The first day started with an introduction to various silk painting techniques. Godelieve first painted a sample scarf measuring 55x55 cm and the rest of the day she painted a large silk scarf measuring 180x90 cm.
The second day she painted a large silk cloth of 115x300 cm, stretched on a big frame. She chose gold tones in combination with purple / lilac. An exciting play of shapes arose in large regions.
The silk is then steamed for 3 hours in a professional steamer. After rinsing and ironing the silk, felting could begin. Godelieve had chosen a beautiful red / purple prefelt. A blend of Merino wool with 30% silk.
We first covered my large work table of 150x300 cm with bubble wrap. With the layer of felt and the painted silk on top. It is important to remove all folds from the wool and silk layer as well as possible. Then we sprayed the layers of fabric with warm soapwater.
Then we folded the edges and neatly finished the corners. After sprinkling enough soapy water, we covered the wool and silk with thin plastic and gently pressed the whole thing together to glue the wool and silk together.
Then it was time to roll up the bubble wrap with the 2 layers of fabric around a thick foam plastic tube.
After carefully securing the fabric and foil around the roll, the whole thing could be put in the felting machine for the first time for 12 minutes.
After the 12 minutes we unrolled and rolled it up again from the other side, in the meantime smoothing out the folds.
After another 12 minutes in the felting machine, we rolled out the roll again. Now the fibers of the wool had already come through the silk nicely balanced.
We felted further by hand, checking carefully whether the felting process went well in all places.
Then we rolled up again and put it in the machine for 15 minutes and then finished the felting process by hand.
The wool had passed through the silk in a very nicely balanced way and because of the shrinking, very nice little balls of silk were formed. Very successful project!
After rinsing the soap, we put the cloth in the centrifuge and ironed it lightly on the back. The final shrinkage was about 30%. A beautiful grand foulard of approximately 85x210 cm has been created from the original size of 120x300 cm.
The days were very pleasant, resulting in a beautiful wool / felt cloth suitable as a throw, blanket, fabric for clothing, wall hanging, etc.
Would you also like to experiment with silk painting and felting? Please contact us.
Due to Corona, the workshops are currently for 1 or 2 people. Dates in consultation.
