Karen Kamenetzky Fiber Art

I’ve begun to design my next piece which would incorporate many of the recently felted and dyed larger elements like these:

various dyed felted elements

I’m excited by what’s coming together on my design wall but was struggling with what to put in some of those deep sculptural openings that would accentuate the 3Dness. My friend Kris, suggested small felt balls. So after finding a very helpful video online describing how to make essentially felted beads, I got busy (and wet and soapy) with undyed wool.

Of course there was a bit of a learning curve but I made some discoveries. Cheaper wool batt (“Peoples Wool” from New England Felting Supply) is easier to work with than pricey merino.  Wrapping each “bead” with a few strands of lustrous Bombyx silk will create a contrasting pattern after dyeing. And my daugther, Caitlin, discovered that other forms (tiny bananas!) are possible if you shape it before it’s too felted.

undyed tiny felted elements

Yesterday these little babies got dyed along with some felting I wanted to overdye. Here are the results literally steaming just out of the dye pot.

Dyed felted small shapes and more

Look for these in my next piece!

This entry was posted on January 26, 2014 at 9:53 am and is filed under Dyeing, felting, Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.