Monday, October 25, 2010

Making Nuno Felted Beads

Ever since I'd heard about it, I've wanted to try my hand at a bit of nuno felting.  I loved the idea of being able to combine vintage kimono silks with Australian wool to create a new textile, something I could manipulate without stitches or adhesives.

Today was officially my day off, my post-market recovery day, so this afternoon I thought I'd have a little play and see what happened.

I pulled out some sheer kimono silk lining, something with some bright patterns, some merino wool roving, hand-dyed to a glorious red and rich deep black, and a sheer red silk hankie.


On top of the hankie, I spread out a fine layer of the wool and cut out some pieces of the fabric.  I had intended just to make a piece of flat felt.


With the help of some soapy water and some bubble-wrap, I rolled the wool and silk into a piece of felt.  While I liked the resulting soft fine felt, I wasn't too exited about the kimono fabric inclusions.  So what did I do?  I screwed it all up into a ball.  I added some black wool and in the palm of my hand kept on rolling until I made some little felt balls.



I have a few ideas of what I'd like to do with these and I would like to do some more.  But mostly, it was fun to just play and to get my hands... well not dirty considering the use of soapy water... but well, to get my hands doing something different.

Did you play with anything new over the weekend?

4 comments:

K and S said...

nice!

Michelle said...

How interesting! I've not heard of this type of felting before. What are your plans with these sweet little things?!

Anonymous said...

They look gorgeous. I'll be very interested to see what you make them into.
I wish I could say I created something new and exciting this weekend, but no, just washing and housework. I did read a new magazine.

Sandrine said...

I think they look great Melanie, I have been wanting to try on some nuno with your Kimono fabric for a while but never got around to!I enjoy making beads quite relaxing but not sure if I would have the patience for rolling too many :)

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