shape mania

I have always loved mosaic effects. The other thing I love is the effect of silk fibre in wool. The colours can be reminiscent of stained glass.

Recently I took delivery of some wool from Wingham Wool Work.These colours inspired me with their jewel – like intensity. I was particularly pleased with a dark blood red which was on offer.

After the success of the experiment using square pre-felts which I described in my post ribbon and scrim 2. I decided to experiment further with using pre-felts which I have imbibed with fibre from silk hankies.

Cut into squares these really pleased me when laid out like a stained glass window. But how to create a background which would highlight the colours? In the end I used a black merino base, topped it with grey alpaca and plain white silk to give a glass-like sheen, placed the squares and then framed it with more black merino.

The result after much rolling of edges and fiddling with corners was this rather pleasing mat.

Admittedly the grey alpaca migrated everywhere and rather muted the colours but I liked the result. A bit of grooming improved the situation. Can I repeat this in some cushion covers I wonder?

Left with some pre-felt bits which seemed too pretty to waste I cut out a set of pre-felt spots. The little girl next door was round for the day and she joined me and we started madly cutting shapes. In the end and we cut every little bit of remaining pre-felt into a shape.

Now I have these witty pieces of felt to make into a cushion, a notebook cover or a child’s bag and not a scrap of precious silk /wool pre-felt wasted.