Felting and Fiber Studio

I was thinking recently that I might have to change my plans a little bit, and make some different sized templates for my felt panels. Quite a few of the wools I’ve got have a very long staple length, much bigger than my current template. And the varying shrinkage rates makes a lot of the panels similar but not quite the same; so I think a variety of squares and rectangles might work out better to piece together in the end. I haven’t really thought too much about how I would actually ‘construct’ the hanging, one idea was the sew the edges of the panels together, kind of like seams on clothes, but visible so they formed little ridges, but I don’t want to lose the cool wavy edges some of the wool breeds like Lincoln create.
This is Brown Finnish wool with a covering of flax:

This is a close up:

This is another Finn piece, with a diagonal band of hemp, which is quite similar to flax.

Close up:

This is a felt panel made with  ‘Humbug’ (stripes of black and white) Jacob, I used black and white viscose tops for this:

This is more of a straight on shot:

Close up:

This last panel is Black Jacob wool tops and Soy bean staple fibre.

I love the effects you can get with the staple fibres.

Do you like to try different breeds of wool for felting? Do you have a favourite or ones you think are better suited to particular projects? How about embellishment fibres, do you have any favourites?