Another felt hat, answers to questions

I had great fun yesterday finishing the raspberry ripple felt hat and then was inspired to adjust the template slightly and make another, this time with a fresh green and white colour scheme.  I also wanted to try incorporating silk chiffon and silk hankies into the Icelandic wool to see how they would felt together, I was very happy with the result!  I have now posted pictures of the second hat to Flickr and if you click here you can see some notes which I have added to the close up shot.  Move your mouse over the image and the notes highlight areas that clearly define the chiffon, the hankies and how the wool migrates through both.

Now to answer some questions ….. the wool doesn’t seem at all scratchy to me although it does have a very tactile texture, the raspberry/red highlights on the green and white hat are from the printed silk chiffon, scrim is a natural open weave fabric softer than jute but coarser than muslin, my Etsy shop is called Clasheen like the blog and the actual url for those of you who are technologically minded is http://www.clasheen.etsy.com and no, I am not going to shave either of the hats!

New felt hat, an experiment with Icelandic wool

Yesterday afternoon I was just able to grab an hour and a half to try out a felt hat as an experiment with the Icelandic wool.  Some of you have been asking how coarse the wool is and is it suitable for wearables, in her book ‘Uniquely Felt’ American fibre artist Christine White classifies Icelandic wool in the medium and long wool section with a Bradford Count of 46-52s and a micron count of 32-28.  To my mind this makes it perfect for creating sculptural felt hats ideally suited to a colder climate.  For my experiment yesterday (still to be rinsed and shaped again this morning) I decided not to use any merino on the inside, this would probably make the lining softer but to be honest when I tried the hat on yesterday evening it felt great, not a bit scratchy!

Raspberry ripple felt hat!

I slightly altered a bag resist that I already had to use as a template and then spent some time studying books by Chad Alice Hagen, Christine White and Lizzie Houghton to determine exactly how much wool to use.  Because I really am a beginner when it comes to hats (unlike my friend Dawn Edwards!) it did amaze me how little wool I needed to use to create a beautifully strong but flexible hat, just 80g in total for this model.  The raspberry coloured Icelandic is a very rich colour and I was lucky to find a matching piece of scrim in my stash that I had made in a week long batik course with Alex Meldrum at the Grennan Mill Craft School in Thomastown.  I didn’t want to embellish the wool too much but did want to see how a little bit of fabric would add or detract from the final look of the hat.  The whole project was really quick and simple to get to this stage although I am going to alter the template slightly this morning and have another go with some different colours. 

Raspberry ripple

I love the way the wool is still soft and flexible but appears to hold the structure well.  This is the first time that I have used my hat block (it has been sitting gathering dust in my studio) and it did make the shaping into these rings pretty easy, I am not sure however how well I would be able to create other shapes, time will tell! 

Close up of felt hat showing hand dyed scrim

I also like the surface texture of the hat as shown in the detailed picture, the scrim felted in to the wool very well and there is a very nice tactile feel to the whole thing.  I may shave inside the band where the wool will come in contact with my head although the jury is still out on this but otherwise I think I will leave the outside surface ‘au natural’!  If any of you are interested in trying out some Icelandic wool it is now available from my new Etsy shop.  I hope to prepare some felting kits before the weekend and will let you know as soon as these come on stream.  Off now to rinse and finish the hat, more tomorrow!

Today’s workshop using brilliant colour and texture

Embellishing the surface

One of my favourite things about felting is the variety of textures achievable, both by the addition of surface materials and the way we lay out the wool either evenly or randomly. At the fun flat felt workshop today I showed the participants how to lay out the wool batts evenly and then everyone had fun selecting contrasting and complimentary muslin, silk chiffon, gauze, roving and silk to decorate the surface. The resulting pieces were absolutely gorgeous, I did mean to take final photos but we were chatting so much and booking our next session that everyone had gone home before I realised they never got taken!

Tomorrow I do need to prepare my final presentation for the Failte Ireland course that I am doing (need to deliver it first thing on Monday morning!) but already I am planning a structural piece using this gorgeous raspberry and cream combination!

Raspberry ripple!

I might try a hat as I am interested to see exactly how comfortable the Icelandic wool would be worn on the head, watch this space!

Silk laps again and still tidying!

In response to some of your comments re. the silk laps I also find that they can ‘catch’ your skin as you are laying them out but definitely not as much as silk hankies do. What I like to do if my hands are dry is to rub them in olive oil about ten minutes before I start to lay out the silk. Really saturate your hands in the oil and then rub off any excess with a damp towel just before you start to work and you will find that it definitely helps quite a bit. I am going to contact the lady I bought the laps from on Monday and hope to be able to offer them for sale on my Etsy shop! I would also love if she would allow me to sell her hand dyed cotton gauze as well, I really regret not buying more last weekend although I did buy about 12m of cream gauze which if I ever found the time I could dye myself!

