photos).

large wet and needle felted fish held up as it were a fishing toffy fish. it is shades of grey finn wool with bits of blue grey silk fiber.6.1) The Giant Cat cave fish, to give you an idea of the size of it

small black and white cat (Miaka)curled up between the fins of her gient fish cat cave. she is blind by this point and had truble finding the mouth enterence.6.2) Miaka, curled up beside her Cat Cave fish. Tiny cat giant fish!

 

If you have the opportunity to share your knowledge with others who are interested in any of the fiber arts, please do. That could be formally as a teacher or informally at a social or chatting at a fiber fair. Sharing knowledge keeps the techniques from being lost or forgotten. Often when teaching, you will have a student try something that is brilliant and you will also learn from them.

Hopefully this hasn’t been too strange a post, I will endeavor to make more sense in my next one.

Have fun and keep felting!

 

 

 

Spinning some very dirty wool

Spinning some very dirty wool

Comments 14 comments

Last time I told you about our demo at the Log Farm shearing day. When they seared the first sheep they brought over the fleece and laid it out under the tent so people could see it. I used some dog brushes to make small rolags from the fleece and then used my drop spindle to spin some yarn.

Being me, I didn’t take any pictures of the carding or rolags so when I went to the guild I took a bit from one of the fleeces still waiting for a new owner and made some more and both Jan and I took pictures.

 

a drop spindle and some small carders and some dirty wool

You can see all the debris from carding, so much falls out. Then my sort of rolags. The dog brushes are small so it’s hard to make a real roll.

a drop spindle and small carders and wool rollags for spinning. and a lot os little bits of dirt that fell out of the wool while carding

 

I added the wool to the yarn on my spindle, then I plyed it and wound it off to be washed.

 

a drop spindle with dirty wool spun on it

A nice close-up so you can see how dirty it is.

close up of dirty wool on a spindle drop spindle and dirty skein of wool.

At the demo, people had lots of questions about how to wash it, when to wash it and did we have to wash it. The answer to when is at any stage along the way or not at all. I don’t suppose a fisherman in the North Atlantic is too fussed about his waterproof sweater smelling sheepy.

About how to get it clean.  These fleeces are dirty and full of hay bits and other dirt. Carding them takes out some, spinning it takes out some and washing it takes out more.

I wash in a dishpan with Dawn dish soap. It is a good degreaser and most of the dirt is stuck in the grease ( lanolin).

Here is the water after the first wash

a tub of dirty water will wool soaking in it.

and the second wash

second wash of the wool , less dirty water

Then I rinsed it and let it dry. Once it was dry I shook the skein over the dish pan to see how much more would come out. I was surprised by the amount that just shook out.  There is hardly any debris left in the yarn and what there is would pick out easily as you were knitting or weaving.

Little bits of debis shaken out of the clean dry skein

 

Here is the result, with a small amount of unwashed yarn I kept for comparison.

clean skein of wool with some dirty wool for comparison. close up of some clean and dirty wool.

 

Spinning in the grease is enjoyable on a warm day. The lanolin helps it slide. It’s not so fun on a cold day when the lanolin gets sticky and doesn’t like to slide. Washing fleeces is not one of my favourite things but a little yarn is fun.

 

 

 

 

Title of piece plus images of items made from Bags of Inspiration
Bags of Inspiration

Bags of Inspiration

Comments 21 comments

Having just read Kiki’s tutorial  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/11/19/left-overs-yessss/ on using up prefelt scraps, it occurs to me that I may not have mentioned something we used to do at our Guild (Dorset Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers) mainly to raise funds for the Guild but also for fun.

When I attended the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show at the Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet (Somerset, UK) back in 2010  – I saw a stand selling (for £8.00 each) bags containing 35gr of silk fibres, yarns, fabrics scraps, carrier rods and cocoons in various colours, left over from old projects which, when put together, made a fascinating collection for future projects.  So fascinating that I bought three of them.

They must have made quite a bit of profit on them because they appeared mainly to be the “waste” from artwork.

