I decided to really treat myself and start the new year off with a long awaited wish. This morning I am driving to the John Campbell Folk Art school to take a class in "Making a Nuno felted seamless garment. " Since the food is so great there I hope I am not a whale when I return. But since making nuno felt is such a physically laborious task I may offset a pound.
In preparation for this class I have dyed 20 yards of silk, and dyed 1 1/2 pounds of wool and silk fibers. I like how all that material came out, but since I have only made scarves and shawls before using the nuno technique, I have no idea how it will all fit together. But the colors that I have created all look good together and I guess I will find out in a week how it all works as a jacket.
I tried several different silk and wool dying techniques -dry powder immersion, overdying previous dyed wool (that I hated the color) , rainbow painted wool, painting the silk by dipping it in color, painting the silk like a painting, (using color all over), dry powder immersion ( in which the silk now reminds me of a hippy curtain that I would have seen in a college friend's room , and I used some salt and alcohol for special effects. I truly have a mixed bag of silk looks.
I also made a few sample pieces of the felt, using different amounts of wool laminated to the silk, and different lengths of rolling time. Each 3 x 3 inch sample took an hour to roll (this is what you have to do in order to get the wool that you lay on top of the silk to migrate through). In the end I decided I need the teacher's instructions for how much wool I will actually laying down to get the winter coat I am after.
Well, I have to go finish packing the car. Wish me luck. I am excited.
