Wednesday 21 October 2009

Peacock Scarf - Work in progress






I received my wool order yesterday. Lots of predyed alpaca wool, Wenslydale scoured wool, Norwegian scoured wool, hemp, cotton, bamboo and olive soap. I read somewhere recently that olive soap is best because it produces less suds.

So this is my first attempt at wet felting with alpaca wool. Linda of Fiber Fabrications kindly explained to me that:-

Sheep's wool is comprised of fibers made up of many, many scales that have barbs on the ends. (This is microscopically) Those barbs are what make wool prickly to many people. Alpaca fiber has much bigger scales that are smoother and do not have barbs.

The piece photographed above consists of 5 shades of alpaca wool, 2x green, 2x blue and apricot. I have scattered some bamboo fibres in between the layers and have also layered some cotton circles. My energy levels were flagging after a while so I hung the piece out to dry.

Its interesting seeing how different fibres behave. I found that the alpaca wool seems to take a lot more time to felt than merino wool and doesn't seem to have much shrinkage, but it looks incredibly silky when wet and is wonderfully soft.

The above piece will need a second wet felting session to make it functional as a scarf but I enjoyed taking time out to study it and the directions the fibres seem to be moving in. I think this transitional stage is very pretty.


If you are interested in learning more about alpaca's and alpaca wool crafts please visit Linda at Fiber Fabrications. Click HERE to see Linda's wonderful felt soap tutorial.

15 comments:

Delphyne said...

I love that shade of blue! Can't wait to see the finished product - you are so creative and such an inspiration to someone like me considering this art. Thanks, Jasmine!

ArtSparker said...

It's very riverine, with the flow of blue across the surface.

Caio Fern said...

good model this tree .
i liked the scarf ... peacock is a good name too . lovely colors .

patricia said...

Just beautiful. I love the way you show how you work, there´s so much love and patience in each piece. This is very interesting, the photos are enchanting.

lynne h said...

jasmine, all i can think about is what a joy it must have been to receive all of that fiber at once!! all of that goodness to gaze at and touch... somehow it seems wonderful to me to combine plant and animal fibers.

this scarf is beautiful...

Raph G. Neckmann said...

This looks lovely, and what beautiful deep colours!

Anonymous said...

Lovely scarf! I love felting, I have not yet done the method you use here, but I do needle felting and have played with a method called Art Felt. There is something so magical making items out of the different wools.

Brian Miller said...

love that blue!

Yvette said...

I see lots to read in the weekend here...I'll sent you a mail as I promised long time ago....off to Heliomare for a heavy day...kiskiskis
yvette

MaR said...

Beautiful, beautiful scarf! I have to read more about this.

Shadow said...

that wool has an amazing texture... lovely! makes me want to feel it on my cheek.

Clare Wassermann said...

I've been wondering about whther alpaca fleece would felt. The barbs of sheeps wool are what make it stick together so readily so I'll really enjoy seeing how it turns out with the alpaca wool. Which part of the West Midlands are YOU in then?

Anne said...

great work!!
i love this flowing blue and the apricot, that shimmers behind it:))

Anonymous said...

it does look very pretty at this stage, beautiful colour and it looks great photographed against the trees bark.. very nice combination of textures :)

Anonymous said...

I am thinking, I would very much like this around my neck this Winter.Beautiful colours.