Poppy Lampshade

Many thanks to Zed for the inspiration for this lampshade. I'm really pleased with it.  I'm going to try a bluebell one next.
I wet felted the base with merino and blue faced leicester then added needle felted poppies to make it more 3D.
Hope you like it....

Experimenting with silk laps and nuno felt

I bought some silk laps from Sue Pearl on her workshop.  It's a gorgeous sheet of silk which opens up into a sort of net and can be put straight on top of the wool and then wet felted in.  I wanted to do some samples to get an idea of different effects and how it would felt.

Turquoise silk laps on clementine merino wool.  You can make the silk have a fairly thick coverage or open it up more to get more gaps.

The winter light doesn't really do it justice, it has a really gorgeous shine which contrasts well with the felt.

Silk laps on a tanzanite merino wool background, I tried adding texture with marbles... my first experiment with this!  I don't think the white wool background works, maybe a contrasting colour?? 

Close up, again, the shine hasn't shown up.

 I also wanted to try out some different fabrics for nuno felting.  I had some organza (not silk) fragments so had a go with those.

Experiment with felting organza.  It took quite a while to get it to felt but the effect was quite cool.  I like the way it concertinas up when the wool shrinks.

I love this effect.  Add a network of wool to organza and you end up with bubbles of fabric. 

 Finally I wanted to have a go at making a felt vessel.  I made this by using a sheet of plastic as a resist and then shaping during the fulling process.  It was a bit like making a clay pot!  Although I never had much success with that when I have tried it.  I think felt is a bit more forgiving!

Felt vessel, made from blue faced leicester with turquoise tussah silk.

Sue Pearl - Nuno and Cobweb felt workshop

So following the regional meeting I decided to book on as many feltmaking courses as possible.   The first of which was run by Sue Pearl in her studio in North London.  A very intensive day of cobweb and nuno feltmaking.  There was so much to take in, Sue is obviously very passionate about feltmaking and had so many ideas and suggestions I thought my head was going to explode!  I have been madly making things ever since and trying things out.  Photos to follow of those.  Here are some photos of the lovely things I made on Sue's workshop.  

Sample piece of cobweb felt

Close up

First attempt at nuno felt.  Merino wool on cotton scrim background.  When the sun finally shines I will take another photo of this.  The colours work better than this shows.

Close up

Merino wool on silk nuno felt scarf