Playtime

Last week I went to one of the city's craft emporia (I use that word advisedly - it is crammed and hard to find your way out alive!) and bought among other things a piece of silk georgette for making nuno. It was a lovely tomato red, with a few blemishes, which would not show up in a felt piece anyway. Before I allowed myself to play with it, I made myself finish the peacock piece, which was coming together at last.

As usual, I intended to put heaps of beading on it, but ended up undoing some, and having only a few sequins on the larger feather eyes. I realise now, a little late, that I am not a glitzy person and am very unlikely to use the beads I have accumulated! Maybe ebay? I actually like the piece to speak by itself without dress-up clothes. This is a shame, as I love, for example, Larkin Van Horn's beaded pieces. But I read today that the art we admire is not necessarily the art that we are meant to make - an aha moment!

Back to the nuno. I re-read the chapters in my Sheila Smith and Christine White books, and laid out my bubble wrap ready to start. It turned out that I had exactly the right shade of merino roving. I started out intending to have the fibres on only one side. I laid out the edging tufts of roving, and then added some semi-random silk tops, and some corn fibre, and three strands of a toning rayon yarn I had also purchased. I tacked the yarn and the silk and corn down with wisps of merino and got rolling. I had purchased a pool noodle for this. After I had done the requisite 400 rollings in each direction (phew! and had lunch!), it seemed that, though the fibres were migrating through the silk, there was not enough to give a pull and ruching effect. So I laid it out again upside down, and added some 'clouding' of merino only. Then did the next 400 rollings. By this time my bubble wrap had pretty well popped its bubbles, so I went up in the garage roof to get the remnants of my pool cover, much tougher bubbles.

That worked, and I then started fulling. It did take quite a long time, longer than I remembered, to get the wool to start shrinking. That was with a mixture of rubbing against the bubbles, and soaking in hot water and throwing it in the sink. I was pleased with the final result. It could have done with a few more fibres to give more ruching, but had a nice drape, and the silk fibres look especially yummy. I will have to stitch the yarn down, as it will catch where it isn't felted, but then I think it will make a good shrug - just the right length and width.