Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Needle felting, nuno felting, and wet felting my first vessel

 Above and below.....(waiting for my BF to entertain them with some guitar rock solos), are my latest needle felt friends . A mix of merino, mohair and alpaca are fast becoming my favorite ofr making animals . The mohair and alpaca add a nice "hair" look to very tightly felted sculptures . They aren't snuggable and fluffy but they are durable , hold the detailing well and are easy to clean so I guess there is always some trade offs in life .
 Below is another of my "I know it's just yarn but they feel and look so cool to me" jewelry obsession . I used a mix of handspun and "fun fur" novelty yarns . All are super soft blends of merino and silk with a dash of synthetic for sparkle . I make them similar to my braided roving bracelets substituting about 20 strands of the yarn for the roving and braiding and needle felting the same way . They are much softer then the roving bracelets, less structured and with even more stretch, so slip on conveniently . Perhaps no one else will dare the fashionestas and wear yarn instead of precious metals and stones, but I love the way these feel against my wrists .
 Below are two very similar cobweb/nuno felt scarves . They are both a base of orange merino tencel with different blends of turquoise, green and a bit of red silk bells . As most felters know, it's almost impossible to capture the detail of the texture and shine of the fibers ....at least using a cheap camera and poor lighting...but if you click on the pictures it will show a bit more of the detail .




 Below is one of the 2 table toppers I worked on last week . They are both a mix of just about everything . I like the different effects you can get mixing wool. alpaca, mohair and silk .
 This is as large a piece as I can make with the limit of my table space . I added several layers os it's far more durable and thicker then the cobwet scarves and I would feel safe throwing it in a warm water wash and 20 min in dryer then air drying for cleaning . The nice thing about felted wool is the one thing you usually worry about....shrinking and felting....have already happened .
 This shows close up of the silk bells over the wool....I love working with silk .
 Not sure why, but the below table topper reminds me of something from the 50's . I had designed this as the "top" with the bits of different colored mohair on top of the greenish-yellow wool base and brown edging.....sounded kind of springy but I'm not thrilled with the result...not my colors for sure .

 I much prefer the "bottom" of peachy-orange colors .That is one advantage to making two different sides....increases the chance that you will like at least one of them . I made this table topper "peanut shaped " and am considering sewing it into a purse....will see .
 Below is my first attempt at a vessel . It certainly is more "free form" then some professional felted vessels I've seen and though it stands OK, it's not as hard felted as I wanted . On the up-side, the softness did allow me to add a needle felt "pod" and I may add a few more and then rewet felt the whole thing . All in all, a good learning experience and I will try and take pictures of the process if I attempt another .
 ....and that is about it as Max says it's time to pay him a bit more attention and stop this incessant felting .

3 comments:

  1. I love your mostly green table topper...gorgeous colours! And your bracelets look wonderful.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails