Interesting Stuff on The Felting and Fiber Studio

We have a brilliant guest post on The Felting and Fiber Studio site this week from Zara Tuulikki Rooke. Zara lives in Sweden and mostly uses Swedish wool breeds in her felting. She's written a guide to some of the wool breeds and has photos and descriptions of the differences when they're felted the same way: http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2015/11/25/different-types-of-wool-from-a-swedish-felters-perspective/

 We've been running our online Wet Felting for Beginners classes for a while now, and recently decided to keep the class open with continual access to coursework and tutor support, to make it as convenient as possible.

You can read more about it on the Studio site, and there are still a few days to enter the giveaway to win a free class. And if you'd like to read a few testimonials from people who took the class, click on the photo below.

Trying Out Commercial Prefelt

A couple of weeks ago, Zoe from Heidi Feathers kindly sent me some prefelt samples to try out. I don't have a massive amount of experience with prefelt, I've made my own a few times for specific projects, and have tried a couple of thicknesses of plain white Merino prefelt as a base for a few things. We've talked about commercial prefelt on the forum a few times, wondering things like whether it keeps its shape well, is it thick enough to use for surface design, etc. I had no idea so I was looking forward to trying it out.
For the first piece I made, I used a couple of layers of Merino tops, then did a very basic 'weave' using strips of prefelt, silk  and cotton gauze:

I didn't do anything to the prefelt pieces, just laid them out. As you can see, the silk didn't attach to the prefelt in a couple of places because it is quite firm and there aren't any visible loose fibres.

In my opinion this is definitely a good thing, I'd much prefer a prefelt to be firm with definition, and for using with fabrics which might not attach easily, you can rough up the prefelt where you need it, using an old toothbrush or wire dog brush. For the next piece I tried out, I used the same 'mirror' idea from the Felting and Fiber Studio Challenge and repeated patterns either side of an imaginary line across the centre of the piece. I started with two layers of Merino for this too, then just cut a variety of oblongs, triangles and squares in matching pairs and added them to the top in a random reflective design.

I really liked the way this turned out. It gave me confidence that a more complicated pattern would work well, keep the defined edges and shapes without distorting.

The last piece I tried was just a little test using some scrap pieces. Left to right: Some geometric shapes; a piece that I rolled between wet hands; a piece I dampened slightly and coiled; a piece I twisted with some Merino top; a piece I twisted on its own; some very thin off cuts I laid out or twisted and another prefelt/Merino top twist.

I took this on an angle so you can see  there is some thickness to the shapes while still firmly attached.

Thanks a lot to Heidi Feathers for the prefelt! Heidi Feathers are today's Meet The Supplier guests on The Felting and Fiber Studio, and have a generous giveaway of a Complete Wet Felting Kit!

To enter, just leave a comment on the post there, then check back on the 5th June to see if you've won. Recipients of the prize must be in the UK because it is such a big prize and postage costs will be very high, but you can enter from anywhere in the world :)

Giveaway!

Sorry I haven't written a blog post for a while. I've just finished a  tutorial with everything you need to know to make a piece of flat felt and turn it into a book-cover with a flap closure and delrin clip. It took forever because I started toying with the idea of doing workshops and started working on updating and expanding my Wet Felting tutorial, and I also wanted to do the tutorial for making the book cover, and in the end I decided to combine them.

I thought I'd never finish, but I finally got it uploaded to the hosting site yesterday (hopefully, I did it right!) so I'm giving away a copy on the Felting and Fiber Studio. It's a 59 page PDF and has lots of different sections and loads of photos right through the whole process of planning, making a sample, laying out the wool and fibres, wet felting, cutting out the pieces, and sewing it together. For more details you can read the full blurb on my projects page.

 You don’t need to do anything special to enter, just go over to the Felting and Fibre Studio site and leave a comment on the post there. 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 6 days from now, on Thursday 27th February 2014, so please check back on the 27th to see if you’ve won, and leave a comment on the announcement post so I can contact you with the download information.

 Also ... together with the tutorial, I am giving away a custom 'Project Pack': enough wool, fabrics and embellishment fibres to make a sample and piece of felt big enough to make a cover for an A5 notebook ( they're about 21 x 15cm or 8 x 6") a delrin clip and embroidery thread. I'll make up the wool batts to your specifications, whichever colour theme you want, which embellishment fibres to blend in, some texturey wools if you like, etc.

I'll even do a pink theme if you like ;)
http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2014/02/21/giveaway-2/

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! :)