Expansion

The final day of the workshop I got in a brief walk before returning to more rolling - startling a flock of pigeons into flight, finding some leaves to try in a dye bath and enjoying the peaceful beauty. Here is my shawl before and after the shrinking that occurred as I continued to roll it, check it and add friction, heat, water and soap. You can see how you need a large space to do one of these - and a good amount of time.

The texture and colour of both sides is quite different and it's reversible if I want a more muted look.

Here it is on me - and I really love it and plan to make more. I may need to do smaller pieces for now - but I also could get a table to set up temporarily and one of my sons is moving out next month and then I will really have room!

Rolling Right Along

The name on this old gas pump confirmed that I was in the right location for a felting workshop! The first day of Ulrieke Benner's workshop I woke to this promising sky:

And here is the view we had from the Artspring Centre, where I spent the day laying out my design, wetting it out, massaging it, checking it and rolling. Ulrieke had brought a huge variety of supplies for us to play with, including bags of roving she gathered according to the colours we wanted to work with. She asked us what we wanted to make and demonstrated ways fabrics and roving could be joined. She had also brought handouts and samples to view -and - a glorious rainbow coloured shawl she had spent several days making.

I decided to take advantage of the large work area, which I do not have at home, to make a shawl. I had brought fabrics, laces and yarns - some of which I found out were not suitable for a nuno shawl, as they were too heavy. I was able to use some bits of my natural dyed fabric, a snow dyed velvet, a doily, pieces of an old silk shirt and yarns. My design covered the surface of this long table prior to rolling it up, and I still had plenty of rolling left to do by the end of the day, so I covered the roll with plastic to keep it wet overnight.

Then we invited for wine and cheese at Ulreike's studio!