How to make an Asian inspired felted wrap with button closure

Asian inspired wrap with cinnabar closure

I gathered my fabrics, wool roving and other supplies and materials. These include black silk, the Asian inspired cotton fabric shown in the foreground, metallic silk fabric, Uzbek white silk and a scarf with writing on it that I bought in San Gimignano, Italy last year. 

On my work table I placed a large piece of bubble wrap with the bubbles up. On the bubble wrap, I placed a piece of sheer black silk fabric and added one thin layer of white merino roving.  I wetted it out, covered it with another piece of bubble wrap, wetted the top bubble wrap and lightly pressed everything down.  I did this to make it easier to add additional fabrics. After that I added pieces of other fabric, strands of yarn, tussah silk and additional roving.  I covered the small thick pieces of fabric with sheer silk having the silk directly touch the roving underneath - known as the inclusion technique.

  

There are so many ways to wear this shawl - upside down, inside out and the holes can be used for the fun closure that I made.

The closure is made with two buttons that go through two holes in the shawl, one stays in the back hole and the other through the front.

I glued a small metal button shank to the back of a cinnabar bead making it into a button.  I used bead thread to add the silver bead, the black crystal drop and small black beads.  I used a jump ring to attach this bead button to a red shank button.

Wind and Sea Nuno Felted Shawl

The weather is warming up and I suspect that we're in for a hot summer.  None the less, the southern California evenings are cool and a wrap is almost always necessary.  This shawl is perfect for those crisp evenings when you want to keep warm but still look summery. 

I started with a large piece of hand dyed silk and then added roving, more silk fabric, silk fibers.  I embellished it with nuno inclusions of mirrors, beach glass, cocoons, yarns, sari silk ribbons, pearls, crystals and more.  I created craters, spikes and holes and used a closure of the mirror through a hole.  This piece can be worn so many ways and inside out looks great too.

I hand dyed the silk fabric and the cocoons using acid dyes and the microwave dyeing process.

I laid out my design on bubble wrap (bubble side up), wet it out using a ball brauser, covered it with another sheet of bubble wrap and started the agitation process with Heartfelt Silk's beautifully hand made Palm Washboard.

Urban Grunge

To live in the Los Angeles metropolitan area is to live in a megalopolis. I live just 20 miles south of LA in Long Beach and the grit, grime and grunge of city living becomes a tapestry of every day urban life. On my daily dog walks I hustle along sidewalks that are cracked and covered with words, with arrows telling me where to turn, lines showing where to park, and stenciled numbers indicated the not to exceed speed limit. Vivid colors abound in the form of orange cones, purple recycled bins, yellow street signs, graffiti inked walls and chalked sidewalks.  These colorful and stimulating streets sights are a part of my life and inspired me to create an urban grunge nuno felted shawl.  Modeled by my local coffee house server, Sammi wears it oh so well.

 I started the shawl by laying down various pieces of silk, some hand dyed and some from vintage saris. I added a layer of gray merino roving. And then the playing started as I got into my grunge mode. I applied some prefelts creating the yellow parking lines, colors and textures. I applied some painter's tape so I could later cut into it creating the cracked sidewalks. I added spikes and craters and nuno inclusions of things found on the sidewalk like stones, beads, coins and bullet casings (really though I have never seen bullet casings on the sidewalk so that was my artistic license). I added cut up modeled prefelts to look like worn out gum and dirt. And other things were thrown in like Habu's paper yarn,silk hankies and words and numbers printed on silk.