June 2017 Toss ‘n Tell
Demo: Sara Quail incorporating silk carrier rods into felt.
Sara gave us a very comprehensive and informative talk on silk carrier rods and how to use them in our felting projects. It is a by- product of the reeling of silk. The filaments that adhere randomly to the rod of the equipment is cut off and that is what we call “carrier rods”. To use them you have to either roll them in your hands to soften it or else iron the product to flatten it. Each rod has many layers that can be separated, then stretched to open up the fibres to make them suitable to incorporate as surface design on your pre-felt. Sara showed numerous samples of ways of applying the rods to the surface, including making of silk paper and silk thread.
Toss + Tell
Kerry Bertucci wore a fine red shawl that she made with merino wool and drafted silk. She also displayed a shawl/wrap in shades of red that she had designed by 1st drawing her pattern on an old discarded blanket to ensure that she got the correct drape that she wanted. She then enlarged the pattern according to the expected shrinkage. The end result was a reversible garment made of wool and silk fabric.
Vimol showed us 2 beautiful framed pictures. “The gum tree” was done with needle felting on a wool blanket and machine embroidery. “The Pom Pom tree” was done with wet felting and then hand embroidered. Her work was finely executed and most attractive.
Kerry Grove showed us all the items that she completed at our recent Retreat weekend. She made samples, a phone bag and cord, a sari silk runner and a beautiful shawl. She certainly was busy at the Retreat!
Sue Eslick showed 3 beautiful nuno hats – 2 were very elegant and beautifully shaped. The 3rd hat is unstructured, can be worn in various ways and can fold up into your pocket. Sue also designed a silk scarf/shawl made from pieces of silk stitched together. She then attached felted cords to 2 opposing corners and made a felt toggle to complete it.
Marion Finneran showed her bed throw that she made at the Retreat. It was in shades of blue and green wool with silk fabric and stitched surface design.
Marie J showed her red and black bag that she had made in Sue Eslick’s Bag Workshop. She also had made pretty flowers that can be used either as embellishments or brooches. She had also made 2 silk and wool “ocean scenes” that had been made for a project and planned to incorporate them into another project.
Sue Harrington made a fluffy striped rug using a coarse Corriedale wool mixture.
Virginia made 2 scarves at the Retreat. The white one was made using a silk slushie (50%wool/50%silk). The nuno felted blue scarf had a surface design of circles.
Liz Odd showed us 2 silk and wool scarves/collars that were made using masking tape as a resist in order to curve the fabric to fit correctly around the neck.
Pat made a delightful silk and wool scarf at the Retreat in soft delicate pastel shades.
Martien van Zuilen showed us nuno mosaic hats and a bag made from merino, silk fabric and prefelt. She likes to make them soft enough to be able to turn and shape them on your head or use them as a bag if necessary! See her project in the latest Felt Magazine # 17. She also made various vessels using coiled hand felted cords and fine copper wire.
Alison Gomes made a fine merino wool scarf in an autumn rust colour. She applied black wool prefelts to the one side and discovered that the edges were drawn through the rust and created a lovely black line on the reverse side.
Karen W made a quirky green cushion cover with spikes at the Retreat as well as 2 mats.
Marie M made a stunning Opal coloured wrap at the Retreat using silk lap and wool. Because she was concerned that the colours were too bright she used black wool which toned down the colours. The colours ran and stained her hands. Very helpful to have made a sample before. Luckily she was using black wool so disaster was averted!
Sara Quail showed us her delicate white scarf which she made using her method called Doubly Deconstructed Nuno which was published in the current Felt Magazine #17.
