Wet Felting Workshop - Spikes and Craters

So today I attended a wet felting workshop with felt maker, Jenny Pepper. It was a lovely day, which was lucky, as I travelled to Scarborough for it.

The first thing we did was laid out three layers of Merino wool and created a pre-felt.

This is Liz creating her prefelt.

This one belongs to Jenny who came all the way from Cumbria, somewhere near Hadrians Wall.

Jenny (the tutor) helping Liz out with her prefelt as it was quite thick and she needed to add more soapy water.

This was one of Jennys samples showing a few different techniques that I wanted to try.

We each created a base and then stopped for a bite of lunch. I just went with a plain cream. Jenny gave us a demo of how to create the different craters and spikes and flaps and then we had a play on our own pieces using the previously made prefelt.

We used the prefelt as it has still got some felting life left in it, so it will adhere easily to the background piece which was just laid down (3 layers), wetted and left until we needed to use it.

The after much rubbing and rolling and more rubbing and rolling and hot and cold water shocks x2 finishing with cold and rinsing out and cutting and sealing the cuts, this is what I ended up with.

I love how it came out, I forgot to say about the spikes on the bottom, they were the last thing to be felted after everything else had been wetted out and rubbed.

 

And this is how Carols turned out. I didn't get a photo of Jenny's and Liz's finished pieces as they left pronto, as their lifts had arrived before I got chance.

Had such a lovely day and my piece is now drying in the airing cupboard.

Felt United - Textures

Over on the Living Felt Facebook page, Marie is asking for contributions to the above. There are certain rules you have to follow, but not many. Has to be square or rectangular, no side bigger than 16" or smaller than 4". One colour family and has to have texture, as that is the theme.

As it can be wet felted, I decided to see what I could do. I rummaged through all my boxes of stuff and pulled a few things out to try.

About two hours later I ended up with this. I wasn't that happy with it to start with, but once it had started to dry a bit the textures started to appear. It ended up being 15" by 9" approx.

The silk really ruckled up when it was drying out creating some great texture.

This was a long lock that I twizzled round and stuck in a heap.

This was cotton scrim, which again eventually created some ruffles.

Another piece of silk.

Not really sure what this is but it's like big baubles of wool on a string.

And this is piece of textured material, it's like the mulberry bark paper, but it's a material.

Shall be posting it off to the USA this weekend.

Wet Felted Bag Workshop

So today found us in a different location for our wet felted bag workshop with Dawn of Dawn Allen Fibre Artist. Lin and Chris had just arrived and were getting settled in with a cuppa.

Dawn explaining to the group what a resist is, how to use it and the types of material you can use for one.

In the morning we made a smaller tester piece to get a feel for the wool and the shrinkage values. First thing to do was decide what we were going to make and what size of a resist we would need.

Once we'd decided, we started to add the wool. For the first layer we used a Bergschaf batt, which I thought was gorgeous. You can see it in the photo above. 

This has two layers on each side and I added a random design on the front side using some locks and nepps.

Here you can see the locks on the bottom. I covered them to do the rolling as I did't want them to felt.

Lin decided to add colour to hers. The colours are made up using Merino wool, nepps and masham wool locks.

And Chris laying her design out again using Merino wool, locks and nepps.

Chris's landscape design.

Everyone adding the finishing touches to their designs before the wetting and rolling process begins.

Lin taking a photo of Chris finishing her design as Chris forgot her phone.

And then the rolling begins. This is where you get your exercise!

  

Testing and looking - is it done yet??? Dawn giving Sue a bit of advice.

Lin is happy with with how her piece has come out after, rolling, hot and cold shocking and wringing out.

Chris is still rolling to try and shrink hers down to mobile phone size. We then stopped for some lunch.

 

After our practice this morning we went for it and made a bag in the afternoon using exactly the same process and taking into account what we learnt from this mornings make.

The first thing we did was to make a handle for our bags. Then we covered each side of the resist using the Bergschat and for the second layer we used the Merino, locks and nepps again to create the design of the outside of the bag. 

Then more wetting and rolling to get the wool felted and to the required size.

Chris cutting the resist out of the felted wool.

Dawn showing Linda how to felt the raw edges once the resist has been removed.

Front of Dawn's bag, she added a bright pink flap to hers. I really love how she felted along with us.

This is the back of Dawn's bag.

This is the front of Sue's bag. She's just removed the resist and is felting the raw edges after making a cut.

Moving along the cut edges of the bag to seal them.

This is mine, I've just cut the resist out and seeing how the flap looks.

These are what Carol made. In the morning she made a phone case and in the afternoon a matching bag. 

Carol decided to add a bit of needle felting to her pieces.

For some reason I don't appear to have a photo of either Lin or Chris's finished bags.

When I got home I found something to stand in my bag whilst it dried so I could mould it to the bag shape that I wanted. Here it is standing on the draining board with an empty biscuit tin inside standing on a cooling tray to help it dry out.

Once they are properly dried tomorrow I will add the clasp and I may add some needle felting to them.

Thanks to all, had a fabulous day and learnt loads.

Geode #2

Now I have my batts I decided to try another geode but using a different technique. I scrunched up a couple of little carrier bags.

I thinned the batt out and added some white nepps and angelina fibres.

I covered them up with another secton of the batt. I should have actually just covered them with whisps of wool.

Next I put the bags in the wool and wrapped the wool around.

I continued wrapping and needle felted a bit along the way.

Next I laid out some white merino and added gold angelina fibres to it.

And ended up with about eight layers.

Wrapped it around the first layer.

And needle felted it on.

The third layer was a grey batt and again it was spread out and needle felted. I dunked it in a bowl of soapy water, squeezed it gently and put it inside the foot of a knee high tight sock and put it in the washing machine with my washing!!

The stocking had more or less felted itself to the sock so I had to be extra careful taking it off.

I cut it open with a knife and this is what I got. It's also fairly dry too.

And to finish, I added some beads.