Thursday 4 September 2014

Bluefaced Leicester and Crimped Viscose Fibre

A couple of weeks ago, I made some felt panels using Yake fibre with Bamboo Staple Fibre, and Bluefaced Leicester with crimped Viscose fibre. This is the Yak piece with Bamboo:


I posted about it on the Felting and Fiber Studio site a few days ago if you want to read more, and I've been uploading my photos to Ipernity if you want to see better photos in more detail. Although Viscose top is very similar to Bamboo top, crimped Viscose fibre isn't quite so similar to Bamboo fibre. There are some similarities, for example the way the strands of fibre curl. Viscose is whiter in appearance than the creaminess of Bamboo, and bamboo appears shiner, catching the light on its crimp. I teased the viscose apart and laid it on top of the Bluefaced Leicester:


This is a close up of the area in the top left corner. I teased the fibres apart and 'fluffed' them up:


This is the area just to the right, I separated the fibres but tried not to lose the curly charecteristics of the strands too much:


This is the area just below, it is a bit denser, but you can still see the characteristics of the fibre:


Just below that is an area where the fibre is sparser, I separated the fibre, fluffed it up and laid it on quite thinly.


This is the area in the bottom right corner, I added some interesting, longer strands of the viscose fibre:


I took a couple of photos of the two pieces side by side for comparison. The Yak and Bamboo is on the left and the BFL and Viscose is on the right. You can see the differences from this one, the bamboo is 'fluffier',  and shinier, and the viscose is whiter and less 'compact'.


From this photo close up, you can see some of the similarities in the fibres' characteristics:


My new favourite fibre, Kapok:


It is so soft, you can barely feel it. I thought yak felt like a kitten's belly, this is twice as soft as that :)


2 comments:

  1. Hello Zed, I always enjoy seeing your fiber samplers. I think I like it when you lay out the fibers thinner. The look of the Kopak fleece is gorgeous. It looks very very soft. Have you used it yet?????

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    1. Thanks, Judy :)
      Yeah, I've used the kapok a few times now, it is really versatile, it seems to be like a mix of bamboo, cotton and silk noil in the way it felts, depending how it's used.

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