natural fibre pouch
I have started my exploration of natural fibres by experimenting with the felting properties of Icelandic wool tops. The fibre is courser than merino and the felt produced has a slightly shiny, harder, wavelike texture. I decided to make a small sample of decorative felt to see what works.
I added streaks of bamboo fibre, flecks of flax, small pieces of noil silk and skeleton leaves. All these additions are available from George Weil. This traditional craft warehouse is a wonderful discovery.
FLAX
SKELETON LEAVES
I loved the wiggles produced by the caramel-coloured bamboo fibre and the flashes of wiry brown flax. The skeleton leaves would perhaps have shown up better against a finer background fibre. The noil silk was also caramel-coloured and denser than I expected. It took a while to attach and never produced quite the snake-skin texture which a finer silk can give. Overall, I liked the resulting, quite subtle, creamy, textured fabric but would have liked a touch more distinction between background fibre and the additions. I put it aside for a while unsure what it could be used for.
My next experiment was simply to felt some Devon long wool tops. This beautiful wool is the colour of rich Devon cream and it felts with similar properties to the Icelandic to produce a beautiful rich cream silky fabric with beautifully waved fibres. I stopped at a pre-felt stage.
I was playing around with the resulting piece when I realised they were just made to be combined as a simple decorative pouch.
I just need to combine the two, stitch the sides and add a fastening.
Principally felt 