Scraps of silk become a fabulous scarf

I am doing a reasonable job of using up my silk scraps.  For months I used large saris to make scarves, coats, vests and jackets, but tossed the small scraps in a bin.  Here is how to use them up!

Lay out your scraps in a somewhat rectangular (scarf) pattern.  You can see some of the scraps overlap, but there are still gaps.  That's OK.

 Cover the edges with merino roving in thin long strands.  Where the gap is tiny, place roving from one side to the other over all edges.  Where the gap is large, make an intentional "negative space" by covering the edges, then criss cross strips of roving to hold it together.  Also decorate the large silk spaces with more roving, and silk, and other fibres.

 To make sure it all stays really well, I wet and flip the pirce and lay some roving on the other side to sandwich the edges between two layers of roving.    (here I skip photos of the wet, and roll, and roll, and roll, then hot water squish and throw...)

and here is the end result!  Several different pieces of blue sari, with cool intentional holes.

 One piece of sari had embroidery and beads, so I made sure not to cover that with wool.

Felted vessel... vase

I found a lovely shaped glass vase at the thrift store.  Then made a vessel with spikes (black and grey) and strands (brown and silk).  Cutaways and  nunofelt beaded silk sari fabric covered the surface.  After working it to a strong felt, I shaped it over the glass and used the strands to wrap the upper part tight to the neck of the vase.  I loved the result!

How to felt a large scarf on a small table....

I wanted to make a long nuno felt shawl.  As you can see it extends about 24 inches past the end of my table.  I used a long enough plastic wrap below and went ahead and started laying the wool roving and pre-felt details on the top half....

 Then I wet it down and covered it with half the top plastic.  After rubbing it a bit and making sure it was smooth with no air trapped there, I folded enough of the wet half over, to pull the dry half onto the table.  Now I can lay out the wool and details here.

 I pulled the rest of the plastic over the wet second half and smoothed it out.

 Carefully folding, I flipped the whole thing over and uncovered the first half (other side) to work a bit of merino on the flip side.  Then I covered it again and slid the second half up to do the same there.  All details in place and wet with soapy water.  Just had to roll up and beat it up a bit, and wash it out and dry....

 And tah dah!  A lovely long nuno felt shawl...

Felted vessels and a table runner

Two more vessels:  One stretched over a glass vase with branches reaching up.

 and one with five sides that I made some spikes to fit in the opening.  Cool, eh?

 The table runner is black merino, circled with natural curly locks, and decorated with grey dyed silk cocoons, and a bunch of spikes for the center piece.

 close up of the center spikes.

Summer felting

I decided it was too long to wait until Fall to do more felting workshops, and since my new studio is big and cool, even on summer days, I am running a few this summer.  The first was yesterday with three large nuno felted scarves.  Lovely black, grey, cream and white shawls, a full six feet long!

 The next will be in two weeks, and will be a vase shaped vessel.

 I have a glass vase as the shaper inside, and may keep it there so I can put cut flowers into this, but really it will stand on its own now that it has dried.

Anyone interested in joining a future workshop, email me, or as usual I am open to private custom workshops in the future, just ask.  One of my students is booking a multi day session, to make a winter coat (the ultimate felting challenge!).

Felted Hats and Teapot Cozies

 Here are a few photos of wet felted teapot cozies and hats.  This workshop is my third at The Fibre Garden.  Come visit and join a workshop while in the beautiful Niagara Region!

 A skeptical husband joined his wife in this workshop and made this stunning camo' beret.  It was still wet but he would not take it off as he left!

 This whimsical hat is molded to a plastic form on my plastic head.  The pins will hold the pleats until dried, then the shape will hold itself.

Wonderful Workshop Space!

 The past weekend was the first and second of many felting workshops held at The Fibre Garden in Jordan Village (Ontario, Canada).  It is a fabulous day trip destination for the GTA (greater Toronto area) and for points well beyond in Canada and the USA in the summer months.  We are talking Niagara Falls, wine country and unique villages and hiking trails.  Certainly worth a trip if you have never visited the region.

For any of you that would like to learn to wet felt, or learn a bit more challenging application in wet felting. consider a workshop here in your future travels!  It is easy to contact The Fibre Garden to get your name on a contact list for future workshops, or email myself and I will add you to the contact list myself.

The first one was a cute vessel technique birdhouse.  Seen in the first photo is my little Parrotlet, Aspen checking if the coast is clear as she makes her way to the hole in front.  She likes to climb in and out of my birdhouses.

