Browsed by
Tag: felt texture

Textures

Textures

Comments 16 comments

I was really happy with the way the green vessel I showed last time dried. I was worried it’d lose shape, but it kept it and also ‘came to life’ when the textures/sheens of the different wools and fibres appeared after drying. This the vessel from above:

This is my favourite side:

I can’t remember which fibres I did use, I know it wasn’t many, I think the blue on the bottom is bamboo fibre. Most of the texture came from BFL locks:

This is a few of the tiny locks teased apart:

And this is a different angle of the single lock and orange BFL from the 2nd photo, where the side curves onto the bottom, there was a small amount of carded lime green BFL on top of the Merino, which helped create the texture:

This is the soft, wispy piece I was making in the photo from the well being centre:

I thought at first this was silk noil, but it looked a bit too shiny, looking closer I realised it was soy staple, just a bit more dense than I’d normally use. But we always do get carried away piling on the embellishments on these pieces!

Some red nylon, clashing nicely with the Green Merino:

The end of a purple Gotland lock, anchoring down a synthetic thick/thin yarn, with some pink viscose trapped underneath:

Just out of curiosity, has anyone used a ‘print on demand’ site for t-shirts? I’ve been looking at a few like Society6 and Teespring, but thought I’d see if there were any recomendations before choosing.

Year End Round Up

Year End Round Up

Comments 12 comments

I hope everyone’s enjoying the Holidays 🙂 I have one more scarf and scarf sample left to show you. This first one is a grey marl Merino on hand dyed cotton gauze. I blended up 4 shades of 18.5 mic Merino, 2 greys, a duck egg and black. It wasn’t very easy to get photos, they kept turning out blue!:

The sample is a fabric which might look familiar as I bought 3 scarves with the same design in different colours. I think this is the first time I tried it with 18.5 mic Merino:

Whenever we do posts looking back over the year, I think I haven’t done much, but then get surprised! I think there was a definite theme of texture and surface design for me this year, so, here’s a slide show of some of the things I’ve enjoyed making this year:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thanks for reading over the past year and leaving comments, I hope to see you in the New Year!

And then it all went wrong.

And then it all went wrong.

Comments 23 comments

I have been making some tea cozies  ready for fall shows. While I was having a visit at my friend Maureen’s I came across one of her samples and used it for inspiration for texture on a tea cozy.

the inspiration.

I really liked the contrast of the orange and the blue and the purple silk on top. I picked 2 shades of orange and 2 shades or blue and laid them out separately.

layers ready to felt

I wanted a different shape to the cut outs and some movement across the piece. I cut the resists out of some thin floor underlay.

side one

I wrapped the orange around the resist and wet it down before adding the resist for the texture. I then added on the blue piece, wet it down and flipped it.

side two

This is the second side with the resist in place.  It all looked very promising. I spent a lot of time rubbing this piece, especially in the holes of the resist. When the whole thing started to shrink I decided to cut out the resists to continue fulling. The first cut out wasn’t so bad

side one cut close up

They cut out but they are just barely attached. Then I did the other side. That is when it all went wrong.

side two cut

Most of the pieces were not attached at all. I think the problem is the resist was to thick and the holes were to small. I have all the pieces so I think I will needle felt them on and then finish the fulling. I was disappointed but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Kapok Fibre

Kapok Fibre

Comments 20 comments

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

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI like the effect the thinner parts of fibre produces:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOne of the areas where the fibre was denser:

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAClose up 1:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOne of the denser areas:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the black Finnish side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA close up of a dense fibre part:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the Fibre blended with the wool:

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

%d bloggers like this: