Felting fun!

A couple of weeks ago, two friends and I gathered to make some felt. We started out with some samples of nuno felting. Nuno felting is the art of combining a fabric with wool fibre, which creates a very interesting textured felt. The cloth shrinks as the wool does and the strength the fabric adds to the felt, means you can lay out very fine layers of fibre in the design.

We had a lot of fun and this is what I produced.

The first picture shows what happens when you use sari silk. The gold border is too dense to felt and wouldn't shrink anyway, so I used it as a border. We later tried this as a scarf, with very pleasing results.

The second was a satin striped silk chiffon. I laid the fibre (merino) out as a border of poppies. the flower details became merged in the felting, but it has a nice feel to it. This technique will make a nice border treatment.

The harlequin effect evolved from adding organza squares on top of the fibre. It migrates through and traps the organza, which doesn't shrink, so it puffs out. I added some black embroidery to emphasise the shapes.

The last one was fibre laid out on very lightweight silk. The fibre was variegated. I like the effect of sunset on the water. The simple blue horizon gives that effect. I plan to embroider simple lines to suggest trees and their reflections. I like the way the silk peeks through like shifts in the water.