Shibori is the Japanese technique of manipulating fabric by folding, squeezing, wringing or tying and today I was inspired to make a Shibori felt sample after seeing the one here that Ruth from Feltingandfibrestudio.com has created.  The texture and colour scheme Ruth used was very dramatic and I thought this could be a great technique for me to use in a seascape picture to represent waves.  I used two shades of blue Merino with the darker one on top and added some strands of pale blue knitting wool.  I stitched the folds in place before fulling and once dry removed the stitching and snipped some of the darker shade to reveal the pale blue beneath.  My piece isn’t as dramatic as Ruth’s but I am still pleased with how it worked out and can see it being a good technique to give my seascape a 3D look when I eventually get around to making it.

I made a second piece out of some green/yellow Merino prefelt and this time tied small beads into the felt before fulling.  Although I had a ‘pea pod’ in mind when I started it I wasn’t too sure how it would turn out.  I’m really happy with the result and I think there may be more Shibori experiments to follow shortly.