Other felting fibres

I've been trying out some of my 'other' felting fibres recently, making reference samples of how they look when used a few different ways on top of merino wool tops.

For this one, I used Soya bean staple fibre, a very short and crimpy fibre. The first row is a blend of merino and carded soya bean fibre. The second row is fluffed up soya fibre layed on the top of the merino, and the third row is some of the crimpy bits, separated and layed on top of the merino.

I used black viscose top for this sample. The first row is a blend of viscose and merino, the second row is fluffed up viscose layed on top of the merino and the third row is fine wispy viscose tops layed on top of the merino.

This sample tries out carded silk carrier rods. The top row is a blend of the carrier rod 'fluff' and merino, and the bottom row is fluffy wispy bits layed out on top of the merino base.

All the different fibres added interesting texture and shininess to the felt, and the viscose made the felt feel very strong without being too stiff.

New flickr group

There's a new flickr group called Fabric and Fibre Tips and Tutorials.

Hopefully this will be a great place to find info on a variety of things, from how to wash fleeces, dyeing wool and fibres, how to sew button holes and blanket stitch, to tutorials on how to make felted hats and slippers, making fabric bookmarks and postcards or which fabrics work well for machine felting or nuno felting etc.

Come and join and add your photos or post a discussion topic linking to your tips and tutorials on your blog or website.

I added my tutorial on How to make a wet felted vessel using a 3d resist