Nuno Inclusions with Silk Habotai

Today's felting samples I created were about trapping element between layers of merino wool and silk. Elements like beads, silk cocoons, pre felted wools, cottons, quilt batting, and other silks.

Using Wool as a Resist

More interesting textures, I learned today in Fiona Duthie's online class.

Felting Surface Design - Fabric Manipulation

Finished piece

Layout of silks before the felting begins.

Felting Surface Design

I signed up for a online felting class taught by Fiona Duthie on surface design techniques. This is week two of the six week class. There is an opportunity to create 30+ samples if you do all the techniques. She posts PDF files with photos and instructions. In addition she adds a few video lessons. Below you can see the first three samples I created today, and a close up of the back on the Nuno Quilting example. I really enjoyed the lessons. It was a great day, creating makes me happy.

Opened for business on Etsy

etsy.com/shop/KimMeuliBrown

etsy.com/shop/KimMeuliBrown

Silk & Seals

In November I took a photo of seals on the pier in Santa Cruz. It was sunset and the light was shiny on their silver blue bodies, the reflection of an orange sky was such a lovely contrast. Yesterday I dyed silk organza in indigo, using a shibori technique of pole wrapping.  When I pulled the pleated silk out of the dye pot it reminded me of the seals. The blue over a chocolate brown, blending from one color to the other in the light. This is why I am attracted to natural dyes.

Dyeing Silk with Sour Grass

After the rains we have plenty of sour grass growing around in San Jose. Today I decided to do some dyeing. I used the recipe in Sasha Duerr's book, The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes. White silk organza and a few silk charmeuse scarfs were soaked overnight in alum and cream of tartar. The fabrics came out florescent yellow. I put some cotton and linen test strips in the pot also. After soaking in the dye pot overnight, I washed them in water and gentle soap; the bright yellow turned to an olive green during the rinsing. The cotton and linen that had no mordant stayed yellow.