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And then it all went wrong.

And then it all went wrong.

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I have been making some tea cozies  ready for fall shows. While I was having a visit at my friend Maureen’s I came across one of her samples and used it for inspiration for texture on a tea cozy.

the inspiration.

I really liked the contrast of the orange and the blue and the purple silk on top. I picked 2 shades of orange and 2 shades or blue and laid them out separately.

layers ready to felt

I wanted a different shape to the cut outs and some movement across the piece. I cut the resists out of some thin floor underlay.

side one

I wrapped the orange around the resist and wet it down before adding the resist for the texture. I then added on the blue piece, wet it down and flipped it.

side two

This is the second side with the resist in place.  It all looked very promising. I spent a lot of time rubbing this piece, especially in the holes of the resist. When the whole thing started to shrink I decided to cut out the resists to continue fulling. The first cut out wasn’t so bad

side one cut close up

They cut out but they are just barely attached. Then I did the other side. That is when it all went wrong.

side two cut

Most of the pieces were not attached at all. I think the problem is the resist was to thick and the holes were to small. I have all the pieces so I think I will needle felt them on and then finish the fulling. I was disappointed but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Bubble Hat

Bubble Hat

Comments 25 comments

Last time I showed you a bubble hat I was making http://wp.me/p1WEqk-2za after it was felted it looked like this

purple before bubbles

and the inside like this

purple before bubbles inside

Next I added the bubbles using felt balls for the ones that stay in and marbles for the one I will cut.

IMG_1981bubbles inside

Then I cut the bubbles and you can leave them but I stretched them to so more of the colour inside the bubbles.

bubbles closebubles finished 2

I didn’t get a picture of it finished . I thought I had but it was one when 2 hats had the bubbles but where not cut. It will give you an idea.

hats with bubbles

If I can I will take a picture of them at the show today and edit it in. They may already be sold, I can’t remember.  I know I sold some of the bubble hats.

I did just manage to get a picture of the hat. is sold about 1/2 hour later.

finnished hat 2 finnished hat

 

Cheese cloth Nuno Felt Experiment.

Cheese cloth Nuno Felt Experiment.

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.

gauze on black
gauze on black
gauze on white
gauze on white

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.

first two samples first two samples wool on

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

purple gauze ready to felt purple gauze 2 ready to felt

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

purple gauze finished purple gauze 2 finnished close

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

green gause finished close orange finnished orange 2 finnished

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.

 

 

 

Fiber — An Adventure in Textures

Fiber — An Adventure in Textures

Comments 30 comments

Hi, I’m Marilyn.  I’ve recently accepted the invitation to be the fourth moderator of the Felt and Fiber Forum to replace Karen who left last year.

Paper sculpture "Change"
Paper Sculpture “Change”

As long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with textures—the grooved trunk of a tree, the delicate petal of a flower, the juxtaposition of smooth sand and a raging ocean wave.  I’m a hands on person and have reveled in creating textures in a variety of mediums involving fiber.

As a young girl, my aunt taught me to sew which was great since I was able to make my own clothes to fit since I had long arms and legs. Later, when I had two boys of my own, I made their clothes.

Throughout my young adult life I continued to sew, design clothes, crochet, embroider, knit, played with string art, quilling and macramé. I also was interested in drawing and watercolor.  But 3D texture was always the draw for me. And water. For many years I made paper, my specialty being textured paper sculptures. Of course, paper is fiber and requires water to process. I had wanted to be an artist, but coming from a practical family I was encouraged to go into business instead.

Stained Glass Vase
Stained Glass Vase

My college education was interrupted, but when I returned after my sons were born I waffled about my major. Most of my credits were in business so if switched to art I would have had to start over. My husband Craig gave me excellent advice. He was a marketing major in college and told me that no matter what career path I chose I would always have to market myself and a product. So marketing became my major.

It was more creative than I imagined and I was able to combine my knowledge of art and design as well as my love of writing into a career in corporate marketing.

I discovered felting when I retired a few years ago. It was instant love.  Like all of my other creative endeavors, I researched and learned on my own.  But now thanks to the wonders of the Internet and You Tube it was a much quicker and easier process.

Hand Stitched Eyeglass Case
Hand Stitched Eyeglass Case

When I found the Felt and Fiber Forum/Studio, I knew I found a home.  I’ve learned so much from the wonderful cyber collective of felt and fiber artists from across the globe. I enjoy the camaraderie and look forward to sharing my knowledge of art, marketing and my creations.  And, of course, continuing to learn and be challenged by all of you as well.

