Experimental Felting #3 Going BIGGER

Firstly apologies about any odd spacing in this post, or html type rubbish - blogger is having a mad one and after about 1/2 hour trying to get this look right - I'm giving up and going to cook dinner!

Its been a while.. but continuing the story of my experementation using the tumble drier as a tool to make nuno felting less back breaking..

My most exciting discovery was how brilliantly it worked nuno felting onto synthetic organza!  After the smaller sample piece I jumped right into felting a shawl...

Started by carding some lovely batts.. you cant really see it but theres loads of silk and a good sprinkling of firestar twinkling away in this :)

I laid it out on the floor 'cos it was 3m x 1 m..

Piece of plastic sheeting allowed me to add extra bits for the collar and bottom fringe detail (which I cut out part way through)

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Plastic wrapped & rolled in an old towel - tied up nice and secure. 

 I chucked it in the tumble drier on no-heat for 20 minutes

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After 20 minutes you can already see the organza starting to pucker.  Wrapped & rolled it up & put it in for another tumble

You can see  how well the fibres have come through the organza here - worked a treat!
This was after 50 to 60 minutes tumbling - which is all it took

Just to make doubly sure that the fibres were evenly through I gently ran a rubber-gloved hand over the organza side (this helps the fibres through)

Now it was time to get physical :) Heat, vigorous rolling & throwing you name it - I did it.  To finish I ran the wool side over my well soaped ridged plastic roller tray - this tightens the felt up nicely.

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Finished!

My dear friend & fellow Woolgatherer Brenda found me a torso for displaying shawls on :)  Isnt she a treasure?! 

So there you go thats my final 'Experimental Felting' post ..... until the next time I get curious

xx

Better late than never :)

Not many words today, just wanted to start sharing some pics.  I have finally taken photos of the nuno shawls made back in February..



Back view.  I dyed the silks used in this (cheated and brought the merino though)



Front view (all squashed together) You can just see the Indian chiffon pashmina I felted onto, its a shimmery chiffon & it looks really pretty the way it catches the light on all of the wrinkles and nobbles.



 Do you remember the dyepot goodies back in February? 



Here they are

Well you can finally see what I did with them :)

This is a keeper :)  My new summer shawl

I like the stripes on the inside.  I guess this must of been a silk blend shawl, as the dye didnt take to the white bits but took beautifully to the rest.

I actually really like both of these shawls.  Im trying to be firm with myself and put the pink on in my shop... I keep putting it off cos I like it.  I did find these very hard work, Im not sure if it was the fabric, maybe too densley woven?  Or maybe just due to their size.  I spent hours and hours - worked on each one over 3 days. 

I have just purchased a beautiful silk chiffon sari in pinks & burgundy.. trying to decide what to make with it - another shawl?  Some scarves? Or a dress (slightly more daunting prospect there as I have not made one before!)

xx

New shawls, pins & scarves

As promised (Im on a real roll here!) pictures of the scarves & shawls made from my own batts... and the pins I made to go with the shawls. So not much talking today... just pictures :)

The lampwork beads used for the pins are handmade by BlueBoxStudio

I LOVE this one!!! Its a sari silk extravaganza - lots fibres & ribbons. This is now on its way to a lady in the USA. :( sad to see it go, it was really pretty. I shall definately be making something similar for myself in the new year!

This green one is a Christmas pressy for someone who doesnt (to my knowledge!) read my blog...



And of course theres the purple one that I showed you yesterday...

I dont know whats the matter with me lately but I want to keep EVERYthing! Its really bad. I sat there at the fayre looking around at all the pretty colours and textures and I just wanted to take `em all home and put them on the walls or something... maybe Im entering a new stage of this fibre addiction... hoarding my goodies. Ah well, I suppose the answer is make 2 of everything, one to go & one to stay. Unfrtunately Id get bored with that! I find it impossible, to make any 2 things identical - there are just so many possibilities - why do the exact same thing twice?!

x

Twilight shawl

Hiya, just a quicky.. I wanted to show you the shawl I felted this week. I brought some batts from CorgiHillFarm on etsy... They arrived on Thursday this week & OMG they are so gorgeous! Look at all of this loveliness...
Within 20 minutes of them arriving I was felting them :) I really love the shawl that Ive made with the top batts (the reds are for next week).

This morning I made a hammered a copper wire pin to go with it...

Have a great weekend xx

Day of Felt wrap

Ive managed to take some photos & thought I would share them with you :o) This is my wrap for the Day of Felt - 3rd Oct 09.

Here it is looking much more elegant without me on the photo

Im thrilled to bits with this wrap - its just what I wanted. Its felted from merino fibre in shades of red, orange & gold with golden silk fibre felted in for luck! It was also my first large scale cobweb felt project and I really enjoyed it! So much infact that I have since made another 2 of these lovely wraps... Ive just listed the Woodland Wrap on etsy; gorgeous greens - I love it!

Having a bad hair day!