Weve just finished day one of a two-day Nuno Felting Workshop at Simply Stitch, East Keswick and what a productive day we’ve had! 10 ladies are taking part and today they experimented with different lightweight fabrics, combining them with Merino fibres to produce beautiful new Nuno fabrics.
And a few close-ups showing the wonderful textures achieved….
Tomorrow we will be using apertures to identify areas to be embellished using hand and/or machine stitching.
I’ve discovered an unexpected benefit of running local workshops……I’m discovering villages in Lincolnshire that I didn’t know existed! Today I was at Withern Village Hall, deep in the Lincolnshire Wolds for the first time ever, with seven ladies from the local textile and art groups.
The workshop was to be an introduction to Felting so we began by laying out our Merino fibres and fancy yarns and then wet felting our backgrounds.
After lunch we did some needle felting, adding detail to the work, and then the ladies chose to either machine or hand embroider to further embellish their pictures. I love the tiny bees on Kay’s picture!
There is still a little work left to do before all of the pieces are finished but I’m sure you will agree they are all looking great! Thanks for inviting me to Withern, and for being such an enthusiastic group! It was a very enjoyable day and I hope to see some of you again soon.
Nuno Landscape
At the weekend I was a having a clear out and came across some little Nuno samples I made a couple of years ago at Artvango. I decided they were too good to put back in the drawer so I’m making some small pieces of art with them, this is the first Nuno Landscape. It was felted with Merino, two of the fabrics are Viscose and the third (central section) was cut from an old wool scarf. The stitching has been done using Perle and a variegated thread I dyed while I was up in Ullapool. I just need to find a suitable frame now.
My latest Merino wool collar has been created using 23micron wool tops from Bronte Glen. I love greys and neutral shades so was automatically drawn to this particular blend called Storm. It’s made up of Raven, Granite, Mocha and Champagne and, although it turned out darker than I expected, I absolutely love it! The circular brooch is made from the same wool and machine embroidered using Madeira rayon threads.
This is a quick catch up post, just to record a couple of felting projects that were recently finished. The first is a pair of Bergschaf slipper boots, an early present to myself! I made them using a scaled up version (and then some!) of the fairy boots I made in the summer. The two boots are made as one, using a flat resist, and then cut apart before fulling and shaping. They are the warmest and most comfortable slippers I have ever had. I can see these lasting for years so I’m intending to embellish them with hand embroidery at some point over Christmas.
Grey Bergschaf wet felted slipper boots
The second project was a wet felted cushion for my elderly aunt who is nearly 90 yrs young and loves warm colours, particularly orange. She lives in a small flat, there is nothing she actually needs but she does love anything felted so I thought this Merino cushion would be something she could get some enjoyment from looking at.
Daphne’s wet felted floral cushion.
Earlier this week, under the watchful eye of internationally acclaimed Feltmaker Annemie Koenen, I learnt to make felt “with patience and love”. The workshop in Suffolk was hosted by Region 7 of the IFA and I had a wonderful 3 days in the company of Annemie, Sally, Rachel, Jenny and Gaye.
Annemie demonstrates how to make felt “with patience and love”.
A few photos of work in progress…..
Everyone looks to be concentrating hard!
I took my own Merino wool to the workshop but once I had seen the beautiful hand dyed Merino with Tussah Silk that Annemie had brought with her I just had to use it!
My collar is taking shape
Annemie’s approach to teaching this workshop was to ask each of us in turn what we would like to make and then ensure that we were guided and supported at every stage to accomplish our goal. Annemie has a very relaxed and approachable style of teaching but that doesn’t make her a soft touch! She watched us all like a hawk and kept a very strict eye on timings and on the quality of our work. As a result I came away with a stunning collar and a head full of tips and inspiration for future projects.
My finished Autumnal collar
A big thank you to Annemie for a wonderful workshop and to the ladies in Region 7 for making me feel so welcome.
The ladies with their finished projects.
This morning I’ve been practising ropes, loops and fasteners and made a simple wet felted choker from black and grey Merino.
I made several attempts to tie the grey and black loose ends into a neat knot but it just wouldn’t lay flat. After considering different options I settled for a silver coloured ribbed bead to hold it together.
It’s a wet Bank Holiday in Lincolnshire and to cap it off I am full of cold so doing a bit of felting in between the hot drinks and sniffles! These Merino purses, made with a resist, are an ideal size for glasses cases and a good way to use up oddments of fibres which I seem to have a lot of. I’ve embellished them with tiny bits of silk, sari waste and more Merino and finished off with a button closure.
Merino Wool Purses, ideal for use as a glasses case.
Yesterday I decided to make another vessel, along the lines of my yellow and grey one, but this time I wanted a simpler, more rounded finish.
I started by making several strips of green Merino, wet felted (very lightly) onto organza.
By laying a sheet of Lutradur over a piece of Vilene and applying paint, the paint soaked through and gave me two options to use as the body of the vessel.
I chose to work with the Vilene and attached the felt and organza by machine before using a soldering iron to make cutouts.
This is the finished vessel.
I’ve just completed two pieces of work in response to the first quarter challenge from the Felt and Fibre Studio. The challenge was to make a felted piece using resists in a way you wouldn’t normally use them. If you check out the F&F site here you will see some amazing work which has been made with “book” resists and my first reaction was to have a go at one of those. It then occurred to me that maybe I should go back to basics first and have a play at making craters and holes before getting too adventurous!
This was the first one I did, a flat wall hanging with machine and hand embroidered surface design. The craters are filled with red satin fabric and hand embroidered knots.
The second piece is a pod, very similar to the one I made with Jenny Pepper at the advanced pod workshop up in Hutton Buscle.
I am on a mission now to try to create an octopus using the book resist technique……….
Lincs In Stitches 
