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2nd Quarter Challenge Piece Finished

2nd Quarter Challenge Piece Finished

Comments 14 comments

I finished off the natural vessel I showed felted, but not shaped or fulled, a couple of weeks ago:

It’s made with various wools, I took a range of naturals to the well being centre and I think the first two (inside) layers are Portuguese Merino from a batt, and the next two are brown Finnish. I took lots of locks in too, mostly Swedish breeds/crossbreeds from Zara in lots of shades, but I might have used a few BFL locks too:

If you saw my post last week, you might be interested to know how the thing which looked a bit like a pizza base turned out. This is my entry for Ann’s 2nd Quarter Challenge, which is “using fabric as a surface design instead of a base”, but Ann then added “As an extra challenge to you it can’t be a sample and it can’t be a book cover” 🙂 Luckily, I’d already had an idea which would fit the challenge, since we’d been doing ‘extreme nuno’ and vessels at the well being centre, I’d planned to combine the two at some point, and Ann’ challenge gave me the push to do it.

I cut out a template, sort of bowl shaped, but not for any reason, I just wanted something big and not square. Then I started adding strips of white fabrics to it: synthetic chiffon, muslin, scrim and cotton gauze. I then added fine layers of Rambouillet. The photo I showed last week was where I’d wet it all down and had started to felt it. This photo is of the piece felted, you can see the resist starting to curl from the shrinkage:

As soon as I started to full it on the bubble-wrap it really puffed up!

I removed the resist and carried on fulling, I turned it the right side out, and realised I’d accidentally made a felted cow stomach!

Close up:

I did a bit more fulling and tried it on a balloon to shape and removed it see if it was fulled enough:

It wasn’t, so I did a bit more fulling, , this isn’t the best photo, but you can see the shrinkage, it started out the full height of the netting:

I rinsed it and left on a balloon to shape and dry. This is how it looked finished:

Another side:

This is some nice ruffley chiffon on the bottom, between some Cotton Gauze and cotton scrim:

The chiffon ruffles up so nicely:

This is an area where I overlapped different fabrics:

And, since the thought behind the idea was that it’d make an interesting lampshade, here it is on a lightbulb (btw, if you tell someone to look at how cool something looks on a lightbulb, warn them when you’re going to take it off, apparently some of us forget and ‘blind people for hours’!)

Close up:

Different angle:

So, did I fulfill the criteria, Ann? 🙂

Year End Round Up

Year End Round Up

Comments 12 comments

I hope everyone’s enjoying the Holidays 🙂 I have one more scarf and scarf sample left to show you. This first one is a grey marl Merino on hand dyed cotton gauze. I blended up 4 shades of 18.5 mic Merino, 2 greys, a duck egg and black. It wasn’t very easy to get photos, they kept turning out blue!:

The sample is a fabric which might look familiar as I bought 3 scarves with the same design in different colours. I think this is the first time I tried it with 18.5 mic Merino:

Whenever we do posts looking back over the year, I think I haven’t done much, but then get surprised! I think there was a definite theme of texture and surface design for me this year, so, here’s a slide show of some of the things I’ve enjoyed making this year:

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Thanks for reading over the past year and leaving comments, I hope to see you in the New Year!

Relearning to Crochet

Relearning to Crochet

Comments 18 comments

I’ve been trying to think of projects that weren’t labor intensive since I’m having back problems again.  My son and his family gave me a set of ergonomic crochet hooks for my birthday.  Then for some reason I started getting crochet posts in my Facebook news feed. I’ve been intrigued with some more complicated textures and dimensional stitches.  But I haven’t crocheted in years and figured I’d start with the basics.

I do have a book on crochet, but the Internet is loaded with tons of videos that keep calling me.

I’ve been practicing, but not have gotten my tension mojo just right.  So, bear with me. For these samples I used a medium weight (worsted) acrylic yarn I had on hand with a 5 mm, (UK 6, US H8 hook.)

Next to making the chain (ch) for a sample, the Single Crochet (sc) is one of most basic stitches.

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Next I tried the Double Crochet (dc).

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Then I made a sample with the Half Double Crochet (hdc) which I don’t remember ever seeing. A little more intricate and I liked the added texture.

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The Triple Crochet (tc) is more open and less dimensional.

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Then finally, the Double Triple Crochet (dtc.)  Very open and airy.

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While they aren’t perfect and I’m getting the tension a little more consistent with daily practice, I’m far from making a project.  I try a new stitch everyday to keep my hands on fiber and learn something new.  Which I’ve learned helps spark creativity when you learn a new skill.

Have you tried something new lately?

