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Nuno Challenge Experiment One

Nuno Challenge Experiment One

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The second quarter challenge over on the http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/ is mine but I have yet to start. Today I started. Months ago I made a shrug jacket and then died it blue. It would not stop bleeding. I rinsed it for days. Changing the water several times a day. I reheated it in vinegar water and still it bleeds, so I gave up. with all the work  it has great texture.

blue experriment 2 blue experriment

To get the great texture it shrank a lot. It will no longer fit anyone.

blue experriment 3

Next I unpicked the sewing. Not an easy task. The stitching was really sunk into the felt. Next it was into the washer. I have a front loader. I hope it works well it isn’t as aggressive as at top loader. I have shrunk a sweater down from an extra-large to a child’s small in it so I had high hopes.

Here is the finished twice washed piece. The red piece is the original finished sized before all the rinsing and  washing. The coke can is for size reference.

blue experriment 4

Here are the close-ups. The texture is much tighter and the piece is much stiffer.

blue experriment 5 blue experriment 6

The biggest surprise was that there are definite lines of wool on the silk side. I am imagine it’s where each rows of wool overlapped. I only laid the wool in one direction for this piece.

 

 

Felted Flowers

Felted Flowers

Comments 15 comments

It has been busy around here as we are starting at a new Farmers’ market this weekend and we have been getting ready. This was difficult because they hadn’t sent us any thing about being accepted until a few days ago. There has not been much time for felting but I have managed to do a little. I made wet felted flower pins last year. They sold fairly well but the ones I had left seem tired looking so I am sprucing them up by needle felting some lines on them.
flowers

The other exiting thing is that a couple of weeks ago I wont the free give way from world of wool on face book. they sent me a grab bag of wool. The yellow and the purple seem to be silk but I am not sure because the didn’t label the different “balls”. It was a real surprise to win because I never will anything. the wools are great colours and will get put to good use.
wow prize

OHS Conference

OHS Conference

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Here are some more pictures from the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Conference.

It was a really nice venue with tons of good food and really nice rooms this is the courtyard where there where two magnolia trees in full bloom and a nice waterfall feature.

courtyard 1 courtyard 2

There were lots of things to buy in the vendor mall

vendor 1 vendor 2 vendor 3 vendor 4 vendor 5 vendor 6 vendor 7

 

There were some interesting classes.

ohs classes 1 ohs classes 2 ohs classes 6

This one was called Viking Knitting and I would have liked to take the class.

ohs classes 3 ohs classes 4 ohs classes 5

Unfortunately only 2 of my pictures of the displays turned out

the first is a cowl by  Mireille Gagnon Moes who got honorable mention.

ohs cowel

the other one that turned out was this large felt leaf by Diane Gonthier.http://www.savoir-faire-textile.com/eng/ It was displayed laid out on the floor. I think about 5 feet long.

ohs felt leaf

There was also a banquet with a fashion show and no of that turned out. it was dark and no one would stand still for a second to take the pictures. I was a failure as a photographer but I hope you like the pictures that did work.

 

 

Classes at the Conference

Classes at the Conference

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This last weekend I was teaching at the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners biannual conference. Here are pictures of the Nuno felting class. There where only 3 people in this class. It was a preconference class. The full conference started that evening with the workshops the next day.

Here they are putting the wool around the edges.

putting wool around the edge of the scarf 2 putting wool around the edge of the scarf

Then laying out the pattern.

making the pattern making the pattern 3 making the pattern 2

Close up

layout close up layout close up 3 layout close up 2

Fixing a spot that didn’t take. We needled it down and gave it a little rubbing on both sides and it was all fixed.

fixing a spot

Finished scarves

finished scarf 2 finished scarf finished scarf 3

And the happy ladies with their scarves and a sample done on cotton that they had time to do at the end of class.

happy felters

At the last minuet the needle felting teacher had to pull out with a family emergency so they asked me to fill in. I didn’t take any pictures of the process we only had 3 hours to complete a project so we really had to move.  Here they are at the end, happy with their projects. Four sheep ( I supplied the legs so they would have time to complete them. ), one pincushion flower and a little person.

Happy needle felters

All in all it was a great time with lots of friendly people. I will share more about the conference in another post later.

Prefelt

Prefelt

Comments 15 comments

There are two kinds of prefelt. One is needled prefelt. Commercial prefelt is done this way. It is needled just enough to hold together.  I use this sometimes, it works very well. I get it in small pieces and by the yard from Dreamspin Fibers. http://www.dreamspinfibres.ca/  (shameless plug for a friend).

The second is wet felted and this is easy to make yourself. Lately that is what I have been doing. You layout your felt as usual but you stop when it is just holding together.  Rinse it out carefully and let it dry. it is till fragile but strong enough to cut out shapes when you don’t want the fuzzy edges that traditional layout gives you.   I have been making  small pieces and some from the ends of some batts that are not big enough to do much with. They are very helpful when you want very definite shapes.

prefelt on table

I don’t have any exact plans for them but they are very handy to have around.

