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Yak, Mongolian, Churro and Zwartbles Fibers

Yak, Mongolian, Churro and Zwartbles Fibers

Our Guest Artist/Author today is Zara Tuulikki Rooke sharing her experience with some exotic fiber samples.

The Felting and Fiber Studio Forum is an excellent place to exchange ideas and experiences with other felters and fiber enthusiasts around the world. In addition, I have also done a couple of fiber swaps with other members on the forum. I have sent wool from our Swedish sheep breeds and have, in return, received a wonderful variety of fabrics and different types of wool and other fibers that can be used for felting. Now I have tried felting some of the exotic wool that I have received from Nada, Zed and Marilyn.

Nada, who lives in Slovenia, very kindly sent me Yak wool, which she got directly from nomads from Tibet. Apparently, Yaks have three different types of fibers; long and thick hairs forming the outer coat (79-90 microns), an intermediate type (20-50 microns), and a very fine and dense wooly undercoat (16-20 microns). The softness/fineness of the yak undercoat is comparable to the better known cashmere wool (which is a fine undercoat of goats). This particular carded batt also included some coarser fibers, but most of it was very fine wool. I laid out two thin layers of wool, on a 20 cm x 20 cm ( 7.87 x 7.87″) surface, put on a piece of cotton gauze, and attempted to felt it.
1 Yak

The Yak wool was surprisingly easy to felt. It quickly shrank down to a compact square of 10 cm x 10 cm (3.94 x 3.94″), and the fabric has felted in firmly. The coarser fibers give the felted piece a hairy appearance and reduce the softness, but I can imagine how luxurious pure, soft undercoat wool from Yak must be.

2 Yak

Zed, who lives in England, sent me some carded wool labeled “Mongolian.” A search on the Internet showed that there are quite a few local breeds of sheep in Mongolia, and crosses with imported breeds with finer wool. I found an article titled Sheep breeds of Mongolia describing 15 of their indigenous breeds of fat-tailed carpet-wool sheep. Our Swedish native breeds belong to the group Northern short-tailed sheep, while the sheep in the group fat-tailed sheep are adapted to harsh environmental conditions and are common in Africa and Asia.
Sheep breeds of Mongolia link:  http://www.fao.org/docrep/U4900T/u4900T07.htm#TopOfPage

I didn’t get any closer than that in the identification of the wool, but the carded wool feels like a mixture of coarse and slightly finer fibers, mostly black or dark brown (perhaps sun-bleached) with occasional white fibers. To be able to compare this to other wool, I chose the same method as I have used to make previous samples, i.e. 10 g of wool laid out in four thin layers to cover an area of 20 cm x 20 cm, and on top of it a piece of gauze. The wool was very easy to felt and full, and shrank to 12.5 cm x 12.5 cm (4.92 x 4.92″). Compared to Swedish wool, the felted piece feels similar to those I felted with wool from our landrace breeds Klövsjö and Åsen, although slightly rougher to the touch.

Previous samples can be seen here:  http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2015/11/25/different-types-of-wool-from-a-swedish-felters-perspective/

3 Mongolian

Marilyn, who lives in the US, sent me wool from the American breed Navajo-Churro. The breed has its origin in the Spanish breed Churra, which the Spaniards brought with them when they colonized, what is now, the southwest of USA. Navajo Indians got hold of the sheep and saw a value in the wool, from which they made carpets and other weaved textiles. The breed’s origins, near disappearance and subsequent rescue, and its significance for Navajo culture and textile crafts, is a really interesting read. More on that can be found at The Navajo-Churro Sheep Association and The Navajo Sheep Project.

The Navajo-Churro Sheep Association link:  http://www.navajo-churrosheep.com/sheep-origin.html
The Navajo Sheep Project link:  http://navajosheepproject.com/churrohistory.html

The Navajo-Churro have a variety of colors, and three types of fibers. About 80% of the fleece consists of undercoat wool (10-35 microns), and the rest is coarser outer coat hairs (35+ microns) and less than 5% kemp (65+ microns). This wool was also easy to felt and full, although it didn’t shrink quite as much as the above. The final size was 15 cm x 15 cm  (5.9 x 5.9″), and it has quite a hairy appearance. In the photos below you can see the pure white kemp fibers that do not felt. But I like the rustic look and the different tones in the brown wool.
4 Churro

Zed also sent me some wool from Zwartbles sheep, which is a breed from the Netherlands, primarily used as meat and dairy sheep. The wool is black to sun-bleached brown, and the sheep have a white blaze on the face (hence the name “black” + “blaze”) and white socks on 2-4 legs. Pictures and more information about the breed can, for example, be found on The Zwartbles Sheep Association link.