White Nuno Texture

White Nuno Texture

Comments 10 comments

I took some close up photos of the white textured nuno piece I showed last week. I used a few different types of cotton fabrics: some cotton gauze-single pieces and folded over, some scrim, cheesecloth, some natural muslin, somecotton fabric from an old sack which was thicker than muslin, but thinner than calico (any ideas?). Here are close ups of the cotton parts:

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI used some synthetic chiffon, I liked these ripples:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd even closer:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI also used some silk crepe:

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI used similar fabrics on a larger piece, and also used some bleached Muslin (very white pieces) and a scrap of crumpled habotai silk:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou can see the textures better on an angle:

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI really like the extreme textures and wonder what other single colours would look good.

Finding Composition and Design in the Tropics

Finding Composition and Design in the Tropics

Comments 14 comments

I have been in Florida visiting my mom for the last week. I didn’t have time to do any fiber art but I certainly found a lot of inspiration everywhere I looked. I also found lots of elements of composition and design. I like to take photos of different color schemes, different shapes, line, texture as well as other elements of design. So I thought I would show you some of what I saw in Florida. I always think it is good to occasionally give creating a rest or a vacation so that when you come back to it, you will be relaxed and have gained new insight from your travels.

Tropical plants have lots of color. I found many green and red complimentary color schemes.

And a variety of lines.

Textures were everywhere.

And then I was inspired by different shapes (and more color).

What elements of design do you see in these photos? What photos do you take when you’re on vacation? How would you use these photos to inspire your work?

Don’t forget to sign up for Teri Berry’s Concertina Felt Hat Class. Registration closes on October 31st!. Sign up here. 

 

Textures

Textures

Comments 13 comments

Do you remember my green thing from the other week? Well, I finally got around to finishing it off. It started off as a fine, wispy, flat piece with lots of commercial art yarns through the layers. I gathered it and stitched through to secure then re-wet and finished fulling it. I usually work them on bubblewrap and my felting board at this stage, but I just put it in the washing machine with a quick wash, and it came out pretty much the same. I did finish off the top between my hands though:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI thought it’d make a nice hanging decoration. This is a closer look:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love all the textures on these pieces with the yarns emerging through the wool and the surface embellishments:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou can see the ripples better from this angle:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe back looks good too:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERATalking about textures and emerging, this is a piece Cath made at the Well Being centre. She didn’t have anything particular planned, just wanted to make a piece without too much thought for the fun of it. Felt is great for that, it’s like a whole load of therapies rolled into one and great to lose yourself in for a while. She used some grey Merino, tassley yarn and some fabric strips:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA slightly closer look:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe fabric strips look different depending on their angle:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMore texture:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI did finally have a go on my spinning wheel last week, hopefully I’ll get a chance to spin some more and take some photos for next time 🙂

Making some progress and free give away reminder

Making some progress and free give away reminder

Comments 9 comments

I want to remind everyone you only have a few days left to enter the free draw for a spot in Terri’s Concertina Hat Class. The last day to enter is July 28. Just follow the link. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/07/16/online-felted-concertina-hat-class-with-teri-berry-in-august/

I finished my triangle scarf this week.

The wool side

finished orange and purple shawl wool side finished orange and purple shawl wool side close

The silk side

finished orange and purple shawl silk side finished orange and purple shawl silk side close

There wasn’t that much shrinkage as it is very cobwebby on the wool side.

I finished the prefelt for the building on a Picture I am working on.

prefelt for picture.

I cut some circles to make little earbud pouches.  Sorry I can’t right now remember who had this great idea to use scrap piece for felt for this. I want to keep my square credit card reader in one.

circles for pouches

I made 2 pieces specially to cut up.

felt for cutting1 felt for cutting1 close angle felt for cutting 2 felt for cutting 2 close angle

I love the way the silk throwsters waist seems to hover on the felt even though it is well attached. The blue one isn’t firm enough so I will rewet it and full it some more.

I also started 2 more. I laid the wool out first. The first one I used on large piece of silk  on top . I added the roving so you could see the colour. I wanted something a little more “masculine”.

peice for cutting dry

The other one I want more texture from the silk so I had to wet the back ground so the silk would stay where and how I put it. I then added some synthetic yarn and put tiny amounts of wool to bridge it and hold it down.  I really like how it looks so I think I will make a scarf in the same design. It is very dark in the picture because it is wet.

peice for cutting 2 wet peice for cutting 2 close angle wet

So that’s been my week in felt.  I hope you have been able to play with some fibers too. Don’t forget to enter the draw for a free hat class.

