Thursday, January 16, 2014

Making a seamless nuno felted handbag

I love felting with a resist, for me it's like sculpting a collage.

This is the finished handbag made with 4 layers of both Merino and Navajo Churro wool roving.  I embellished the top layer with some Teeswater long locks from Namaste Farms and pieces of a prefelt I made with merino and vintage saris. Thanks Pilar for your modeling, you sure wear it well.



After I made the prefelt, I gathered a portion of it up and secured it with string.


To make the handbag, I started from the inside out.  I first laid out two layers of magenta colored roving perpendicular to each other.  This will later be the inside of the back and the flap. I then added a plastic resist to the bottom portion which I covered with two layers of magenta roving letting the roving hang over the edges and bottom of the resist.  I then flipped the package.

 This is the side without the resist.  I folded in the rays from the resist. I then added a layer of Navajo Churro.

I added a layer of blue merino and embellishment- I concentrated my embellishment on the portion of the handbag which will be the flap.






I again flipped the package and am ready to finish to bottom part of the bag.  I already laid down two layers of magenta roving on to the resist in the first step above, so now I only have two more layers to go. I first folded in the "ray's over the resist. I then added a layer of Navajo Churro, a layer of blue Merino and embellishment.  Then I'm ready to felt and full.