Tomorrow morning I have my first Winter workshop here at Clasheen and participants are travelling from as far as Limerick and Dublin. I do find it quite ironic that nobody local is attending this time, really I do need to put up some good signs locally and possibly advertise in the local parish newsletters as well. My demonstration to the St. Mullins ICA (Irish Countrywomens Association) on Monday night was good fun and it was great seeing all the expressions as the wet wool quickly became a beautiful piece of flat felt. I need to get off the internet now and get back to the dreaded tidying otherwise I will NEVER be ready for the morning!

Don’t forget that if you want to participate in the Clasheen Winter Swap you need to contact me via our Flickr group and sign up before Thursday 12th November.

Creating nuno felt incorporating cotton gauze and beautiful silk laps

As mentioned previously, I was furious with myself for not buying any hand dyed silk laps at the Knit and Stitch Show in Dublin last year.   Basically they are like a really huge silk hankie and perfect for adding vibrant colour and texture to any felt project but especially felt wearables.

Hand dyed silk laps and cotton gauze

This year I didn’t make the same mistake and although the photo doesn’t do the silk laps justice (they are sitting on top of the hand dyed cotton gauze) I am sure you can see why I was attracted to the colours!  To make my nuno felt wrap I stretched the hand dyed cotton gauze on my kitchen table and then laid out a thin and uneven layer of short fibred merino on top.  The gorgeous peacocky purples and pinks of the gauze and the silk seemed to cry out for complimentary and contrasting colours of merino so I used various shades of plum and blackberry along with a couple of splashes of hot orange to up the ante! 

Silk, merino and cotton gauze wrap

There was a lot of rubbing and rolling involved to finish the wrap but I love the final textures and sheen from the surface.  Obviously the wrap is reversible and may also be worn tied around the waist like a sarong!  Possibly I could have ended up with even more texture if I laid out the merino even lighter but I did want to make sure that it would be possible to wear the wrap around the waist and if worn this way didn’t want the fabric to appear see through!  More images on Flickr.

Busy, busy, busy

I have had a very busy day today rushing around the place and packaging orders but at last I have some time to rush off a quick post.  Tomorrow is going to be another tidying up and destashing day in preparation for my first Winter workshops this Saturday.  To remind you here is what is on offer ….. 

Saturday 7th November FELTING TASTER SESSIONS 

Take some time out for yourself and join me for either a morning or an afternoon felting taster session.  Using wool, silk, fabric scraps and other embellishments explore the basic technique of flat felting.  Discover the fun and freedom of creating with fibre and leave at the end of the session with a beautiful piece of felt suitable to frame, stitch into a bag or use to cover a favourite book.

Workshops cost €25 incl materials and times are either from 10.30am – 12.30pm or 2pm – 4pm, please note that all workshops will start on time!  Email me asap if you wish to reserve a place.

Once the studio and house is finally totally tidy (will it ever be???) I will be free to start work on a new series of felt vessels and sculptural pieces.  Making the large bowl yesterday has really whetted my appetite for the Icelandic wool and I can’t wait to have some time and mental freedom to create some more unusual shapes and sculptures.  I love the natural browns, greys and white but the dyed wool is also beautiful, choices, choices! 

The other great news today is that I have got full financial and grant approval for planting approx 8.5 acres of deciduous trees.  My vision for the future is to have a beautiful amenity woodland complete with yurts (in selected clearings once I start thinning) for all those felting friends who come here to have fun and learn with me and all the great invited international felting experts who take time out to visit this rural part of Ireland.  It’s really going to be full steam ahead now as the grant approval is dependent on all the fencing and planting being totally completed by 31st of December THIS YEAR!

Large felt vessel and first batch of Icelandic wool on line

I have spent a LOT of today making a large felt vessel using some of my new Icelandic wool and thankfully the weather improved enough in the afternoon for photographing so I am at last starting to put it up for sale on Etsy.   In order to have less shrinkage than normal I used Anna Gunnersdottir’s method of felting with loads of soap and hardly any water, it takes a bit of getting used to but it definitely seems to work!  I used a resist that I had cut out ages ago using my dustbin (garbage can!) for a template and weighed the wool to make sure that both sides had the same amount of wool.  The batts are exceptionally easy to lay out, just seperate the bigger pile into layers and then place the wool wherever you want it!  I used a gorgeous natural dark brown wool with chestnut highlights for the base of the vessel and white for the upper part to provide a nice bit of contrast.  When felting with the cold water it is best to use a liquid soap.  I had some Ecover floor cleaner that worked well, it’s a bit harsher on your hands than olive oil soap but not to bad in the overall scheme of things.  You need to rub and rub the wool for AGES before you can start any rolling or fulling.  Because of the amount of soap you really need to be quite sure with the pinch test (pinch some wool in your fingers and if it lifts up like fabric instead of fibre you can proceed to the next stage) before cutting the hole to remove the resist.  Then you need to seal the cut edges of the felt before running your hand inside the package and felting a bit around where the edge of the resist is.  Once you are happy that everything is holding well together remove the resist and proceed to full.  I still find it absolutely amazing that a pile of loose fluffy fibres can form a strong and structural vessel, it never ceases to fascinate me how simple the process is and how complex the result may be!  I used just under 300g for this large vessel, the same amount could easily make 3 smaller ones or a very nice bag.

