Last Saturday at Seata we had an interesting and informative talk on felt and felting by Karen Lane in the morning. In the afternoon we had a demonstration on Nuno felting and then we did our own pieces. I had done a little Nuno felting previously, so decided to do a vessel rather than a flat piece. I cut a resist from bubblewrap, which was laid on top of a towel and a larger piece of bubblewrap. I’d picked warm / hot colours to reflect the heatwave that we were having, and started laying out the fibres. I laid vertically……

……. then horizontally, using a selection of the yellows, oranges and rust merino fleece that I’d taken.

Once I’d finished laying out the fleece, it was covered in net, and the wetting and soaping started. I’ve always used hot water, but Karen told us that it was better to work more slowly with Nuno, to start with cold water and to work very gently, which was perfect on such a hot day.

Once both sides reached the pre-felt stage, it was time to start adding the fabric. The colours are very autumnal, so I cut out leaf shapes. The bottom leaves on the left are a fine cotton that I dyed in the microwave with pomegranate and orange; the ones above are fine silk from the same dye bath. The rust and yellow are random synthetics from an inspiration pack. More gentle rubbing was next, before rolling and bashing until it was fully felted (fulled). The resist was left inside to help stop it felting to itself.

Then it was cut across the top and rubbed around the edge.

It had felted some of the cotton and silk leaves but not others, nor some of the scraps of wool which I’d spun years ago, the little bit handing on the right hand side. It was strange how some bits had “taken” and others exactly the same hadn’t. It was still wet at this stage and was a bit floppy, so I wasn’t sure if it would stand up.

The bottom is quite sturdy and once it was dry, it stood up pretty well…..

…… in spite of it being very fine in places. I’d also added some snippets of dark red velvet which had felted really well, giving a very textured effect, and some textured yarns which were a bit hit and miss.

It was certainly a learning curve, and a thoroughly enjoyable one. Thank you, Karen.

I’m not sure if I’m going to stitch into it or not, but certainly not yet. I’m really pleased with some of the textures, and can use things that I’d thought wouldn’t work: more to experiment with.