 

Here is a photo of the front of the shop (still waiting for the bigger sign) with two students showing off their birdhouses. Yes, there are balloons in the birdhouse that stay to hold the shape while it dries.

And here are five more with their lovely finished birdhouses. 

For anyone with some felting experience that would like to do a more intensive workshop, say a     no-sew vest or a fully ambitious coat, I would be happy to discuss a private or semi private (single or with a friend) workshop at my home.  You would likely need two or three days, so plan to visit the area and explore the Niagara Region when you are not felting.  I find 4 - 5 hours is about maximum for the day, as it can be a lot of standing and reaching over your work.  Let's talk!

contact email is in the right side column of this post.

Birdhouse

Here is a quick photo display of the layout of a cute wet felted birdhouse.  First I laid out fine merino in black over a plastic resist.  I then placed some pre-nuno felt in black and white silk over the spot where the entry hole will be,

After wetting, I placed another small resist over the prefelt.

The spot is then covered with pink, and another resist (not pictured)

The other side is also decorated with prefelt.  A random spike is decorated with white roving, and some prefelt.

A few pink spikes are imbedded to the surface and wrapped in cling wrap.  A pink loop is added to the top of the birdhouse.  All over the edge fibres were smoothed to the other side, to completely enclose the large resist, and create a large open space inside the merino birdhouse.

Covered with plastic on both sides, you can see some of the extra white details.

Rolling the whole thing in a large towel, I can now toss it into the dryer to tumble it into a solid fabric.

After the dryer, I hot washed and tossed and shaped the birdhouse and you can see that the pink spikes and the black and white spike shows well.

The front shows a series of circular openings at the lower edge for the birds to move in. Its hard to see but the opening has three layers, with a black hole surrounded by a fabric ring, then a pink ring, then a black and white ring on the outside.

March Workshops

Birdhouses.....                                                                                                    

 Teapot Cozy.....

 Nuno Felt Scarves.....

Email me if you are in the Niagara Penninsula area (or want to be) for more details of workshops.

February and early March Workshops

In February and early March I will be hosting several workshops.  If you are in or near the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada, please consider visiting my Felting Studio and learning a new artform.

Slipper  Workshops are available Sunday Feb 12, 1-4:30pm, and Sunday Feb 26, 1-4:30pm.

Hat or Purses (same technique) Saturday Feb 18 and Saturday March 4, both 1-4:30pm

Cost for each workshop is $80 per person (large purse is $100).  Price includes all materials, tools and instructions , and you will have a finished project to take home at the end of the workshop!  Limit of 6 persons per workshop so reserve your spot ASAP ...  Contact me through the link above right.

Images of slippers, hats an purses :

Huge Felt Art "Poster"

Some of you may wonder how to make a picture out of felt.  This is a mini tutorial on the process of felt artistry.  I have found that prefelt works best, It will hold the shape of the cut without "bleeding" too much into the fibre beside the cut piece.  To that end, here are the three prefelt pieces that I made for this project... A "poster" of Niagara Falls, in a 1950's advertising style.
First is the waterfall itself, with streaky blues and greens.  Prefelt is a piece of felt worked to the point where it is well fused, but not shrunk at all.  You will want to have it join with more wool at the next stage.  I lay the fibre, then wet it with cool soapy water, then roll it for about 15 minutes.  Then open it and smooth it and let it dry.  No need to rinse out the soap, as it will be worked further.

 The next one is red fibre laid with red silk (nuno felt prefelt), to use as the lettering in the "poster"

 The third piece is the rock for the cliff that the falls is falling over.  Black and grey in a streaky pattern.

 As stated above, I rolled each to a flat single prefelt.

 So here is the layout... Very large, I started with cream as the base for the sky and the water, and taupe for the base of the rock and the walkway.

 Here is the rock, cut from the prefelt, laid in place, and the walkway defined by pencil roving and streaky taupe merino.

 Here is the waterfall, Niagara Falls from the Canadian viewing point, closest to the Falls. (Use the underground tunnels to get to this small "balcony" jutting from the rocks).

 Here I added loose fibre of white and blue for the sky, and white silk fabric for the clouds and the mist.  Silk fibre also edges the mist and accents the falls.

 Stylised letters announces the Falls. Cut from the red nuno felt prefelt.  The railing is cut from the black and grey prefelt.

 The tourists are cut from the black prefelt.  A camera will be embroidered into the hands of the standing tourist.  It is Pre-Selfie days!

 Then I rolled and rolled and rolled, then hot and cold baths in my kitchen sink.

Final photos to come!!! The final size is 3 feet by 4 feet!