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Post by Ali Iceloff on Feb 24, 2015 0:37:45 GMT
Hello! I'm from Wyoming and just joined the forum. I'm back to felting after about a year or two hiatus. Previously, I mainly made flat decorative pieces, and I'm really interested in making sculptural wet felt this time around. I'm going to start with pods...but I really want to know how to make spikes and slits in the felt and those felt balls within felt structures (maybe a form of shibori??) ....so I'm hoping to gain some insight on this forum. Unfortunately, I don't live particularly close to a major metropolitan center so classes and other felters are few and far between! I'm glad to see people are starting to have online courses as I found that working solo last time was a bit challenging!
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Post by Pandagirl on Feb 24, 2015 2:18:03 GMT
Welcome Ali!! You've come to the right place. We love to share and learn and experiment! We have members all over the world with varying degrees of experience. Many of us live in remote places, but here we are a thriving community. Please take some time to go through the various sections and visit our studio blog at www.feltingandfiberstudio.com And by all means ask questions! We love to help. And yes, we will be offering a variety of online classes.
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Post by jwugg on Feb 24, 2015 7:54:42 GMT
Welcome Ali & welcome back to felting! We have many talented & experienced people here who will give you some ideas, we love to share experiences. So Do post some of your work as you get going again please!
I've found as I get more experience & understanding of resists, I can start to work out how some of those strange waves, spikes, textures etc are done. & Youtube can be helpful! You may want to look at Fiona Duthie's online classes, I took her handbag class last year & it was excellent, the most popular is the surface design class which would include many of the techniques you mentioned. & the fab ladies who run this forum are now starting online classes, too, very exciting.
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Post by lyn on Feb 24, 2015 11:47:46 GMT
Hello Ali - welcome to the forum - there's always someone around on here that has an answer.
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Post by zed on Feb 24, 2015 12:50:00 GMT
Hi Ali I think we've covered all those at some time or other here, I'm trying to think of a particular thread we had about resists and slits etc. Maybe just putting 'resists' into the search will get you lots of info If this helps, this is a piece I made with resist, trying out different cuts for different effects: experiment 2 by zedster01, on Flickr
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Feb 24, 2015 13:06:41 GMT
Welcome to the Forum, Ali! The Forum is a lively, informative place where you can find like-minded fiber addicts. We look forward to seeing photos of your work and having you join the conversations.
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Post by MTRuth on Feb 24, 2015 17:49:59 GMT
Hi Ali! Welcome to the forum, glad you joined us. I'm from NW Montana. Where in Wyoming are you? My husband grew up in Casper and his family still lives there. If you can find The Complete Photo Guide to Felting in your library, you will see that many of those techniques are explained. And as Jill says, once you start working with resists, you will be able to figure out how many of the techniques are done. And then you just keep experimenting until you get the look that you want. So ask as many questions as you would like and show us some photos of what you're creating. We love photos
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Post by Ali Iceloff on Feb 24, 2015 22:47:49 GMT
WOW! This REALLY is a friendly forum!! (: I'll answer questions from the bottom up...
MTRuth...I'm in Laramie...so not exactly next door to Casper...but not so far! (:
Zed and everyone who mentioned resists...I started reading the back threads, and I got lost in a fish tutorial! It really opened my eyes up as to what you can do with a little bit of plastic! I'll keep reading!
jwugg...I'm trying to figure out if I should take Fiona's handbag class as the other classes are already full for spring.
Pandagirl...the blog has so many great things! I've already bookmarked some!
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Post by Pandagirl on Feb 24, 2015 23:39:07 GMT
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Post by Ali Iceloff on Feb 25, 2015 0:18:31 GMT
Pandagirl...thank you!The plan this weekend is to make a few of those pods with the merino top I have on hand. After I use the top up, I'm really looking forward to trying batts. I saw a nice Bergschaf Felting Wool at Opulent fibers....I'm going to see if anyone else has used that here on the boards.
And I just lost 10 minutes making my avatar! (: My youngest says I have a pointy witch nose...couldn't find one of those....LOL! And the purple eyes is a bit of creative license but gotta have a little fun. (:
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Post by Pandagirl on Feb 25, 2015 1:26:18 GMT
Cute avatar Ali! Time well spent. Do you have any other heavier fibers to mix in? Merino alone may be a little thin unless you add extra layers. I learned that with my first pod. :-) I usually add heavier fibers in between the first and last just to give the pod a little stability. But no worries if you're just experimenting the merino will work just to learn the process.
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Post by Shepherdess on Feb 25, 2015 1:47:15 GMT
Welcome to the forum, did I send you over here from facebook? join in, ask questions and enjoy the forum. We love pictures the failures as well as the triumphs.
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Post by zed on Feb 25, 2015 10:35:43 GMT
Yeah, make sure you use enough layers on your pods and keep fulling until they're really firm- this will shrink them down a lot so make sure you start big enough
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Post by jwugg on Feb 25, 2015 10:56:10 GMT
Hi, I really enjoyed Fiona's handbag class, the details she gives are so detailed & clear & fabulous photos etc. Although I had used resists before, I learnt a lot from her expertise, including details of materials best suited for bags, info on how much fibre, ideas for handles, etc. We also did touch on some of the surface design stuff ; she shared her crater technique. There was a really good forum & Fiona personally answered as many questions as we had! We put up photos of bags we'd made & she critiqued them very well. So yes, I'd recommend it.
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Post by koffipot on Feb 25, 2015 12:02:09 GMT
Hello Ali, and welcome. Look forward to seeing your pods.
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