After 3 months of not blogging, I am back. Since I got back from Canada in June, I have been busy at work and in a funk about starting new creative endeavours. Once you stop, it is quite hard to start again. Same is true for my Japanese homework!I bought a book called Threadwork, which had lovely saturated silk colours, used as bases for freestyle embroidery. Exactly the kind of embroidery I wanted to try. As on previous occasions, I found I am not so comfortable with handwork. I can't find a good position where I can see the work, and not get shoulder and neck ache, even more so with beading because of the limitations of keeping the beads confined.
I was thinking of using it as a bag front, but now I am somewhat concerned that it would get abraded and pulled threads. Could maybe cover it in fine tulle.Anyway, meantime, our group was having a felt challenge. No guidelines, felted crochet, needlefelting or wet felting were all OK. I wanted to make a piece to accompany the embroidery, in geometric blocks of colour. I thought it I did this on the needlefelting machine on soluble fleece, and then incorporated it into wet felting that it would be strong enough for a bag. I did the needlefelting, and then added crochet braids mainly wool, and some sari yarn, machined on with zigzag.
I realised that as the needlefelting got wet, then the fleece would vanish and the blocks would float around a bit. First, I laid out the rovings I had that would tone. One was multicoloured with a short staple and the purple and red pieces were merino with a longer staple. I did the 3 layers with criss cross, but keeping the colours as separate as I could. Then wetted it and put tulle over the top and did a little bit of wet felting, enough for it to hold together. Then I put the needlefelted piece on top of the prefelt, put the tulle back again and agitated it very gently. the soluble fleece vanished immediately, and I could see that the braids were going for a short wander. However, I rolled it up in the bubble wrap very carefully and started on the felting proper. It took quite a long time, but eventually it worked. Between rolls, I tried to straighten the braids and blocks as much as I could.
What I found:doing the stripes for the wet felt would have been quite weak, had it not been for the needlefelting keeping it together. Stripes and blocks would be best on a prefelt for strength.
The longer staple pieces did not wet down, or felt as quickly as the short staple.
The edges did not tighten as much as I would have liked because I couldn't safely do a lot of friction on them without disturbing the needlefelted blocks.
It took a lot of rolling to get the needlefelt to mesh in with the wet felt. This was probably because the fibres in the needlefelt were not loose and looking for partners!
I have ordered some prefelts from Australia, so I will do more experiments when they arrive.
My aim is still to make a bag, but this may not be the right method.