Weneslydale tops, hand dyed silk laps, matching hand dyed gauze, beads and other bits and bobs!

I had an amazing time yesterday at the Knit and Stitch show in Dublin.  Unfortunately because of my fever I was only able to attend for the last of the four days but from a consumers point of view it was heaven!  Apparantly Thursday and Saturday were manic but Friday and Sunday had plenty of attendees although not so many that you couldn’t get around comfortably.  It was great to catch up with felting friends and give a hand out with a couple of demos at the Feltmakers Ireland stand, the rest of the day was spent relaxing and picking up some gorgeous goodies that are otherwise difficult to find in this rural part of the world. 

My mission for the day was to find and buy only unusual felting supplies and notions that I can experiment and have fun with over the next few months, I didn’t want to be arriving home in the evening saying ‘if only I had bought ….’ which is what happened last year when I left behind some amazing silk laps.   With that in mind first to go into my bag from Oliver Twists were two huge hand dyed silk laps,  hand dyed cotton gauze, cream gauze and an extremely expensive but gorgeous piece of hand dyed silk velvet.  Next I moved on to Art Van Go and bought some discharge paste and a few iridescent Markel paint sticks before picking up some beautiful soft Weneslydale roving from Warren of Craftspun in Naas.  Before a quick pit stop for coffee I stocked up on oodles of beads (some to go in the felting kits) and then had a brilliant discovery at the Woolfish stand, stunning resin pins that make great closures for cowls and wraps, no sewing, yipee!  Louise at Woolfish also had some stunning large hand turned wooden buttons, apparantly the ones that I bought were made from Laburnum and they also smell great.

I’m off now to prepare the first batch of Icelandic wool for sale and hopefully by the morning the rain will have stopped.  I NEED to take some pictures outside where the light is good (my farmhouse windows are very small) in order to get the wool and the kits up on Etsy.  This evening I am also giving a felting demo to some ladies in the ICA (Irish Countrywomens Association) so need to get myself together now and pack the truck before having some food and hitting the road!  ‘Till tomorrow …..

Yummy yak!

Tha yak was absolutely yummy to felt with!  If I remember Blas correctly it was an 80% yak 20% merino mixture but I am going to check this out again.  Although the fibre is quite a bit more expensive than merino it is worth every penny and I definitely will be ordering some more for myself in the not too distant future!  It was gorgeous and soft to lay out but due to the short fibre length totally different than working with merino.  Initially I thought that I would have to be very frugal with the fibre as I only had 61g but in actual fact I made an extremely long but fine scarf and had quite a bit left over!  I had kind of decided to try it for cobweb felt but as soon as I discovered how short the fibres were changed this for 2.5 thin layers (2 layers and a bit of topping up in thin areas!) with a lot of silk fibres on the surface.  The yak was super quick to felt, within about 50 minutes from start to finish (including laying out and no use of the sander!!) my new winter scarf was ready!

Continuing with my destash, I came across some stunning hand carded rolls that I created one day when I spent some hours hidden away with Carmen’s drum carder.  Hiding their light under my table is what these lustreous fibres have been doing in the meantime so off to Etsy they’ve gone to find a slightly more appreciative new home!

Off to tangle with some super soft yak (and short film to watch)

It’s wet and windy outside today and I can quite see why those yaks need to grow a soft undercoat during the winter months to keep themselves all warm and snug!  Luckily I was able to buy some beautiful soft yak fibre from Blas and Jamie at Urban Fauna Studio recently and now is the afternoon to put it to the test and make a soft and chic winter scarf or cowl for myself.  I had brought two colours home with me, Carmen choose an unusual blue which means that I am left with (ha, ha) a beautiful blend of olive green, just 61g which is not a lot to spare but I hopefully by the time I post tomorrow I will have some pictures taken to show you the results. 

This morning was spent tidying up more of the studio but a body needs a break sometimes and since the wind is blowing up a storm disallowing any outdoor phtography today the felting table calls, wouldn’t you agree??  Still no sign of my own camera under all the mess and at this stage I am beginning to wonder if it will ever turn up again.  It is especially frustrating as not only did I love the camera (it was a present from Alan) but my pictures from my trip to Felt in Focus were still on the card as were some from another friend who had problems with her own camera in Denmark as well.  I wanted to finish posting about making the large felt sculpture and was hoping the pictures would say it louder than words!

For those of you interested in climate change and how it impacts on our environment you may be interested in viewing my friend Cathy FitzGerald’s new short film  ‘once i counted birds’.  This short has been entered in the UK Guardian Newspaper’s worldwide 1 minute to save the world film competition and selected films will be screened at the Copenhagen Climate Change summit in December.  If you enjoy the film please please vote for Cathy by rolling your cursor over the stars  (you can vote until the 7 November) and please feel free to forward the link to any friends you think might like it!