My first Nuno

Tomorrow I travel to London to visit my friend and newborn fairy god daughter, Mia. I wanted to make something bright and cheerful that could either be hung on a wall or used as a little cosy blanket to give as a gift. I had intended to make a picture with elves and toadstools with maybe a rainbow in it, but instead i found myself dreaming of bright suns, Mediterranean skies and beaches, so that's what I made.

Here you can see a pile of ten sheets of prefelt made from my lovely Christmas wools and fabulous washboard (everybody should have a washboard!)

The laying out on silk prior to nuno felting

I literally cut out pieces of prefelt like jigsaw pieces to fit the design I wanted.

The finished piece after nuno felting (wool side up)

And again (silk side up)

Its been quite an educational piece for me. I have not made nuno felt with silk gauze before. It behaves very differently than cotton gauze. For a start, the cotton nuno gauze is very similar to bandage lint, which is good for reinforcing large pieces of felt that you wish to keep thin, but in practice, the wool is felting with itself and not migrating through the gauze.

I made a couple of mistakes with this. I've been reading so much, and asking questions on the felting forum, but in the end you learn most through trying it out yourself. Only then does the advice given and techniques read make full sense.

With this piece, I wrung the reed mat I was rolling it in. Big mistake. I also used boiling water. I later read that this is a mistake too as using hot or boiling water causes the wool to felt with itself and not to migrate through the silk.

I managed to salvage the piece, and I can see the wool hairs poking through the silk when I hold it at eye level. All in all I am pretty pleased with this as a piece of felt. All of the rolling done to make the wool migrate through the silk produces very soft, compact felt. Much better than I usually make it.

I now also have an understanding on how to make my Tiffany designs work best, so all in all, a very productive day.

If you are considering making nuno felt, I found this very good online tutorial.

I would also like to thank Dorie for advising me on another method of nuno felting x