Sampling

On my last post I showed a nuno felt piece I'd made using various wool tops I got in a recent bag of Botany Lap Waste from World of Wool. It became obvious that not all were Merino or even 100% wool, so I thought I'd try some samples. The first one is the kind of Royal Blue from the back of the nuno piece. I'd had a feeling at the time it might not be Merino, but it's surprising how different various tops can feel and even look when you use lots of different ones together, even when they're all 23 mic Merino. I know sometimes it's because they're old and a bit dry, but I think it has something to do with the dyes too:

The staple length was really long, and it wasn't exactly coarse, but wasn't as soft as Merino, so I'm guessing it's Corriedale. This is on an angle:

Some other tops I got were obviously not Merino or Corriedale. I'm going to guess at Shetland, because WoW don't do many different breeds of dyed tops, and because it looks similar to some green Shetland I got:

It looks different on a different background:

You can see on the close up it's coarser and hairier than the previous one:

I don't think I used this next one on my nuno piece either, but it was very similar to the turquoise I used on the back. It was obvious straight away that this was never going to felt:

It's just two very loosely holding together layers, holding together more by tangling of a few fibres rather than felting, I think, slight angle:

It's not even pretending to hold together at one end, where it started to 'drip' when I held it up wet:

And this is what it looks like at the window:

This was the turquiose sample. It was the lighter blue stripes on the back of the large piece, and I used it in patches in a couple of places. Not surprisingly, it felted, or didn't felt, in exactly the same way as the purple sample I tried:

It even separated at one end like the purple piece did:

This is how it looked at the window:

I don't know what these tops could be, the only similar experience I've had to this is trying to felt Suri Alpaca locks, but they did at least stay together, if loosely. Superwash has been suggested, but I don't think they do dyed Superwash or put it in the Botany Waste. Before I tried felting any of the Botany Lap waste tops, I'd tried spinning some. It was only the 2nd time I'd used my wheel, so thought the trouble I was having was beginner's issues and also because I was trying tops. My first attempt had been from blended batts I'd drum carded and was much easier. I'd always planned on using the spun yarn for weaving anyway, so used some on one piece:

I've separated them all now for spinning and to try using them as I would embellishment fibres. If you're interested in embellishment fibres, have a look at The Felting and Fiber Studio today for a giveaway of my e-book The Right Fibre.

Nuno Felting

After I made my sample/reference nuno pieces recently, I thought I'd make some larger nuno project pieces. I've got quite a few pieces cut or torn, in various sizes and made a start with a piece of a woven pink scarf I got from a charity shop. I always put far too much effort into choosing the colours to go with the fabrics, you can't tell, but the felt under the scarf actually has 3 different shades of pink, plus a few wisps of turquoisey blue:

I thought the pink scarf and this next piece would make nice coin purses, though I'll probably use just a plain piece of felt for the inside section of the coin purse. This is a piece from a spearminty peacock scarf:

It has great ripples, this is a closer view:

I've also made a couple of camouflage inspired pieces lately. I think it must be one of my favourite 'themes', I know I've made a camouflage hat and drawstring bag, a shoulder bag, a notebook cover or two, and a felt cuff and coin pouches (I still use that one in the photo, 4 years on). Maybe it's because I really enjoy doing  felt layouts, choosing all the colours of wool and embellishment pieces. This first one uses some strips from a camouflage patterned silk scarf:

Here's a close up of one half:

This next piece took a lot longer to lay out, it has patches of cotton gauze, the camo silk, cotton scrim, cheesecloth and some muslin my friend Ruth dyed and sent to me:

Close up of the centre:

I got a small kids' weaving loom not so long ago, and finally had a go recently. One of the things I tried was pencil roving waste from World of Wool. I've tried weaving and felting with it before, but had to do it 'freestyle', this was the post about it: https://feltbyzed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/pencil-roving-mats.html I think it was a bit 'closer' using the loom, and I left the edges longer, but it looked pretty much the same really:

Looking at it on an angle:

And close up:

 If you've always wanted to try nuno, but feel a bit daunted and don't know where to start, I have an e-book called 'Beyond Nuno'. Nuno is more than a bit of Merino on a silk scarf and doesn't have to look a certain way to 'work', all the info is on this page here: https://feltbyzed.blogspot.co.uk/p/e-books.html

Landscapes and Nuno

Ruth did a post on The Felting and Fiber Studio just over a week ago about a landscape tutorial on the Start2 website. I hadn't come across that tutorial before and thought Ruth's paintings were brilliant, so having been stuck in a recliner for a week and half with flu, I was itching to do something creative so gave it a go. I had some thick but cheap sketchbook paper and also a variety of printer paper samples to try it on. This first one is the sktechbook paper:

And this is the textured printer paper sample:

They need flattening and cropping. I was disappointed they weren't as nice as Ruth's, but if I'd seen them before Ruth's I'm sure I'd have been more impressed :) I wish I had the artistic skills to add to them to improve them. I'm at least going to look for a white gel pen. I don't think I've mentioned Start2 here before. It's a creative well-being site which is great for activities which get your mind working and your creativity flowing in ways you might not have tried before. I did a post about it on the Studio site just before Christmas: http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2015/12/17/creative-well-being-site/

In my last post I mentioned I hadn't had time to felt my demo piece when we did landscapes at the well-being centre. As well as the general layout, I was showing ways of using some different fibres, like cotton, nylon, plastic and even mohair for effects in the sky, and how to tease apart and fluff up texturey wools or dyed nylon for adding depth and texture. I didn't really give much thought to how it would look, just showed them all and piled them on. All I can say is, the locks look nice :)  The patch of wool and nylon on the bottom right looks like some green bodied, red headed creature looking over its own shoulder!

