Thursday 7 March 2013

Scarf #4 (and 5 & 6)

My fourth scarf was a light and lacy featherweight with cobweb lace edges..

I was thinking of summer days and coastal walks :)  I wanted to blend lots of lovely blues; merino and tussah silk  with natural creamy white tussah.  Time to get the drum carder out :)  I picked the fibres and arranged them on my workbench in the order that they would go through the carder.


This is my first step when I'm making a variegated batt.
Starting on the right I feed each fibre through the carder, one on top of the other.
After the first pass through the carder it is a big layered 'sandwich'
I split the bat into 4 along the length.. then holding what was the top and bottom layer of the batt
I pull each strip gently apart to open up the layers
And feed it through the carder again (2nd pass)
These batts had 3 passes through the carder, I wanted them to be very subtly variegated.
For the third pass I peel thin layers off the batt and put it straight through the carder.  I drizzle extra silk straight onto the fibre on big drum in places where I felt it needed more silk or colour variation 
I wanted to felt the batts as they were, so I split them into very thin, even layers.. and layed them out in two perpendicular layers.  Around the edges I left a fringe of fibre that did not have a perpendicular layer over it.. that became the cobweb lacey border.

Laying out my wrap.  This was longer than my 8 foot table, so I had to wet it out, roll half of it up and move it along the table in order to finish the layout.
You know how the felting part goes :)  Here's the finished item

Wide enough to wear as a wrap / shawl
Fine enough to bunch up and wear as a scarf :)

I am so loving colour at the moment!


I really enjoyed blending my batts and felting from them.. not having done it for a while, so decided to make a couple more.  I had the painting  Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton stuck in my mind.. so of course you can guess the colours I went for :)


Looking back at the photos, I guess they're not all that Flaming June-ish.. but it satisfied my need to make something soft and flowing in similar colour :)

xx

10 comments:

Kerry O'Gorman said...

June can have lovely Flaming sunrises too...how lucky for you to have a drum carder. I need to make the perfect 'jersey cow brown' and figure this would be a good reason to have one.
The scarves are so pretty with that lacey border!

Unknown said...

Wow, maszyna jest fantastyczna. I twoje szale też są cudne. Taka letnia kolorystyka.

Patty Biermans said...

They are gorgious!!! Wish I could felt that thin. :)) hugzz....peebee

Jeany said...

GREAT GREATTTTTTTTTTTTTT, love it!!!

FeltersJourney said...

Thank you girls :)

Peebee.. it's just practice :) The felt on your lights looks lovely and fine.

Karolina I LOVE my drum carder :)

Kerry, I think the need for a Jersey cow brown is an EXCELLENT reason to treat yourself :)

xoxo

Becky said...

The subtelty of the colours in the blue scarf is beautiful. And I love the photo of the silk laid out on the merino before the felting - I always find that contrast of textures particularly satisfying!

Kelly said...

Sweet! I love all of them! The drum carder makes it so much fun to mix fibers!

FeltersJourney said...

Becky, I love seeing silk and merino tops together too, they look so pretty it's almost a shame to do anything with them :)
x
Kelly, I luuurve my drum carder :) I need to take a leaf out of your book and be more daring with what I add to my batts I think, get some really fun textural ones :)
x

Lyn said...

You really have captured the sea in the blue one - wonderful. I enjoyed looking at the carding photos! All those lovely blended colours. That's a big project to tackle, with regard to size of layout, but so worth it.

FeltersJourney said...

Thanks Lyn :)
Carding pretty batts and using them certainly takes the back-breaking element out of laying out big pieces that's for sure.
x