Zed, love it, the wools are lovely but the patterning gives it all an even richer texture. must give it a try when i have finished shearing the goats.
tess.

Zed - Hmmm... I'm about as forgetful as they come lately! I love the blue green one.

ooooh yeeeeaah! You get the 'absolute delicousness' vote from me Zed (reserved for those pieces that evoke a total loss of adequate words to compliment!)
Thanks for all those wonderful photos. Can't wait to give it a go! The thing with us aussies is that most of us do cold washes (i don't even have a hot tap hooked up to our machine). I'll probably do the agitation with hands (or look for a plunger) in a pot on the fire, at least while the weather's still cool enough! Then if that doesn't work i might try the cold wash
Thanks again Zed
jude

Thanks Tess I'd love to see it if you do.

Thanks, Teriann, yeah that's right, just shove it in the wash after it's sewn, it looks/feels like a little quilted pillow :)

Thanks Jude, you should try a small sample in your normal wash. My washer doesn't have a hot water hose either, and I've seen one or two people mention here that they only use cold water for felting. I suppose the worst that could happen is you'd have to finish it off with a bit of rubbing afterwards.

Or wait til the weather's a bit warmer and throw a load into a paddling pool and invite a load of kids round :)

Ruth, I must have remembered some of the previous conversation, because I made a point of looking at the carrier rods when I went to World of Wool, pity I forgot about the soaking and layers!

Here's my sample Zed! Not quite the lovely definition of bumps you achieved but textured nevertheless! Tried it yesterday, heating a pot of water on the fire then agitating with wooden spoons. Will try ann's suggestion next, using sheeting as the felt bonded with the net way too much and was very fuzzy when i pulled it out. I finished it off by hand without the net. This one is just merino (5 layers), mulberry silk and silk hankie. Next one might go in the cold wash

jude

Jude, amazing that you also acheived a more subtle textured look doing it your way. I've got an awful lot of mohair so i'll try a piece using lots of curls and see what happens after I've given it a hot wash, hopefully this week some time.
tess

I have a pile of curly stuff for ages time to use it! As I am washing today it can go with the wash

I very much love the textured look and it would make a great bag when sewn togeter...oh suddenly I thought sew it in a spiral... *rushes off to play*

I would throw it in the cold wash. If its not felted enough chuck it in again with the next load. if your house is like mine there is no shortage of laundry to do. The Mongolians make a whole house with cold water and no soap.
Ann

That looks great, Jude. I don't think I'll bother with extra fibres on my lower layers next time, I didn't with the white one and it looks like it gets great texture even without loads of extra stuff.

I was thinking the same thing the other day, Inger, and I bet it would work well for defining landscape pictures too-creating better definition.

I can't wait to see everyone elses :)

I don't know if anyone noticed, but the link I posted to where I read about this technique doesn't work for some reason now

looky here, not sewn in a spiral as my patience was a little short..




If you look closely you will see the sqares from sewing..the texture is indeed great, will play more with that!

Cool work zed! Two questions - did you sew the piece together by hand and what sort of netting did you use? it looks almost like a sheet of nylon, not open 'net' curtain type stuff. Still think it looks like a monster ravioli!

Nice Inger,
My samples are in the wash now, as I sit at the computer with my morning coffee. Its a hot wash as we have a wood stove in the kitchen and always have heaps of hot water. Can't wait to see what they look like although I'm not looking forward to the unpicking as I think I sewed on a rather small stitch.
tess

Cool Inger! We could have a Zed Factor challenge!
Did you who have done this sew by hand or machine? What cloth did you use?

I whipped these 3 up late last night, they all have heaps of Mohair fibre in them. the green mauve one I unpicked when it was still damp. The Mauve pink toned one worked quite well and the Turquoise one I almost binned, what a pain to get that one unpicked. I used an old tea towel and of course it really adhered to it and as a result its rather fluffy. I may even put the sander over it to try and re-felt it a little I guess though It will loose the texture.
The easiest one to unpick was the middle one as I held it together with a synthetic fibre. If I do another I may hand stictch it to see if its a little easier to undo. Not sure what i'll will do with them, perhaps use them as a panel on a fabric tote or something.
Did you guys put them in the tumble dryer to finish them off? I didn't with mine.
looking at them though it only seems to show the horizontal lines, hard to see the vertical lines, not sure why.
tess

Love the one with yarn, they are fabulously textured, Next one I will use mohair too.

The cloth I used was a very tightly woven cotton, no nuno felting ocurred at all.

For the sewing and easy unpicking I use the superthin nylon that they use to hem curtains. No unpicking needed, just give it a good yank and it rips apart easily The sewing I do by machine.

And I sewed mine into a bag