Rainbows of Color

After a week of rain! So here's the fruits of my labor after screwing up my courage to actually dye wool roving for the first time ever... Its just a little intimidating when you spend money on this bunch of nice wool and you're terrified that all you will have to show for it is a giant dread lock. I also kept toying with the idea that I needed to do this on my stove or I needed a special Crockpot... (actually, a big Crockpot would be nice) Focus! Focus! Okay... so I after completing my research on YouTube. Thank you, new internet connection with unlimited bandwidth usage! Oh, my favorite ones are Rexene's Get Ready to Dye and Spin2weave's Dyeing to Spin Part #3... the first one is so funny and full of practical advice. She showed me that I don't need a huge space to work in. The latter video showed me that I can just heat my wool up in the microwave without burning it. I also looked at countless other videos many of which are for kettle dyeing or yarn dyeing and not hand painting... and some folks well its kind to say they are a yawn a minute. I also figured out what I'm did wrong pretty fast. Well, wrong.. its not exactly wrong, undesirable maybe.. but this wool is mostly earmarked for my nuno felting so I then dyed it to compliment the silk I dyed earlier...

I started this whole thing Sunday and it felt like I wasn't getting a bunch done. I was also fighting the holiday languor. It's mostly waiting. Waiting for the wool to pre-soak, then waiting for the wool to cool, and then finally waiting for the wool to dry and see how it turned out. Hoping that some where that mass of soggy fiber there's artistry and beauty. There's also making the dye baths... realizing that I need way bigger squeeze bottles, improvising with solo cups... forgetting to wear my gloves and ending up with red hands...(my fingernails are still orange) oh, and the actual dyeing. Then today I hung all I've finished up next to each other and thought, thats not too bad for a start...

I like rainbows.. Promises and hope.

Adventures in Nuno Felting

So, I think I'm finally getting the hang of Nuno felting. I started Nuno Felting about a month ago. I took a leap of faith and ordered some dye and 11yds of silk fabric from Dharma Trading Co. I had never dyed fabric before but the silk I'm dyeing is brilliant and wonderful. It creates the base of the wrap or scarf. Then I take tuffs of wool and lay them out in various patterns over the silk. I create layer after layer of delicate wool; sometimes incorporating curly mohair locks, or eyelash yarn or strand of unspun silk for interest. Its like trying to stretch a spiderweb. Each time I do a new wrap or scarf the more I learn about the whole process. I don't have a studio, I live in a small house. Where there's a will there's a way. I have lots of space... outside. So I'm using my covered back porch that my husband cleaned up. Its soo hot here in Texas all summer that getting really wet doesn't bother me. There is the wind, however, imagine having this beautiful delicate creation of wool and silk piled up like a fluffy layer cake and an errant gust destroys all that work! Its so frustrating, to say the least. That only happened once. ONCE!

I found that if I wet the wool down as I go then that won't happen. Then I roll up my wetted wool and silk into the bubble wrap and seagrass matt and roll it back and forth for well.. its a while. Makes me long for a nice steppe pony or camel that I ride with my roll dragging behind it.. (felting old school Mongolian style!) Not to digress, but they really do. Except its huge rugs not scarfs they are making.. Hmm, maybe I just need one of the cats....

Okay srsly, now.

I'm very pleased with the results. And I think Nuno felting in the summer heat might be the next new cardio workout program.. its intense.

Okay back to the felting. For more pictures on this process checkout my Facebook Gypsyharte Arts fan page!