A couple months ago, a dear artistic friend, Tina Walker, posed this collab. Several very talented ladies signed up………………including me!!! What fun!!!!! Now the planning stage………..hmmm, what to do? Where do I start?? I have never tried to weave let alone finish a project!!!!!
Fast forward to the end of March………………I am in need of a loom or something like it. Our little town of Ashfield has a group called Needles and Threads. Out went a call for some help………………….I HAVE NEVER WEAVED BEFORE!!! Before long, a wonderful lady offered her loom and a few hints. I took her up on the offer. Picking up a Bekka table top loom, I was astonished that it was in pieces….Oh NO, now what? Fortunately, the directions were in the bag………..off I set to put it together. DONE! I read the instructions to get a idea of how to weave. I proceeded to get started. Weaving is a challenge! It took me three weeks to finish weaving my banner. I tore it apart two times as I did not like the way it was going together. I learned tons along the way!!! Like……..the warp yarn(up and down) needs to be thicker and stronger. It started to pull apart after I got halfway done. I had to splice it together several times. I also need to remember needle felting pulls the warf(yarn going sideways) tight making my piece look like it pulled together towards the top.
Thinking I will weave again but make my own loom.
Here is my finished weaving project complete with a needle felted sheep’s head. Another first for me! You know, I could not leave a blank space open…………..LOL!!!!
Here is a list of materials I used(including photos): Rug needle, needle felting kit, wool yarn from our sheep and bought( the grey, burgundy and brown wool is from our sheep and the unscoured cream wool is bought), twig, metal heart conchos, antiqueed metal chain and roving from our sheep(grey, white, brown, dark yellow and black).
The woolen yarn:
The needle felting kit:
The wool Roving:
Weaving the different colored warfs with the rug needle…….just going back and forth. From right to left, I weaved through the warp. Then from left to right, I pulled the needle straight through. So, it is like over and under……..back and forth. I stopped and started colors by intertwining the colors together.
A shed stick helps separate the warp. You also use a shed stick to push the warf yarns together so there is no gaps.
Now, on to needle felting the sheep head. This is from a photo of a ewe we owned. She helped build our flock into what it is today!!! I copied the photo onto heavy cardstock then fussy cut it out. I then traced the cutout with a Sharpie onto the banner. Then I started adding roving, piece by piece to fill in the lines. Using a special needle, I felted the roving in place. This needle has barbs, similar to fish scales……………sheep’s wool also has barbs, much like fish scales too. By going up and down with the needle………….you will mesh the roving together with itself and the wool yarn of the banner.
The different textures within this felted piece comes from layering different colors and felting some washed raw curly wool partially.
To finish the piece off…………….I braided three pieces of yarn(one for the hanger, bottom piece and small piece under sheep’s head). I added the metal pieces to the braids then attached them to the weaving using Beacon’s 3 in 1 glue.
I have a lot of fun with this piece……….love the way it turned out!!!
Please join me in this fabulous weaving blog hop……………….if you started on my blog, you need to visit Tina Walker’s blog. It has been a honor to be among the bloggers!!!!
Martha Richardson: ;http://themermaidscloset.blogspot.com/…/raise-your-hand…
Beth Soler: http://scrappingwonders.com/weaving-art-fun
Albion Gould: http://wp.me/p57foU-1zx
DeeDee Catron: http://deedeecatron.blogspot.com/2016/04/lets-weave-baby.html
Laura Mooney: http://happinessequalscreation.blogspot.com/2016/04/artist-weaving-collaboration.html
Mitra Pratt: http://mitralee.blogspot.com/…/weaving-collaborative…
Susan M Brown: http://sbartist.blogspot.com/…/cre8time-new-beginnings…
https://melsartjournal.wordpress.com/…/weaving-artist-coll…/
Thank you for visiting my blog!!!!! Enjoy your day!