Playing with More Textures

Some more textures, using commercial tops in natural and brown, hand spun knobbly yarn, sprinkles of natural and brown dyed mohair.  Lengths of  tops were laid down and pulled apart. Then felted where they landed,  creating an interesting open pattern. 

Here a length of natural coarse merino tops was laid down and pulled apart and then Romney Liecester  cross was laid on top in the traditional way.  When felted it had the look of an animal skin. 



Felted Wall Hanging

Here it is...... the finished wall hanging using natural wool and the wool I solar dyed using Native Daphne and Acacia leaves and beetroot skins.  Some commercial tops were added for contrast.  I am really excited about the range of textures that emerged and will be trying something on a larger scale soon....or at least when the weather cools down.   You can get a  quick glimpse of the process in the previous post.

Like most of my creations it began inspired by something I saw or imagined...in this case bark....and then reinvents itself  during the process.  This is what is so enjoyable about the creative process.

I have a couple of options for the hanging. One is to make very fine felted ties and to attach them to a rustic branch ......the second is to use Velcro and fix the hanging to a contrasting background before hanging.  I think I prefer the first option as I like the way the light shines through the openings.


The wall hanging measures approximately 98cm x 50cms



Inspired by Bark - Felted Wall Hanging - The Process

 

My neighbour was peeling bark off her Paper Bark trees and she did I noticed the wonderful colours on the underside. I had not long finished solar dyeing some merino tops and thought they would work well in recreating some of the barks patterns.

I needed some embellishments so pulled out the basket of roughly hand spun.  What a tangle!  I had spun these balls a few years ago...trying my best to make them as uneven as possible.  For many years prior I had spun very fine even yarn that did not inspire me at all.  I wanted something organic looking and I was surprised how hard it was to spin chunks and slubs randomly.  Now they were to be put to good use. 

To make the yarn more interesting I gathered the over spun yarn creating various spirals (above)

Some novelty yarns were also gathered to create fluffy lengths reminiscent of caterpillars  ( above)  and nobbles (below).

 Pieces of Medical gauze were distressed and then dyed with tea bags.

More novelty yarn was frayed for yet another effect (below)

Below are a few shots of the process as the bits and pieces came together to form a unique wall hanging .

The finished hanging will be posted later.