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Felt Rope and Structure Part Three

Felt Rope and Structure Part Three

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I have been continuing my experiments with felt rope and structure so here we are at part three. (Part One and Part Two, if you missed them.) I had gotten so many different suggestions that I wanted to try out a different method. This involved stitching the felt rope to prefelt so it would stay in place.

Luckily, I found some already made felt rope so I didn’t have to spend time making it. But, it wasn’t long enough to spiral around the resist but I had three pieces that would work. My resist is bigger than the last one where I made the felt “pickle”. It’s about 8″ x 15″ (20 x 38 cm). I covered the resist with two very thin layers of wool and laid all the wool perpendicular to the long side of the resist. This is the opposite direction to what I used on the the felt “pickle”. I then wet down and felted the piece to prefelt.

Here it is. If you look carefully, you will see a few holes. But I decided not to worry about it since I was adding a second layer of wool over this one. I put the felt outside and it dried in just  a few minutes. It is 96 degrees F (35+ C) here today.

Now to stitch the felt rope to the prefelt. I used a matching color machine weight thread and hand stitched the ropes in place. You can see them stitched on in the right hand photo. I stitched the ends of the rope together so it would be a continuous circle around the wool.

Now to add more wool over the top of the stitched ropes. I kept the wool running in the same direction as the first layer of wool and covered with another couple of thin layers of wool. Then to start rubbing and getting everything to hold together. I did appreciate that the ropes were held in place well and didn’t shift or move during the felting process.

Here’s the piece after felting and beginning to full. The resist is still inside at the moment. I just snipped off one end to pull the resist out.

Next up was fulling. Here is the piece after I finished fulling. The felt rope got really wavy and wasn’t staying firm enough to hold a circle. I’m not sure why but I completely forgot to stretch the felt rope as I was going along so it would stay more circular. But then I had an “Aha” moment or a “Duh” moment (whichever way you like to think about it) and I thought I would try and stretch out the rope so it would dry more round.

Here’s my felt yard art on a stick. The rope didn’t stretch out completely but it is circular enough for me. Another fun experiment completed and the stitching worked perfectly to keep the rope in place while felting. I just need to shave off the fuzzies once this has dried. What should I experiment with next? Any good ideas?

Dimensional Felting with Prefelt

Dimensional Felting with Prefelt

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I tried another experiment with dimensional felting with prefelt. You can see my other experiments here and here. This one I decided to use an already made prefelt and then just cut it to fit the shape.

I started with the resist shape shown above. I covered the resist with a thin layer of red wool. I laid the wool so that it wrapped around the long edge of the resist.

I then cut out the prefelt to fit the resist shape. I think I would have preferred making the prefelt over the same shaped resist as the edges and curves had to be cut more than I wanted and there were more edges to deal with when felting. Next time, I also would make the center prefelt shape a bit shorter and the end pieces longer.

I then rubbed and rubbed to get the red and the brown wool to felt together and to felt the edges down carefully. I then cut out the resist along the red edge and finished felting and fulling.

And here’s he final shape that I ended up with. The colors in the above photos are more true than the in process photos. It is definitely red as opposed to orange. These experiments have been a fun learning process. I have found the most important thing to remember is to make the prefelt thick, perhaps 3-4 times thicker than the underlying support wool layer. Now to figure out some more shapes that will be interesting to try.

3rd Quarter Challenge

3rd Quarter Challenge

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This quarter has flashed by for me between traveling and taking classes. When I originally thought of the dimension theme, I had something different in mind to accomplish.  But as timing would have it, the Kristy Kun’s Texture Techniques with Heavy Needled Wool fell right into the quarter.  A few weeks ago Terri Simon aka Meterrilee shared her work with us from the class in this blog.  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/09/16/guest-artist-terri-simon-on-dimensional-felt/

It took me a little longer to finalize my projects, but I would say they definitely qualify for dimensional felt.

For the first project the objective was to learn to add vertical prefelt to a square background. There were three different heights of the prefelt and I had no specific plan.  I just played with it to try to learn the technique which is much different than anything I’ve done before in wool.  I made some mistakes, but learned a lot in the process.

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Here is a side view to show the height.  This piece probably could have been worked a little longer to smooth it out more and I may try again.  But I had to move on to my other projects.

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The second project involved joining pieces to each other and being able to use colored batts.

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The last project was the flower.  This one took the most time and attention. Each petal had to be worked separately a number of times at different stages.  It was a very mindful and intense process, but well worth the effort.

