Nuno Felted White Scarf

This is a nuno felted scarf which I made using silk organza fabric, merino wool, silk and lace.   When you 'nuno' felt you encourage the wool to make it's way through a layer of fabric in order that the two bond to create one whole.   

This was a bit of an experiment to see how I might be able to incorporate lace into a piece - so I laid the silk organza down with pieces of lace over that, then laid a layer of shining beautiful creamy-white silk with a layer of merino/silk mix (50/50) so overall a huge amount of silk in this. 



The difficulty was trying to get the lace to bond to the wool and form a close fit between the fabric and the wool - there are areas where I have managed to get the three (fabric, lace, wool/silk) to bond very well, and other areas where I've not managed this - and I like both - the complete bonding looks very neat - on the other hand, the areas where this hasn't happened, the lace sits inside a little pocket which has been formed between the fabric and the wool - quite interesting - this was a reflection on how much effort I put into working on the bond, and clearly in some areas, I didn't work as hard as others.  

Once I'd got as much bonding as I felt I could, I threw the scarf down onto my work surface, hard and repeatedly (wonderful for working off any grumpiness or bad temper!) and this created a wrinkled effect where the wool shrunk against the silk fabric.  I love this piece. And I'm keeping it. 

 

 

A Felting Commission for Sharon B.

Sharon is a customer who has had jewellery and a couple of my ribbon scarves in the past - she wanted one of my felted scarves and after chatting to her and my casually mentioning a colour scheme to her of green, grey and yellow, she decided that is what she wanted - the rest of the brief was to have some lace and silk in it and that was it.   It took me a day to lay out the piece, which I then left overnight, dry.  I often do it this way - everyone knows I take ages to lay out my felting, and I find it less exhausting to do the wet stuff the next day.






I felted it using merino, huge amounts of silk, vintage organza which I cut into leaves, lace, collected threads and fabric including some sparkly angelina, wensleydale locks in both the body of the scarf and at the ends of the scarf. I love that it's so different on each side - one side is quiet and muted, the other bright and vibrant.
Once I had the first lot of wet felting done, I spent quite some time needlefelting curls and waves with a solid green colour (merino) wool before giving the wrap another wet felting to give the piece a 'final polish' before ironing the piece.   I mailed it out in an embroidered silk bag. 

Sharon later called me to say she was utterly delighted with the piece - which of course I was delighted about!