Felting Workshop Scarf

Felt scarf made using rolling technique and inlay with mohair slivers applied for the fringe on both ends. The felt was made with only two layers and in parts has a lacy appearance. Colours used were black, burgundy, rust and aubergine. Coloured threads were inlaid along the length to add interest and additional colour.

Felting Workshop

Three samples of felt made at a felting workshop at the College of Fine Art in Sydney.
1. Rolling - Felt using natural merino fleece felted in the traditional central Asian rolling technique.
2. Inlay - Coloured felt with merino fleece in rust and olive green, rolling technique inlaid with threads and mohair slivers. The technique of creating holes was also practiced in this sample.
3. Nuno - the technique of Nuno felting uses the rolling technique to felt fleece into loosely woven fabrics (cotton voile, silk organza). Various designs can be achieved with this technique and it can easily be adapted to clothing and other items.

Shibori Workshop Natural Dyes

Silk habutae dyed with Indigo and natural dyes. Some samples were overdyed using differentresists for each dye bath. Natural dyes used were: Australian Eucalypt leaves, Cootamundra wattle leaves and the leaf of another wattle species. Mordants used were: Alum with wattle (soft yellow colour); copper with one wattle species and iron with the eucalypt leaves. This produced soft yellow to dark brown/black effects. Indigo overdyed with natural dye using Eucalyptus produced a rich yet subtle dark brown colour.

Shibori Workshop Silk Indigo

Silk habutae and twill were dyed with Indigo dye in the Shibori technique using clamping, sewing and tying as resists. One piece tied small sections of fabric over buttons of different sizes (No 3). This resulted in some interesting efffects where the image of the button was transferred to the surface of the silk.

Shibori Workshop Cottons

These samples show cotton voile dyed with natural Indigo dye using the Shibori technique and various resists. These are from top left clockwise:

• tying small sections of fabric with rubber bands to achieve random circles;
• folding the fabric and tying wood blocks over a large area to achieve large blocks of colour;
• folding in narrow folds and clamping with bull dog clips; and
• folding in narrow folds and placing rubber bands at various intervals down the length of fabric.
  

Work for review Module 1

1. Sheet 3B - The placement of coloured samples on Sheet 3B (top) needed reviewing and adjusting. The turquoise, 'new shape from old', has been repositioned to align more comfortably with the other shapes on the sheet.

2. Composite Sheet - The pictures and samples relating to a common theme or design for the cross shape have been temporarily arranged on a white A3 sheet as a trial for the Composite Sheet. These have not been fixed to the paper. Images consist of: picture of tortoise with cross pattern on shell; paper and fabric printing; rubbing; black and white and coloured shapes; stitched sample; and reverse applique sample.

Chapter 10 Counterchange and Interchange

Sample 1 - Counterchange - cross shapes cut and swapped to produce a counterchange effect. Stamped fabric and threads were bonded to felt to produce two contrasting fabrics for the sample. These were stitched using a simple insertion stitch, in pink and blue wool thread, with no gap between the pieces. Each square was edged with blanket stitch in the same colour thread used for the centre shape.

Sample 2 - Interchange - (a work in progress) - fabric shapes based on cut and fold paper shapes from Chapter 4 were bonded on to pink and mottled moss green felt. Stamped green and red fabric and hand dyed silk were used in this sample. Another simple cross shape was then used as a template to cut from each square. These were rearranged in different squares to create an interchange effect.

Shapes were sewn into each square using two machine stitches, a zig zag and ladder stitch. Squares were joined together using a simple machine zig zag stitch.

This sample is very busy and I wanted to unify the units by incorporating some hand stitching. I am not quite sure the best way of doing this and some further experimentation is planned.


Sample 3 - Counterchange - four different squares of fabric were used for this sample. Stamped and plain fabric in cotton and rayon (also using reverse) were used for contrast of colour and texture. A simple shape from Design Sheet 3 was used to create the pattern used in this sample. Pieces were rearranged in a different order creating four squares of different configurations of the same design.

Pieces within the squares were joined with machine stitching in cross stitch using a variegated pink satin thread. Each square was then joined to the other squares using hand dyed stranded cotton in colours to match the fabrics. Beaded insertion stitch was used to joint squares together using small iridescent green hexagonal beads which tone very well with the fabrics and also provide some 'life'.

I am not sure whether further hand stitching would enhance this sample and may experiment further. I do like the solid colour areas in contrast to the busier elements of the sample however some advice about this would be welcome.