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 matter how hard I try. I was so frustrated I cut the holey vessel up and threw it in the washing machine for a couple of cycles. Then I thought well maybe it can be reborn so it has now been up cycled into this naturally dyed landscape.
But I still want to make vessels , so I tried again, this time small. One in BFL and one in Shetland. I stitched them both and dyed them with onion skins. I love the results , they are about 10cm tall. I just wish I could reproduce them at a slightly larger scale . 
It anyone has any ideas what is causing my problem I’d love to hear from you.
Teri Berry
12 Jul 2015I love the landscape piece, if I didn’t know the story behind it I would have thought you had planned it to have all those lovely textures and design elements.
I’m afraid I haven’t really made much felt with Shetland, what have is lovely and soft though so I always assumed it would behave like merino. BFL on the other hand is great for structural pieces (at least small to medium ones anyway).
Is there are specific reason for using these 2 wools, wouldn’t one of the more traditional sculptural wools such as Finnish be a safer bet?
jane_mercer
12 Jul 2015Thanks for your comments Teri. I would really like to use British wool , that why I have been focusing on Shetland and BFL.