Wet felting Archives - Page 9 of 9 - Jane Mercer Felt Artist

Why is small best ?

For the last few months I have been struggling to make large felted vessels using Shetland and BFL fibres. I thought I had tracked down the problem to the resist I was using. It was a slightly improved laminate floor underlay with a green backing full of tiny indentations. My side by side experiments showed that this resist slowed down the felting process and resulted in a bigger final piece. Strange but true as these two vases below show. Identical in all respects the one on the left is made with the green resist and is larger and has poorer quality felt. So armed with what I thought was the solution and a new cheaper slipperier resist I tried again. Worse than ever !! Full of holes. Poor quality felt. Some of this I put down to the Shetland fibre I was using which seems repel water and soap not…

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12/07/2015

Eco Dyeing / machine stitching / Natural dyeing / Textile art / Wet felting

Success

Well after last weeks disappearing yellow dye , I first rushed out to see if there was any hawthorn blossom left. I was in luck as the trees down by the river were still mostly in flower and I was able to easily pick some more. I do wonder if the colour comes from the petals , which are really beautiful , or for the tiny berry in the middle of the flower ? I also had a good look at my pans , and concluded they were not very clean. So I boiled them with washing soda solution which produced a ghastly pink scummy solution. I then scrubbed them with abrasive powder cleaner and finally rinsed and rinsed. In parallel with this I was making another vessel to dye . Trying Shetland fibre again. Looks a little hairy as it still here needs a shave and I am…

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06/06/2015

Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing / Wet felting

Where has the yellow gone ?

At this time of the year there are a huge numbers of flowers and leaves that can be harvested and used for dyeing. Unfurtunately I did not plan ahead and have not got a collection of felt waiting to be dyed. Shame . Never mind I shall research this year and plan ahead better next year. I did have this sweet little vase , waiting to be dyed . I thought it would look lovely dyed yellow. So out of the multitude of options, I chose hawthorn flowers. Well in truth I didn't so much chose them , but came across them while looking around the local woods with my trusty 'Wild Color' by Jenny Dean, my scissors and my gardening gloves in my rucksack. Always make samples they say! So I did , here they are good shades of yellow , especially on the silk. Well having made my…

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31/05/2015

composite photograph / machine stitching / Wet felting

From Photo to Felt

My husband is a keen and talented photographer. He partakes in Blip photo taking a photograph every day and takes beautiful landscapes often getting up before dawn to catch the light. Occasionally he uses software on his iPad to make composite photographs. I love the vibrancy, surrealism and the unexpectedness of these pictures and some just cry out to me to be made into felt. Here is an example. I have been experimenting with turning these kind of photos into felt pictures for a while and like to first make a pastel sketch to work from , as it helps me think about the order of the composition. I make prefelt and use fabrics in order to get the strong colours and straight lines required . I always plan to add lots of machine stitching to add texture and details after felting. Here I am threads at the ready ,…

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11/05/2015

fibre / Wet felting

My favourite colour

Purple is one of my favourite colours. I wanted to test of some surface decoration effects on a felted vessel. I have done many tests before , but never with the high degree of shrinkage that is needed to make a felted vessel robust enough to stand up. This high degree of shrinkage tend to make the fabrics and yarns that have been added completely disappear, which defeats the objects of adding them is the first place. As a change from the more muted colours obtained by natural dyeing I decided to make this vessel from purple merino. My surface effects were dyed scrim , dyed cotton broderie anglaise and purchased purple silk yarn.Laid out these additions can be clearly seen. After removing my circular resists they are still visible. After completing the felting the silk yarn was virtually invisible, and the scrim was now a very subtle effect, well imbedded into…

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30/04/2015

Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing / Wet felting

Felting in the garden

It has been the most beautiful weather this week in the Netherlands . So I decided to do some felting in the garden . I always feel freer to use loads of water in the garden where I don't have to worry about mopping up , I also use the hose to rewet my pieces which is really quick and feel that the slats on my wooden garden table help the process. Outside with my neighbours apples tree in full bloom and the sun shining it's hard not to be inspired. I am making a series of vessels to naturally dye. I decided to have a go at making three at once. One Polwarth , silk and merino , one Blue Faced Leicester and one LLewyn and merino. The LLewyn had been in my stash since a Woolfest a number of years ago. It proved to be the problem child…

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26/04/2015