The Transforming Process of Felting

A woman came to felt with me recently. I don't know her story, but I'd guess that life has been hard. But now, she is on a path to rebuilding her life into something better. So, she comes to felt with me and have a little "girl time," a little fun and distraction from the enormous obstacles that still must overcome. She arrives at the workshop, nervous, tense, not believing she can create something beautiful. Her face is grim as she selects her base scarf color and wool to "paint" it with. It does not look like she is having fun. I know the feeling, that is how I was in the beginning.

She obediently does as instructed. Lay the silk scarf out on a length of bubble wrap, lay the wool out, wet it down, lay a sheet of plastic over the work, roll everything up around a pool noodle. Roll the "jelly roll" 100 times, unwrap, check your work, roll it back up, starting at the opposite end. Wow, she sees how the fibers and colors are starting to melt into one another!

She repeats the rolling and unrolling procedure 4-6 times, for a total of 400-600 rolls. When she sees the fibers coming through to the back side of the fabric, it is time to throw the scarf in the sink until she starts to feel it firm up in your hands. Yes, she can feel it changing!

Next she rubs the scarf and felts it some more by hand, then rinses it out, gives it a vinegar bath, rinses again, blots it dry in a towel. We wrap it around her neck and take her before the mirror. Voila... the finished piece... a smiling face and a sparkle in her eye from a job well done. She made something beautiful.

She walks out the door looking radiant, her scarf wrapped gracefully around her neck.

(Note this story could be about any number of women who came to felt with me recently.)

Reality

This is the scarf that started out as a concept, a palette inspired by a peacock feather, as described in the previous post.

A hard day's work? Not really. Yes, it took large portions of several days, but it didn't seem like work at all. I think the reason I love Nuno felting is that it forces me to not concentrate. Creating these designs takes more feeling, intuition, than thinking.

Playing with color, fiber and texture.

Scroll down to the previous post to see a photo of this scarf before it was felted.

From Concept to Reality

A Work in Progress:

This photo from http://www.paxcam.com/imgs/library/29/Peacockfeather.jpg inspired meewee61 on colorlovers.com...







to create this palette "Peacock Feather"....













which inspired me to create this hand-dyed scarf... which is about to be nuno felted!









I will lay contrasting colors against each other...




To be continued...

Pleasantly Surprised

Monday's creation. Hand-dyed the silk chiffon fabric for the scarf. (The fibers were already laid out on the other side, that's the fuzziness you see on the edges.)









Laying out the fibers. I am not liking it at this point and think it's going to be hokey. It's a 50/50 blend of merino wool and bamboo.


















Finished! Came out MUCH better than I anticipated.

New Workspace

My new workspace, set up at one end of the living room.. My Michael was great - he wouldn't rest until I was all set up. He found two lightweight picnic tables, each one folds in half, so they are easy to store or transport. Not a bad place to work. This morning I have the doors open, immediately to the left and to the right, not in photo. I do have to watch that a strong breeze doesn't come along and blow my work out to sea! My living room is now in a perpetual state of fuzziness from all the fibers (as if that is something new)!