Lynda is one of our members, and well known for her lovely pastel landscapes, and more recently for her gorgeous felted animal pictures. Since retiring from the NHS she completed a City and Guilds in Textile Art, and has found her niche with a passion for felting. With a slideshow she explained the process of making felt, and also had some rather interesting variations of using silk handkerchiefs which add strength and sheen to the wool, very beautiful. Viscose fibres, which don't shrink, add lovely wavy lines in the felt. Lynda passed round samples of felt made with different wool types, with different additions, which showed how versatile this ancient textile can be.
She had four framed pictures of the woolly characters, and explained how she made them, passing round a sketchbook with examples of the different fibres used, and the wide colour palette. The different coloured hanks of wool can be mixed like paint to obtain new shades and colours, by carding the wool on two spiky hand tools. People who have the wire slicker brushes for their pets will know exactly what I mean. Brushing the wool from one to the other lines up the fibres and mixes the colours together. Once the fibres are in place, held down by net curtain, they are sprayed with warm water and olive oil soap, and rolled vigorously to meld the fabric. Then Lynda add embroidery to complete the picture.
It was a really inspiring and well prepared talk, and Lynda's upcoming day school is much anticipated, especially as making felt incorporates a workout at the same time!
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| Layering the wool fibres |
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| Spraying with water and olive oil soap |
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| preparing the wool for the sheep picture |
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| The 'model' |
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| Felted sheep awaiting embroidery |
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| the Finished sheep |
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| The carding brushes, mixing colours |
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| Red Squirrel |
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| alpaca model |
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| Hamish the highland cow |
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| alpaca |
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