Saturday, January 29, 2011

Extra work; neon dreams

Merino on Bubble Wrap


Sometimes I get special orders from clients for things I do not normally produce. In this case my client requested a sheet of felt in my lime green merino wool. Wet felting flat pieces of wool is a fun and exhausting process. I started by using 8oz of presoaked merino to match the neon green sample i was given. I tweaked the dye bath little by little until my merino matched the tiny twist I was given to work from. After removing the wool from the dye bath I washed it out with warm water. Normally I wait for the wool to cool in the dye Rolling with my Homies

bath before washing it out with cold water. Since I was just making felt anyway, I washed the excess dye out with warm water. I cut myself a big piece of bubble wrap that I have been saving. Then I lay merino fibers across the half of the bubble wrap all in one direction. The I laid fibers all going the other direction. Then lots of hot water, geranium scented dish soap, and good old elbow grease. I fold over the bubble wrap and roll the whole lot around a yard stick over and over again. And over and over again. I keep it hot by reJust Beat It

freshing the soap water, and then beat the hell of it with a wooden pasta spoon. And I really mean beat the hell out of it. Then a delicate wash out and a round through the spin cycle. I was left with a thick felt pad of bright neon green, and I think my client was pleased. I packed it with the leftover dyed merino and tied it with a silver bow.The finished felt pad

All dressed up

6 comments:

Lucy Rebecca said...

What do people do with this kind of felt?

anxiety knits said...

All kinds of things... Some people needle felt lovely things on them, some people cut them up and make things out of them. The sky is the limit. The client I made it for was using the flat felt to make leaves she was sewing to felt covered soap. What do you think you would do with it?

peony said...

looks great :-)...
I would guess that someone would use it for embellishments...

Good to see you are back to blogging :-)
Sent you a message on ravelry too!

Bethisboring said...

glad to see our pasta spoon has many uses.

Olubunmi said...

You know something? I haven't tried a project like this. It would be fun to try. What you done with this particular pad that you felted?

<< I have been crafting for a long time and I haven't felted anything yet. I might just brave it sooner than later.

Lacey (schoolhousefarm) said...

wow--that looks amazing. what a great color!