Pictures speaking louder than words today ……………..
Sanding with ear muffs
Sylvia with the rug in progress
Starting to roll the rug at last - note the seam where the two bases were stitched together
A LOT more rolling to be done before the rug has shrunk by the desired 30%!
Nicola Brown Fine Art Textiles 
Looks great! Nice to see you. (Hello Sylvia!)
ooo I feel for you Nicola! I can really imagine how tired you are. Its looking lovely (love the blues) I cant wait to see the finished item.
x
p.s. Im rather envious of your lovely big studio & all those tables
Is that the design, behind you near the French doors? Lovely! Keep up the hard work!
That’s cool, very cool. Keep up the great work, photos do say a thousand words!!!
Good morning Nicola,
You’ve made great progress….You’re almost there. The rug is going to be fantastic! Is Sylvia the recipient?
Hugs,
Dawn
I would love to try this, unfortunatly no space at the moment…Really interested to see the finished piece…
wow! that is some job you are doing there!! amazing, like the others I really look forward to seeing the finished project.
What an amazing – and really hard locking work! I can only imaging, as I know how much work smaller pieces takes. Your work is truly inspiring and beautiful!
Hi,
I’ve been trying to find a 2011 U. S. class by Mehmet but don’t think he’s coming here this year. I loved your photo posting of your blue and white rug. What was the white base of your rug made of? What blend of wools did he recommend for a rug? I’ve heard 30% Merino and 70% long staple wool (Teeswater or Karakul). Looking forward to your reply.
Mary
Hi Mary, The base I used for the blue and white rug was prepared in Mehmet’s studio in Konya. Having taken several workshops with him I have used two slightly different bases, one his regular wool the other lambswool, both combined with what he calls muslin. I do think the fabric is also called muslin in US and probably Canada but in Ireland our muslin is your cheesecloth, this fabric is cotton but quite tightly woven! The lambswool was slightly softer than the older wool and felted into a marginally thinner finished rug, both were extremely strong. As far as I know from our chats (this is not definitive!) he usually uses wool (organic) from only one variety of sheep and in all the bases I have used this has been only a little coarser than merino and I didn’t notice any evidence of long staple wool but maybe I wouldn’t anyway! The bases are prepared by laying out approx 6 very fine layers of this wool on top of the fabric then wetting with NO soap before ‘stamping’ to compress the fibres. The stamping can be done by hand, basically all the pressure is going downwards, no rolling so no shrinkage. This matts us into a nice base to lay the rug out on. If you are going to make a rug from scratch just lay out your wool (I would be happy working with merino and most wools that are NOT too hairy because the fibres migrate through the fabric into the design layer), lay your fabric on top and then lay your design on top of this! Good luck.
Hi
I liked your photos , can you pls send me more info how to make a felt rug ?
Rgds
Thanks for your query. I’d love to help but I’m afraid this technique is best learnt in a workshop, I just don’t have enough hours in the day to write out an explanation.