Sticky Paws Blog

I though you might be interested in a scarf I have made recently for a customer.  It is a duck egg blue silk chiffon scarf that has been felted with merino perfelt.

Silk Chiffon Scarf

Close Up

The scarf is beautifully floaty and looks really pretty.

In an earlier post I wrote about the joys of dyeing with weld.  If you wish to have a go at dyeing with this wonderful plant it is ready to be picked now.  If you don’t have time to dye with it at the moment, it dries very easily by hanging it upside down and the resulting colours will be just as good as when used fresh.

I am sorry once again for the complete lack of posts.  I seem to go from one disaster to another.  Last week after a very busy month fund raising for various church projects I was involved in a car accident when an old f**t pulled out in front of me.  My car is a write off and I am nursing whiplash and a neck that has gone into spasm.  Hopefully I should be back to speed soon and I do have lots of things I want to write about.

On my to do list is to find a quick and easy full proof way to make felt balls.  Just about everyone I know including novice felters, children, small mammals etc can make felt balls apart from me.  I think I may have cracked it and will let you all know my results.  I also want to do some more dyeing and hope to post some more tutorials.  So watch this space…..

Earlier this month I finally managed to do some felting using the weld dyed silk from a previous post.  I have been wanting to try pongee silk for ages and was amazed how easy pongee silk 5 felts.  I placed merino tops and silk on a pongee silk scarf and felted it in exactly the same way as I would with silk chiffon.

Pongee Silk Scarf

Close up of Pongee Silk Scarf

 I also felted another pongee scarf with ‘bands’ of merino and silk.

Pongee Silk Scarf 2

Close up Pongee Silk Scarf 2

Last weekend Miriam and Marina, who have attended all my workshops, joined me in nuno felting a resist vest.  This was also a first for me and was again something I have wanted to do but have ‘resisted’ (no pun intended) as it takes alot of space.   However, as there were only three of us there was loads of space and we decided to have a go.  Felting a garment is a completely different ball game - apart from needing lots of space, it takes alot of time laying out and wetting out the fibre and then the garment is very heavy.  Due to sheer exhaustion on all our parts we abandoned throwing our vests and look them home to finish.   The next day I finished hardening my vest and rinsed it and spun it in the washing machine.  I am really pleased with the result.

Nuno Resist felted Vest

Close up of Vest

Gosh where have March and April gone?  I can’t believe it is almost May.  I have been really busy trying to get over a rotten cold which has lasted for almost a month and left me completely fatigued.  I did manage to run a nuno felting course at the start of my cold for five wonderful ladies who produced the most amazing scarves.  They were all very enthusiastic and very creative with their colour schemes which produced beautiful individual nuno felted scarves - well done.

Beautiful Nuno Felted Scarves

I was also very lucky to be invited along with the girls from Mix and Match to Gedgrave Wensleydales to see Tracy’s new batch of spring lambs which were absolutely adorable.  Unfortunately I still haven’t found a way to smuggle one into the boot of my car!

Gorgeous White Wensleydale Lamb

Very Gorgeous Black Wensleydale Lamb

I hope to bring some updates on my ’scrumbling’ (fumbling) attempts soon and pictures of some recent felting (yes I have done some)!

Today I had a fun day dyeing with some weld I picked last summer.  It is a beautiful plant producing beautiful yellows and greens even when used dried.  The weld in the picture was growing on the church field in my village and was due to be sprayed.  I rushed out and picked as much as I could, ignoring the looks from my neighbours, and dried it by hanging it upside down.  I usually only pick some of the plant to ensure that it can seed itself for another year.  Please check the local bylaws in your area before picking wild plants.  Weld is generally considered a weed and grows on wasteland etc, but please do check before picking it.

Weld

If you are new to dyeing please read my previous dyeing posts and tips.  If you have never used mordants before please be very careful.  Many mordants including chrome and copper are very poisonous and require very careful handling.  I recommend reading any book by Jenny Dean, India Flint or Jill Goodwin for full advice and if you require very precise instructions.

As I have previously mentioned I don’t dye wool but I love to dye silk.  For this receipe I weighed out an ounze of beautiful Italian silk waste and wetted it out in water with one drop of washing up liquid.  I also weighed out an ounze of dried weld which I placed in a saucepan and covered with filtered (or soft) water.  I brought the weld to simmering point and simmered very gently for one and a half hours.  I removed the weld and poured the new dye water into four large coffee jars as I use a bain marie method of dyeing with small quantities.

Weld as well as being a beautiful plant is also a ’simultaneous’ dye plant - this means that a mordant can be added to the dyebath after the plant material has been removed.  This makes dyeing with weld so easy as there is no need to premordant the fibre as with many other dye plants.  Therefore:

• The first jam jar I left unmordanted
• The second jam jar I added 1/4 tsp of alum and a 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar
• The third jam jar I added 1/8 tsp of bichromate of potash (chrome)
• The forth jam jar I added 1/4 tsp of copper sulphate (copper)

After giving the dyebaths a mix I added 1/4 ounze of the wet silk to each of the dyebaths and placed each jam jar into a preserving pan.  I added enough cold water to come to the same level as the dyebath in the jam jars.  I then heated the water ensuring that it remained under 70 degrees celsius for an hour.  After an hour I carefully removed the silk and left it to cool for a few moments before removing the residue dye in warm water.

