Sticky Paws Blog

Regular followers of my blog will know that I have been trying for a while now to see if it is possible to get the Australian ‘Felt’ magazine for sale in the U.K.  Last week I received an email from Michelle at Artwear Publications to say that they have found a UK distributer and the magazine will be available from Manor House Magazines.  I have spoken to Alison from Manor House Magazines and issue 4 of ‘Felt Magazine’ should be available from December.  They will also be stocking ‘Embellish’ magazine and I will review it as soon as it is available over here.  If you wish to purchase a copy it will be available via Manor House Magazines or here at Sticky Paws.

I am really pleased this magazine is going to be availabe here and would love to know what you think.

I know I said yesterday that I wouldn’t blow my trumpet anymore, but I am again very pleased with another scarf I made today.  Several years ago my friend showed some of my scarves to a friend of hers who is a very good textile artist, who thought my scarves were good (they were actually too heavy) but would look lovely with a scallop edge.  Well despite several attempts I had never been able to achieve this effect, but whilst nodding off last night I had a light bulb moment.  If I put semi circles around the edge of the scarf instead of full circles as in the previous post, would this create a scallop edge……….

Several days ago I found some silk (in my stash) from Treetops Colours in the rhubarb colour way.  Whilst deciding what colours to use on a purple silk chiffon scarf I realised the treetops’ silk was purple, ‘weld’ green and salmon pink.  Now I like to use strong colours but would never have thought to put purple and salmon pink together but the result is absolutely amazing.  I placed the fibre on the scarf and felted it as in my previous post again placing silk that I had dyed with weld around the merino semi circles.

…………and the result is scalloped edges.

Nuno Felted Scarf with a Scallop Edge

Scallop Edge Close Up

You will have to forgive me for this post as I am going to blow my own trumpet.  It won’t happen very often as I don’t have alot of self confidence and feel I have more felting passion than talent, but this scarf turned out exactly as I wanted it to and I am ‘uber’ pleased with it.

I placed rings of merino fibre onto the scarf and placed a circle of weld dyed silk around the merino ring.  I kept the inside of the rings free of fibre but covered the rest of the scarf with merino and silk.  I felted the scarf using rolling and throwing techniques and when rinsed and dried carefully ironed the flat areas leaving the little puffs unironed.  I am sooooooo pleased with how this scarf turned out

Nuno Felted Pongee Silk Scarf

Pongee Silk Scarf Close Up

Unfortunately my photography really doesn’t do this scarf justice.

In my last post I blogged about a piece of felt not quite turning out how you expected and how easy it is to consider it a disaster and consign the piece of felt to the bin.  However, this bag is proof that sometimes disasters can work to your advantage.  Despite doing a swatch the piece of felted knitting was much smaller than I had planned (probably something to do with my maths) and certainly wasn’t big enough for the handbag I wanted to make.  The handbag pattern is from U-Handbag but there wasn’t enough material for the flap.  Well the piece of knitting sat patiently on my kitchen table for several weeks until I remembered that I had some felted black offcuts from another work in progress and a piece of felting in the burnt orange colour (which really did felt badly) which I could use for the flap.  I am really pleased with the result and I think it looks much better than it would have all in the same fabric.

Spotted Handbag

Spotted Handbag Close up

 I would never have thought to use these colour combinations and am really pleased that this bag was initially a ‘disaster’.

A little while back I blogged about a workshop I ran with my felting friends Miriam and Marina.  We made nuno resist felted waistcoats but had to finish them at home.  Marina sent me her waistcoat as she was disappointed with how the waistcoat had felted in places - there were several places where the black silk chiffon was showing through the felting.  I like it when the base fabric bubbles up through the top layer and in fact try to place my fibre to achieve this look, but I can appreciate how annoying it is when your felting hasn’t quite turned out as you expected.

I wasn’t really sure how I was going to cover the silk chiffon with more fibre as the waistcoat had been quite well felted, so I decided to needle felt more fibre to the chiffon using my Huskystar embellisher.  I then wetted the new fibre with soapy water and rubbed the ‘new’ areas with bubblewrap.  As the waistcoat had been thrown to harden it, I then slapped the ‘new’ areas against a work surface to try to emulate the ‘thrown’ felting.