I took some fabric strips with me the week after for some experimenting. This is the piece I made:

I thought I'd make a bigger sample trying out more of the fabrics. Before going back to the other well being centre, I wanted to get a better idea of which fabrics attach securely and will hold up to being handled a lot, which might need some stitching to secure and which will be better for more decorative pieces. This is the whole piece:

And here are some angled photos to show better how they attached and their texture (or not in some cases), left side:

Middle pieces:

Right hand side:

I still have a few more strips I want to try, hopefully I'll get a chance later this week.

Nuno Weaving

I got the idea to do this woven nuno felt piece after my pencil roving mats. I've done similar things before, you've probably seen them if you have Beyond Nuno, but I think I used a lot more strips on this one. I didn't get as big a variety of 'feltedness' as I thought, most of the strips just felted quite firmly, but I did use two 'regular' thickness layers of Merino, which I actually laid out after I wove the strips.

You can see more texture on this angled photo:

Close up 1:

 Close up 2:

Close up 3:

If you're interested in making your own unique buttons for your feltwork, you might be interested in an e-book I wrote a while ago 'Polymer Clay Simply Made'. It was previously only available from my etsy shop, but since I had to pay for a hosting upgrade, I thought I'd add that too, so you can now buy it from the info page on the blog :)

Nuno and Bamboo

I found time last week to make a notebook cover from the bright flowery nuno piece I recently made. The finished felt piece turned out bigger than I'd expected and I did play with the idea of making a passport style shoulder bag. Maybe if I'd had a nice button or some Delrin clips I would have, but in the end I thought a book cover would look nice. This is the front:

And this is the back:

I usually leave the natural felt edges on the inside front flap, but when I worked out the best position of the felt for the cover, it ended up on the inside back :

So the 'neat' cut edge is on the inside of the front.

I've been mostly working on some ideas using natural wools and fibres recently. As much as I like nuno and brightly coloured Merino, the natural shades of wools and fibres and the different textures and properties of the wools and fibres and how they work together is a bit of an obsession for me :) I made a few pieces with different bamboo fibres this week. Some were just samples as I worked out the crinkles of ideas and played with the fibres to get the look I want. This is a sample piece I made using black bamboo blended with black merino:

This piece worked out just how I imagined and wanted it. It's 18.5 mic Merino with bamboo staple fibre for subtle shiny texture:

What have you been working on lately?

Mixed Media Book Cover and Camera Case

As much as I really liked the mixed media piece that I made last week as it was, I did want to make something out of it. I made sure the piece of fabric I worked on was big enough for a book cover, but the finshed piece was too thick for that. I turned it over, folded it, measured it, looked at it, thought about it, then decided I could make a book cover out of it if I cut it and used different felt for the inside flaps. So, more measuring, hunting for felt and sewing of felt to fabric. This is what the inside looked like before I'd quite finished the bottom edge:

And, this is what it looked like once all the edges were finished:

I'm not sure whether I prefer it with the red part on the front:

Or whether I like the blue better:

I had quite a good sized piece left over, and I actually really like the green part the best, so I thought I'd use it for a gadget/camera/phone case. This is one side:

And this is the other:

I really enjoyed making the mixed media piece and the cover and case, and I don't feel so odd for saving all the tiniest bits of felt scraps 'just in case' now :)

Sewing and Experimenting

I've been trying to continue with the things I learned during Ruth's challenge for getting 5 minutes of fibre time into each day. I don't always manage that and often end up with one or two days where I have a couple of hours fibre time, and 3 or 4 days without, but I'm organising my time better and having projects at different stages, ready to work on when I do have the time. On my desk I have a box of  felt pieces that have been measured and cut and are waiting to be sewn. I also have a box of part made up items; things like purses, glasses cases and coin pouches which have been sewn on the machine and are waiting for me to finish off with blanket stitch. These are a few of the purses at various stages, the blue ones just have the back pocket mahchine stitched into place, the white piece on the left has some stitching around the pocket edges, and the one at the front is just in need of a button and buttonhole.

This is one of the camera cases I've been working on. The gray fibre is carded silk carrier rods. I blended some of the silk 'fluff' with merino and used some for surface texture.

I mentioned on a previous post that I had one more felted piece using the pink synthetic fabric. It isn't really meant to be anything but an experimental piece, combining nuno techniques and using a resist. This is a compilation of images.

Another experimental piece I did was one using some crimped acrylic fibre that looks like a synthetic version of laps.

It produced a really nice effect.

I have managed to finish off a few pieces and must get them photographed for listing on etsy. This ring pouch is one piece I finished. I first made some heart ring pouches a few years ago so I had somewhere safe to put my rings and bracelets when I take them off for felting. I've made a few more for gifts. They're only small, about 2 inches high and 2.5 inches wide, this photo makes this one look huge!