Giveaway—Beyond Nuno PDF e-book

As a big Thank You for all the support I've had since I started felting and blogging, I'm giving away a copy of my new PDF e-book called Beyond Nuno on The Felting and Fiber Studio Site. It's all about using different fabrics in wet felting, why and how they felt the way they do, how different effects are achieved etc. I hope to show that there's more to nuno felting than just ruffled silk scarves and that it is possible to control the outcome of nuno felting. For more details you can read the blurb on Craftsy or the e-book page of this blog.

You don't need to do anything special to enter, just leave a comment on the Giveaway post post. If you'd like to spread the word through your blog or facebook etc, it would be very much appreciated but it isn't a requirement. I will randomly draw the winner 8 days from now on 4th March 2013, so please check back to the studio site to see if you've won and leave a comment on the announcement post so I can contact you with the download information.

Good Luck! :)

Cotton Gauze

Do you ever use lightweight cottons in your felting work? I’ve been quite busy lately working on my project of ‘other’ fibres and fabrics used in felting. I’ve been making a lot of felt pieces using lightweight cotton fabrics like muslin and cheesecloth. Another fabric I’ve used is Cotton Gauze, this is also known as ‘Scrim’, and I’ve used a couple of different types. This is some of the dyed pieces I have.

The gauze is really good for creating texture and effects. I’ve been making some large bold pieces to use for bookcovers.

I’ve also made some smaller pieces with resists, using the gauze for texture. This piece was for making into a pouch.

and this became a textured sculptural vessel

I’m starting to have a huge pile of colourful, texturey felt pieces all waiting to be made into something once the weather gets too hot for felting. This is a close up of a large piece I made for making a purse and matching mirror case out of.

The lightweight cottons also work really well for using in scarves and wraps instead of the usual silk. Do you use scrim or cotton fabrics in felting, or fibre art? How do you find it to work with? Have you ever dyed your own? (My hands are currently a strange shade after using red, blue and brown dyes this week!) I’d love to hear about your experiences with it and see photos if you have links :)

Dyeing Felt

After the Direct Dyeing post on The Felting and Fiber Studio site the other day, Shana asked if the same method could be used to dye already made felt. I'd heard about people dyeing finished felt, but hadn't tried it myself, so I had a go at dyeing a couple of recently made samples. They were both white merino, one with milk protein fibre, and the other with Egyptian cotton top. They turned out well for a first attempt. This is the sample with cotton top after dyeing:

If you'd like to see the full post showing the sample pieces before and after, click here. If you've tried dyeing felt/nuno felt etc, by any method it'd be great to see your results :)