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For this project there were two sizes of prefelt and a number of different examples of flowers or the ability to create your own.  Since I was concentrating on learning the technique, I chose to follow an example.  But with all felt projects even though you may be following an example, the end result can be different.

I really enjoyed the class and learning such a different technique.  And of course, creating dimension in a unique way.  Thanks Kristy for a great class!

Have you finished your 3rd quarter challenge yet?  If not, there is still time.

Easing into the Third Quarter Challenge

Easing into the Third Quarter Challenge

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I’m working on some projects for the Third Quarter Challenge, but had completed this project earlier which also falls into the Second Quarter Challenge.

While going through some old craft boxes, I found a piece of crochet I did many, many moons ago as a young woman.  I set it aside with my felting supplies.  Every once in a while I’d pick it up and set it on some roving or prefelt, unsure what I wanted to do with it.

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It was definitely acrylic, so I used a small tail on a prefelt when I was making samples and it felt in very nicely.  However, because it has such great dimension I didn’t want to lose that either.  Finally, I made some gray batts with merino and corriedale and decided that’s what I’d do and use a resist under the center so I wouldn’t lose that nice dimension.

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I purposely left the center open so that would be firmly attached.

Here is the result:

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I don’t know why this one looks orange.  Lighting I guess.  But you can see where some of the gray migrated up through crochet piece.20160609_123520_001

My next dilemna was what to do with it.  I tried it over a small pillow, but didn’t like the way it pushed the design up.  Then I tried a couple of pre-made square frames.  But I didn’t like them either.  The frames were either too wide, the wrong color or not big enough.

There was something lacking.  I just couldn’t put my finger on it.  Then I tried stitching a design around it.  That gave it a little balance, but I’m still not sure.

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I may take it to a professional framer and have something like this done.  I tried a new program — Ribbet to super impose a frame.  I know the top and bottom are  cut off a little but it was just to see if I liked it.

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Or this?

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What do you think?

At least now I have a piece of my crafting history preserved and not stuck away in a box.

Pandagirl’s Year in Review 2015

Pandagirl’s Year in Review 2015

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I really challenged myself the beginning of 2015. I was determined to try free motion embroidery and used Rosiepinks (Lyn’s) instructions for making a round bowl. It turned out nice, but it was a little tense going round and round.

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My fan has to be the hardest felt project I’ve done so far.  Getting and keeping all those fan blades in place was maddening.

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Then I began work on making batts and bootie favors for my daughter in law Mari’s baby shower. 60 of them!

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I attempted a felted box.

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A clutch/makeup bag for a new Grandma.

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I gave my drum carder a workout blending colors and making a color wheel for the 1st Quarter Color Challenge.

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Still in baby mode, I felted over a wire baby buggy.

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Cathy and I received our first order from WOW, so the sample making began using wools I hadn’t used before.

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A wine bottle cozy.

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Going back to my roots, I made denim paper, then felted it, and later made a glass case.2015-04-22 15.55.27

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Stepping  out of my comfort zone, I started using neutral colors and some wildly bold combos.

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Some wooly fun with my Grandson Luke.

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For a short period, Cathy and had a fish off.

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For the 3rd Quarter Challenge I used a color generator, dyed, carded some batts using those colors, then made in Ipad cover.

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My sister invited me to her quilt group for a Trunk Show.

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To keep my earrings organized while I travel I made a jewelry roll.

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I tried getting my work space organized.

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Cathy and I attended the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.

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Dyeing for special projects.  Some yet to be seen.

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A nuno wall hanging for my daughter in law Lia.PART951442274018055950914151919

A challenge in combining techniques to make an elephant pic for my Sister.

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The 4th Quarter Challenge – monochrome panda with dimension.

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Odds and ends.

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Making ornaments with my Grandsons.

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I had a lot of help this year and want to thank Cathy Wycliff for posting about making arm warmers, learning to make batts, her artist residency in Breckenridge CO, dyeing with natural plants, and Bengala dyes; Zara Tuulikki Rooke for showing us her process for making batts from raw fleece, shearing sheep, lambing in Sweden,  making a rug from raw fleece and sampling different Swedish wool breeds; Leonor Calaca for giving us a virtual tour of the Knitting and Stitching Show in London; Carol Gascoigne (Craftywoman) for submitting her 3rd Quarter Challenge; Lyn (Rosiepink) for her 3rd Quarter Challenge submission; Mary Stori for her advice on beading; and Jill Chadek for sharing her journey to becoming a felt artist.

Happy New Year!  On to new felting journeys for 2016!

 

 

 

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