I got a bit sidetracked yesterday, having mentioned that I was going to felt 100s of attachments for a new wrap I decided instead to adapt and finish a Horst style jacket and matching bag! This jacket was another ‘blank’ which Horst was good enough to leave with me to do as I wished with, the second of 2 demo pieces from our workshop. I decided to keep things simple and wanted something that I would wear for everyday use in colder weather, this meant adding a couple of pockets, adjusting the collar to frame my face and decorating the pockets and framing the edges with black merino thereby adding some depth of colour. In addition I wanted to practice using Horst’s method of felting bags again, it’s not a method that I’m going to use for all my work but I do find the pebbly texture interesting, the layout very quick and I wanted to experiment with dying again and end up with a piece to compliment the jacket.
Bag prior to dying and jacket prior to dying and fulling
At this stage I think I have a confession to make, my name is Nicola and I am addicted to acid dying!!! OK, only half joking, but I can’t believe how Horst’s recent workshop has totally demystified the process and allowed me to just throw things into the pot and watch the magic occurring. I’m not scientific about it at all, not measuring the level of the water versus dye powder etc. (Jacquard acid dyes I bought with Heather at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival last year) but for me this adds to the experience, instinctively I appear to be getting the result I am looking for so onwards and upwards! My only reservation about the dye pot yesterday is that although I used ‘olive’ as my deeper colour I didn’t think that the powder looked olive at all in the packet and it certainly wans’t olive when I added it to the dye bath, rather a nice deep rust colour, complimentary but not my original intention. Talking to experienced dyers I know that the powder doesn’t necessarily look like the resultant liquid but I do wonder if this was mispackaged??? I’m not a bit concerned however, I love the results, more pics over on Flickr!
Graduating colours on the bag
Nicola Brown Fine Art Textiles 
that is indeed a very interesting texture on the surface. Seems like the wool has been shocked felt. Very nice.
Dyeing is a fantastic experience. I started with acid dyed and moved on to natural dyes afterwards and I love playing with colour. There are results one gets that way that no amount of mixing/carding predyed tops will give.
Did you dye the jacket too?
Hi Mariana, Yes, exactly right, the wool has been shocked! I did dye the jacket too, same dye bath, the colours look a little more complex in reality.
Nicola Brown
Clasheen Ballybrack Borris Co Carlow
Clasheen – I feel, I find, I felt
From Felt to Friendship – by Chrissie Day and Nicola Brown
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Hi Nicola,
I can relate to that: once you’ve passed that barrier, there are no limits! I use Landscape Dyes, for colours closer to nature. And when you are not happy with the result: simply throw it into the dye pot once more! The outcome may be surprising: but that’s the fun of it!
We have yet to experience the pleasure of dyeing our felt, but we can understand your enthusiasm as we were the same when we mixed dyes to get the colours we wanted for our hand-dyed scrim – it was a fabulous experience.
We very much like the edging you’ve added to the jacket and love the graduating colour effect on the bag – much easier to do it in the dye bath than when laying coloured wool out.
Thanks for the positive response Annie and Lyn, I ADORE your hand dyed scrim!!!
Nicola Brown
Clasheen Ballybrack Borris Co Carlow
Clasheen – I feel, I find, I felt
From Felt to Friendship – by Chrissie Day and Nicola Brown
Flickr images of Nicola’s work My profiles: [image: Facebook] [image: Twitter] Contact me: [image: Skype] clasheen Signature powered by WiseStamp
You’re right…it’s beautiful!! Sighhhh…the joys of orange! XXO-
Nicole, nice work, and I too wonder about the olive…I know sometimes in acid dyes (which Iused steadily for twenty years) olive sometimes is a combo of colour and sometimes the ratio in the combo of mixing the powders is off or one of the colours used to make the olive sinks into the pack more and becomes the dominant powder and it seems I remember olive being one of those types…but I do like the results…
Good morning Nicola,
Love the texture and the (surprising) color of your newest creation. Hmmmm… You bought the dye with Heather, and it’s mysteriously orange….Detective Dawn on the case;-))))
Have a great time at Felt in Focus….I’m “olive green” with envy.
Hugs,
Dawn
but what a beautiful way to get sidetracked! interesting to read about the dyes not ‘behaving’. i’ve ordered a few different types to experiment with when i get back from hols.
have a fab time at felt in focus :)x
You have inspired me to try “dip dyeing” now, Nicola. I am also the “just throw it in” type of dyer, I never measure. I have had people ask me to teach dyeing classes, but it would be downright embaressing. Your results are gorgeous.
You are a wonderful inspiration Nicola! I too am feeling the urge to dip-dye..
I smiled reading Dawns comment 🙂 about Heather & orange. I love the colour that it has turned out.
xx
Beautiful dyeing, Nicola (and felting first, of course!)!The tonal oranges are so wonderful, and the relationship they have with solid charcoal patterning is lovely. Have a great time at felt in Focus- looking forward to reading about and seeing your experiences there!