Sunday, May 29

new goodies to play with

i've been following deborah's blog, feltersjourney, for a wee while now, and you may remember that she was recently a featured maker here.

anyway, i thought i would pop over to her folksy shop when i was online a wee while ago to have a look-see and, even though i really don't need any new fibres or have the time to really be experimenting with anything new, i just couldn't resist the sari fibres (first pic) or banana silk fibres (second pic).

i haven't used these fibres before so i'm really looking forward to having some fun with them.

if you've used these fibres before and have any tips or photos to share, i'd love to hear from you!


5 comments:

FeltersJourney said...

Hi Tracy :) didnt realise you had not used them before.

The sari silk ribbons - lightly veil them with whisps of fibre to help anchor them in, the lighter weight the ribbon the less veiling you will need.

Banana silk fibres, its actually a rayon fibre. Felts in similarly to sari silk fibre, scatter it in place (not too thickly) before wetting out.. & pay extra attention carefully rubbing that area (I do it with soapy hands through plastic sheeting).

My advice is to do a small sample piece - a sari silk collage - to get a feel for the materials before using them on a project.

I have found with some sari silk goods that the dye can bleed a little when I use very hot water...I did a sample on white merino with hot water to see if the dye 'stuck' and it didnt seem to.

Hope you get on well with them - let me know :)
Deborah xx

vilterietje said...

it's like a child in a sweety shop:)

Felted House said...

I keep looking at these in her shop too but since I haven't really got time to felt at the moment I've postponed buying. I've used the very fine silk fibres before (I bought them as 'throwsters waste' years ago from Fibrecrafts I think) and have added them to the surface of felt quite successfully - they managed to become incorporated without me laying any wool fibres over the top as they're so fine. I've used synthetic wide ribbon in surface design covered very carefully with a fine net of wool fibres as I knew that wouldn't felt in so well by itself, but silk ribbon might be better at felting in. Hope you have fun experimenting! xx

FeltersJourney said...

Tracy, forgot to mention.. any thicker silk ribbons or fabrics that are too heavy to felt in, if you fray/shred them you can use the silk threads in your designs. I find they look very interesting and unusual - 'a little different'.
Let me know how you get on.
xx
p.s. I lost you email addy when my hardrive died, or I would of mailed you. Bet you are getting excited about the upcoming Horst workshop now - lucky girl, wish I was joining you

Tracy Markey said...

thanks for the extra tips and advice :)x