http://www.zwartbles.org/

The wool is described as medium to fine (around 27 microns), thick and springy with a good crimp, and popular for spinning and felting. The latter surprised me, because to me this wool personifies all the descriptions I have read about wool from meat breeds, which are generally considered difficult to felt. It is really spongy and bulky, without any shine, and even makes a slightly crunchy sound when you handle it. I would describe this wool as something that should be excellent to use as pillow stuffing. But maybe it works well for needle-felting, and I actually found some examples on the internet where people vowed that it was good for wet-felting. So, I had to give it a try. It was not easy to press the wool down and start the felting process with soap and water, but after a while, the fibers began latching into each other. Then I tried fulling, with a little rougher handling, and then it started to disintegrate completely. The very loosely felted and spongy piece is the same size as it was from the beginning, and I am astonished that piece keeps together at all. Different types of wool definitely have their different uses, and this would not be my first choice for wet-felting.
5 ZwartblesZara, thank you for your insightful and detailed analysis of these fibers!

Cheese cloth Nuno Felt Experiment.

Cheese cloth Nuno Felt Experiment.

A while back Ruth got some free samples of some cheese cloth  or cotton gauze from Cheese Cloth Fabric.com. She dyed some and sent me some samples. I also had a more open weave cheese cloth that I will use so you can see the difference. I thought if I am going to use my time I should make something that will be salable in the end so decided to make bracelets or cuffs so I could easily compare the cottons.

gauze on black
gauze on black
gauze on white
gauze on white

The pink on the left is the sample sent to Ruth and the purple on the right is the gauze I got at a place called Lens Mill  http://www.lensmill.com/ in Guelph Ontario. You can see the purple is a much more open weave.

first two samples first two samples wool on

Ruth sent to colour samples. Here is before and after adding the wool.

purple gauze ready to felt purple gauze  2 ready to felt

I did one sample of the purple flat and one scrunched up. You can see my template marks behind the right one.

purple gauze finished purple gauze  2 finnished close

I like the way both these tuned out. they are very different than the tighter weave cotton.

green gause finished close orange finnished orange 2 finnished

I did a scrunched up pink one for comparison. I think I like the scrunched up ones the best. I may add some beads in to folds.  They will be for sale later in the summer once I get some buttons and button holes done.

 

 

 

Fourth Quarter Studio Challenge

Fourth Quarter Studio Challenge

For once, I didn’t leave it until the last minute to start on my piece for the Studio Challenge! I was hoping to take photos of the whole process of making the batt for the top layer, but I’ve moved all my stuff downstairs and it’s really dark so the photos didn’t turn out. For anyone who’s forgotten, this quarter’s challenge is ‘Autumn’. The oranges, rusts, yellows and reds associated with autumn are one of my favourite colour themes, so I have a nice collection of embellishments in these colours. I made a piece large enough to make a book cover out of and have plenty of felt spare to make closure flaps and straps:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI don’t usually add wisps over my surface embellishments, but I wanted a look of them being more ‘submerged’ and part of the surface than on it. Some yellow cotton gauze:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA red and yellow piece of silk:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd a dyed lock of Bluefaced Leicester:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI also nuno felted my new fabrics this week. I only managed to get a clear photo of this one so far, it’s very dark again today. This is a nice patterned grey/blue and pink georgette fabric.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt didn’t attach very well in some places, it’s a bit ‘slick’, but where it did attach, it rippled nicely:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHave you made anything for the Studio Challenge? Lyn has http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/2013/10/autumn-felt.html and so has Teri Berry http://teriberrycreations.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/fourth-quarter-challenge.html

New Diary Cover

New Diary Cover

Before the black Merino and multi fibre notebook cover I made recently, I’d started to make a greeny blue one for a diary. The first batt I was happy with on my drum carder was blues and greens so I used this for the top layer. As well as Merino, I added some texturey Icelandic wool, and locks of Bluefaced Leicester and Wensleydale that I dyed a few years. I added lots of surface embellishments: silk fabric, cotton gauze, organza, silk top, silk throwster’s waste, some synthetic curly fibres and some more of the dyed texturey, curly wools.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt was too large to get a decent clear ‘after felting’ photo, but this is almost all of it:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis notebook took even longer than the black one as it was the first one I’d made like this, using felt off cuts for the straps and hand sewing all around the edges:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI machine stitched the smaller strip onto the wide closure strip

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd I machine stitched the two pieces onto the back

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABut I finished all the edges with blanket stitch

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI kept the natural edge of the felt for the inside front flap, I like the little detail of pink and yellow on the silk at the top.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

New Drum Carder

New Drum Carder

At least once a year I’ve contemplated buying myself a drum carder. But after seeing the wool blends Ann carded a few weeks ago, I seriously considered it, and after looking at a link Judith gave me to ebay, I bought myself a gorgeous handmade Ash drum carder from the Classic Carder company. I wasn’t very good on my first few tries, but I soon got the hang of it 🙂

