Showing posts with label Wool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wool. Show all posts

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Oceanic Felted Wrap

This is 'Oceanic', one of my latest creations.   I've used a hand-dyed Merino wool and silk blend (70/30%) with a ribbon border which has almost ruched the edges - I'm going to experiment with more ribbon on other pieces - I like how it has turned out but its so different to how I imagined it - the wool felted beautifully but I imagined it would be lighter in colour than it has turned out - I know what I saw when I laid it out, but when it felted it seemed to be 'concentrated' somehow - its very soft.  This one took around 6 and a half hours to make. 

Monday, 10 May 2010

Soft Silk and Merino Wrap

This one has so much silk in it and is beautifully soft; the colours are a bit of a departure for me but the deep dark berry colours work well with the shiny gold silk; its also a fairly thin piece which means it will have warmth without bulk.   This took around 7 hours to make and will form part of the wrap and scarf collection on the site when I get round to it.  

Thursday, 6 May 2010

Joy Felted Scarf

Here's a thing.   I thought I'd make a stripy layered scarf in merino wool, silk and collected fibres, which is fine as the idea goes.   And I thought I knew better than anyone else.  

When I felt a scarf I lay down about four separate layers of wool which, once I start working them, intermesh - wool has these microscopic scales or spines which latch on to each other - so the scales, the water and soap, the movement of the hands over the wool and eventually later on in the process, the hot water then the cold cause the wool to felt.  
And despite my having read how important it was to layer wool rather than lay 'strata' I really wanted a stripy scarf.   So can you imagine what happens when you just lay stripes?  Yep, there's very little intermeshing and the scarf is basically a series of strips, some of them joined (by luck more than judgement) and there are a lot of holes in the 'joins' where they didn't quite make it.  
Now I could tell you that's the design, and actually it does have some interesting elements to it, but I ended up doing a lot of silk embroidery to this piece to make sure it was completely sound (it was, but holes bother me) - I guess this is part of the learning process. 

Thursday, 22 April 2010

'Gentle' Felted Scarf

This is more of a conventional scarf size and shape rather than the huge wraps I've been making recently - its so contemplative making up these pieces, and although I struggle to listen to music whilst I am making jewellery, I can do that or even listen to audio books whilst I am felting, must be a different brain process!   Made with merino wool, silk, cashmere and collected fibres. 

Thursday, 8 April 2010

New Wrap!!

My latest felted wrap - made from Merino Wool and Silk - as with many felted projects, each side is different  - always a source of astonishment to me - it depends what colours I layer in (I can see that would be obvious now I think about it), I get so excited as I am making it because I never quite know exactly how its going to turn out, which is half the fun....

Monday, 5 April 2010

Citrus Wrap, Spring and Baa-Lambs.....

It's Springtime...
Its my favourite time of year....
As usual, there's lots happening...

I'm absorbed in this whole felting thing,  I'm planning on doing some pieces for the site eventually, but as we are now coming into spring and summer (hopefully!!!) I think I've got a bit of time on this.
Shown is a wrap sized piece made from Merino wools and silk in citrus colours - no, not that picture below, those are daffodils.






I've
found the wool from various sheep breeds is very different - I like using Merino which is what much

Monday, 22 March 2010

Aquamarine...

This is today's creative effort - an aquamarine coloured Merino and Shetland wools with heaps of silk!  As aquamarine is my birthstone, I laid this one out yesterday and finished it off today - each one takes from around 5 - 7 hours so doing the whole lot in one session is a bit of a tall order...this is so soft and lovely I have to keep stroking it...its almost as good as my kitty cat Mia...

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Another Felted Scarf

Here's another one I made!!  This was a mothers day gift and my Mother In Law Simone loved it.  100% Merino wool, graduated colours, little dark purple and fuchsia 'roses'....

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

How I Felt

OK, missing in action again...but I promise there are things happening.  Firstly, you know when you get overwhelmed with so much needing doing that you do none of it?  Well, yep, that's the way it feels like...I'm working through a big list of stuff following the trade fairs, the purchases of tons of new stock, all the new jewellery I've made and the