A felt experiment

At a recent Eclectica get-together we had a go at making felt bowls.  Well, actually I didn't.  I made pieces of nuno felt instead.  I used undyed scrim and some merino wool tops.

I thought I would experiment with making a felt book.  I stencilled with acrylic paint on both sides of the pieces.  This is the scrim side.

And this is the felt side.

Then I stitched into the felt but I forgot to take photos before I assembled the book.

Here's the cover.

The front

The back.

It's not my favourite book.  However I'm glad I made it but I probably won't be making another one.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Inkjet Printing

Last weekend I spent a day at Caroline Merrell's studio learning how to nuno felt photographs.

I had sent Caroline some black & white photos to print.

For some reason, this printed with a blue tinge on the silk.  And much of the black that had been there, washed away.  However I like it as a background.

Caroline had warned us all that this printing method was not always successful - it depends on the ink cartiridges, how long you leave the ink to cure etc.

Some washed away more than others!  This one was printed onto to hand dyed silk and the image disappeared completely.

However, before I started felting I had taken a photo of the printed silk.

Caroline had printed this one for me which also had the blue tinge.

And this is the same photo printed on silk at home.

This one was printed on cotton and looked great whilst it was wet.  However, now it's dry it's lost a lot of definition.

 This was the original photo.

 I also came home with two printed pieces of silk that I hadn't felted.

The whole point of the workshop was to experiment.  Now I have some pieces of felt to experiment on further.  I shall cut some up and stitch on them.  I may put another layer of silk organza with a print on top.

I'll let you know if I get any further.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Nuno Felting with Clare Bullock

Recently I asked Clare Bullock if she would do a Nuno Felting workshop for a group of my friends.  And she said YES!  Whooppeeeeee!

So four of us travelled to her fabulous studio in Sharnbrook, near Bedford.

Clare started by showing us her technique for Nuno Felting.

Adding sari silk

And felting.

Then we all had a go.  This is the first sample I made.

During the felting you can see the marks from the bubblewrap

The back

And the finished sample

I made two other pieces in the same way during the morning.

After lunch we made a white on white piece.

I added purple, pink and Quink blue ink and the colours did their thing.  (see the piece on the right).

The front

The back

The front

I had a lovely day.  Clare is such a brilliant and generous teacher.  You could have fun too.  Keep checking out Clare's website and if you can't see a suitable date for you, why not contact Clare and set up a workshop with her.

Thanks for joining me today.

Bernice