Needle Felted Wool Paintings

 My local group got together yesterday to do some needle felted wool paintings. Everyone started with an inspirational photo or picture. We used flannel fabric as a background. These are all 5″ x 7″ pieces. This gorgeous sunset was done by Carole.

 This is Jan’s sunflower. She changed it up a bit from her inspiration as the original background was blue.

 Here’s Louise’s landscape. She was using all kinds of fibers and silk ribbons. She thought  she might do some free motion stitching as well.

 Here’s my photo that I used for inspiration.

 This is the partially finished wool painting.

And here it is when it was almost done. These were lots of fun to do and we all had a good time. Next month we’re going to try silk painting.

Making Nuno Felted Yardage

 It’s been a busy week and I’m just now getting around to posting about last week’s class. We started at 9:00 am and didn’t finish until 5:30 pm. Lots of work!

 Here is everyone laying out their wool on the silk. Everyone started with at least 3 yards of  silk. Patsy is laying  out her wool. She is the only one who used silk gauze instead of habotai.

 Diane made a white on white jacket. She already has wool laid out here but it is hard to see.

 Juliane’s jacket was in various shades of blue. Paula dyed the wool and the silk. It was gorgeous.

 This is Debbie’s piece. Her silk is dyed black and blue (by Paula again) and then she used two colors of blue wool.

 Still working away.

 Patsy did two layers of wool.

 That white is really hard to see, isn’t it?

 It took about three hours to get the silk completely covered with wool.

 Just keep going girls!!

 Here Patsy is beginning to wet down the wool.

 Diane has part of hers wet,  she’s rolled up the wet end and now is working on the other end.

 Julie is getting all the air out of the wool while she wets down.

 Debbie is also wetting hers down.

 Now on to rolling. Somehow I missed out on any fulling photos.

 Here’s Patsy in her jacket. She decided to not make the lapels so wide. We’ve just pinned the shoulder seams. Everyone will sew their jacket at home.

 Here’s Julie in her jacket.

 And the back side.

 Debbie is getting shaping advice from Paula. She is wearing the jacket silk side out.

And here’s the back. I didn’t manage to get a photo of Diane’s white jacket. Hopefully, she’ll send me a photo after it’s completed. Everyone did a marvelous job and each of the jackets was unique. Success!

First Day of Nuno Felted Jacket Class

I am in the midst of teaching a nuno felted jacket class at Camas Creek Yarn. We had the first class on Friday and the actually making of the jacket yardage will happen this coming Friday. There is only room for four people in the class as the space is limited for really big projects. Most people need at least three yards.

 Here’s the class room before we started. We talked about nuno felting, design, color and different methods of construction for a jacket.

 Here is everyone working on their 12″x12″ samples. Then we get to do the fun part. Shrinkage and  math!

 This is Debbie’s sample when she started.

 This is Patsy’s sample. She is doing a heavier jacket as compared to everyone else in the class.

 This is Diane’s sample. She is going to make a white jacket.

Here’s Julie doing a bit of rubbing to encourage those wool fibers through the silk. Julie is planning on dyeing her jacket after it’s completely felted.

Next week I’ll show you the jackets when they are nearly finished.

Sun Printing

It’s still sunny here in Montana so my local group decided to do some sun printing before summer is over.

 It’s a really simple process. You can use just about any kind of fabric paint. It helps if you wet the fabric a bit first.

 You then paint your fabric and lay items on top. Leaves work really well but you can use anything flat.

 Then put your piece out into the sun. It’s better on a calm day when the wind isn’t blowing.

 Here’s a partially painted fabric.

 Here’s a bunch of pieces drying in the sun.

 Louise and Bunny are busy working.

 This is one of my pieces that I used pieces of bark.

 This is Carole’s piece.

 Here is one of Louise’s where she used sticks.

 This was done by Sandy who said she couldn’t do this kind of stuff (she was visiting) but look how well she did.

 This is Jan’s piece.

 Here’s one of Louise’s – I really like this one.

 This one I put Wensleydale locks on it.

 This one is covered with threads.

 Here are some drying in the sun.

 Washers

 More sticks

 Scrunched fabric

 A fern

 and buttons. We had fun and now we have more fun fabric to use.