I should have started a commission yesterday but after a long morning trying to sort something out on the phone (getting passed from pillar to post then just when I was getting somewhere being cut off accidentally!) I decided to call it a day and shelve the start of the project until today.
Gathering my materials, goodies from Merridee!
Instead, I decided to felt a little open topped bowl using some grey and rust coloured needle felt which was a gift from Merridee and combine this with some light chocolate coloured French landsheep wool and an unusual shiny metallic woven net knitting tape (at least I think that’s what it is), also a gift from Merridee! It was quite interesting working in colours that I wouldn’t usually put together, initially I decided to felt a wide topped bowl using the open resist method and I wanted to include a piece of my eco printed silk as detail on the silvery grey inside. I’m guessing that I need a lot more practice with this method determining the size and shape of my template because the finished bowl is not as wide at the top as I expeced and I also think that I should have used fewer layers of wool but started out with a much bigger resist. In addition to these issues, the eco printed silk didn’t combine well with the prefelt so I pulled it off mid way through the fulling process and the metallic mesh didn’t gleam as much as I expected once the bowl was fully felted.
The outside is now the inside
I think that this is primarily because the French wool is 28 micron and therefore quite hairy, I do like the texture of it however and as I was working and shaping the bowl I decided to turn it inside out and have the design on the inside and the simple brown edged grey on the outside. The French wool felted really easily and was gorgeous to lay out, I think it would be wonderful for large totes or weekend bags so if you’re interested in ordering any it’s code numbet 1464 from Wollknoll!
Anyway, enough for now as I really have to get the sleeveless jacket started, here’s a picture of the finished bowl, it’s much better this way out even if it does look a lot like a flower pot.
The finished bowl, not quite what I expected so plenty to work on
Nicola Brown Fine Art Textiles 
and I can picture a brilliant Gerber Daisy plant poking out of the top
You should have known that the day was not going to go as anticipated when you were disconnected from that call;-))
It’s always a bit of an experiment when working with new materials….they all react so differently. Even though it’s not quite what you had envisioned, I still like it a lot. I’ll pick it up on my next visit, as I did with the vessel that I have in my living room that you weren’t wild about;-))) Funny, but everyone loves that vessel. You gave me a treasure! Just send me all of your cast-offs;-)))
Hope the commissioned piece was much to your liking.
Big hugs,
Dawn
Really like the bowl, nicola. Always amazing how the finished piece decides to do what it wants!! The fibre has so much to teach us. Good luck with your new venture at Ducketts grove.
Nessa