Just too many sheep breeds!

The more I felt , the more breeds of sheep and their fibres I discover and the more confused over their different properties I become. The final straw arose over short fibre merino. Is this a new breed of merino sheep? Fibre from part of the sheep. Or just the ordinary merino cut up? This is a question I would really like answering !!!!

All these different fibres make slightly different qualities of felt. So in an attempt to resolve my confusion I decided it was time to start to build my own felt sample library. Starting with what I have in my stash.

Each sample to start at 11cm square and weigh 3 g. I am having worries now I have started this that this is too small and has too many inaccuracies. But too late for those technical concerns now.

Made so far left to right :

Bergshcaap, C1 merino, CM norwegien , Nepal, LLewyn , Cap from woll knol.

To make , left to right;

Gotland , merino top, merino silk mix, alpaca, Herdwick, merino silk blend 2, Blue faced Leicester , Jacob, Norwegien.

I am going to label them all and thread them on a ring. With lots of space for more.

Here I have a technical problem . I have the eyelets I have the special plastic tool and I have a hammer , but so far in my test I have failed to make an acceptable eyelet. Weird , must be a mismatch somewhere in my equipment.

 

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Samplers

In my head, samplers are regular organized pices of needlework , usually with a psalm or poem incorporated. A bit like this one , made quite a long time ago.

According to wikepedia they did not start like this. Women used them to record a stitch they had seen and did not want to forget. This was in the 15th and 16th century . The samplers were 6-9 inches wides and were totally covered in stitches. They were highly valued and often passed down through the generations. By the 18th century they became a way of showing skill at stitching and at this point started to incorporate religious or moral quotations.

So I have gone back in time , and I am making a felt sampler to record the effect of stitches, added before felting , at the prefelt stage and after felting. This sampler is currently just about to start the stitching after the final felting stage and Is pretty disorganized affair. I have tried to keep to a purple /pink theme and tested hand stitching and machine stitching. Until I read up about the origin of samplers , I wasn't so happy with my work. But understanding the history has made it all make a lot more sense. Here and some examples of my stitches so far.

Stitching onto pongee and then felting it all in . The transparency of the silk , means the underneath stitches are visible. Not so good. Underneath some stitching at the prefelt stage , I like the couching , but the chain has become too loose as the fibres shrunk.

Stitching on bought prefelt , with my machine and adding it on top of the fibres. Quite effective.

Some stitches made after prefelting. I like the effect of the knots and the pleat, but I am not so sure about the blanket stitch around the eyehole.

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Samplers

In my head, samplers are regular organized pices of needlework , usually with a psalm or poem incorporated. A bit like this one , made quite a long time ago.

According to wikepedia they did not start like this. Women used them to record a stitch they had seen and did not want to forget. This was in the 15th and 16th century . The samplers were 6-9 inches wides and were totally covered in stitches. They were highly valued and often passed down through the generations. By the 18th century they became a way of showing skill at stitching and at this point started to incorporate religious or moral quotations.

So I have gone back in time , and I am making a felt sampler to record the effect of stitches, added before felting , at the prefelt stage and after felting. This sampler is currently just about to start the stitching after the final felting stage and Is pretty disorganized affair. I have tried to keep to a purple /pink theme and tested hand stitching and machine stitching. Until I read up about the origin of samplers , I wasn't so happy with my work. But understanding the history has made it all make a lot more sense. Here and some examples of my stitches so far.

Stitching onto pongee and then felting it all in . The transparency of the silk , means the underneath stitches are visible. Not so good. Underneath some stitching at the prefelt stage , I like the couching , but the chain has become too loose as the fibres shrunk.

Stitching on bought prefelt , with my machine and adding it on top of the fibres. Quite effective.

Some stitches made after prefelting. I like the effect of the knots and the pleat, but I am not so sure about the blanket stitch around the eyehole.

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White revisited

Almost two years ago on 15th September 2011, I wrote my first blog. I was Very apprehensive. I am not sure what I was frightened of. I have found that as a blogger I can be totally anonymous . I would like a few more readers and comments but mostly I am happy to remain anonymous. Fame has yet to come my way.

