Felting and Fiber Studio

Since last we chatted, I have been busy.

I ran another needle felted landscape workshop for the local guild. How did I not notice it was scheduled on Valentine’s Day (?). I also forgot to take progress pictures as the students worked. I did remind them to take photos, since it is helpful to see your image digitally. Seeing the picture in a digital format, helps your brain focus and actually see what you’re working on, rather than saying yes, that green blob is a tree. You can also look at your picture in a mirror or rotate the image to help see spatial relationships (negative space) and proportions more clearly.

1.1) the students and their pictures

1.2 post-class debris (this is not the studio where I usually teach)

1.3) Display of 2-D and 3-D needle felting (Shark boy and the mer-pets volunteered this time), you can just see the front book is my early birthday present.

1.4) My new book, an early birthday gift from Glenn. it looks very good, but i will get a chance to start reading it after I get this posted.

Now on to what I have been working on:

I have misplaced, or possibly lost, my nametag sheep, with the magnet. I think the seatbelt knocked it off when I got out of the car. So, I may still find it when the snow melts!  Which means I went into the guild social to work on the library without a name tag. I felt naked, even though I was well covered in my late mother-in-law’s apron and I even had clothes underneath it. I need a new nametag.

I do want to keep the sheep theme, so let’s do a little Google image search and see if I can find inspiration. I also checked the computer and found an old Word document with 29 pages of sheep pictures. I added it to the new 3 pages focused on Swaledales, Icelandic and “Other” like Badger faced Shetlands.

2.1) Some of the images I had collected

Then I narrowed the images down to 4 that I particularly liked. I inverted the images, so I could pick a left or right-leaning sheep (not political, just position on the tag).

2.2) Flipped pictures to see both direction options

You may have seen photos of the booth selling 100% wool at Twist Fibre Festival (in Quebec last August). The felt comes in lots of different sizes. You can see the large role behind the Field & Fleece sign. The ground felt I chose was the Garden Felt for Seed propagation rolls “Snailes”, which you can see on the shelf by the plants.

3.1 Felt selling booth at Twist 2025 (Quebec, Canada)

I have not tried to use it for its intended purpose, but it makes a good ground felt for name tags! It’s 100% wool but has a bit of VM still included. The fibre is coarser, than the fine Merino 100% wool felt, but it’s also cheaper. the Garden felt doses have Kemp, (you can pick out quite a bit of the Kemp, if you are really board and want to.)  If this sounds intriguing, for name tags or pictures, or you want to try planting seeds in a wool snail, the company is called “WoolGrown Company” and can be found on Facebook or online http://www.woolgrowncompany.com).

3.2) Seed Snail, add good soil, then roll up and add seeds. From Wool Grown Company (Canada)

3.3) Seed snail with sprouted Seeds  From Wool Grown Company (Canada)

Since the felt is meant for garden applications, it’s a good idea to check and remove any VM (Veggie-Matter) found on the surface.  I purchased a few rolls. I wound up with a thin one and a couple of wider ones, as well as a piece from the main large roll. If I put a few pieces of the narrow one together, so I can add one of the sheep pictures.

There are two ways that I have enlarged a piece of background felt that is not large enough for the image I want to create (or I got distracted and ran out of background before I ran out of ideas). One is to just add wool off the side of the ground, needle felting it to create more background to work on. (You saw this happen on the moose Christmas card from a couple years ago.)

The second option is butting 2 pieces of wool felt together and using wool carded roving, like a glue-staple, laid across the butted edges to join the two pieces together. (i am sure that is clear as mud so let me try saying that with diagrams and photos!)

4.1 Attaching two pieces of ground felt

You could try pre-felt instead of loose wool as a backing to join the wool felt pieces but the loose fiber works quite well. I found that pins run parallel to the join held the 2 pieces closer together while I worked vertically. Be careful not to work over the pins!

4.2) Attaching two pieces of felt together

1. To join two pieces of ground felt together, start by abutting the pieces, use pins to hold them adjacent, then lay fibre perpendicular across the join. Work vertically fist, to adhere the fibre to the background. Then switch to an oblique angle to pull the pieces closer together.
2. Turn over the joined pieces to show the backside. On the back, you will see the fibre extending through the felt ground (similar to the effect seen with a reverse needle). Use a clover or fake clover punch tool to lock these elevated fibres into the felt (this is usually the side you will decide is the good side)

4.3) flip to the reverse side, and needle felt flat

You can see a small gap, but if you are adding fibre for your picture to the backing, it will disappear, and the joint will become even stronger. (I trimmed the edges to make it a better rectangle after the photo.)

4.4) looking at the joins

Now we have a wool felt base to work on, let’s pick the first sheep inspiration. I decided to use the Template technique.  You have seen that before here. The sheep had his or her head tipped a bit to the side, so I decided to tip it a bit further. I also used a piece from the wider seed snails for my first name tag.

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5.1-5.6) first sheep name tag

6.1) One down, what should I choose next?

6.2) The image has been transferred, and I crawled into bed to watch a murder mystery

NB: (I am not felting while watching the TV, I am felting during commercials (which I am not watching), so there will be less likelihood of blood dripping on the coverlet. That said, it’s not the best place to work; you don’t want to find a nice, sharp, pointy, felting needle as you roll over in bed! I only dropped my needle once and did find it before it found me!)