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI thought I should have an ‘aim’ instead of just going mad and making lots of nice coloured batts, so I decided to  work out roughly how much wool I’d need for one layer if I’m making a piece of felt big enough to make a cover for an A6 notebook. I got my template out, chose a coppery bronze colour theme and then laid out the different coloured wools in different proportions.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI then gathered all the colours up, weighed them and kept notes. I’d usually think to do this after the fifth time of laying out colours, so I’m impressed with myself 🙂

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI added some small amounts of flax and soy top to a couple of the lighter colours, and it’s not very obvious from the photo, but I added black bamboo to the natural brown merino.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI was impressed with how it looked after just one turn through the carder, but I wanted it more subtle than it had turned out, so I put the wool through again. I really like how it turned out the second time. I’m so glad I finally got a carder. It looks gorgeous, is incredibly well made and turns out the most gorgeous batts.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
I’ve been thinking for a long time about making up ‘experimental’ or ‘inspiration’ fibre packs to sell on etsy. Working out what to put in there to make it worthwhile with our postage prices was difficult, but Marilyn recently suggested selling wool as well to make it more of a kit. I had a think about how to do it and came up with the idea of including just enough wool to do one layer, a nice blend for the top. I thought this batt would be perfect for the first one as it’s the same colours I used for my coppery bronze piece that so many people liked. It gave me an excuse to get out my favourite shades of organza too.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI measured and weighed the organza, picked out some matching cotton gauze, novelty art yarns and silk throwster’s waste like I used on my coppery piece, and also made another little batt to make sure there was enough. But I think after lots of weighing and measuring, the pack is finished. I just need to write up the description when I get back later today, but then I’ll list it on etsy.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALet me know what you think of it, is it a good selection of fabrics and fibers?

Latest Projects

Latest Projects

I decided to take the plunge and open an Etsy shop. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I’m going to start making sticks with feathers and crystals stuck to them or adding ironic moustaches to all my notebooks 😉  Lyn was telling me that etsy have started doing instant downloads, but it appears to be in the trial stage at the moment. I added a digital download to my shop and applied to join their ‘team’ in the hope I can try it too, but I’m still waiting to hear.

I don’t have much in there at the moment, mostly some silk fibre packs and a felted notebook cover. But on Friday I was having a rummage through my fabric and with 3 large boxes and 5 shoe boxes open and contents all over, I thought it might be nice to put together a fabric sample pack of the different fabrics I used in my e-book. How long could it take? About 20 minutes or so? Ha! 2 hours later I was still cutting and measuring, taking photos, making piles on the floor, standing on the tape measure and almost slicing my neck open, getting sidetracked with a pile of fabric perfect for this, that or the other! And then I had to edit the photos and do the listing. I don’t know how people find the time! Of course, I’m pretty sure my fabric supply is dangerously low now, so I’ll probably have to re-stock 🙂

fabricsYesterday I found a bit of time to go through my box of felt pieces to make things with. I had quite a large piece I’d made with black merino and strips of coloured cotton gauze. The back was blues and greens with silk embellishments. I thought it’d make a nice purse or wallet, with two sections. I’ve almost finished it, I just need to add the button and button hole.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERATrying a button:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe back:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI still had quite a big piece of the felt left, so I cut the pieces out for another one:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe other project I found time for was sewing a notebook cover. I made a piece of nuno felt a while back from a patterned pink, green and blue silk scarf. I had always intended to make a notebook cover out of it but really liked it and didn’t want to cut it up! I think time has made it a little easier though 🙂

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe texture is really nice:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI had a few ideas for making things with some of the natural white felt pieces I have spare. I started to cut them up, but you’ll have to wait and see what I make from these 🙂

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHave you had time for making anything lately or is everyone battling the weather, it seems like half of us are under feet of snow. I’m glad it’s cooled off a bit down under though, only about 32C now in Victoria, Kaz has probably got her woolly jumpers out and the fire on 😉

Giveaway—Beyond Nuno PDF e-book

Giveaway—Beyond Nuno PDF e-book

coverAs a big Thank You for all the support I’ve had since I started felting and blogging, I’m giving away a copy of my new PDF e-book called Beyond Nuno. It’s all about using different fabrics in wet felting, why and how they felt the way they do, how different effects are achieved etc. I hope to show that there’s more to nuno felting than just ruffled silk scarves and that it is possible to control the outcome of nuno felting. For more details you can read the full blurb on Craftsy or my blog.

