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More experiments with UFOs

June 20, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 13 comments

A couple of years ago, I was making silk paper just for practice. I decided to try to cover a bowl and make some ruffle edges. But it was a disaster. I used an acrylic medium to help give it substance, but all that did was make it stiff and unmanageable. I tried soaking it in soapy water for a couple of days, but that didn’t do anything either. So it went into the “pile.” I’ve picked it up a couple of times thinking I could use it for something, but nothing came to mind. Sorry about the fuzzy picture.

Recently, with the Second Quarter challenge to revisit our UFO stash, I pulled it out again. This time as I thought about it I started pulling it apart, peeling off layers. I wondered if it would still felt, so I looked through my stash and found some yellow batts with unknown fibers.

It felted just fine, some parts are still stiff, but most of the thinner areas still had the silk shine. This piece will probably be made into a coin purse.

But what to do with the rest?

Another UFO was a piece of prefelt I had cut for “lace” in Fiona Duthie’s Surface Design class. I put a piece of habatoi silk under it and felted them together. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. But I like the bubbly effect of the silk through the holes.

Then I found a frame for the cityscape.

While I haven’t made a big dent in the scraps and UFO pile, I feel good about trying some new things.

Ooops!

March 8, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 14 comments

We’ve talked a lot lately on the forum about projects not turning out as planned. Sometimes we have happy accidents like my scarflette that turned out better than I had planned. However, that’s not always the case. That’s why we all have UFOs.

Last year I decided to design a credit card wallet. I spent a lot of time measuring and making resists and batts, cutting prefelt and designing a master pattern complete with shrinkage built in. I wanted it to be functional enough to be able to put most of the things I use in one place.

I didn’t have a wallet to use as a model, so I winged it. I used the prefelt as the base and began adding resists then the batts on the inside. To keep track of where my folds and placements were I used pieces of threads to help keep everything in line.

On the inside I wanted three long pockets, then eight credit card slots. There is one resist under the red batt.

Then I added the second lower pocket offset about a half inch, and began putting the credit card slot resists in.

Once I finished adding the slots, I turned it over and added resists on the front. I wanted a license holder and a pocket.

Then after covering in black merino and decorating with some red silk throwsters waste, I began the felting and fulling process.

The hardest part and one of my big mistakes was cutting out the resists. I decided to use an Exacto knife to cut the top large opening. Guess what? Yes, that’s a pen sticking thru. I couldn’t figure out how to take a pic with my finger thru it.

The lower hole is where I wanted the pic ID to be. Unfortunately, it wasn’t large enough to put in the whole ID and cut out a window to view it.

The pocket on the front was also too small an opening to put anything in there that wouldn’t fall out.

On the inside the larger pockets were functional, but I made a mistake with the credit card pocket by making each row a little deeper. Duh, what was I thinking? All credit cards are the same size!

There was room for cash and a checkbook and coupons, if need be. However, the credit cards were a disaster. I couldn’t reliably put them in there and think they’d stay put.

Folded over it doesn’t look bad on the front.

The back is a different story.

I had considered trying to save it, but I don’t believe it would be worth the time since many of the proportions are off and there a gaping holes. However, I did learn a lot from the experience.

Try not to make the project too complicated
Use a model for size proportions
Never use an Exacto knife to cut out a resist

I hope this may help others when they are planning a big project in the future. 🙂

To Sample or Not to Sample

January 20, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 35 comments

This isn’t as exotic as sampling Swedish wools, but it was a lesson in the benefits of sampling.

A while ago I had showed you a pile of scarves, blouses and remnants I had purchased to try nuno felting.

While they all passed the “blow” test or looked or felt like they would felt well, there were a couple of big surprises.

When I make samples, I usually use prefelt and small samples of each of the fabrics on the same piece. This way they are all felted the same way in the same amount of time in the same way.

Here is a picture of a couple of them before felting. The upper left was an open cotton weave, the upper right was a scarf of unknown origin. The lower left was a remnant that was sparkly with some embroidery and the lower right was part of a silk blouse.

This isn’t a very clear picture below, but the second from the left was the one scarf I purchased I thought was perfect for nuno and was looking forward to using it on something special. To the left of that on top was a scarf that felt like it had some lycra in it below was a piece of lace and sequin on some type of mesh. The third from the left was an organza with sparkle.

