Monday, November 8, 2010

Blue Mixed Media Pillow Cover- Part 1

Dyed Mawata silk hankie.
 


Wisps of hand-dyed merino-tencel roving.
 


Strips of re-purposed silk blouse and wisps and blobs of blue roving.
 


Overdyeing with icing dye.
 


One of the fun things about making lots of different versions of one item...

...is that you end up making samples without actually having to sample!

Sure, I understand the rationale for it, and love the idea, even...

...but since science is a big part of my 'real' working life...

...I think it's worth a few spectacular failures now and then...

...in order to keep my felting life a little less scientifically rigorous. Grin.

I bought some hand-dyed Mawata silk hankies at a Sheep and Wool Festival a year or so ago...

...and had been wanting to use them.

I layered the pulled-apart hankie and shiny merino-tencel roving bits...

...then covered them with layers of white roving, wetted the piece, and flipped it over.

Next, I cut strips from a silk, thrift store blouse...

...and anchored them with wisps and blobs of two colors of blue roving.

It was interesting to note (sampling-wise)...

...that the blue silk strips caused the piece to shrink disproportionately along their length.

When it was fully felted, but still wet...

...I overdyed it with a bit of 'teal' Wilton icing dye.

Next time...

...the finshed pillow.

(You may be surprised, as I was, at the color of the merino-tencel bits!)



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6 comments:

vilterietje said...

you win some, you loose some:)
love, riet

Fi said...

Can't wait to see the final result now! I've got another giveaway if you want to try again.

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks, Fiona...I just tried my hand at a caption on your blog.
(What a fun idea!)

Patty Biermans said...

Can't wait to see the result!!. And I promiss you....I will be surprised...;-)Peebee

deanna7trees said...

enjoyed seeing your process here. I purchased some beautiful silk roving in Houston and get wait to do some needle felting.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you enjoyed the Houston photos.

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks for stopping by, Deanna!
Yes...I really loved your photos
of the quilt show. The 'arial view' ones were especially nice, since it gave a sense of the scope of the show.