Nuno Felting

Textile Traders has had a huge range of printed silk chiffons over the last few months, so of course I have bought a bit (especially when they have had their "buy two, get one free" sales). My intention has been to use them as a basis for nuno felting. Yesterday I actually did some.

Juliet came round with a big bag of wool tops, one length of chiffon, swimming pool noodles, net and bubblewrap. I collected all my wool tops (a much smaller bag), the felting equipment I had, and the chiffon I had bought. We decided on splitting two lengths in half lengthwise and shared the tasks of laying out the fibres and wetting it out. Then we each had a bundle to roll.

This is my first piece. We laid the fibres in a diagonal pattern and as they felted they gathered up the chiffon.



After lunch, we did another one for me. Juliet's blue piece had had the fibres laid out thinly to cover all the fabric and I decided I wanted a piece like that as well. This time we borrowed Kevin's sander and it really speeded up the task. However, time ran out and Juliet decided she didn't have time to lay out the fibre for her second one before she had to go.

This is my second piece.


I really like them both and now I am thinking of how to finish them off. I think I will make a beaded fringe for the orange one. For the blue one I am thinking of using machine pattern stitches along the diagonals and making a fringe from patterned stitching as well . . .