Boy was I mistaken. After all the others were felted I continued to work on the flower and sparkly pieces, but they wouldn’t felt. I was really glad I didn’t invest in a big project to use the flower scarf. I even tried it on another piece of felt. You probably recognize the purple on the left that I used for my jewelry roll. The scarf on the right also felted nicely. I even used some wisps of wool on top of the flowers, but they clumped together and there were only a couple of threads on the flower piece that caught.

Here’s a closeup of the right one.

The other samples turned out nicely. The blue green and red were silk and the gold a polyester organza.

The one on the right below was a burnout fabric which surprised me it felted so well. On the left a silver gray polyester organza.

The blue on the left was a piece of lycra which didn’t do well either, but I wasn’t surprised at that. Above that was a piece of acrylic yarn that felted nicely.

The blouse felted very nicely and I’m sure I’ll use that for a special project in the future.

I was also surprised at the sequin and mesh. I thought that also had a lycra base. I loved how the mystery blue scarf turned out. It has a shine and felt like a polyester with something else. It has a very nice texture.

My favorite was the brightly colored scarf. Now, I wish I had yards of it instead only part of a scarf.

I don’t always do samples, but if I want to use something for an important project I’ve learned its best to take the time to do it.

Now I know what to expect when I use these fabrics and which ones not to use for felting. Although a couple of them might work with coarser wools. But that’s for another time.

4th Quarter Challenge – Monochrome

November 1, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 32 comments

No one will be surprised at my choice of subjects, a panda.

I had some maori batts in a gray color so it seemed an easy choice as a base.

I’ve been trying to add more dimension into my work as I mentioned in last week’s blog post. So, this was one of my goals with this project.

I layed out the batt then made the head of the panda in prefelt, then added the shapes for the ears, and eyes. Since the nose would be the center of the picture, I used a needle felted nose shape in a heavier fiber then covered it with another nose shaped prefelt and needle felted it onto the batt. I don’t know why it looks pink.

I continued to build up the shape, added gems for eyes and covered them with another layer of prefelt and more fiber. I wanted to give the fur a fuzzy effect so I carefully cut and put fibers along the edges and a little shading around the eye. For the body, I blended some gray into the black for contrast. Since the arm blended in with the body I just used a shaded area to give it a little dimension. And of course, the panda is eating her bamboo. Her nose is actually bamboo fiber. Here is a side view.

After securing everything with more needle felting, I wet felted it. The maori didn’t shrink much which was fine because I intended to wrap it around a canvas frame.

A close up.

Well I changed my mind and hung it without wrapping it on a frame.

I may put it on a darker background to make it stand out from the gray wall. What do you think?

Have you done the challenge yet?

I want to let you all know I will be taking a leave of absence. I’m having surgery November 3 and don’t know how long it will be before I can resume felting. In the mean time, several forum friends have offered to help fill in my blog spots. If you have something you’d like to blog about to help out, please contact Ruth, Zed or Ann. I hope to see you all back here soon! Thanks for your support!

More Samples with Interesting Results

October 16, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

We’ve been talking on the forum about how important it is to make samples, especially when using new fibers or unknown fabrics. It’s better to take a little time to make a sample, than to waste a lot of time and fiber.

I still had one fiber from WOW I hadn’t tried. It was actually a Jacob batt. The batt was very uneven so I used two layers and still ended it up with a couple of sparse spots. I only felted the samples to the prefelt stage so I could use them in another project. The end result of the Jacob was it was very loose and spongy. I’m tempted to full it to see what happens. It is very similar to the Black Welsh I featured in a previous post.

I recently did an experiment with one of Fiona Duthie’s 15 minute projects called Mountains. It’s lost it’s bowl shape a little, but I really liked the curliness of the base, but couldn’t remember what fiber I used.

I have been trying to use more of the coarse fibers I have. But I have been terrible about remembering to write down what I’ve used. I thought Icelandic was harder to felt. It has a very long staple, dyes well, and whenever I use it in has to be shaved when finished. So, I decided to make a prefelt of this as well.

What I discovered is it is soft at this stage, but felted easily.

So, have I been badmouthing the wrong fiber? I have a fair amount of Cheviot so I figured I would experiment with that as well. The Cheviot had a shorter staple but the resulting prefelt was soft and a little lighter in color than the Icelandic which I thought was a lighter color. Hmmm.

When I went with Cathy to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, I purchased some Navajo Churro which I have never used. It had a short staple and was coarse to the touch and filled with little knots. The resulting prefelt was very hairy and much flatter than the others. It reminded me of Gotland I had made a sample of a while back, but while they look similar, the Gotland was very smooth to the touch. It also had been fulled, so that may make a difference. The Churro was very hairy. I have some white Churro I will try dyeing later on.

