natural fibres – Page 2 – Felting and Fiber Studio

Year End Round Up

December 30, 2014 zedster66 Comments 26 comments

Every year I think I never had much time to do everything I wanted, but at least I did get to do some things which I enjoyed. I always enjoy the challenges we do on the Studio site and seeing everyone’s entries. I think this was my favourite piece from all the challenges, from Ann’s Stewart Stephenson challenge:

I tried a few new things this year, one of them was making a hat for the first time:

I also tried commercial prefelt pieces kindly donated by Heidi Feathers.

I also tried a new embellishment fibre, Kapok:

And some new animal fibres. This is yak, it was the softest fibre I’d ever felt (or felted!):

Until I got some camel fibre, even softer!:

I know a lot of people prefer to make felt with a ‘purpose’, but I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of experimenting and trying combinations of different wool breeds or animal fibres with various embellishment fibres, just for the fun of it. A few of my favourite pieces: Dark Brown Corriedale with Ingeo:

Angora goat with black and white viscose:

Another things I love is texture, surface design and sculptural felt, I did a bit of that this year too:

I do like colour too, so had fun dyeing a lot of wools and embellishment fibres recently. The milk protein was especially gorgeous:

Thanks a lot for all the support this past year and all the nice comments an helpful advice, I hope you’ve enjoyed your past year too 🙂

Giveaway Winner and Natural Wools and Fibres

June 5, 2014 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

GIVEAWAY WINNER:
The winner of the Complete Wet Felting Kit from Heidi Feathers is … Kirsty Lowde. Congratulations, Kirsty , please can you leave a comment on this post so I can pass your contact info on to Zoe so she can arrange to post it to you (you don’t need to post your email address, I can get that from the Admin panel!)

NATURAL WOOLS AND FIBRES
You might have seen my post on the forum last week about a wall hanging I made using natural coloured wool tops from many different wool breeds and some different embellishment fibres. Someone usually asks, so this time I’ve measured 🙂 It’s 30 inches long and 10 inches wide.

This is the bottom end, some of the wools and fibres are: Bluefaced Leicester tops and noil, Humbug Jacob, Black Jacob tops and noil, Lincoln, Gotland, flax, hemp, soy top, milk top and viscose:

This is a close up of the soy top and Lincoln tops.

And this is viscose tops on Zwartble with some Ingeo to the side.

As much as I love colours of dyed Merino or the textures of a nuno felted silk or shiny organza, I really love the variation of colours and textures you get with different combinations of natural wools and embellishment fibres. For as long as I’ve had natural wool tops and embellishment fibres I’ve been making various experimental pieces of felt with them, some just flat wet-felted, some combined with other techniques for a variety of surface designs or sculptural effects. When I got my recent World of Wool order and a few more breeds to try, I thought I’d also start to make a variety of small panels with the intention of maybe combining them into one large wall hanging some day. This is a panel I made using Manx Loaghtan wool tops and Bamboo staple fibre:

This is an angled photo of the panel I made with Grey Herdick wool tops and Hemp fibre:

And this last piece is something I made alongside the top stripey piece:

Thanks again to Heidi Feathers for the generous giveaway prize and prefelt pieces to try out.

Cheese cloth Nuno Felt Experiment.

April 30, 2014 Shepherdessann Comments 13 comments

A while back Ruth got some free samples of some cheese cloth or cotton gauze from Cheese Cloth Fabric.com. She dyed some and sent me some samples. I also had a more open weave cheese cloth that I will use so you can see the difference. I thought if I am going to use my time I should make something that will be salable in the end so decided to make bracelets or cuffs so I could easily compare the cottons.

The pink on the left is the sample sent to Ruth and the purple on the right is the gauze I got at a place called Lens Mill http://www.lensmill.com/ in Guelph Ontario. You can see the purple is a much more open weave.

Ruth sent to colour samples. Here is before and after adding the wool.

I did one sample of the purple flat and one scrunched up. You can see my template marks behind the right one.

I like the way both these tuned out. they are very different than the tighter weave cotton.

