Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray with Wendo
What better to do on a warm Monday afternoon before an OOTB meeting night than try a little Nuno with member Wendo Van Essen sharing her felting expertise? Nuno felting involves “entangling or binding of wool fibers with a woven structure.”
About a dozen members came prepared to learn with Wendo providing base materials for a small fee – beautiful merino wools and silk chiffon scarves – both in a wide variety of colours. She also provided each of us with long strips of bubble wrap and plastic, which we used to roll up our silk scarves once they were laid out with delicate wisps of our chosen colours of wool.
While most of us who have tried felting know it can be quite physical work for the hands and arms, Wendo showed us how to use a Dollar Store boot tray (the one with the raised buttons on the bottom) to make the work of felting easier and quicker. The boot tray’s raised edges were perfect for containing the water and soap required for the process. Its length made the process of rolling plastics and scarves with wool together in stages simpler than other methods I’ve tried.
Before long, everyone was busy rolling and unrolling their projects using soap and water on our wool/silk sandwiches.
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With Wendo’s guidance, we learned how to check and check again, monitoring our agitation efforts and working the wool fibres through the other side of the silk scarves – the “entangling” process. It was fun to see how other members’ scarves and colour choices came together.
Unfortunately, a lot of us found the dye in our scarves ran and temporarily coloured our hands. Wendo said this had never happened in any class before as the scarves came from Dharma in the U.S., a well-known and reputable supplier for textile art products. Wendo later contacted Dharma and they replied that the scarves were from a new supplier in China and that they would certainly follow up on the reported problem.
For those wanting to know more about Nuno felting, there is a wide range of videos on You Tube showing various methods as well as several books available on the subject.
A playdate or workshop with an experienced felter can make the learning easier and more fun, too.
Book quoted:
Nuno Nouveau by Liz Clay (2007)
By Doreen Meyer
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
Nuno Magic in a Boot Tray