Apopka Lake, Florida
Apopka Lake, Florida
3rd Quarter Challenge Finished Pieces

3rd Quarter Challenge Finished Pieces

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I worked on my mixed media pieces for Karen’s 3rd Quarter Challenge this week. The first piece I worked on was the smaller board with lots of folded and creased scrim on. I started by painting the background with some blue shades of acrylic paint.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThen I layered lots of shades of blue and white, then finished with some details of black, white, yellow and red. This is the piece just after I finished, while it was still wet.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this is it when it is dried. You can’t really see the texture in the photo, but I’ve uploaded it to flickr, so you can see the texture of the scrim and the detail better.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHere’s a supermacro of a small part which does show some of the texture.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOften when I work with acrylics, I need to wipe off excess paint, so I keep a spare painting board nearby to wipe the paint on there. It makes a great base for another painting. This isn’t really part of the challenge, but I painted it just after the blue piece. It’s mostly the same colours, but in different amounts.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd a supermacro:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe second piece I worked on was the larger board with 2 layers of scrim. It did turn out the way I’d planned, but didn’t look as good as I’d imagined. I painted a light grey in the centre and dark greys around the edges. Then I covered some laser prints of artwork in Golden gel medium and stuck them face down on the surface. When they were dried the next morning, I wet them and carefully rubbed off the backing paper to reveal the prints. I covered in gel medium then painted reds, oranges, yellows and whites around the edges. I don’t think I got enough paper off the bottom print. I might carry on working on this, I think it needs something else.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASorry, Kaz, I couldn’t think of a way to add metal, there’s a little bit of silver acrylic paint on the blue one, though 🙂  Has anyone else made anything for the challenge?

Notebook Covers

Notebook Covers

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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:

frontSome 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:

backI 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.

inside AThis 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:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the back:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI really love the colours and the way the fabric rippled so nicely.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
SuperMacro texture:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’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!

Nuno Challenge Experiment One

Nuno Challenge Experiment One

Comments 21 comments

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.

 

 

Pink!

Pink!

Comments 15 comments

On my last post I showed you a sneaky peek of the ripples and ruffles of the nuno felted piece I made for Ann’s challenge. Well, here’s the finished piece in full:

pink nuno fullHere it is from another angle:

nuno rufflesIt’s kind of double-nuno because I started with some pieces of cotton gauze that I’d dyed a while ago. I wanted it to be extra sturdy to make a camera case out of it:

pinky gauzeI really liked how it turned out, so I thought I’d make a similar piece. I measured this one carefully to make a book cover out of it. I also added some wisps of orange, beige and white to the merino at each end to match the patterns and colours of the fabric.

nuno notebookYou can see the texture more from this angle:

nuno textureAnd of course, a supermacro close up 🙂

pink nuno flapsI have just one more piece I made from this fabric, but it is still drying.

Coppery Bronze Felt

Coppery Bronze Felt

Comments 19 comments

I hadn’t handmade any new felt for a few months until this week. I knew I’d have a spare couple of days for doing layouts and felting, so I went through my supplies and got a few things together. I wanted to make a texturey piece in coppers bronzes and metallic tones, so I chose some commercial art yarns, ribbon, silk tops and silk throwster’s waste in those shades:

metallic suppliesI also looked through my organza and found a few different gold shades:

organzaI mainly used a shade of Merino from World of Wool called ‘Rust’, but used a few other shades and blends aswell so it wasn’t too ‘flat’. I really like the way it turned out.

metallic feltI can’t resist a couple of Supermacro close ups of the texture 🙂

textureThis is one of the organza pieces.

organza textureAnother piece I felted yesterday was a nuno felted piece for Ann’s challenge. I found a quite gaudy vintage pink synthetic headscarf in my supplies and thought I’d make a piece using that. The weather was great yesterday: storm clouds, lightning, thunder, hailstone, but it kept going too dark to take good photos so here’s a sneaky peek at some close ups and I’ll post the whole piece soon. Ripples:

ripplesRuffles:

rufflesHas anyone else made anything for Ann’s challenge yet?

Felt bird houses are coming along and a fun demo.

Felt bird houses are coming along and a fun demo.

Comments 12 comments

Slowly the bird houses are coming along. They are now decorated, wet down.

birdhouse 1 birdhouse 2 birdhouse 3 birdhouse 4 birdhouse 5 birdhouse 6

They have been rubbed and rolled and stuffed into the tops of pantyhose. They are ready to full. With some luck that will be tomorrows job.

Two days this week I was at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show. I was demonstrating spinning with a few friends. I took some mixed batts I made buy collecting my odd bits together and running them through the carder. They have lots of colour and neps.

spinning batts

On day one I spun up 2 very bulky singles and one medium weight single in pinks.

wheel spun spools

Today I plied the 2 bulkies together. My wheel is not designed for such bulky yarn but with perseverance  and a few choice words under my breath I got it plied.

bulky being plied bulky plied

After that I was tired of pink so I switched to my drop spindle and the blue green batt.

sinndle spun blue spoindle spinning

I am afraid I don’t have anymore pictures that turned out. We were right in front of a big picture window that was a very nice spot but not good for taking pictures as you can see from the picture of me spinning.

I think I’ve done really well with working and playing with fiber this week. I hope I can keep it up.