I did a scrunched up pink one for comparison. I think I like the scrunched up ones the best. I may add some beads in to folds. They will be for sale later in the summer once I get some buttons and button holes done.

Meet the Supplier: Dreamspin Fibres

February 7, 2014 Shepherdessann Comments 18 comments

We would like you to meet one of our sponsors and a friend of mine Maureen Harding of Dreamspin fibres. We met a few years ago at a fiber conference and became friends. We live far enough apart that we only get together a few times a year but we always have a great time felting and trying new things. She doesn’t mention it here but she has a sale on select fibers at the moment.

Q-4 Three types of fibre you can’t live without?

Merino, silks, silk fabric but other fibres depending on the project

Q-3 Have you always been a felter?

I’ve been felting for 15 years, before that I was spinning and knitting.

Q-2 Two tools you use all the time?

Pool noodle and plastic window screening. (and ball brause)

Q-1 One fibre art technique you love the most?

I have to say felting. But also enjoy spinning and knitting

What is your business?

We sell wools, prefelts, fabrics for nuno felting, a few felting tools, mostly for felters.

Why and when did you start selling fiber?

It was an outgrowth of my interest in sheep and wools. Initially I raised sheep, learned to spin, learned to felt, and started buying other fibres wholesale for my own purposes. After a while I started selling fibres at fibreart venues and would make up articles to show what can be done with the fibres. People started asking me if I would teach them how, and this led to doing workshops in felting.

What kind of items do you sell?

As well as fibres for felters, I also sell felted articles such as nuno scarves, felted hats, and felted bags at various shows throughout the year.

What do you think makes your business different from similar ones?

We pride ourselves on our fast service, orders are made out the same or the next day. We offer free shipping on orders over $100 in North America. And we are always happy to offer assistance and advice over the phone, or email.

Where are you located?

Near Campbellford in Ontario

Where can we find you on the internet

Dreamspinfibres.ca

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Looking Ahead 2014

January 3, 2014 zedster66 Comments 17 comments

I think every year I plan to be more organised over the coming year. I don’t think I’ve done too badly, I did rearrange some rooms to make my felting and craft stuff more accessible, so it should be even easier this year since I can now leave projects out and don’t have to spend valuable time tidying everything away. I’m going to keep writing notes and lists of things to do in my diary each day , so I don’t forget.

I really enjoyed the craft fair that I did, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do more this year. Just working out how to find out where they are happening will be an improvement on last year 🙂 I photographed and printed out my ‘inventory’ of all the things I’ve made which makes it easier to keep track, so I’m going to keep up with that aswell this year. I used to upload everything to flickr, but I find it hard to use since the change.

I’d like to be able to work on a new e-book this year or at least more tutorials. As much as I love our weather here, it isn’t the best for taking photos, so that is a big hindrance in doing tutorials. The light in Winter can be perfect, but some days there’s barely 5 hours of ‘daylight’, so finding the perfect conditions can be difficult. The light in Summer is weird: pale, hazy with a yellow tint, so maybe it’s time to invest in a lightbox. I would also love to be able to get involved in community workshops, something which people will really enjoy doing, learning a new usable skill and giving people an alternative creative outlet and way to express themselves. Hopefully if I get enough interest I can also get funding. But if anyone has any openings for a felter one day a week, I’m open to offers 🙂

Two things I’d like to try out more with felting is embellishment fibres and using wool to create the ‘design’ or surface interest. I don’t think I’d ever be able to do anything like those gorgeous wet felted paintings, but I do enjoy using wool in a more controlled way to create an interesting effect.

I’ve been working on what I call my ‘other fibres project’ off and on for years, using embellishment fibres to add interest to felt. I made a few pieces with bamboo recently and enjoyed that a lot, especially adding texture and shape to felt, so I’d like to find time to work on that more.

Thanks for supporting us this year 🙂 Have you made plans for this year?