Last but not least, I made a Romney prefelt and found my curly fiber. (its more noticable at the sparser edges. It is rougher to the touch but I like the cobweb wavy type look. It also has a long staple.

I had done similar samples using habatoi silk, mulberry silk fiber and yarns on each of them a while back, fulled, dyed and then stitched them together. Here is the Four Day Dye Experiment http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2014/06/15/four-unintentional-days-of-dyeing/

These samples were fully felted and it is hard to tell the difference except to rub my hands over them. The Icelandic and Domestic 56 are coarser to the touch than the Cheviot and the Romney. Different than at the prefelt stage. I think in the future I may take a smaller sample to full and compare obviously they are different.

Now as a preview to some more future sampling on a pile of fabric samples to test.

What is your experience with sampling?

Take One, Take Two and Roll

August 29, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 18 comments

While I was getting organized for our trip to Europe, I realized I could use something to keep my jewelry in other than little plastic bags like I have done previously for travel.

I devised a jewelry roll with netting inside to hang my earrings. But my first attempt didn’t go well. Even though I knew in my mind netting wouldn’t shrink, I proceeded anyway.

I used two layers of purple prefelt with a small pocket at the bottom. I’m not sure what I was thinking then either. On the front side I used a strip of from a silky scarf down the middle then hand dyed cheesecloth on both sides for decoration.

On the inside I put the netting in and two panels of the scarf with a thin layer of plastic wrap so the panels wouldn’t felt to the inside. I thought perhaps I could control the shrinkage so the netting would work, but I also wanted that texture the scarf and cheesecloth would provide. Hah!

I got my texture, but the netting just puffed out. I cut it out, but wasn’t happy with the way I could fix it.

So, on to the second try. Same layout only without the netting and the small pocket at the bottom. I put an extra narrow piece of felt along the edges of the panels to help them felt in straight and give it some extra strength.

After I got the ruching I wanted and the felt was dry, I hand sewed the netting around the edges and a line through the middle to keep it from stretching out. The panels were a little puffy, but their job was to hold in the earrings after being rolled so they wouldn’t fall out the sides.

I hung the earrings from the netting.

Success! I sewed on a matching ribbon to tie the roll and I was done!

Now I have to figure out what to do with the first piece of felt. Any suggestions?

More WOW Samples

August 13, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 17 comments

I tried more samples of the fibers Cathy and I had ordered from World of Wool back in February.

I chose six of the fibers to try. Three dark, three light. I used two layers in each of them.

Its not obvious from the fiber layout, but there were some big differences in the feel of each.

From the top left to right:

Black Welsh White South American with Rose Fiber embellishment

Light Gray Swaldale White Faced Woodland

Gray Massam White South Down Top

The Black Welsh was coarse to the touch. White South American was very soft with a longer staple. The Swaledale was soft and variegated. The White Faced Woodland was soft. The Grey Massam was soft as roving. The White South Down top was soft and had some black fibers running through it.

After felting to a prefelt stage:

The Black Welsh was softer and lighter than expected. The White South American was soft, and more compacted than the others. It felt more like merino. The Rose fiber melted right into it.

The Swaledale was bristly to the touch, but light and only slightly spongy. It wasn’t as variegated once felted. The Woodland was the thickest of the samples slightly coarse and very spongy.

The Massam was flatter and firmer than all of the samples and coarse but had soft finish, very hairy. The South Down Top was spongy and not as soft as the White South American. This was the only one to show any shrinkage during the process.

I haven’t used any of these fibers in a project yet, but am curious if any of you have and what for. I purposely made prefelt so I could use it later and not waste the fiber.

I’m currently traveling, so if I don’t respond immediately please be patient.

Gone Fishing…

June 26, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 21 comments

I don’t know if its spring or summer or something in the creative cosmic atmosphere, but it seems fish have become a theme for art lately.

Cathy (Luvswool) and I got together before she went to her Colorado residency and I went to Florida a few weeks back. We wanted to do something different together. We remembered the cool fish Galina ( Felicity) did a while back on her blog and decided to try that. (Thanks for the inspiration Galina!)

We each made our resists beforehand. Of course, we were busy chatting while deciding on colors. It took a bit before we got started.

Cathy chose yellow and blue. I went with my teal (I have sooo much) and purple.

We each used three layers (one layer of domestic 56 batt in between) and tried to get the fish mouth like Galina had hers not too successfully. I guess we need practice. We also used gems for eyes.

I made separate prefelt for fins and tail.

