Nuno felted scarf

It is a reversible nuno felted scarf. This scarf can be wear both ways, on the fabric side or the fibre side.

On the fibre side you can appreciate the brights colours used.

It is a coral reef scarf inspired by the underwater world.

I´ve been recently working on two projects for a textile exhibition. The submission brief asked to be inspired by the sea and the underwater world; its colour, textures, pattern and forces...

And when planning the design for my scarf, I unconsciously picked up these coral reef colours.

I used 5 different colours of extrafine merino wool. I blended pink, violet and orange for the accent colour and aquamarina and turquoise for the background.

 As embellishment a used Mulberry silk in pink and turquoise; and silk fibres in aquamarina.

My favourite side is the fabric one.

As a fabric a I used silk ponge.

I used very little amount of wool to have a shrink of 50 % and achieve this texture.

I felted until the fibres crossed the fabric and the colours could be seen from both sides.

I made this scarf with tutor Nicola Brown in The yarn Room. Nicola is a very good teacher, I really enjoyed all the process and I'm very happy with the result, thank you Nicola!

CEAD 2011 exposition in NCAD and I WON A PRIZE!!!

My broche "COSMOS" has been awarded with the Philip J. Dix Jewellery Prize in the CEAD EXHIBITION 2011, at NCAD. I am thrilled!

I submitted two pieces, a broche ("COSMOS") and a necklace ("BOTANICAL")

There was one more Jewellery price. It was for Laoise Craig and her Spiral Chain .

I was surprised and delighted to be awarded. There were beautiful jewellery, made with semiprecious stones, gold and silver. From a technical point of view they were much better than mine, but what appeal to the judges was the originality. My pieces really stand out from the rest thanks to the felting.

The annual CEAD Art Exhibition at NCAD features work by the College’s evening students is in the Design for Industry Building. Started on July 1st.

Opening hours are:
Friday 1 July/Saturday 2 July, 10am – 5pm;
Sunday 3 July, 2-4pm.

The exhibition includes Painting, Drawing, Print, Photography, Sculpture, Ceramics, Jewellery, Textiles, Stained Glass, Multimedia and much more.

 The Starting point for my broche and necklace were two copper pieces that I made this year in a Jewellery design course at National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Metals; Dublin, Ireland.

I need to confess that the firsts weeks I was quite lost between, pliers, files, saws, soldering, polishing, stone setting... I had not at all experience in metal work, I come from a 100% textile background and all that was new for me.

Due to the economical recession the gold and silver price went crazy, so I decided to do my trials in copper. Looking for an alternative to the pinkish colour of the copper I discover the patinas. What a fascinating world! As a feltmaker, colour and texture are a constant research and the patinas in metal are all about that. I did different tests, playing with different reagents and time of exposition. At the end of the course I was very happy with two of the copper pieces.

From the beginning my goal was to make mix media jewellery with metal and felt, but it was not easy to translate the traditional metal and stone techniques in felting. Two month later when preparing my submission for the CEAD 2011 exposition in NCDA, the inspiration came and for good.

Now I need to think how I'm going to spend my 100 EUR voucher for jewellery and keep working with new projects!!

Shibori felt

These are two examples of Shibori felt. They were just a trial, but I think that they look pretty good once framed. I actually like them.

Shibori is a Japanese word describing many types of resist dyeing, which involve tying and manipulating fabric to produce various color effects. Shibori felting uses these fabric manipulation techniques to shape felt, resulting in interesting texture effects in the finished fabric.  Dimensional effects can be created by twisting, folding and stitching at the pre-felt stage (bound but not yet shrunk) as shrinkage locks the shape into the wool. 

Filz experiment by Anette Quentin-Stoll was a very inspiring book about shibori felt.

The creative Space

Hello to every body!!
There is a new space where to get creative!!! At “The Creative Space” they believe that people are creative naturally and with a little encouragement and a good atmosphere this natural creativeness can be brought out of anyone.
They have jewellery, sewing and crocheting classes and I will be teaching needle felting.
They will also run group sessions where artists, crafts people and other creative people will meet, they believe there is strength in numbers and once you get a few creative people in one room then sparks fly!

Check   here to know more about: http://www.the-creative-space.com/

New dates for needle felting workshops

These are the workshops that I will we running on the next months, so if you are interested in learning needle felting here you have few oportunities!!
-Saturday 26th February 2011, 10.30am-12.30am: 

Workshop: "Simply Felted" and "Flowers".

Venue: "The Yarn Room", Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 25 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.theyarnroom.com/

-Monday 28th February 2011, 7pm-9pm: 

Workshop: "Simply Felted"

Venue: "The Creative Space", Killiney, Co. Dublin

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 25 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.the-creative-space.com/

-Satruday 19th March 2011, 11am-1pm: 

Workshop: "Small creatures"

Venue: "The Creative Space", Killiney, Co. Dublin

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 35 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.the-creative-space.com/

-Saturday 26th March 2011, 10.30am-12.30am: 

Workshop: Easter Eggs

Venue: "The Yarn Room", Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 25 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.theyarnroom.com/

-Sunday 10th April 2011, 10am-5pm: 

Workshop: "Needle felt a giraffe"

Venue: "The Creative Space", Killiney, Co. Dublin

Level: You need to know the basics of feltmaking. You should at least have had some experience with felting things like a compact ball, a stick shape and a flat piece or attended one of our classes for beginners.
Price 70 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.the-creative-space.com/

For more information about my workshops you can contact me tortuebcn@gmail.com or check in my blog, here.

WORKSHOP: SIMPLY FELTED

This workshop is a introduction to needle felting. This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.In this workshop, we make simple shapes: squares, hearts, circles, and balls. The aim of this workshop is to introduce the basis of the needle felting process and to meet the specific materials and tools.

I always like that people leave my workshops with a useful finished item.

What can you do with these felted pieces?

- A contemporary broche: Just sew a pin on the back.

- A special wishing card: pin your broche in one of my illustration templates (or create your own design). It’s the perfect gift.

- A stylish wall decoration: just frame it!!

What's needle felting?

            Felting is a non-woven process where woollen fibres are matted, condensed and pressed.

There are two felting processes: wet felting, with warm water and soap, or needle felting, with a barbed needle.

Needle felting or dry felting is when wool fleece is interlocked and compacted by using pointed, barbed needles to sculpt a shape.

This technique is used to make all types of items such as bags, slippers, teddy bears, jewellery… But it is especially good at sculpting small items in 3D with fine detail.

Needle felting is a fun fibre-art suitable for every body: the technique is simple, the material is cheap, just few tools are needed, the working surface is small and the process is clean and tidy.

Because of its wide range of applications and how simple is to work with it, Needle felting is the perfect craft option for all craft lovers.