Mosaic Rug Making Workshop

This past month has been a whirlwind of learning new things and meeting new felting friends. I learned that world class felters, Mehmet (from Turkey) and Theresa were coming to Maryland, I jumped at the opportunity to take classes.

The first one day mini workshop was spent learning the Mosaic technique and was held at Sharon Janda's home in Potomac, Maryland. Although Sharon and I spoke a few times via the Internet, nothing prepared me for her fabulous studio equipped with every possible piece of felting paraphernalia imaginable!. . . and her room of hand dyed roving was a joy to behold! A complete storehouse full in the most splendid colorways - - what a pleasure to the eye . . . and to the hand too if you had an opportunity to sink your fingers into it. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera with me so you'll have to believe me when I tell you just how fabulous her studio is and what a caring and wonderful hostess she is. There were about seven of us each busy creating our individual designs with guidance from Mehmet and Theresa. I won't soon forget the fun Sharon and I had throwing and rolling our rugs down her driveway (our rugs were rolled together in the same Turkish mat)!

Confession time: I feel like such a "Dunce" every time I take a class, as I make things too complicated and I also love lots of detail which makes me take w-a-y longer than everyone else! but, I although I feel intimidated when I look around and everyone else is ahead of me, I'm never sad for long as I've learned new techniques and what I should and shouldn't do next time. Since it was Spring, I decided that I wanted to make a robin-red-breast -- but I didn't have enough time to really make him the way I wanted (one day isn't long enough for this class) so he looked a little like Humpty Dumpty except the brick wall was on his breast and he only had half of a wing (poor thing)!!! I'm needling in some detail -- could I have made flowers that are more organic and thus forgiving - nooooo - I had to choose something that had features that move around when felted -- like a neck and legs that got short (the rug shrinks by 40%). I have no idea whether or not the detail I'm adding will felt properly when I finally get time to roll it again - but I'm posting a picture of little robin in progress and will post another after the rug has been rolled - he's a spunky little thing - eh?

Green "scrumbles"

I've been making these green scrumbles (modular knit/crochet pieces) for over a year now and mentioned them in an earlier post. Since they were just sitting there, I decided to challenge myself to get it put together in time for the Maryland Sheep and Wool -- always fun to share with others to let them see how much fun making scrumbles can be -- it's amazing to me that more don't try it since everyone knits and must have loads of scraps of yarn hanging around. I always have lots asking for more information about scrumbles and I alert them to the International Freeform Knitting and Crochet group on Yahoo -- people from all around the world are into freeform. No need to worry about tension, or gauge -- just pick up some yarn and do whatever takes your fancy - there is everything in this wrap from plain knitting surrounded with all sorts of crochet stitches. What a great way to learn by making samples of new stitches and putting them together. Since I'm looking for relaxation in the evenings when doing these scrumbles, the colorway and texture means more to me than the actual stitches. With that said, sometimes, a particular yarn will call out to be bullions or fans - and there you go! This began with some gorgeous chenille and some curly wool in the Caribbean green tones and I began my pilgrimage of gathering everything I could find in that same colorway - a ball here and a ball there in various textures; I love working with monochromatic color schemes so the "hunt" is great fun for me. After I began working, I realized that it needed a delicate "punch" so that is when the rose tones entered -- nothing too loud or big just tiny touches here and there and I added a few pink locks here and there. It turned into a rather "frilly" wrap with an organic collar -- it reminded me of a garden so, of course, it had to have leaves -- and these are needle/wet felted and stitched and strategically placed. . . and what do you know, it WON the First Prize and Special Award in it's category! I was so surprised and thrilled!

This was the third attempt trying to create what I call "faux" nuno -machine needle felted then felted in the washing machine and fulled by hand! A few french knots were added as I love tiny detail (if I'd had the time, I would have added a lot more -- beads too!). If you look closely, you can see tiny roses and leaves that were stitched. It started out being a wrap and turned into a collar! That's the beauty of felting this way - the fibers migrate and sometimes results can be unpredictable but worthwhile just the same! As long as you are learning, the time spent isn't wasted and the results are quite pretty, I think. It is hand-dyed silk gauze with wool and silk and it won a third prize at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

A photo posted on the Yahoo Embellisher group reminded me of my little fairy house created for Evy of "A Bit of Stitch" a few years ago - I drew the shape of the bottom portion on to water soluble stabilizer complete with door and windows/shutters and needle felted roving on to silk chiffon (what I had on hand matched the blue of the roving) and then stitched the shutters. The removable top (to allow you to peak in at your fairy to make sure she is behaving herself) is an upside down bowl - needle and then wet felted. Textile medium was used so it would keep it's shape.

I'm so tickled and honored to have my blog nominated by Laurence as "inspirational" -- in turn I have to list 10 and I will in a day or so when I'm able to pare down my list - a very difficult task for me when there are so many talented people. THANK you Laurence, for such an honor and it amazes me that you are halfway across the world.

Remember the silk gauze that I dyed a few weeks ago in a pale French lilac? Well, before doing any big project, I like to do a small sample to learn about the materials so I know what I'm getting myself into before spending days working on an idea only to be disappointed. A sample tells me various things -- how well does the wool felt? At times, the wool transforms once felted and a glorious colorway melds into something less than gorgeous and gets "flat." In that event, I experiment more by adding another color, yarns or stitching to give the piece depth and interest. At times, the fabric doesn't do what I imagined or the color and texture takes on unwelcome properties once needle felted.

This past weekend, I worked on a sample with the French Lilac gauze and added some wool with tiny touches of silky mauve mohair. I fell just fell in love with the results. It's needle felted using my Babylock Embellisher and then wet felted. You just won't believe, how sheer, light and airy this sample is - it is impossible to capture this in a picture - wish I could pass a sample around for you to feel it! Every time I pass it, I want to look and touch. It's like a piece of a delicate fairy garment. This weekend, I plan to use the same technique to make a very long wrap. Keep tuned for more, once I complete it, I'll try my best to capture the essence and post it.

On another note, I'm absolutely thrilled beyond belief to have made it into a rug felting class taught by a famous world class felter. Here is a link to the website of Theresa May Obrien if you'd like to read more and I'll be sure to tell you all about it! www.woodscapeartistry.com

A TEASE!!!

I can't let

you in on the secret yet, but I'm working on a commission for some very special projects that you'll learn more about in the months to come -- keep tuned for more "teasers" !!!

It is really difficult to get a good photograph of this "butterfly" chiffon shrug -- this is just one half of the butterfly (I'll post another picture if I manage to get a good shot) and although the wrong side does not have the delicious puckering of the real thing, my attempt to create faux nuno felting turned out pretty well using my Embellisher. It worked pretty well and was quite fast! This is a copper synthetic chiffon (for my first attempt, I hesitated to use silk in case I ruined it!) but I also have a gorgeous shimmery green silk chiffon scarf that turned out quite well too (you can see me wearing it in the Maryland Sew and Vac pictures (see below).

In case you are interested in seeing some items from my trunk show, here is a link to Maryland Sew and Vacuum in Clinton, Maryland, from last weekend -- the class was very full, we had a great time and I met lots of neat fellow Embellishers !!! http://www.marylandsewvac.com/whats_new/margo_duke.php