First Dye Bath

The colours from the left are: natural, unmordanted, alum and cream of tartar, copper and chrome.

As I still had colour in my dyebaths I wetted out an ounze of carded cocoon strippings which I then added to the jam jars and repeated the proceedure as above.

Second Dye Bath

The colours from the left are: natural, unmordanted, alum and cream of tartar, copper and chrome.   Although these carded cocoon strippings look very unpromising they will be very useful for silk paper making.

As I still had colour in three of the dyebaths (the unmordanted bath had exhausted itself) I wetted out another ounze of Italian silk waste and again repeated the proceedure. 

Third Dye Bath

The colours from the left are: natural, alum and cream of tartar, copper and chrome.

I think you will agree from the photographs that it is possible to obtain some wonderful colours for very little effort.  By increasing the quantity of weld it may have been possible to obtain a stronger colour and greater exhaust possiblities with the unmordanted dye bath but even with just one ounze a beautiful colour has been obtained without the need of a mordant.  The advantage of using a mordant apart from producing different colour options is that is it generally more light fast, but I do not think this is a great problem for the noncommercial felter/dyer.   If you do choose to use a mordant but are worried about the environmental impact I hope I have shown that it is easy to produce alot of fibre (almost three ounzes) using less than one teaspoon of mordant.   This will last me for at least a year as an embellishment to my felting and as I exhausted my dyebaths the environmental impact I hope is minimal.

Following on from an earlier post in October I have been in contact with Michelle from Artwear Publications who produce Felt magazine in Australia.  Unfortunately the shipping costs from Australia are so horrendous that it is impossible for me to sell the magazine cheaper than it is for anyone in the UK to buy it from Australia.  However, Artwear Publications are trying to find a large UK distributer so hopefully it will be on sale in the UK soon.  In the meantime, if you are feeling a bit flush, have a birthday coming up or can get round your other half, the magazine is really worth having.

Issue 2

3 pieces of merino prefelt 3 inches x 6 inches in different colours

9 inches approx of clear elastic beading cord 0.5 mm

or

‘Swiss Roll’ Bracelet Kit

and assorted beads, buttons etc (optional)

3 pieces of merino prefelt

Place the pieces of prefelt on top of each other on a piece of bubblewrap with the colour to be on the outside on the bottom.

Prefelt stacked

Thoroughly wet the prefelt with warm soapy water.

Wetted out prefelt

When the prefelt is completely wet carefully roll up from the longside trying to keep the roll as tight as possible.

Rolling up prefelt

Gently roll the felt as though making a plasticine snake until the felt begins to harden ensuring that the ends are equally felted.

Roll beginning to harden

Continue to felt the roll applying more pressure until it is hard enough that it will hold itself up if held vertically.  You can continue rolling in this way or (my preferred method) place the roll in a laundry bag and wash the roll in the washing machine on a 40 degree cycle.

Felted Roll

Using sharp scissors cut the roll into approximately 1 cm pieces.  You should get 15 pieces and two ends.

Pieces of Swiss Roll

Thread the beading elastic into a sharp needle and thread through the sides of the swiss rolls alternating with beads if using.

Threading Swiss Rolls

Finished Bracelet

Oh dear I realise I haven’t done very well this year with my posts but I have been looking after my mother-in-law since she came out of hospital.  She is improving every day so hopefully I should be able to do some serious felting soon.  So to cheer myself up I ordered a book by Judit Pocs called Gentle Threads Felts from Treetops Colours in Australia.

It is an absolutely beautiful book and is very inspiring.  It is not a ‘how to’ book and has no felting instructions but if you want to be inspired then this is your book, especially if you hanker to make a fabulous hat (just don’t show your mum - ‘who would wear that?’ she said as I was drooling over an amazing piece of wearable art!).  It cost £26.53 including the postage.

I have also been in touch with Michelle from Artwear Publications who produce ‘Felt’ magazine.  They are currently looking for a UK distributor so hopefully it should be available in the UK soon

Also I am (finally) in the process of putting together a tutorial to make ’swiss roll’ bracelets.  It is almost done and thank you for being patient.

Last Saturday I was very lucky to be invited by the Wickham Market Knitters to teach them nuno resist felting.  There were 15 knitters who all successfully made a little bag with a felted cord handle. 

It was a very busy and challenging as many of the knitters had never felted before.  However, everyone made a beautiful bag:

Well done Wickham Market knitters and thank you very much for having me.

I have officially had enough of the snow now.  I don’t function very well when it’s cold prefering to veg out in front of the fire, so I’ve done very little felting.  I have, however, done my good Mummy bit and built a snowman with Bruce - roll on summer!