Last summer at the Felt in Focus symposium in Denmark Lyda Rump had some wonderful hand dyed fabric the like of which I had never seen before and which she explained to us was called etamine, it was 100% wool. I do remember that Lyda said it was particularily suited to shibori (in a washing machine??) and also for using discharge paste to remove selected areas of colour, have any of you had a go??? Trying to do a bit of research on the internet did disclose that wool etamine is good for nuno felting but the info is sketchy and I am looking for some feedback. Wollknoll are now selling etamine scarves and fabric by the metre and my latest order has just arrived this morning complete with 4 of the scarves, unfortunately the colour I wanted from a bolt must have been out of stock so I don’t have any small samples to practice on as I had expected. At E12.50 plus P&P the scarves are not a cheap raw material so if any of you have some advice about the possible shrinkage rate, results you have had, pictures of work you have created etc. and are happy to share here that would be great thanks!
As an aside, if you are interested in having a peak at the video I created for Kelly recently for the Going Green Swap with a Twist on Ravelry head on over here to Clasheen Uncut!
Nicola Brown Fine Art Textiles 
I couldn`t find more
http://images.google.de/images?um=1&hl=de&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=etamine+de+laine+filz&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&start=0
but my friend Annette
http://www.filzfreunde.de
works a lot with it
Most etamine available in the US is 100% cotton, but the open-weave attributes of 100% wool etamine would most likely shrink 40-50% when exposed to hot soapy water agitation, much like a 100% wool sweater which is also open weave. At that price per yard, trying it out on a sample piece might save the rest of your fabric for its original purpose!
Etamine de laine.
Yes, very nice to work with.
I buy it at: http://shop.die-wollfabrik.com/epages/es106783.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es106783_Die_Wollfabrik/Categories/%22Schurwollstoffe/%20Etamine%20de%20Laine%22
148 cm wide and 14.30 euro p/m. Very thin and light natural white wool.
I’m planning on working with it but dont know If there’s time next weekend. If so i’ll show pics.
Your vessel is beautiful!
XXXm
I’ve just got a wool etamine de laine scarf… am planning to paint it with dye… but does it shrink when steamed to fix the dye?
I’ve never had any problems with etamine shrinking, good luck!
It worked well!
Thanks, Nicola! I find that the dye gets absorbed really slowly though.
I think this Annette could better be contacted through this blog or her DaWanda webshop ( under: Mich kontaktieren!)
http://dandelionfilzhandwerk.blogspot.com/
kind regards, Lucie
Hi Nicola,
I washed the Etamine in the washing machine to remove any chemicals left from weaving etc. using a 60 °C cycle (with high water level if I remember correclty) with tumbling in the normal program, not the wool program, because I wanted it to be felted without me doing the hard work on a very long piece (3 -4 m).
Afterwards I put it into the tumbler, for I needed the felt to be dry for the transport to another town for a dyeing session.
The shrinkage was about 50 %.
The result is a thin, nice falling felt, which could perhaps be shrunken further on, if you put it again through the program. Then the shrinkage could be even more, I assume.
Afterwards I dyed the now felted, but “undecorated” Etamine with indigo in a dyeing pot.
If you need a specific colour you could dye it by yourself.
At the Filzrausch-Forum (in German) I read that some designers do their own durable felt this way for sewing clothing, such as trousers, jackets, scarves. Frieder wrote that it’s not distinguishable from thin handmade felt.
Another felter wrote, that she lays out the motif on the Etamine and then coninues felting as usual. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the link, because she showed some nice photos.
That’s the only experience I made with it so far, but I wanted to use it as an underground for Mehmet’s felting way. The structure is similar to the cotton fabric we used in his first course at Wollknoll, when his parcels didn’t arrive early enough for a start with his prepared undergrounds from Turkey. Therefore we got a special widly woven cotton fabric from Wollknoll.
Thoma