Resist Felted Nuno Vest

Close Up

I was quite pleased how this process worked.  Once a piece of felt has been hardened it is quite difficult to correct any ‘mistakes’.  I would love to know any hints or tips you have for rescueing felt which hasn’t turned out quite as planned.  And please remember a ‘disaster’ to you may be fab to someone else.  I once took a scarf to a craft fair that I hated - it was the first item I sold!

On Sunday 18 July 2010 I will be at the Real Craft Fair in Grundisburgh in Suffolk.  It is a brand new event with free admission to promote skilled crafts in action.  There will also be a refreshment tent and lots of free parking.  If you are around please come and say hi, I would love to meet you.

(Two posts in one day - I’d better go lie down!)

Over the weekend I made these bracelets using the beads from my tutorial.  Again they are very easy to make using clear elastic beading cord 0.5 mm and some pretty beads.

Felted Bead Bracelets

Yesterday my lord and master was complaining that if I want to keep putting photos on my computer I need an external hard disk drive (!!!!????!!!!) as all the photos were creating a slow broadband connection (nothing to do with being on Ebay along with everyone else).

So this post is photo free but very worth reading.  Whilst looking for something completely different I came across the website of Lori Flood called Spinsterstreadle.  Lori is a fantastic felter and I have admired her work for along time.  Her website has a fantastic tutorial section which is beautifully photographed and very informative.  It really is worth having a look.

Many months ago my friend Chris from Mix and Match gave me a bucket of clippings from her beautiful angora rabbit.  I had been thinking for a while how I could use this fibre and had read that angora rabbit fibre felts very well.  The problem was the fibre is quite short and although I have a drum carder it is buried at the back of my shed (which I must sort out).  In the meantime, Chris’ poor rabbit sadly died and I decided I really must get on with making her a scarf.

I decided to do a cobweb scarf as I wanted it to be delicate and open, and I hoped to preserve the ‘halo’ effect from the angora fibre.

I placed individual layers from a silk hankie in a row, slightly overlapping them, and then put very fine layers of baby blue merino across the width of the scarf.  I then placed the white angora rabbit fibre horizontally along the scarf and finished with an indigo dyed fibre which I think is tencel.  (I think labelling fibres is in one of my Top Tips lists - if it isn’t it needs to be as I am rubbish at remembering what I have previously done).

Cobwell Felted Scarf using Angora Rabbit Fibre

Close Up of Cobweb Scarf

I am really pleased (and I think Chris is too) how this scarf felted.  As well as white fibre in the bucket, there is also a beautiful blue/grey fibre which I want to use.  I am hoping that when it is dyed the grey fibre will give a completely different colour to the dyed white - I’ll let you know how I get on.

As mentioned in an earlier post I am hopeless at making felt balls/beads.  I have tried most methods and my balls/beads are always a bit hit and miss.  However, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a tutorial from a blog called Red 2 White which even I can do.  I very successfully made several balls but although the balls were successful I still felt that it took too much time if you wanted to make a lot of balls.

Therefore, I decided to experiment to see if I could make balls/beads which turned out perfect (no creases etc) but didn’t take too much time or energy.  This tutorial is basically my Swiss Roll Bracelet Tutorial with a twist.

Follow the instructions for the Swiss Roll Bracelet Tutorial using 3 pieces of prefelt in one colour for a single colour ball/bead or 3 different colours for a marbled ball/ball until the roll will stay upright by itself if held vertically.

Prefelt Rolls

Roll Cut into Segments

Very gently roll each segment in your hands for a few seconds only as though making a ball.

Segments gently rolled

Place the balls/beads in a laundry bag (rembering to close the zip) and wash on a 40 - 60 degree cycle in your washing machine.  When the cycle has finished remove the balls/beads from the laundry bag.  They will probably look a bit squashed so gently restore them by giving them a quick roll in your hands.

Finished Felted Balls/Beads

I made approximately 75 one cm felted balls/beads in less than one hour’s hand felting time.  For larger balls/beads you just increase the size of the original prefelt.  For cyclindrical balls/beads do not roll them in your hands before putting in the washing machine.  For tubular shaped beads cut the slices longer than the diameter of the roll. 

I hope you will agree this is a very quick and easy way to make felt balls.