Woven Flat Felt

 

 

 

 

I've been trying various kinds of flat felt pieces lately...

...in order to test drive different techniques without too much committment. Har.

For this piece, I wanted to try weaving the design elements...

...so I started out with one thick and one thin.

For the thick element, I tore strips of yellow hand-dyed silk...

...so that the edges would be a bit wiggly and 'catch' the wool better.

The thin was comprised of lengths of novelty yarn...

...in shades of pink, orange, yellow and green.

For the 'grid', I laid out alternating strips of silk and yarn...

...weaving 'under-over' with the perpendicular pieces.

Next, I covered the surface of my lattice...

...with thin layers of orange wool roving, and began felting.

After working on this side for some time...

...I flipped it to the opposite side to check for problem areas.

To the spots where yarn crossed yarn, or yarn topped silk...

...I added a thin 'veiling' of wool, and continued to felt.

Conpared to my last silk gauze/wool project (the yellow book cover)...

...this thicker silk did a better job of 'felting-in' without disappearing.

I always love what the felting process does to the texture of silk...

...and how it turns straight lengths of yarn into Marcel waves.