new directions

I've been working on combining elements of felting with quilting.  I love the lines and and forms that the partly felted fibers assume, they mimic organic internal structures very effectively.
I had never felted anything before, and the instructions available on the internet were just a start, since I was after something different.

I have some gorgeous silk and wool roving from a fellow Etsy seller in Taos.

I laid it out quite sparsely, and sandwiched it in the usual way between sheets of bubble wrap and tulle.

Partial felting followed, rolled it many times between the bubble wrap with hot soapy water.
Since the roving is a combo of silk and wool, it does not seem to felt as readily as pure wool, although that's just an assumption on my part.

I decided to use a marvelous piece of silk burlap (!) from Santa Fe Fabrics as the background.  It was laid out over the partially felted fibers, soaked with more soapy water, and rolled again as one piece.

the little dents visible on the surface are from the bubble wrap and disappear after rinsing and drying.
I backed it with brilliant orange silk dupioni to peek out from behind the dark gray burlap.
I wan't after full on nuno felting, with its attendant wrinkling, just wanted to bond the layers together enough to quilt them.

the quilting was fun, I tried to accentuate the forms with several colors of thread to coordinate with the colors of the roving.
It turned out pretty skinny, there is really a lot of shrinkage!  and ended up 11x40".

voila!  next up- work on composition and layout. stay tuned :)