Sticky Paws Blog

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.

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

You will need:

• 1 pongee silk scarf or piece of pongee silk 180 cm x 45 cm
• 180 cm  x 18 cm merino prefelt cut into 3 cm strips
• Bubblewrap at least 200 cm x 60 cm
• 1 plastic bottle with holes in the cap

 1)  Wet out the scarf/silk in warm water that has had one drop of washing up liquid added to it.  When the scarf/silk is thoroughly wet lay it onto the bubblewrap smoothing out any wrinkles.

2)  Lay the strips of prefelt onto the scarf/silk and using the bottle with holes in the cap gently rub warm soapy water onto the prefelt.

3)  Using this technique place the prefelt around the edge of the scarf remembering to slightly loosen the short ends of prefelt where it meets another piece of prefelt.

4)  Next place the prefelt down the centre of the scarf/silk leaving a gap of appoximately 7 cm between the pieces of prefelt.

5)  When the pieces of prefelt have been thoroughly wetted, continue to work the prefelt by rolling the silk/scarf in the bubblewrap and by rubbing with the end of the bottle or with a small piece of scrunched up bubblewrap.  You will need to continue rubbing and rolling the prefelt until the prefelt passes the pinch test and will not move, which might take a least half an hour.  It is really important that the prefelt is sufficiently felted to the silk as once the prefelt starts to harden, if it is not sufficiently felted to the silk it will come away and it will be impossible to felt it to the silk.  The prefelt is then hardened by putting the scarf into very hot water and gently scrunching and dropping the scarf.  It is important to check from time to time that the prefelt is not felting to itself by stretching the scarf out periodically.  Once the scarf starts to harden you can start dropping the scarf more vigorously until the scarf measures approximately 150 cm x 35 cm.   Rinse the scarf in clean water and spin in the washing machine to remove excess water and dry.  The scarf can be left as it is or ironed carefully with a medium hot iron as in the photograph.