I have been swimming in ideas for felting for the past few months but have been soooo busy working on my barn that I have not allowed myself time away from that project to make fiber art. Consequently, when I have rainy days I go a bit crazy having fun with making beautiful textile things.
I warmed up my skills on Wednesday with a couple simple scarves. One a neutral blend of creamy whites and earth tones, fancied up just a touch with a short fringe of natural wool locks. The other a bold combination of bright red, grey, and black, with a touch of white tencil running through the grey. I made the fringe uneven for a more interesting effect.
On Thursday I wanted to try making a larger piece, a shawl, and incorporating some elements other than wool and silk fibers. I used a vintage piece of lace table cloth that was not usable as it was with a stain and a hole, and I also found some silk material in my stash of silks that has a crinkle cloth texture to it which turned out very well and felted easily to the wool.
Lastly, I finally dug out some of the sari’s I bought last year when I went on a sari buying spree for nuno felting, then got too busy to do anything with. I have learned that not all sari’s are going to be good for felting because many are made of stiffer silk fabric, and have less texture for the tiny wool barbs to hook onto. I did have several sari’s that would be good for felting, however, and I looked at the possibilities. I chose a sari that was soft and lightweight and had a texture I thought would work, and had beautiful colors. I felt like I was in total experiment mode, but I love the results. Sometimes I don’t think it’s possible to ruin felting, though I can’t really say that, I’ve done it before!!
One big mistake I made was microwaving the sari as I was in the process of felting it with the wool. There is gold thread in the weave that was fine when it was very wet, but once the felting piece started to dry out, it burned a few little holes in the material, which I had to felt over to cover and hold together.
John showed up last night, a day early (he likes to surprise us) and we have been working on the barn all day today. I was burned out on felting after two straight days of it anyway, so working outside in the fresh air is a good shift of energy.