At that time (when I was part of the sub-committee organising the Guild’s Exhibition and Sale of Work) we were looking for a Guild Project which could be part of the exhibition or something hopefully to help raise some funds.  Well, I thought, our weavers must have lots of off-cuts of hand woven fabric, not to mention warp ends.  Then there were the spinners who would have odd bits of spun and unspun fibres of all types and colours.  We also had members who were dressmakers, beaders and embroiderers, and a soft furnisher, who were bound to have the odd bits and pieces that they didn’t really need.  So, with the blessing of the committee,  I put it to the members in the next newsletter that if they would donate to the Guild any odd bits of fibres, yarns, threads, warp ends, bits of fabric, beads, button, feathers, felt, cords, braids, tassels, sequins, sequin waste, ribbons, silk flowers and any other bits and pieces they could think of, we could make up some “Bags of Inspiration” and sell them to members of the public at our open days and outside demonstrations.  (I don’t know about in the rest of the world, but in the UK the word “bags” means “lots of” as well as “containers”, so the punning name “Bags of Inspiration” seemed apt.)

We used A4 sized polythene bags (which I was able to buy quite cheaply from our local green grocer) with an A4 sheet of card inside for stiffening, and I made up some stickers with the Guild’s logo on and a brief description of the contents, and posters also giving details of the contents.

Image of a poster detailing contents of a Bag of Inspiration
Bag of Inspiration Poster

We arranged a few bag making days at a pub in the village where our then President lived.  She had persuaded them to let us use their skittle alley at no charge, and we had a great deal of fun making up the bags and tucking in to “refreshments” from the bar and kitchen.

The members who came to these, brought with them all sorts of goodies which we spread out on tables, so that we could make collections of pieces which seemed to go with each other.  Those who didn’t think that their colour theory was good enough, could pick out a picture from a selection of magazines and have a go at matching colours from this  It was amazing how compulsive making the bags became.  You could pick up a piece of fabric that looked so dull and dreary and be amazed how it perked up and positively shone with life when paired with different fabrics, yarns, trimmings etc.  You just couldn’t stop picking up likely bits.  The difficulty was keeping the weight of each bag between 80gr and 100gr, so we quite often ended up making up at least 2 bags with similar contents.

image of tools and accessories for making up Bags
Equipment & Extra “Bits” for making up Bags

Prospective contents of a Bag of Inspiration - fabrics, yarns, fibres etc.
Prospective contents of at least one Bag of Inspiration

We put a price of £3.50 on each bag and they went like hot cakes – we sold out on their first appearance at our exhibition and sale of work.  Embroiderers and mixed media artists in particular liked them.

After a couple of years, we didn’t get so many volunteers to make up bags but we still had mountains of “stuff”.  So we added another string for our open days – Pick and Mix Your Own.  I had remembered that Woolworths (now there’s a blast from the past) used to have a counter full of different sweets and you could take a bowl and pick and mix what you wanted, and in the process buying a lot more than you would have if just buying a ready filled bag.

Boxes of different sweets to be picked and mixed
Pick and Mix Sweets.

It worked with our stuff too.  We gave the visitors the polythene bags and they could wade through all the bits and pieces picking what they needed, and we weighed them when they’d finished, charging £3.50 for 100gr.

We had had a lot of fibres donated so we started making up what are now called Art Batts and selling them as “Batts of Inspirations”, but because we were mainly selling these to Guild spinners and felt makers, they didn’t do quite so well as they were mainly able to make their own.

In all we made around £1000.00 for the Guild in the four years we were doing this.  Eventually though the members got fed up with spending time on making up the bags and the whole thing was shelved, as the Guild seemed to be relatively well off at the time.

Some time after that I took the idea back to myself and I was making up Batts to sell at Guild meetings, using luxury fibres as well as merino and synthetic fibres.  I made up some bands to fix around the Batts detailing the various fibres included in each.

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I was also making up and selling Bags, mainly at a Needlework Festival in Dorset where most of the vendors were selling materials and equipment for crafters, as well as various craft fairs and so on.

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I was getting the odd question like “they’re lovely but what do you do with them?” and  “can you make a bag out of what’s in here?”  So I made a sign from images of items that I’d made myself over the years and that helped.

Image of items made with contents of Bags of Inspiration
Some of the things I’ve made with the contents of BoI over the years

However, once Covid started causing problems, my selling opportunities dried up.  I had been intending to try selling Bags and Batts via my website, but it was very difficult and too time consuming to photograph the Bags so that the contents were visible, because of reflections on the polythene bags.  So that sort of died a death too and I’ve now shelved that project, and am using the bits and pieces I’ve collected over the years on theatrical costumes and props.

Perhaps some of our readers’ organisations, like Ann & Jan’s OVWSG, might use this idea to raise funds?