Batik on Wool

I was curious to see if a batik style dyeing could be employed for wool felt, here I have used liquid cold wax on a piece of rainbow dyed prefelt. I think you can see from the photo that the wax had a tendency to sit on the top of the wool so I tried to push it down using the nozzle on the bottle. Hot wax might work better.

I used some black  and magenta dyes over the batik and steamed for an hour. As you can see the wax has melted and spread across the wool.

This is the reverse side, no wax is visible and the dyes don’t appear to have been hindered from penetrating the wool.

This is what it looked like after removing the wax with a hot iron. Although the lines aren’t as distinct as what you get with cotton, I was surprised to see any lines at all given how the wax wanted to sit on the surface of the felt.

 It sort of worked but gives quite a delicate effect.

End of February

Another month gone, where does the time go? It feels like only yesterday I was taking stock of January…

As a recap, these are the goals I set myself at the beginning of January:

  1. dedicate more time to creative activities
  2. create at least 50 good quality pieces for sale
  3. find alternative sources for selling my works, including at least 2 craft fairs and improve marketing of my work
  4. complete my City and Guilds felt making course before August
  5. post at least once per week

And the results:
  1. Doing reasonably well on this one, I have taken 2 days off work and used them almost exclusively to make felt or dye fabric. I have “lost” a few days to St John Ambulance, covering events and the annual assessment for role but I think sparing some of you time for voluntary work is important so will not begrudge that. And the work-load from my “proper” job over the last 2 weeks has prevented me from doing anything creative in the evenings.
  2. I really had to scratch my head for this one, it’s amazing how quickly I forget what I did just a couple of weeks ago (is this the beginnings of dementia?!!), but looking back through my blog I realise I have finished half a dozen pieces this month, 3 scarves, a cuff and 2 wall hangings. Big tick for this one then :o)
  3. This hasn’t really progressed a great deal from last month, the only new avenue I have tested is selling my work through the West Surrey Spinners Weavers and Dyers Guild but I have managed to put a few new pieces on Etsy and then of course there was the mega first Etsty sale :o)
  4. I’m still completing the month 7 assignments, admittedly I have done 3 times more work than was needed but I have really enjoyed working with “clients”, discussing their desires and ideas. I am still just about on track to complete  the course in August.
  5. I was comfortably managng this one, posting between 2 and 3 times a week, for the first 3 weeks. Sorry the posts have been a bit slow over the last week or so, I’m having to work round the clock at my day job and it just hasn’t left any space for being creative. I hope to post about some felt pieces in the next couple of days though.