 

Small Felt Art

Small Felt Art

Comments 22 comments

A little while ago I ordered some pendant blanks in a variety of shapes and sizes. They open up so you can put pictures in them but you can see the picture when it is closed.  I made some small art works. I used pieces of felt I already had and needled  and sewed on the designs. Do you recognise the spiral sheep background? It’s the “hole” form the round bird house with the spiral design.

cityscape sheep spiral purple tree abstract 1

You can se about how big they are from the keyboard in the city scale picture. I changed the black and pink sheep into a white and pink sheep before putting it into its locket. The black doesn’t show as well in person as it does in the picture.

locket 1 locket 2 locket 3 locket 4

I didn’t have another round one the right size for the city scape. The one with the purple curls in it is just that, some Blue Faced Leister curls. The locket is about one inch across and I didn’t think I could really make a picture for in it.  I like making these small pieces but now I have to decide what to charge for them.

group locket

Around The Web

Around The Web

Comments 3 comments

Here’s a few links we thought you might enjoy.

felting around the web 4

http://kirstenhouseknecht.blogspot.ca/2013/03/nuno-felted-kimono-project.html

Renatos Eyeglass Case

mixed media around the web

This link has some fiber related tutorials but so much more that is interesting. http://www.howtohistory.com/video-tutorials/

Coiled Basketry by Tiger C

http://www.fibermixedmedia.com/

Michelle Mischkulnig’s Fiber Art

Kathleen Vance’s Traveling Landscapes

stitching around the web

http://www.doilyfreezone.com/premysl-knap-4/

Ann Wood’s Bloomer, Bloomer and Bloomer

dyeing around the web

Vicki’s Dyed and Painted Shower Curtain

Second Quarter Challenge: Nuno Felt

Second Quarter Challenge: Nuno Felt

Comments 14 comments

This quarters challenge is about nuno felt.  If you have never tried it, try it.  Pick an open weave fine fabric and have ago. If you have tried it before put it on something you have never put it on before. If you make nuno scarves all the time try putting some fabric on a hat or pot or bag.

green hat

If that’s old hat they try some different fabrics, silk, cotton, linen, hemp, or synthetic.

merino and cotton sample
merino and cotton sample

If that’s not enough of a challenge try some fabrics you don’t think will work. Maybe thicker silk or cotton, maybe some lace or a woven plastic.

onion bag

If you need some inspiration you can download Zed great book called:  BEYOND NUNO: A Guide to Using Fabrics in Wet Felting. http://feltbyzed.blogspot.co.uk/p/e-books.html

Beyond Nuno

Be creative and take Nuno where you have never taken it before. Don’t forget to tell us about what you’ve tried and how it turned out.

Bird Houses are Done, and A Nuno Felt Pouch for Visa

Bird Houses are Done, and A Nuno Felt Pouch for Visa

Comments 17 comments

I got the bird houses stung and ready to hang. The big round one ended up with a very big hole. I am not sure how I managed to stretch it so much.  I think it will be better as a bird feeder or just a decoration. The purple and orange one ended up with its hole to big and to low down so I made it into a bird feeder for my Mother in Law.

bird house and chickadee 2 bird house and chickadee

I Hung it up near the other bird feeders and despite the wind there was a chickadee in it before I could get back in the door. You have to love chickadees, they are so brave and curios. I will have to make some more like that on purpose.

Here they are all hanging up for their picture.

finished birdhouses 1 finished birdhouses 2

Those are my sons helping hands. The wind saw what we where doing and kept blowing the houses around.

We got a new way of taking visa recently. It’s called square https://squareup.com/ca?gclid=CNP5zKDWmLYCFe5AMgodClkAQw and it works with your smart phone. It’s not very big and I am afraid of loosing it so I put it in a mint tin. Well that is really ugly, no matter how practical. Time to make a pouch for it.

square pouch before felting square pouch after felting

I decided to do a simple sewn pouch so I know it would be the right size when I was done.

square pouch after sewing back square pouch after sewing front

square pouch after sewing closed

I did as second one in green. We have two squares, one for me and one for my husband. Sometimes we are both selling in different places on the same day.

square pouch green back square pouch green front

square pouch green closed

This one was made form a bigger pouch I wasn’t using.

Bird Houses are Moving Along

Bird Houses are Moving Along

Comments 18 comments

Bird houses are moving along. After I cut the holes I rolled them a little I put them in to some pantyhose tops for a trip through the dryer to get some of the fulling done.

bird houses in pantyhose They have balloons inside them.

They tumble for about 20 minuets without any heat. Then it’s back to hand fulling to finish them. I did some with merino and some with romney. Here you can see the shrinkage difference between the wool. The merino ones are on top.

shrinkage comparison 2 shrinkage comparison

Next is they get rinsed and more balloons inside to get them to dry the right shape.

drying with balloons for shape

You will notice that the green ones are not in this picture, this is why:

bird houses bleeding

This is their 10th soak so the next step is to boil them to see if that stops the bleeding.

I will do the finishing work on the bird houses this weekend. Why is the finishing always the hardest part. I will add the hanging sting and hang them up for one final picture for  you.