Felting and Fiber Studio

Did I get your attention? My quest is to make diamonds, felt ones, that sparkle and shine. As you have heard from several of us the Ottawa Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guild is 75 years old this year. It is our diamond anniversary, so the exhibition theme for our Fall Sale and Exhibition is diamonds. You can interpret that any way you want. I thought Jan and I could collaborate, My part is the diamonds and probably a helmet but I will let Jan tell you about her part.

So now I am on a quest for the best way to make the diamonds. Originally I thought I would use a small resist that I could leave inside to help them be more 3D. I was thinking I could pull and shape them.

Well, that didn’t work out at all. the squares couldn’t be pulled and the diamonds didn’t look right with the middles pulled. It was partly because trying to get them pulled and a bit pointy was so hard. The big reason though is their size. When you try to stretch them you are pulling on two ends of the same fiber.  Jan said kind things about them but truthfully they are terrible. It would only be worse if I tried to make them nuno felt. They look better in the picture than in person.

On to the next idea. I decided, who cares if they are 3D?  Flat would be fine if they are the right shape. Next is a piece of shiny ( probably polyester) fibre from my stash.  I thought it would felt in but wasn’t sure. Also, I decided I wanted August’s page to be pink so I combined the two. I used a piece of white prefelt and pink merino

I added some red sparkly fabric to one corner. It doesn’t look sparkly but it is.

Even dry the camera wants to focus on the wool and not the sparkle. It needs shaving but I am out of razors. The next stop Dollarama for the econo bag of razors.

One more try this week. I cut out some silk, some sparkly and some sequined fabric. Wow, is it fiddly to cut without cutting the sequins and they still fly everywhere. I put some face down and then put red prefelt on top.

Then some black prefelt and I tried to match up the fabrics to the bottom ones.

I rubbed this longer than usual to make sure the fabrics were stuck. My plan had been to stop at the soft felt stage. Cut out some diamonds and then finish felting. Unfortunately, I was listening to a good book and just kept going on autopilot.  and before I knew it it was done. Now it is drying. I will cut out some shapes tomorrow and see what they look like. We may have to modify the project.

How would you make felt diamonds? All advice gratefully accepted.