First Friday Art Club enjoyed a special guest instructor for February 2017. Nuno Felting expert, Shannah Warwick of Blckbts sneaked out of her studio to provide a lesson in felting to excited tweens and teens, along with a couple of adults.
"Feel the difference between the fabrics."
After personal introductions and a little vocabulary building--- ie.knowing all of the items and terms used in this felting process, the ladies got rolling right along. And by rolling, I mean ROLLING! That action is almost the main activity required in nuno felting.---funny videos pending.
Wool Roving goes far
Learning the wonders of wool roving was step one. Merino wool is expensive and knowing how to make the most of your materials is important to an artist. Removing just wisps of the wool to use in your design is imperative for any felting student.
"Wisps of roving shrink in your final design"
Using too much roving in sections will cause uneven shrinkage of the final product and leave an awkward, somewhat unusable shape. This might be an effect someone wishes to achieve, but not in this class.
Wisp Away!
Students were instructed to find a partner and take turns placing the wool wisps in any pattern they chose, avoiding too much overlapping. If you look closer, you'll see there is bubble wrap as the first layer-bubbles up. The next layer is silk chiffon. The silk is the fabric foundation to the scarf being designed.
Tulle is the next layer after the design is complete.
Once the wisps are placed and the design is approved, the next layer is Tulle (sounds like "tool"). This netted fabric must be patted gently to meet the other layers and not move. Basically every layer becomes "friends" at this stage. Then a slight amount of warm, sudsy water is squeezed over the layers to prepare for the felting process.
Ball brauser is like a magic felting wand.
The final layer to this felted sandwich is another sheet of bubble wrap, this time bubble side down. The bubbles face inward toward the fabric and once the layers are rolled up, the bubbles, warm water, soap suds, and rolling action cause the fibers to interlock .
Pool noodles have meaning in the winter!
Who knew that pool noodles and bubble wrap were so imperative to the nuno felting process? Well, Mrs. Warwick was happy to share this knowledge with the First Friday Art Club. The mandatory therapy of bubble popping was momentarily allowed, but then the rolling had to commence. The rolling, as promised, was very exhaustive.....
The amount of rolling is a special "science" to this nuno felting process. Each piece needed to be rolled 800 times. That's right, 800! This gave a good upper body workout, but tired everyone out quickly. After 200 rolls, the layers are unrolled, then rerolled in the opposite direction. This gives every section equal friction, resulting in a uniform interlocked fibers.
800 rolls should have fuzzies poking through
Once everyone got their 800 Roll Workout, we needed to peak at the reverse side of the chiffon. If wool fuzzies were poking through the weave, rolling was complete and the chance to take out some aggression on the project had arrived.
Balling up the fabric, dipping it in warm, sudsy water and tossing it in a sink or tub several times shocks the fibers. This action might seem too abusive, but it is the final step to making a lovely nuno felted creation. Whoever said fiber work is just for wimps never put their muscles into this process.
It's like shrinky dinks!
Once the fibers are shocked and shriveled, it was time for the Big Reveal. Everyone was surprised how much the fabric shrunk. There is about a 30-50% shrinkage rate in this process. More shrinkage resulted if there was a lot of wool placed on the fabric. With less wool, there is less shrinkage.
Less surface wool = less shrinkage
Everyone loved their wearable art. Parents who were present requested an adult class to learn this process and have fun with their own peers. Adults just wanna have fun, too!
If you are interested in this process or have attempted nuno felting on your own, let me know! I love sharing experiences, but love seeing what else is happening in the world.
Next month we discover the expressive painting process of Pointillism. This process made famous by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac avoids paint strokes and prefers dabs and dots.
Let's call it the beginning of dot matrix!
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