Nuno Felting with a sander

A few days ago I read this post on the funky felters blog all about cobweb scarves. It inspired me to make a few scarves, I haven't made any since a large wholesale order before Christmas, making dozens of scarves in a few days can really put you off making something which is normally a joy. Anyway, I followed the links on the blog to see if there were any new techniques I could have a go at, one of them mentioned a sander. A few students on the City and Guilds course use sanders and I've been itching to have a go, but our sander is rather large and uncomfortable to hold. So I popped down to the local DIY store and treated myself to a cordless sander (who'd have thought I'd ever get excited over a sander!). I then went on to produce two cobweb, nuno silk scarves. They are the same design but one is on black silk chiffon and the other is on white. The sander worked a treat, once I'd laid the wool out on the the silk and wet it with warm soapy water, I covered it with bubble wrap (bubble side down) and sanded the back of the bubble wrap. Even though it's cordless I was a little paranoid about being electrocuted so I made sure the bubble wrap was completely dry. Having sanded the entire surface I rolled the scarves for a few minutes then began throwing. The results were these two beautiful scarves in just less than an hour. I've just started a group on flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/nuno/ so if you have any nuno felt creations please come and share them.

A little birdie

I made this screen on my gocco and have been happily experimenting, printing little birdies onto everything. Here's a set of coasters and a cute little purse.

Postcards

I don't think I came any where in the competition, it's being announced sometime today, so I'll share the winning entry with you later.

I've had a really busy week finishing off felting samples for my City and Guilds course, we're meeting up again this weekend, to work on our final projects. Can't wait, I love these weekends, we felt from 10 am to 7 pm for two whole days, only stopping occasionally to eat and drink, heaven!

As you probably guessed from the title I received a parcel of postcards this week. Very happy with the outcome.

Another competition

I think I'm getting a little addicted to online competitions. I do like the challenge, and it seems to get my creative juices flowing. When I saw that craftzine were running a contest with singer called 'sewing with nature' I new I had to enter, as part of my City and Guilds course I have been looking at creating the texture of bark in felt. So after many sketches and lots of samples here's my finished piece.....


It's the first piece of clothing I've made from felt that I'm really happy with and I can't wait to have a go at making some more. I think the deadline is today, here are the other entries.

Oh, by the way, the cream bits are fungus, the piece was inspired by fungus growing on a decaying log, just like this...

Monsters!

Hooray, more snow. We woke up to a couple of inches this morning and it's still snowing, I love it, we really don't get snow very often here in the UK. However, this time I won't be picking the kids up early from school as I have to much crafting to be getting on with. Maybe we'll ditch the swimming lessons and go sledging after school instead.


Here are some of the monster bags from the workshop I was teaching last weekend (please excuse the poor photos, the lighting wasn't that great). It was a fantastic day, I love the fact that the group created such a varied mix of monsters. I have a couple of monster bags myself waiting patiently to have their finishing touches added, then I'll be listing them over on etsy. At the moment though I'm a little distracted with owls....