You don’t need to do anything special to enter, just leave a comment on this post. If you’d like to spread the word through your blog or facebook etc, it would be very much appreciated but it isn’t a requirement. I will randomly draw the winner 8 days from now on Monday 4th March 2013, so please check back to see if you’ve won and leave a comment on the announcement post so I can contact you with the download information.

compilation of pagesGood Luck!  🙂

This Giveaway is now closed, to see the winner, please click here.

Finished Texture Piece

Finished Texture Piece

I mentioned in my last post that I’d finished my white texture piece that I’ve talked about recentlyHere is the photo from the last post of it all sewn up.  I finally managed to get a bright enough day to take a photograph.  With all of the locks it’s really quite big, so I had to take it outside and photograph it on a large piece of cardboard.  It’s roughly 16 inches x 11 inches, but the locks at the bottom are almost 11 inches long.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI wanted to try something different, so when I laid it out I left a space in the centre without any wool then added a piece of cotton gauze after the second layer of wool.  It was here that I added the wool locks around the edges as well.  I then added another two layers of wool. The surface texture around the edge of the gauze is soybean top, a piece of cotton gauze and silk noil.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIn this close-up, you can see a few wisps of wool have crept behind the gauze.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe wool locks all kept their shape really well and none of them tangled together.  The Angora, Wensleydale and Teeswater locks in this next photo show how nicely they turned out.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI kept the whole texture piece soft and spongey by using wools like English 56s, Swaledale, Texel and Cheviot.  For surface texture I used cotton gauze, scoured Bluefaced Leicester and Wensleydale as seen in this photo.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI also used Mohair, wool nepps, raw Gotland, Teeswater and Wensleydale locks, and embellishment fibres soybean top and silk noil.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m really pleased with the way it turned out, especially the gauze panel in the centre.  Doing this piece has given me some good ideas for future projects.

My Studio Challenge Contribution and Excuse

My Studio Challenge Contribution and Excuse

The second quarter is almost done and I finally have one of my planned pieces done. It is the simpler of the two but I  know I will not get the more complicated one done. This one was done like a line drawing with just a few bits of colour. It didn’t turn out as nice as I would have liked.

I make myself a piece of prefelt. Prefelt is just barely felted wool. You stop the process when everything is just holding together. I used Briggs and Little country roving. It comes as 5 strands of very thin roving ready to be put through a spinning machine. The only colour I had was red. It bleeds. I thought it might give the piece an interesting look. Here is the first strand on the prefelt.

roving on prefelt

Next I drew the picture and added some coloured felt from my left overs bin. Before cutting out the shapes and placing it, I brushed the back side with a dog brush to make it fuzzy.

all the elements added

I covered it with netting and rolled it up in a straw mat and rolled in all directions. I didn’t do any heavy fulling to shrink it because it does not need to be really strong.

I did start my second piece. I made the felt for the base. I used some cotton gauze for strength so I wouldn’t have to use much wool. I plan to cover the whole base with more wool  in several layers using my embellisher so wanted to start out fairly thin.

wool folded over to make neat edges
second base ready

While we are talking a little about technique people ask me why I use a star burst Tupperware lit to do my rubbing. I do it because when I rub directly on the sheer no mater how lightly I rub the I pull would right through the sheer and out. I’ve found about 1/3 of the people who come for classes have the same problem. I don’t know if our hands are just to rough or what.  Here are 2 pictures of what happens.

wool pulled through

And lastly my excuse. Besides waiting to long to start I have been getting ready to sell at our local medieval fair. One of the things that has taken time is my costume. Here is the under dress drying on the line after tea dying so it is not bright white.  There is a lot of material in it and I haven’t hemmed it yet. I have a little over a week to go and I have to make the top dress yet. I have a busy week ahead.

underdress dyed with tea
Cotton Gauze

Cotton Gauze

I’ve been quite busy lately working on my project of ‘other’ fibres and fabrics used in felting. I’ve been making a lot of felt pieces using lightweight cotton fabrics like muslin and cheesecloth. Another fabric I’ve used is Cotton Gauze, this is sometimes called ‘Scrim’, and I’ve used a couple of different types. Here is a selection of some dyed pieces I have.

It’s really good for creating texture and effects. I’ve been making large bold pieces to use for bookcovers.

I’ve also made some smaller pieces with resists, using the gauze for texture. This piece was for making into a pouch.

and this became a textured sculptural vessel

I’m starting to have a huge pile of colourful, texturey felt pieces all waiting to be made into something once the weather gets too hot for felting. This is a close up of a large piece I made for making a purse and matching mirror case out of.

The lightweight cottons also work really well for using in scarves and wraps instead of the usual silk. Do you use scrim or cotton fabrics in felting, or fibre art? How do you find it to work with? Have you ever dyed your own? I’d love to hear about your experiences with it and see photos if you have links 🙂

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