Felting? Felting.

I never really got why people were interesting in felting. You can buy felt! And it's not that great. Today, though, I took a class at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo at the Raleigh Convention Center (It is there through tomorrow, June 22) that was pretty fun. Fun enough that I bought the tools and now I guess I have another hobby.

I took a class with Cindy Losekamp called "Shimmering Landscapes." We started with a picture like this:

that was printed with an inkjet printer on 24 lb. copy paper. Once copied, Cindy laid it on top of a silk chiffon fabric and spritz it with water. The image transferred onto the chiffon.

We then laid the chiffon on a piece of wool batting and selected some bits of combed wool. We also used a few strands of a shimmery threadlike substance called Angelina.

Then we just laid the wisps of wool and the chiffon and started poking it with this bad boy:

Eventually, the fibers were felted into the chiffon and this is what I made: 

Not too bad for a first try! 

Here is the original beside my interpretation:

Stay tuned for more felting and for the big unveiling of the hand dyed scarf I made. It is still dying!