When I got to the prefelt stage on my fish, I cut out and attached the tail and fins. I couldn’t find the resists for my gills when it came time to take the resists out.

We weren’t trying to make exact fish, but have fun coming up with our own fantasy fish.

Cathy did get the gill resist out, but it ended up too wide, so she embroidered it to close it up. She also added some roving around the eye and needlefelted it to get it to stay.

I decided to work on another fish that week and ended up with two more just experimenting with colors and embellishments. I managed to get gills on the second one. I also added bottom fins by needlefelting them on. The eyes were hard to get even on each side. I got a little better at the eyes, but they’re still not perfect.

I’m not sure how I’ll display them. I originally thought I hang them in the bathroom, but I don’t think my husband would approve of flying fish.

Have you done any summer or fish themed projects?

Wine Anyone?

April 23, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

I wanted to try making a gift bag for wine in felt. I first made a resist using the wine bottle as a model. But I wasn’t sure about shaping the bottom.

The base layer was black corriedale. Then I used a layer of merino. And finally I made a batt using forest green, a heather purple, sage and black bamboo for the last layer.

For embellishments and design I made leaves from a nuno prefelt and used 100% Peruvian wool thick and thin yarn, locks and needle felted grapes.

I finished fulling the bag on the bottle, but because of the narrowing of the design it’s not an easy in and out for the bottle.

After it was semi dry, I cut holes at the top to thread some yarn through to tighten it around the neck. Then I turned down the top and sewed extra leaves on and wound the excess yarn from the closure around a small dowel to emulate the ringlet vines on a grape wine.

Also, the bottom ended up having “wings” so I tucked them under and sewed them to the bottom. There was a hollow in the bottom of the bottle so it worked out well.

It was a little hairy so I shaved it. Next time, I would only use two layers and redesign the shape.

Even with some problems, I think it will make a nice display on a bar.

Have you made anything similar? Do you think it needs anything else?

Sampling with New WOW Fibers

April 7, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

Cathy Wycliff (Luvswool) and I placed an order with WOW last month. A real treasure of new fibers to try. But we had a dilemma, do we make samples or wait for a project. Cathy had a good idea to make samples to the prefelt stage. This way we’d have an idea of what the properties were of each of the fibers, but could still use them in future projects.

Cathy did the first few samples. The first photo shows all 3 samples — White Woodland, Jacobs Fleece and South Down.

The second photo is Jacob’s fleece with rose fiber embellishment. The fleece is coarse and scratchy and not an easy felter. It reminds me very much of the Hebridean wool roving I purchased in the Scotland isles. The rose fiber easily felted and finished with a brilliant sheen. It’s gorgeous against the dark brown/black Jacob’s wool.

South Down is next and the and beneath is Whiteface Woodland–very little difference in look or feel or felting ability. Both were were medium coarse felters. All three base fibers were felted only to the pre-felt stage.

I decided to try different fibers since we had a variety to choose from. I was very surprised at the differences between the feel of the fiber and the end results. Here are all four before felting. Top left is White Eider, top right is White Norwegian, lower left is Oatmeal Blue Faced Leicester and lower right is Manx.

The Manx ( top) had a staple of about 4-6 inches and was soft with a very slight crimp or coarseness. I used a half ounce of fiber for each sample. The Oatmeal BFL (bottom) was similar to merino during the layout.

Sorry the photos aren’t great. I use my phone. After felting, the Manx was spongy and coarser than expected. The BFL was slightly spongy and wiry than before felting. It wasnt as coarse as the Manx.

The White Norwegian had a slight coarse feel and a staple of about 4-5 inches. The White Eider top was coarse to the touch with a staple of 3-4 inches. It also felt a bit clumpier.

The Eider is on the left and was very spongy and coarse to the touch. The White Norwegian was coarse after felting and somewhat spongy.

It was fun experimenting, but I’m not sure how I’ll use these fibers. Cathy uses more of the coarser fibers than I do. Any suggestions? Have you used any of these fibers before?

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More experiments with UFOs

June 20, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 13 comments

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Ooops!

March 8, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 14 comments

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To Sample or Not to Sample

January 20, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 35 comments

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4th Quarter Challenge – Monochrome

November 1, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 32 comments

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More Samples with Interesting Results

October 16, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

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Take One, Take Two and Roll

August 29, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 18 comments

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More WOW Samples

August 13, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 17 comments

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Gone Fishing…

June 26, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 21 comments

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Wine Anyone?

April 23, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

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Sampling with New WOW Fibers

April 7, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

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