Nuno Felt 2: Integrating A Wool Design into Silk Fabric

This is Part 2 of a series of videos on How to Make Nuno Felt . I am still learning to do this as may be obvious. I thought that the extra red bits of wool would help the strength of the work as well as balancing out how the shrinkage of the wool wouldnt act to warp the piece. I was wrong. After I finished making this video, I took to the work with my scissors and removed a lot of the extra wool fibres. You can see the outcome in the video thumbnail. Next time I will find a way to make the decoration stronger rather than impressionist but both can be nice don't you think?
In part 2 I use another little piece from this old sari silk. This time we explore ways to apply decorative elements to the right side of the fabric but not covering the fabric. You would be amazed at how much warmth and comfort can be provided with just a little merino wool added to silk fabric.
When textile artists talk about Nuno Felt, it is sometimes in reference to using wool or other fibre to decorate a lightweight open fabric such as silk or muslin. Our task is to push the wool fibres together and at the same time, pushing the fibres through the weave of the fabric. You only need a very small amount of wool. This is where wool comes into its own best qualities of being great for all temperatures. In this way nuno felt can be a joy to wear in a very hot climate. The qualities of wool are such that it is cool as well as warm to wear. Even the smallest amount of wool such as this will add to the comfort of a nuno felt item. A nuno scarf decorated like this will be featherweight but amazingly warm at the same time.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:28 What you need
00:51 Setting up the project
01:01 Laying down the black stems
01:59 Cover with net and wet down the project
02:19 Using hands and a roller to press the wool through the silk
02:36 Add detergent when needed and using hand work to keep patting
03:11 Using some sort of ridged tool, rolling pin and bubble wrap
03:28 Testing felting progress
06:57 Rolling the work in multiple directions
07:25 Dropping and shaking to Full the felt
08:50 Rinse the work in water /vinagar mix to stop the felting process
I hope you like it and are inspired to play with wool and textiles to make some wonderful nuno for yourself.
n the 1990’s, Polly Stirling, an Australian fibre artist together with Sachiko Kotaka were exploring ways of bonding wool fibre to open weave cottons and silk. They named this felt Nuno Felt.
Wool fleece or other fibres are bonded to and through an open weave, lightweight fabric such as cotton muslin or silk gauze. "Nuno" means cloth in Japanese so Nuno Felt is an open weave cloth bonded to wool fibre. If you do a search for Polly Stirling , you will discover a delightful video where Polly talks about her journey from weaving to Feltmaking. Then, Polly talks about her joyful explorations into incorporating cloth with wool and other fibres.
Polly Stirling: • Polly Stirling 2016
Sachiko Kotaka: • Sachiko Kotaka's Tacti...
You can also access these via my Nuno Felt playlist.
Nuno Feltmaking is great for both artists who wish to make very even and professional looking work as well as those who want to engage in joyful playing with colour , texture and textiles.
I am no feltmaking expert. I have the good fortune to have a mother Judith Shaw, now nearly 90, who has been a passionate and adventurous felt maker and textile artist. I am able to draw on the detailed notes she kept over many years and use some of her magic stash of wool.
Through these videos I am exploring different ways of working with wool and felt just as Judith has done for many decades. I simply invite you to come on this journey of discovery with me.

[@bernadette8300]

I love it

[@TheWeekendArtist]

So glad you liked it. I am going to do some bigger nuno projects real soon. Thank you very much.

[@GrandmaSezSo]

Have you ever nuno felted a beaded saree?

[@TheWeekendArtist]

Thank you for your question. No I havent tried that. But... the effect would be very interesting, the wool wont felt onto the beads but will felt around them on the right side of the fabric... If you lay down the wool on the 'wrong side' of the fabric the wool will definitely felt through. I would love to see a sample of that... could look absolutely marvellous.

[@GrandmaSezSo]

@@TheWeekendArtist Thanks. I bought some used sarees off of Ebay. They are so pretty I was hesitant to cut them. This morning I cut off a chunk. I am getting prepared to wet felt it.