Toss ‘n’ Tell Report 16 March 2019 Saturday

Mini – demo Playing with Silk Hankies

 

Nancy Ballesteros gave a very informative talk on “silk hankies” and demonstrated her method of incorporating  them in her felting.

 

What is purchased as “silk hankies” are actually cocoons of  silkworms, (Bombax Mori)  that feed on mulberry leaves. Each cocoon consists of 1 continuous silk thread. The cocoons are first boiled, then pierced to remove the worm, and then spread out into a square form. These are stacked on on top of each other and form a “hankie”.

 

 

 

In order to prepare the hankies for use  they need to be separated into layers that will be thin enough for the wool to penetrate in the felting process. . All thick areas must be broken up. It is especially important to fan out the edges of each layer.

 

 

 

 

 

The hankie is very strong and can be stretched into many shapes  or can even be cut up for smaller shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

In order to make it more manageable to work on a design Nancy’s method is to wet down the  hankie with soapy water and then shape the required design on a surface of thin plastic.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally lay out wool on top of the hankies and finish with silk fabric over the whole area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of tips were passed on to the members about design and colour choices in order to achieve the best results. Thank you Nancy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toss n Tell

 

Renita  attended Sue Eslick’s workshop showed us her square box . It was first tested out with paper folding before being made with complex resists.

 

 

 

 

 

Cynda also did Sue’s workshop and her box is a work in progress, satchel to be.

 

 

 

 

 

Sue Eslick made delightful small baskets from home made cord which she had made from scraps of sari silk, various yarns and oddments. These were then stitched together in a coil to form baskets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martien showed us a very fine prefelt of paj silk and wool. She plans to do stitching on it before fulling it to make a scarf.

 

 

 

 

Jacqueline displayed 2 her intricately detailed vessels and explained how she made them.

 

 

 

 

 

Vimol is making a bag ( with lots of inside pockets) to match her garment that she made recently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie has recently started felting and showed her alpaca and silk scarf that she made whilst was experimenting .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marion displayed her tunic that she made using silk and fine merino in Fiona Duthie’s workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from the Toss ‘n’ Tell Table

Jean’s Bag from Sue’s Tote-lly Squared workshop

 

 

 

 

Lyn’s rectangle

 

 

 

 

Stacey’s Top

 

 

 

 

Owner not declared

 

 

 

 

Mystery object, I recon phone cover, pretty good.

 

 

 

 

Report by Marion, photo’s Renita.

Thanks guys.

Liz