The Colour Wheel In Felting

I taught a felting workshop the other weekend where we made nuno felt flowers and a little mobile phone case over a template.  The day was, thankfully, warm and sunny so we could felt outside which was lovely.

One thing I have noticed about felting is that everyone just dives in and goes wild on their colours without really thinking about it. Some people have a flair for colour and their projects always look great.  Unfortunately others don’t really have any idea, and they are inevitably not happy with their projects.  They can be great on the technique but their colour choices let them down.

Flickr: knit.spin

So I before we leapt in the deep end, I spoke briefly about colour theory and the colour wheel.  Even this little snippet, caused the students to pause and think about their choices, and the tones and shades they were selecting.  And on the whole, I think the finished projects were so much better for putting a little thought into colour.

Here’s a few weblinks to useful colour wheel information:

Basic Color Theory

Colour Wheels

My little purple bag (photograph right at the top) is always popular and it is so because of the complementary colour scheme I used, purple and green are opposites on the colour wheel. It works so well in nature with irises and I’ve always loved that colour combination.

Authenticity in colour

For a long time with my felting I feel like I’ve been choosing colours which just aren’t me. That’s not to say I don’t like the colours, in fact I often do. But many of my felting projects are gifts for others. Like the hot pink organza nuno felt bag. I was very happy with how this turned out – but well hot pink is just not me!

And in Australia we do tend to – as a collective – to favour the bright oranges, yellows, reds so reminiscent of an outback imagination.

So going back to basics, lately I’ve been selecting the colours I like without thinking about my projects as gifts. Which, frankly, is a whole lot more relaxing and enjoyable than worrying about if the person you have in mind will like it or not! It makes the whole crafty experience are lot more enjoyable.

I like the pastel tones in this one – and I often think that grey and white are under – appreciated colours!

I also have always liked green and purple together, so was happy with the tones in these merino wool tops from Colourstreams.  I looked for some time for these colours – to get just the right purple and green, and it can be very hard to be sure you’ve got the right colour you want when shopping online. But I was very happy when the parcel arrived in the mail – don’t you love getting parcels in the mail!! – and the colours were as they should be!

This little bag is made from purple, green and white merino wool tops. The little red butterflies are made from nuno felt with satin stitched bodies.

In Response to a Rose

The weather in Australia this summer has been a bit on the wild side, the unpleasant wild side that is. There have been enormous floods in Queensland which have left all of Australia reeling. Then Cyclone Yasi quickly followed, and the southern states have not escaped, the floods and rains have worked their way down here. That is, in between the hot weather which brought bush fires….

So it feels a little like we have been taking shelter, with small windows of nice weather to dash outside and play, before the rain or the heat forces us back indoors.

Source: Flickr – Samantha Celera

And every time the rain stops and we dash outside there stands the hardy rose bush in my front garden.  I thought it had stopped flowering a month ago, but after each heavy downpour or unbelievably hot day, there it is with a new bud, or several new flowers half open. It appears to like this extreme erratic weather! And in a poignant kind of way, defies these extremes, flowering anew after each terror.

The roses go through various stages of pink from fushia or cerise, to coral and lastly to tea pink.

Source: Flickr – Brandy Shaul

What can you do to remember such a rose bush? So defiant and so beautiful.  I guess some would paint it or draw it, but I photograph it and try a little textile tribute to it.

I don’t have any great plans for these little nuno felt pieces. I often feel the need to justify my crafting – it has to be something – but why do I do that? Maybe I just created for fun, for relaxation, just for creating, just to remember the colours of that rose and nothing more …..it doesn’t have to be something, it just is.

Tea Leaves and Rusty Nails

Multi-Craftural

I recently came across the term “multi-craftural” the other day and thought it was a fantastic word! I assume it means “someone who loves and practices more than one, two or three crafts….”  Its such a good description of many crafters, if I think of the crafty types I know, all of us do at least two or more crafts.

And one technique I’ve been meaning to try for …. years…… is natural and found objects for dyeing. I’ve seen some gorgeous colours produced by using found items like rusty nails and plant materials like bark and leaves.

Source: Flickr – Schilling2

But I must admit I’ve been rather put off by actually trying it out, the books and articles I’ve read usually call for all sorts of cooking pots, weird chemicals I’ve never heard of and a well-ventilated stove preferably outside!  (I’m afraid I just don’t have one of those, don’t really want to spend the money getting one & this is not something I want to try out in my kitchen around others!)

Source: Flickr – Leo Reynolds

Have no fear!

So it was with absolute delight that I came across an article in Down Under Textiles No. 3 (Sept 2010) about Rita Summers and her approach to textiles, recycling, experimenting and dyeing.  Best of all, she had simple instructions which seem a bit more achievable to me. (There are still a few things I’m stuck on like finding some of the chemicals like iron sulphate – just where do you buy that?)

But I did like her instructions for rusting fabric because I had all the items already!

100 teabags – yes!

4 litres of hot water – yes!

Ironmongery – old nails, screws etc: yes! (scavenged from the builders’ thoughtful scrap heap they left behind.)

So I didn’t worry about finding iron sulphate but adapted her instructions to rust some silks and cottons.

Here’s what I did and the results:

I soaked these fabrics in the teabags & hot water for about 10 minutes and then wrapped them in the iron nails and screws & cold water for about 3 hours. This is what I got:

Silk Organza - tea rusted

Velvet with DMC Embroidery Threads - tea rusted

Silk georgette - tea rusted

Cotton with hand printing - tea rusted

The darker marks you can see on the organza, georgette and velvet are the ironmongery marks.

I then let them dry and then washed them in boiling hot soapy water to see how much colour they lost. The small scrap you see at the bottom is what they looked like after being hot washed.

So now I’ve got the multi-craftural bug……

So now I think I’ve got “the crafty bug” to keep exploring this craft too!  I’m going to have to think of a way to try out the plant dyeing ……….