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Felting successes and less than successful felts..

So, incase you were wondering, this is what I've been up to lately...

 I'm hugely in love with autumn colours this year.  I've made a load of very autumnal bags and purses, as well as some felted cards.  The sales side of things has been pretty good, but I hate to see these pieces go, as I only make them once.  It must be a bit like seeing your child leave home for the first time.  It's funny but I never consider keeping any of them - it's more that I hope they have a good life with their new family, where ever they end up.




All of the bags are wet felted over a resist made from a double thickness of bubble wrap.  I like to use bubble wrap as a resist as I probably massively over water everything when felting, so a waterproof resist is more practical, also with a double layer you can feel where the edges are more easily.  Plus, the little bumps help the piece to felt inside while I'm concentrating on the outside.  Some days, you need all the help you can get!

This is a card, made using a piece of purple scrap felt that I liked too much to throw away.  The leaves are also from scrap, but the flower is purpose made.  


 I loved this green fibre mix.  I think it's merino and silk, but I'm not sure.  I buy giant kilo packs of lap waste from World of Wool.  They have an ebay shop where they sell of their scraps, and in terms of value for money it's absolutely amazing.  Merino still works out as a pretty expensive investment even with the waste packs I buy it in, so lately I've been trying to find a cheaper felting alternative.

 I decided to try a range of other sheep breeds from Wingham Wools, in the hope that even if I don't find the same luscious blends and colours in the other fibres, I could always try dyeing my own.



This week I had a go with white Cheviot. Wingham Wools' website states that it is 'a general purpose wool of average quality. Good fibre for feltmaking. 30.5 - 33 micron, 8-10cm staple length'




I laid it out, wet it down and gave it my usual amount of rubbing, but it was all a bit on the lively side - no matter how much I tried it kept trying to escape my control, refusing to hold to the netting, and springing out all over the place. My bags are decidedly too bouncy, and pretty unfelty! Back to the drawing board with this one maybe- it does look like it should be good as a core wool for needle felting, but I'm quite sad that my hopes of a cheaper replacement were not realised this time round! There's always a next time though - I also have a lovely bag of texel to try out. I'll let you know how I do with that one.



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