Teaching Yer Grandma How To Suck Eggs

Or how I got egg my face!

I got an email from Terry which I responded to before I checked out her website.  She wrote in part:

Hi Helen!
………..I saw the pic of your "bark scarf" project and was so intrigued that I wanted to give it a try too.   I went to the link you mention (TLD designs) but didn't see a kit or instructions, so I decided to "wing it" based on your pictures.
Does the piece have fabric running all through the middle, or is it just yarns?   I used novelty yarns and ribbon without any fabric.   I don't normally felt with anything non-feltable like acrylic etc, but I wanted to try it anyway.     
Like you, I used the sander and it just seemed rather loose, so I wet it down again and sanded it again, very thoroughly.  It still seems fragile and not well felted.  I am wondering if it is because I have no fabric in there?   
I am not a huge fan of the sander method, but I do use it when I feel like it. 
I really liked the resulting design, and cutting the holes though.   I will definitely do it again, but not with novelty yarn.  Sometimes you just want something shiny!!
I am enclosing two pics so you can see my outcome. 
Any thoughts are appreciated!!
Terri

So I fired back this little note:

 

Hi Terri,

Don’t give up on novelty yarn yet!!!

First your project looks awesome… especially as you did it from a photo with no other real direction.  I admire your spirit!

The trick is to include just enough 100% wool to grab your novelty yarns and hang onto them firmly but not so much that you lose the shine.  The kit I got from Tammy included both novelty and wool yarns which went the length of the scarf.  There was also some coordinating carded fleece which was used to create bars that the circles were laid out on.  The yarn in the circles was wool not novelty.   

Here’s the process step by step.

1. I made a cartoon of the scarf on really loooong paper.
2. I cover the cartoon with bubblewrap, bubbles down.
3. I laid out the fleece on the bars I had drawn on the cartoon.
4. I laid out the long yarns.
5. I made the circles on top of that.
6. I covered the whole thing with a net curtain.
7. I power sanded to loud rock and roll music, followed by blues and a bit of klezmer.
8. I flipped the whole scarf over
9. More music and more sanding.
10. I cut out the circle centres.
11. Repeat 8 & 9 until ears are numb or scarf is done.  Which ever comes first.

As to whether your scarf is felted enough.  Mine is really held together by the circles.  The yarns in between are actually quite separate.  They cannot be pulled out of their attachments to the circles giving the scarf great wearability.  And yet the disconnect between the circles lends a really fun and interesting quality to the scarf. At either end I took pains to ensure that yarns did not felt to each other by pulling them apart regularly.  This gives the scarf a nice fringe that I enjoy running my fingers through when I’m wearing it.

The scarf never fails to receive comments when I wear it!  It’s hard to tell from a photo but it looks like yours is just the same to me but for the colour choices.

Oh and …………………No, there is no fabric in this scarf. 

The addition of fabric will not make a scarf without sufficient wool quantity felt better.  On the other hand it will allow for the use of less wool creating more drape in the final product.  It will also give more durability to the finished piece. And it is more interesting/challenging and just plain fun to do. 

But I wouldn’t see it as enhancing the design of this particular scarf. 

But then again…………..maybe I’ll just give it a go and see what it turns out like……………thanks for the idea.

And then I noticed she had a website ……..www.feltinglessons.com

in which she shares her considerable knowledge of all things felting with the rest of us……………. and you can see more of her work here and there as well.

Still though I may have taken informational coals to Newcastle I think there might be a nugget or two in here worth sharing….. not the least of which is be sure you ‘know’ your audience before you begin to perform!

Blessings & Good Cheer

Helen +

= Hi

Speaking of Layers

here is bit more..

“from Anat”!

“Hebrew word for felting,felt has a root of lamed, beit and dalet. order of chaos.”

לבד

Lebed is the Hebrew word for felt. 

It begins with the letter lamed  ל which is to teach.

It contains the word for cloth בד  BD

“So felt is a fabric BD that teaches (letter lamed)  to make a fabric (of LIfe)”

If you look only at the first two letters you find the word lev which is heart

לב 

and the final letter of the word is dalet

ד which is a portal

“As we do it our heart, Lev, lamed beit ,becomes  a Delet (letter dalet) portal to the flow of Life... Felt, feeling - aren't feelings, emotions =energy in motion a  flow of Life?”

Um did someone say DeeplyFelt?

 

A D’var of Felt

The North American Feltmakers List run by Pat Spark is the proverbial motherlode of tidbits.  And just lately the tidbits have been fascinating.

Tidbit 1

On 1-Apr-09, at 1:23 PM, Pat Spark wrote:

> Old Norse (and now in contemporary usage in Swedish)=  tova  (to felt)
>   tovat (felted)

In my brain connections stirred and I felt compelled to enter into that most Jewish of pastimes……examining the etymology of words.

Old Norse = tova = to felt

Hebrew = tova = good; in the feminine form.  (The masculine form is tov.)

And, oh yes, it is good to felt!

Not content to leave it at that I called my learned friend Anat who is fluent in Hebrew and its layers of meaning.

(oh look - layers – another felting connection but I digress)

The word tov looks like this:

It begins with the letter Tet which looks like this

The letter encircling and moving within itself as it does can be seen imply an embrace or a pregnancy.  Also numerically tet is the number 9 which represents things within, another possibility for pregnancy.

