March ended with 2 days of felting at the Michigan Fiber Festival Symposium in Kalamazoo, MI. I did 2 workshops with Suzanne Higgs.
Day 1 – Dyeing Habotia Silk & Nuno Felting
1) We started by dyeing 5mm habotia silk with Jacquard Acid Dyes. Mine began with three dye passes using yellow, hot pink and burgundy. This came out kind of “interesting”….. and Suzanne suggested over dyeing it. Why not!! We mixed up a combination of more hot pink than I used the first time, red-orange and a touch of black. It looked like a black mess but once it was rinsed out = VERY nice!!
2) Next we laid out the silk leaving bunched up sections that will give texture.
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3) Then laid out thin layers of wool over the silk and gently rubbed using soapy water to felt the wool to the silk.
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4) I LOVED the end result = looks like tree bark!! I have just enough to make a vest.
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Barbara Schutzgruber - Storyteller & Weaver 
What a fabulous piece of work. Love the texture. Thanks souch for your help at church and friendship . Jenny T
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By: Jenny on April 2, 2013
at 7:24 pm
What an interesting project! The texture is so beautiful!
By: Julie Sutfin-Hanlon on April 3, 2013
at 8:40 am
Very nice use of the lovely fabric you made to make such a fine looking vest. Did you sew the seams or were you able to keep it seamless?beautiful however you did it! Suzanne is a really good teacher, too.
By: Ginny Huber on April 8, 2013
at 11:49 pm
The vest has sewn seams. The shoulders panels are silk doupioni and I used silk habatai to line it.
By: bschutzgruber on April 9, 2013
at 7:43 am
[…] have taken classes with Suzanne in the past (see April 2013 blogs Felting with Suzanne Higgs Day 1 / Day 2) and was excited to take her hat workshop. Suzanne is a terrific teacher who is […]
By: City Mouse…. Country Mouse…. part 2 | Barbara Schutzgruber - Storyteller & Weaver on August 24, 2016
at 11:08 am