6.3) The background is obliterating the registration line

Note the outline of the image (the rectangle). I used it to keep the registration as I trimmed and added the image. I could not find my extra-fine point marker (Sharpie), so there is a bit of distortion by line width, but I tried to adjust for that.  The registration line will disappear into the background, so I am not worried about it. If you are working on a lighter background, you can use a lighter colour of Sharpie (yes Sharpies now come in quite a few colours).

I am mostly using the short staple fibre, called Maori, which is a mix with Corriedale wool. It is a bit stiffer in texture than merino. Maori, can be needle felted to a very firm surface which will ware well for a nametag. it also works well with a Watercolour technique; using thin wisps, or washes of colour  in layers, above a base colour.)

6.4) moved back to my horribly messy desk in the office. (I will tear the room apart and fix it……eventually….. maybe later.)

6.5) Colour in progress, and there is something odd about the angle of the lower jaw. Checking it with the face section. It is sometimes helpful to keep the pieces you have cut out as you transfer the image.

Ok, that is 2 options, lets try one more. I need some samples for the nametag workshop I was requested to do for the local guild. (It’s nice to know the names of other guild members. I can’t blame not-remembering names on 7 hours of anaesthetic forever, can I?)

I tried a variation on template transfer this time. I was able to find a small pad of transparent stickies (like the yellow ones, but clear and feel a bit plastic-y).  i traced the image and then cut out the outline.  I could then position the sheep wherever I wanted it.

7.1) A variation on the template method of transferring an image.

Name tag number 3 has me thinking more 2 and a half-D again…. ok it’s really 3-D in spots…. So I have trouble keeping pictures flat. Well, I am particularly good at being dyslexic, which suggests that I do see the world in 3-d and struggle with mere 2-d concepts  (b/d/p/q are the same shape, some have turned the other direction, others have fallen over, but they are all balls with sticks stuck to the side of them!!! Really, I don’t see why it’s not obvious to the rest of you <grin>. If I must, I will bow to the greater number of you who see a difference. Let’s not discuss the horrors of E shapes and U shapes, thinking they are other numbers of letters!!) That said, I again fell off the wagon and decided that ears and horns and a head would be better if it had more space, so off the background they leapt. (I apologize for the brief rant about letters…they are troublesome still.)

7.2) no that’s not antennae, they will be horns shortly.

I could not find where I had put my swax (from Sarafina fibre arts) –it makes the wire sticky so the wool wraps easily. Well, comparatively easier. I also could not remember where I had put my tacky sewing glue. I will have to either go through all my teaching boxes or buy another bottle. So I proceeded without them.

You may have noticed from the fabric behind the wool mat (in its freezer Ziploc bag) that I have again retreated to the bedroom to watch Midsummer Murderers and felt during commercials.

7.3) first horn wrapped about to start the second

7.4) body added and starting to lay in the background

7.5) Remember to check back with your inspiration and reassess as you go. You don’t have to be identical to your inspiration. It’s the same as landscapes; you are the God of your landscape, you can move trees, or make them thinner, or just remove them if you don’t like them.

7.6) I have added eyes, but am now considering adding tiny beads for the eyes. I will put it aside and consider eyes again later.

If you get stuck, and are not sure what needs to be tweaked (you tried the mirror, digital image and inverting the image and reference), or if you’re not sure it is really done, you may want to go ask friends. This can be online, or if you are lucky, you can wander off to a guild social. I took the nametags into the social to get Ann’s opinion. I also wanted to decide which one I wanted to add a name to first.

8.1)  taking the 3 name tags to the guild social

She liked them, but thought I should try a different theme, other than just sheep. I have other, non-sheep images collected and ready to try next, so we agree.

My husband had kindly stopped at the dollar store to pick up a roll of “Black satin ribbon”. When I opened the roll it was dark green velvet. It was very nice, but did not go with the tone of black I had used on the name tag. Second try at a different Dollerama, he returned with 6yrds of black satin ribbon. The ribbon is to make a necklace for the name tag. I sewed down one end and measured out extra length, using a pin to secure the other end. Once i have decided the length that is comfortable to take on and off i will sew down the other side or i may decide to add velcro to make it easyer to put on and off.

For the letters, I used fibre that looked pin-drafted, possibly merino. The section I have feels slightly felted. It was very easy to work with, even more so than the yarn I have used before.

8.2) The green and black ribbons and unspun fiber I used to finish the name tag

Tools and fibre for this project:

If you were curious about what needles I was using, you can see the two single needles in the wool pad. On the left is a Spiral, also called a Twisted (Triangle) 42-333 , this one has a purple shank. On the Right is an uncoloured T38-333. I also used the fake blue clover tool, which is full of T-40’s (the real green one is smoother and less noisy, but it’s somewhere in the boxes of workshop supplies).

The wire was the 18inch black unlabeled(no gauge) floral wire from Dallerama. I suspect it is around a 20-22 Gauge it was strong enough to hold the horns in position.

The fibre I used were small amounts of carded short-staple Maori (a Corriedale mix) and a bit of off-white core wool from World of Wool. I was working with sandwich baggies of mixed colours.  Greys black and a blue, the white/beige and yellow (both from the chickadees), a mix of browns (from the Moose bags), pastel colours mix from Fibercraft and some brighter greens and yellows from The Olive Sparrow. These were all small baggies of fibre, most of which I had previously mixed for other projects and did not use. The short crimpy locks were from a sheep pin project, and some of the long locks I have been collecting for Mer-person’s hair.

8.3) Some of the baggies of fibre I was working from.

If you don’t want to start a big project or are looking for one that is small and portable, you might consider making a name tag. They are lots of fun, you can have more than one and people remember you if you remember to wear it!