Hold that thought.

The word tovat in hebrew is arrived at by the addition of the letter tav at the end of it.

So the word now looks like this

When you do this you create a form of the word that cannot be duplicated in English.  With this one word you now have the phrase goodness-within-it. 

Which makes sense because Tav is the final letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet and it represents completion and wholeness.

Old Norse = tovat = felted

Hebrew = tovat = goodness within it

And, oh yes, when a piece is fully felted you can feel the goodness within it.

Are the hairs on your arms standing on end yet?

No?

Well let’s see what we can do about that!

Because next I happened to mention to Anat

Tidbit 2

which is, quite possibly, the best ‘quick’ description of felt I have ever heard

“Felt harnesses the chaos of tangles”

- Willow Mullins 2009

 

And as Anat pointed out this is just what God did when she/he/it/Buddah/Allah/Great Spirit/Breath of Life/Shekhinah….. harnessed the tohu v’vohu (chaos) and created (birthed) the world and saw that it was good.

Oh and did I mention the layers?

Gathering Wool……

I’m going out on a limb…..

When I say that, as can be seen from the recent worldwide economic collapse, protectionism doesn’t serve us well.

I believe that sharing is much more sustaining within the artistic community than protectionism.

That’s why none of my photos have copyright stamps embedded in them and I share my ideas freely.

No I don’t believe that anyone should go out and make an exact replica of my work and then claim it as their own.  But if they change any element what so ever and by doing so make it their own….. bless them.  Should they give me credit for the idea…. maybe ……..but I’m not all worried about it.

I just received yet another letter in which someone shares with me their great idea for a felting project but asks me to “keep it a secret” because they don’t want others to steal their idea.

Usually these letters include some form of request for my help in sharing techniques or advice for bringing said project to fruition.

What hubris!

I always answer the technical questions – usually in a post – because if someone is asking there’s probably someone else out there who wants to know too.

But felters let us all please realize

There is nothing new under the sun.

Whenever this happens I am always reminded of the quilter whose course on tessellation I attended years ago.  The course began with a long stern lecture about the evils of stealing intellectual property. I even had to sign a waiver promising not to use her patterns for other than personal use and to give her credit for the design if I were to enter said quilt in any competitions. 

Then she passed out the choices of patterns…….all direct rip offs of the works of Escher.

I rest my case.

I’m off my soapbox.

Feel free to get on yours!

A Birdie In The Hand

I received this question:

I found you on the web and enjoyed looking at your blog/web page.

Am curious about your "little birdie". Is this a print on felt you 
have made and if so how did you print on the felt.

If you will share I will appreciate it.

Thanks

Sandy

At first I thought Sandy wanted to know about this birdie.

Which was created by laying the picture out dry and felting it together.  The house is cut out of commercial prefelt. (Fibre Fusion Marino Prefelt available in Canada through Dreamspin Fibres-no affiliation just a satisfied customer)

I didn’t have any prefelt in the exact colours I wanted to use for the bird so I tried something new.  I laid out some fibre in a square just a bit bigger than I wanted to use.  Then I dry felted them slightly by just holding them between my palms and rubbing in a small circular motion with a far bit of pressure.  Then I cut my shape out of that.  It worked remarkably well, giving edges nearly as crisp as the prefelt did. Great technique for small areas.

I added embroidery just to give clarity to the forms – something I often do for the viewer.

But when I checked my blog roll for new posts I noticed this:

 

And guess what?

Beth did print her birdie on felt!  With summat called a Gocco.  To read about it on her blog – just click on the birdie.

(I googled the gocco – scary – just what I need another cool craft to take up – NOT!)

So there ya go Sandy.  I hope that answers your question – which ever it was!

What’s that buzzing sound in the Studio???

Chrissy writes:

Hi I was just reading your blog and I am very curious about using a power tool to felt.  I haven't been knitting/felting long, but I am always looking for new stuff to play with.  What is this magic gadget of which you speak, how does it work and where can I get one???
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours in fibre

Nothing too mysterious – it’s a mouse!

fitted with a hard plastic felting foot that I bought from Carol Marston at Hat Shapers.  They don’t make a foot for the Black & Decker anymore but they do make one for the Ryobi Corner Mouse.

I love it for getting wool to grab other fibres like silk, rayon, bamboo that I often include in my felting. It’s great for nuno felting too though I am still partial to rolling & throwing.

What I use it for most is independence!  I am a very small person so this saves me waiting for The Mench to come home and help me out!

Here’s a great post by Making Groovy Things that explains the use of sanders really well!

My New Favourite Necklace

I rarely buy or wear other people’s work.  I’m not sure why.  Sometimes it’s the cost – the work I adore is usually pretty pricey.  Sometimes it’s just too similar to my own work.  But I fell in love with this piece by Judy Mulloy.

Judy is a young artist here in Nelson, BC working with felt, silver wire and beads. 

This is the piece I bought.

Each link is individually hand made as are the felt beads.  Only the clasp is commercial.

And her prices…. well entirely too reasonable if you ask me.

But you should actually ask her!

you can reach her at judy_mulloy @ hotmail.com. (just remove the spaces to make it work.)