Natural Wools and Bamboo

December 3, 2013 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

I only managed to get photos of two of the things I’ve been working on lately, it’s been really dark again and we don’t have many hours of daylight anyway at this time of year. Both of these pieces were made using natural wools and bamboo fibres as embellishment. This first piece has a base made with a variety of brown and grey scoured wools and natural wool tops that I carded into a batt. On top of that are twists of grey merino with white bamboo top. When it was almost felted, I cut and rolled and folded, then fulled to get the texture and effect I wanted.

This next piece was made with brown Finnish wool for the base, twists of dark brown Corriedale and black bamboo were positioned on top. This was also folded and fulled to get the shape I wanted.

I’ve been given the chance to do my first craft fair in a couple of weeks. I was wondering if anyone has any advice or tips for doing fairs?

Recent Things

November 3, 2013 zedster66 Comments 17 comments

I made some mixed white wool batts on my drum carder recently. I like to use different wool breeds together because they felt differently to each other so you get interesting results and it’s different every time. I made 3 batts altogether and used Lincoln, 23 mic Merino, 18 mic Merino, Norwegian, Texel, Cheviot, Devon, Teeswater and Shetland wool tops. I also added in some carded mixed lambswool and Falkland fleece for texture, and Border Leicester, Mohair curls, Bluefaced Leicester, Wensleydale, and Alpaca for crimp and curl. I also added some silk for extra shine.

I thought I’d use the batts as the inspiration to put together another wool and fibre pack, using white/natural as the theme. I added some cotton scrim and some of the ‘luxury’ embellishment fibres I have: Bamboo staple fibre, Egyptian cotton top, Ingeo, Banana, Ramie, Flax and Milk protein fibre. And also some silk fibres: silk threads and throwster’s waste, silk carrier rods (don’t they look so ugly before they’re soaked and separated?!) and one of my favourites, silk noil. I love the way it felts, but I also love the way it smells and sounds as it’s separated and stretched out 🙂

I went to Abakhan on Wednesday for some supplies (they were out of delrin clips!) and I couldn’t resist getting some gorgeous georgette fabric in a few designs. This is one of them:

I also couldn’t resist the braiding, so got 3 designs:

I hadn’t had chance to do much over the last few weeks so I decided to make time on Friday and laid out and felted a nuno felt piece with one of the new fabrics I bought. I knew I should have added some wool around the edges of the fabric, but I laid it out upside down, with the fabric on the bottom and knew I’d mess up if I tried to flip it 🙂

I picked colours from the fabric to make a muti coloured patchwork back:

It textured really nicely:

Notebook Covers

August 25, 2013 zedster66 Comments 13 comments

This first notebook cover that I finished this week took ages to make. My temperamental sewing machine keeps refusing to catch the bobbin thread with the needle. Occasionally I can force it to, then it runs for a while, then I go to turn the piece I’m working on and realise it was just making sewing noises and everything I thought I’d just sewn is loose 🙁 I kept going back to this until it was finished, then put the machine away so it can’t annoy me anymore. I had a collection of felt pieces I’d made with natural coloured wools and plant fibres. None of them were big enough for notebook covers and either too thick or too thin for coin purses, so I thought I’d make a few natural coloured collage notebook covers. Or just one as it turned out. I used some unbleached calico as the backing fabric to sew the pieces onto. I really like the way this turned out. This is the front:

Some of the grey pieces are from a piece of felt I made for Karen’s Weather Challenge, using grey Gotland Locks for rolling clouds. This is the back:

I machine stitched the top edges together, then finished off the edges and the flaps with some grey/brown thread I spun myself. It was quite chunky for a thinnish thread, but I like the way it looks.

This next notebook cover is probably the nicest one I’ve ever made. I used a piece of nuno felt that I made for my Beyond Nuno book. It has some gorgeous flowery blue synthetic fabric nuno felted onto merino tops. I made a little tie for the front from an off-cut of the nuno felt. I cut a strip about 8-10mm wide and wet it with soapy water and rolled between my palms until it formed a cord. I used a spring toggle as the fastener. This is the front:

This is the back:

I really love the colours and the way the fabric rippled so nicely.

SuperMacro texture:

I’m getting better at letting things go and listing them on etsy, but if this doesn’t sell before the listing expires, I’m keeping it!

