Waterlilies Handmade Felt Scarf

Description

Waterlilies: a soft and lightweight handmade felt scarf featuring shibori details in purple, pink, orange and fuchsia. It has a shaped collar to keep your neck covered. A real statement piece not just for warmth.
Shibori is a process used for dyeing but also in feltmaking where the felt is wrapped around a stone (I used beach pebbles) and tied, then felted so that the shape of the pebble becomes part of the fabric. When the stones are removed and the tops cut open, the curved and crinkled shape resembles flowers floating on the river. I have used a lot of lovely viscose fibres which give a gorgeous sheen to the surface on both sides.

Fabric Care: it is best to wash this shawl by hand if you can, or use the handwash setting on your machine with nothing else in it. The process of making felt involves warm water, soap and agitation. This is exactly what your washing machine does. There is a risk of further shrinkage if you agitate it further in hot soapy water. Using natural soap also helps it to keep its lustre and drape.
It can be spun to extract most of the water, or rolled in a towel and pressed (stand on it or ask the kids to jump up and down on it!) before hanging somewhere warm to dry completely. Finish off with a gentle steam iron to restore its shape and lustre.

My process: I create pieces inspired by my local environment and love to play with combining colours. I choose the silk fabric and complementary wool colours first based on my inspiration. In the process of felting, the wool fibres penetrate the silk fabric and hold it in place, so that it softly ruches and gathers as the wool fibres shrink and mesh together. Using this process I can also add yarns and fabrics that wouldn’t normally be included in felt making between the silk and wool layers – yarns, cotton jersey, lace – and this also shrinks and ruches to add further textures. The whole process takes several hours and a whole lot of energy to agitate the wool fibres until they mesh together as a piece of fabric.  It has a lovely drape and feels soft against the skin.