Texture With Natural Wools

Texture With Natural Wools

Comments 8 comments

It was interesting to see Marilyn’s 3rd Quarter Challenge last week about creating/adding dimension to our felt projects, we’d just started exploring dimension and texture at the well being centre’s wet felting and fibre group. The piece I made last week doesn’t really qualify as it’s something I’ve done before, but I thought I’d show it in case it gives a bit of inspiration for someone else.

We started with a couple of ‘regular’ thickness layers of medium coarse wools, like English 56 or Texel. I used a blend I’d made from some Botany lap waste and donated wools. We then added some ‘filling’ to help bulk our pieces out, mostly some scoured Norwegian lambswool and some unravelled aran knitting yarn (80% wool, I think). Then we added a couple of thinner layers of Merino, roughly the equivalent thickness of one coarse layer, we did two finer ones to keep even shrinkage. We topped them off with different silk embellishments like hankies, silk noil, cocoon strippings and ‘schappe silk‘ which I got from wollknoll. We started felting as usual, and once it was felted, we sewed running stitch across in different places, then pushed the felt together to ‘ruche’ it and form ridges. Then we finished felting a bit more and fulled it until it was as firm as we liked. Then we removed the sewing thread. This is how the back of mine looked:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the front:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is it the other way around:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI had to take some photos along the surface of course, this is from one end:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this is from the other end, it’s funny how it looks different rotated:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYesterday we had a bit of a play-day using the different natural wools and fibres. It’s not the best place for photos, in the basement with unusual lights, and these are all still wet. This is Louise’s piece:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is Ruth’s, she was pointing out the cotton nepps while we were talking about them:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALyn has made a design on her piece so was still working on it, but it’s rude to leave her out!:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd mine, I used some Ryeland which I think Leonor sent, so it’ll be interesting to see how that dries:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOne of the other art/craft groups at the centre is doing something about nature with a local school, and we might join in with that, so our dimension and texture exploration might have a bit of a nature theme over the next few weeks.

Batts and Roving

Batts and Roving

Comments 22 comments

The last time I did a World of Wool order, I got some Botany Lap Waste. If you’ve not heard of this it’s basically a huge bin they have at WoW, where they put the left over tops from the ends of carding runs, and when you order some they grab 500g out of the bin and you get what you’re given, but it is cheaper than Merino or blends and sometimes you get a lot of the luxury fibre like yak, alpaca etc. This time it seemed I got the ends of someone’s bizarre order of various greys, including what looked like natural grey Merino blended with trilobal nylon (why?!) I don’t know why they can’t have a ‘neutrals’ choice for browns, greys etc. The rest of my bag was a kind of dyed steel grey Merino,  some green Merino which looked like it was their Gooseberry shade, and some pinky pale lilac I didn’t recognise. I carded them all up into batts then put them through again with other Merino to make some blends. I put the lilac through with various shades of purple and a few blues. Then I used a diz (a brass picture hook with 3 holes) to make roving:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI made another batt with the same colours, but added some orange, pinks, yellow, red, and some brighter blues:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is what the roving looks like unwound:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI put the gooseberry batt through with some green shades and light/bright blues. I meant to make roving, but forgot, so I might put it through the carder again. One side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe other side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI put half and half gooseberry and grey through the carder, and made roving:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhen I was putting the batts and blends away in my Workshops Supplies tubs, I discovered some other odds and ends from when I did MakeFest last year. I might blend some of these greens with half the gooseberry batt I forgot to card:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI found some gorgeous (even if I do say so myself!) texturey batts I’d forgoten I’d made too. I might have to save these for when I get a spinning wheel to make some texturey yarn!:

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Landscape and Nuno

Landscape and Nuno

Comments 21 comments

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I hadn’t had time to felt my demo piece when we did landscapes at the well-being centre. As well as the general layout, I was showing ways of using some different fibres, like cotton, nylon, plastic and even mohair for effects in the sky, and how to tease apart and fluff up texturey wools or dyed nylon for adding depth and texture. I didn’t really give much thought to how it would look, just showed them all and then piled them on. All I can say is, the locks look nice 🙂  The patch of wool and nylon to the right looks like some green bodied, red headed creature looking over its own shoulder!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI took some fabric strips with me to the wet felting classes the week after for some experimenting. This is the piece I made:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI thought I’d make a bigger sample trying out more of the fabrics. Before I go back to the other well being centre, I want to get a better idea of which fabrics attach securely and will hold up to being handled a lot, which might need some stitching to secure and which will be better for more decorative pieces. This is the whole piece:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd here are some angled photos to show better how they attached and their texture (or not in some cases), left side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMiddle pieces:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERARight hand side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI still have a few more strips I want to try, hopefully I’ll get a chance later this week.