Cat Cave

July 30, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 12 comments

I should be making more scarves but I wasn’t in the mood so I decide to do a cat cave. I wanted to make one that looked like a pebble. I used some gray I had on hand. I have no idea what it is but it felt like a medium wool. I put a paw print on before covering the bottom with the resist,

I add a spot on the top so I know where to cut the whole later. I rubbed it and rolled it and then into the dryer for a tumble.

You can see how the wool migrates through the cover when it comes out of the dryer. I cut the hole and rolled it up the other way and back in to the dryer. Next I rolled it on a car floor mat. It has nice ridges but they are flexible. I roll it back and forth on the mat. I do not rub it on the ridges. It would got to hard on the surface.

I am not sure its hard enough now that it’s dry. I my wet it down and give it a trip through the front load washer. If it works out I will see if I can pass the jury to get into the Shelter Exhibition. http://tangledfiberartscollective.wordpress.com/calls-for-entries/

Latest Projects

March 24, 2013 zedster66 Comments 24 comments

I decided to take the plunge and open an Etsy shop. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I’m going to start making sticks with feathers and crystals stuck to them or adding ironic moustaches to all my notebooks 😉 Lyn was telling me that etsy have started doing instant downloads, but it appears to be in the trial stage at the moment. I added a digital download to my shop and applied to join their ‘team’ in the hope I can try it too, but I’m still waiting to hear.

I don’t have much in there at the moment, mostly some silk fibre packs and a felted notebook cover. But on Friday I was having a rummage through my fabric and with 3 large boxes and 5 shoe boxes open and contents all over, I thought it might be nice to put together a fabric sample pack of the different fabrics I used in my e-book. How long could it take? About 20 minutes or so? Ha! 2 hours later I was still cutting and measuring, taking photos, making piles on the floor, standing on the tape measure and almost slicing my neck open, getting sidetracked with a pile of fabric perfect for this, that or the other! And then I had to edit the photos and do the listing. I don’t know how people find the time! Of course, I’m pretty sure my fabric supply is dangerously low now, so I’ll probably have to re-stock 🙂

Yesterday I found a bit of time to go through my box of felt pieces to make things with. I had quite a large piece I’d made with black merino and strips of coloured cotton gauze. The back was blues and greens with silk embellishments. I thought it’d make a nice purse or wallet, with two sections. I’ve almost finished it, I just need to add the button and button hole.

Trying a button:

The back:

I still had quite a big piece of the felt left, so I cut the pieces out for another one:

The other project I found time for was sewing a notebook cover. I made a piece of nuno felt a while back from a patterned pink, green and blue silk scarf. I had always intended to make a notebook cover out of it but really liked it and didn’t want to cut it up! I think time has made it a little easier though 🙂

The texture is really nice:

I had a few ideas for making things with some of the natural white felt pieces I have spare. I started to cut them up, but you’ll have to wait and see what I make from these 🙂

Have you had time for making anything lately or is everyone battling the weather, it seems like half of us are under feet of snow. I’m glad it’s cooled off a bit down under though, only about 32C now in Victoria, Kaz has probably got her woolly jumpers out and the fire on 😉

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Year End Round Up

December 30, 2014 zedster66 Comments 26 comments

Like this:

Giveaway Winner and Natural Wools and Fibres

June 5, 2014 zedster66 Comments 20 comments

Like this:

Cheese cloth Nuno Felt Experiment.

April 30, 2014 Shepherdessann Comments 13 comments

Like this:

Meet the Supplier: Dreamspin Fibres

February 7, 2014 Shepherdessann Comments 18 comments

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Looking Ahead 2014

January 3, 2014 zedster66 Comments 17 comments

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Natural Wools and Bamboo

December 3, 2013 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

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Recent Things

November 3, 2013 zedster66 Comments 17 comments

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Notebook Covers

August 25, 2013 zedster66 Comments 13 comments

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Cat Cave

July 30, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 12 comments

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Latest Projects

March 24, 2013 zedster66 Comments 24 comments

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