I was mooching aimlessly in Ebay after my win on the blue chiffon (always a dangerous and expensive thing to do) and came across some interesting looking organzas.
It’s not easy to see in these photos but the piece on the left has a shimmery green lustre to it and the piece on the right is a very shiny metallic silver.
I made a couple of samples to see how well they would felt. While they both felted successfully I think the silver one resulted in the prettiest finish, it has the most potential as a laminate for a small clutch bag or as nuno accents in a larger piece.
Since I was felting small samples I included the piece of blue chiffon that I painted with discharge paste last week, as expected, this felted very easily. I’m still feeling good about that purchase 🙂
I am itching to turn it into a dozen different bags and maybe a tunic top but there are sooo many other things I must finish first, including a piece I want to submit to the Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers national exhibition, the deadline in only 4 weeks away and I have barely started on it…. I can’t really say too much about that yet but here is another textured piece I have just started assembling….
Could you describe what exactly is considered "laminated" fabric? Not sure what that means!
Could you describe what exactly is considered "laminated" fabric? Not sure what that means!
Hi Laura, thanks for the question. Laminating literally means layers of material bonded together. In the images above the wool fibres migrated through open weave organza and bound to it, in this case binding the layer of organza and felt into one piece of fabric. Then as the wool shrinks during the felting process little puckers appear in the fabric (see the third picture down) because the fabric cannot shrink as much as the wool. A similar technique is nuno felting, but instead of covering the whole fabric with wool, in nuno we leave patches of uncovered fabric and this creates the characteristic puckers typical of nuno felting.
Hi Laura, thanks for the question. Laminating literally means layers of material bonded together. In the images above the wool fibres migrated through open weave organza and bound to it, in this case binding the layer of organza and felt into one piece of fabric. Then as the wool shrinks during the felting process little puckers appear in the fabric (see the third picture down) because the fabric cannot shrink as much as the wool. A similar technique is nuno felting, but instead of covering the whole fabric with wool, in nuno we leave patches of uncovered fabric and this creates the characteristic puckers typical of nuno felting.
Thanks for the explanation — I seriously don't know anything about felting except what I've learned on-line or in books (and only made a few things so far!) so this is all new terminology to me!
Thanks for the explanation — I seriously don't know anything about felting except what I've learned on-line or in books (and only made a few things so far!) so this is all new terminology to me!
I think most felters start with Youtube and a couple of books, it is a material that lends itself very well to experimentation and there is a lot to be said for self-teaching /experimentation. I'm afraid you will find different people use the same terms to mean different things. Shibori is a classic example of this, to me it is a method of resist dyeing but to some feltmakers it is the use of inclusions such as pebbles in their felt to give 3D shape which is reminiscent of fabric that has been tied with beans or pebbles ready for dyeing in the more traditional meaning. All very confusing!!
I think most felters start with Youtube and a couple of books, it is a material that lends itself very well to experimentation and there is a lot to be said for self-teaching /experimentation. I'm afraid you will find different people use the same terms to mean different things. Shibori is a classic example of this, to me it is a method of resist dyeing but to some feltmakers it is the use of inclusions such as pebbles in their felt to give 3D shape which is reminiscent of fabric that has been tied with beans or pebbles ready for dyeing in the more traditional meaning. All very confusing!!