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Post by felicity on Apr 8, 2016 12:16:57 GMT
I work with merino - mainly but not exclusively... In September I'm going to a sheep festival where I'll have a stall. Organisers of the event expressed their wish to see more works made from British breeds' wool. I do understand them and do not mind to work with local wool in natural colours. So far I worked with BFL (natural and dyed) and love it, tried dyed Shetland (would give it a miss) and like to try more breeds. So I need your advice! Apart from BFL and Shetland what local (British) wool you've tried and liked and would recommend? I'm going to make scarves from BFL and some interior pieces (cushions?)from ... what? I'm going to order some sample packs from WoW and any advice would be greatly appreciated!  |
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Post by zed on Apr 8, 2016 18:12:50 GMT
WoW have loads of cheap British wools, they're not all vastly different but cheap enough to buy and have a big variety. I'll look at their page and tell you some I've used..... English 56's, I use this as a base for pods, vessels and wall hangings, it felts well, is sturdy with a bit of spring. You know BFL I've just bought Blackface, but haven't tried it yet. Cheviot, nice, firmish, but with 'character', coarse but not rough. Dorset horn is similar but comparing 2 similar pieces of felt Dorset feels a bit 'thicker' Devon is lovely, shiny, long and though you don't see it in the tops, the wavy/curly character does show on the felt, though less than Wensleydale, Lincoln and Teeswater which have lots of curly character when felted. I like Lincoln. Herdwick is great for texture, it makes a kind of loose felt, but very nice to look at. Suffolk is a bit similar to Herdiwck, but not as coarse or loose Swaledale is lighter, with whites/gresy and isn't as coarse, but still on the texturey side. This is my 'naturals' album on flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/zedster01/albums/72157660748945334or put the breed names into the studio site, I did a lot of posts of natural wools with fibres |
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Post by zed on Apr 8, 2016 18:17:51 GMT
I don't think sample packs are worth it, you'll probably get a tiny amount for the 50p and a lot of the wools are from 95p for scoured to £1.60 for 100g
Maybe get as wide a variety as possible, like Grey Herdwick, gingery brown Manx Loaghtan, Curly Lincoln etc. I suppose it depends what you want to make. Pods and vessels, decorative pieces, pieces for frames, etc?
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Post by felicity on Apr 8, 2016 19:05:03 GMT
I knew I could rely on your wealth of knowledge, Zed! I'll look through your album of samples, thank you. To try as many naturals as possible is good advice but it's very space consuming I'm thinking of cushions, actually - the first thing that comes to mind... P.S. Have you got my e-mail?.. |
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Post by zed on Apr 8, 2016 19:54:35 GMT
Sorry, it was under a mountain of comment notifications, I'll read it now.
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Post by Shepherdess on Apr 8, 2016 22:09:41 GMT
I have used Mashum. It is really long and really shows the crimp. I plan to make a window blind with it one day it looks really nice with the light showing through.
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Post by Pandagirl on Apr 8, 2016 22:15:15 GMT
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Post by felicity on Apr 8, 2016 22:37:50 GMT
Thank you so much, everyone! It's really great help! Ann, it's a sheep festival in Masham where I'm going... |
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