My first blog was about a flat piece of white piece of felt, I made to prove , to Artybird , that I could make felt. . Two years later I think thats well proven. I am as hooked as ever on felting with all of its possibilities . Probably more so, with my head brimming with felting ideas , and a small studio in active use, full of fibre, drawings and pieces of fabric.

 

I reflect on my first white piece today , not specially as it is near its two year anniversary, but because I have made a white sculpture that am especially pleased with. I have made many felts during my two years that I am proud of, but not usually just it white. Don't ask me what it is , its just a felting exploration into vessels and sculpture.

So here is my sculpture . She is trying to find somewhere comfortable to live.

After my first tentative white felting piece almost two years ago , I am still an Artybird felter still learning, still blogging about it and still loving it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Milliner ?

I like the word milliner far better than hatter. How did this word come about? According to Wikipedia, it originates from the 1600s and refers to some coming from Milan , a city which was famous for fancy goods, now meaning someone who make and sells ladies hats.

Picture of a millinery shop in Bruges folk museum. Look at all the different hat blocks!
I have been attempting a little millinery over the last few weeks and I love it. There are so many options I have barely scratched the surface . I like the two dimension into three dimensional aspects and I know I have a lot to learn. I have been rescuing old unfinished hats and making new.
My rescues were both previous attempts to make a hat with a sculptured surface and in neither case had I really got a grip with the amount of felt surface needed to do this successfully.
My first attempt has been turned into a beanie style with a slight military flavor.

My second sculpted into some hills and valleys with addition of beads.

Starting from scratch and a like bit wiser I made the beauty below, merino with silk threads incorporated . This is more like it in terms of sculpture , but there could still be more!

I do like the little stalk and the spiral

And for a complete contrast I made a bowler, not black of course but still bowler shape. When it came to making the brim I was not sure a first how to do it . Eventually I thought about pinning it round the cable piping you can buy here in the Netherlands. A bit of a brainwave.

Now I just need to find someone to model them for me, as this white lady does not smile.

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A tale of two bags

I have been trying out felting the same bag design in Shetland fibre and merino fibre.

From these photographs can you tell which is which?

I expected a difference but was surprised at quite how marked it is.

Shetland fibre, is about 30 microns with a staple of 50- 120mm

Merino about 23 microns and has a 30-90mm staple.

Both the fibres I used had been bought from World of Wool. The Shetland was natural grey and the merino I carded white and black to make grey as it did not have enough predyed grey.

I used exactly the same resist and the only modification I made for the merino was to shorten the cord which i used in the design to strengthen the handle.

In terms of weight they weigh.

Shetland 100g. Merino 75g.

The Shetland was really hard to felt even with loads of water and soap, I never got It to shrink as much as I wanted, The decorations disappeared into the bag itself which is very soft and springy to the feel and visually I think quite flat. The merino was a lot easier to felt , has shrunk more and was more easy to shrink and because of the carder fibres I think looks more interesting. The declaration is more obvious as well.

A good bag experiment. Maybe I'll try it again. What shall I try it with?

 

 

 

 

 

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Rug Design

I have to make a rug , a small rug . After some thought I decided I would use an abandoned collage as the inspiration, I wanted something new , but also something traditional .

I took the design and photoshopped it !. First I made a mirror image then I altered its colours. The colours had to be something that would stand out of the whitish mule background. This is so great to do in photoshop!. Then I spaced it out and gave it a simple border.

Oh yes and I removed one element of the collage with the magic rubber , it's still just visible.

Then my skills at photoshop , or maybe my patience ran out . I wanted a kind of traditional edge , which I decided that I could more easily draw by hand than puzzle over drawing in photoshop.

So here is the hybrid, scrappy looking design.

and here are all the lovely fibres waiting for me, sitting on my scaled up design.

The white fibre is my very special hand scoured and carded mule from woolfest last year. The colours , amethyst, hot pink , conifer and elderberry are merinos from World of Wool. Some already made into prefelts . Ready to felt but......

My instructions say wait for a sunny warm day to make the rug . Here we are in the coldest March in 50 years in the Netherlands so now I will just have to a wait until the weather warms up.

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50 shades of .......

Brown

A small clutch bag made as one of the last assignments of my course. Incorporating merino wool and wendleysdale curls, all in beautiful shades of brown.

Simple but effective.

I like my shades of brown but I don't think it will raise millions or a cause baby boom unlike it's infamous namesake