Saturday 17 July 2010

Felting Silk ?

Felting with Silk Fibres
Are you having trouble making your silk 'stick' ?

Silk fibres are long and smooth and triangular in shape. This makes them slippery and gives them lustre.
Wool fibres are made of layers of 'scales' which cause them to be dull and allow the fibres to shrink.
This diagram from 'Chemistry of the Laundry' is a magnified sketch of
a) Wool  b) Mohair c) Cotton d) Silk e) Linen

The fibres with more surface texture, felt better than those with smooth surfaces.
If you can imagine meshing these wool and silk fibres together, it is fairly safe to say the only ones with real grip will be the wool fibres.
So, when you decorate with silk, the trick is to place down your silk and then lay down a very fine cobweb of wool over the top to 'anchor' the silk fibres into place.
(Nobody sneeze or move quickly or you'll blow it away !)
But beware, too much wool cobweb will suck the silk into the wool and you will lose the silk's lustre.

These silk roses are nuno felted onto cotton voile.
The rose was a circular twist of silk.
The ripple effect has been caused by the wool fibres pulling and anchoring the silk on the surface into place.





Sunday 30 May 2010

Felting Slippers


Felting Slippers
for Me !


I decided my feet are cold enough (especially early morning)
to make a pair for myself.
But, since I've used most of my natural corriedale fleece
on the last pair and I'll need the rest to finish my Medusa,
I've decided to try some dyed corriedale fleece
I had bought for needle felting.
The results are quite different ...
fluffy and took a long time to come together. 

... and it's BRIGHT blue ... but I think I can live with that!

I laid out some light blue corriedale and silk paper flowers...

then laid out the sole...

wet it down, wrapped it over and the felting began ... 

THEN I HEARD
A SNUFFLING SOUND ...

It had been raining and it was cold,
so I had let our husky inside on her mat.
I turned around and there she was 
- a mouth full of freshly carded fleece from my work room.

"Uh - Oh" ... she dropped the fleece and sat quietly,

 looking at me as if to say
"What fleece? ... Who did that? ... It wasn't me !"
I have seen this face before ... but I have to love her !

  I felted, rubbed and rolled, I cut the opening for my foot,

rubbed and rolled some more, turned them in the right way
... and rubbed and rolled some more
and when I had no fingerprints left ...

this was the result

 ... made with love

to find more information on how to make your own pattern 
visit Pat Sparke's site !


Thursday 27 May 2010

Felt Slippers ...


Felt Slippers ... a Birthday present - a perfect gift for this cold weather.


AND ... he likes them ... !

Thursday 20 May 2010

Amazing Felted Cushions !

I stumbled upon this blog.
 ... Look at these cushions !
What a huge job.
What a great idea!

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Hello again . . .

I've been away for a while - to quote an old friend
"Sometimes life just gets in the way !"

Christmas has come and gone, 
the children are back at school, had school photos taken and there are Easter Eggs in the stores.
Blink and the year will be over.

Better late than never - I'm posting my mischievious Christmas Elf and Christmas Tree I made last year.

What is felting?

"FELT" The Essential Macquarie Dictionary meaning:

"A non woven fabric of wool, fur or hair matted together by pressure"

Fibres can be manipulated with the use of soap, water, friction and heat variations ..........or the use of barbed needles to create many interesting, practical and wearable things.

About Me