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CAT | workshop
As promissed I will share my newest raw wool project. I felt quite inspired to give it a go too again after "discovering" my wools again and giving a workshop with raw wools.
result of the workshop:
So I started laying out 4 layers of carded Gotland wool, on top of that I added different kind of raw wools. Some I even forgot which breed of sheep it comes from... But I recognised the Racka wool, white and grey, Gotland curls grey, voskopschaap, and brown quessantwool (not completely sure).
As I wanted to have a clear divorced line in between the raw wol I added a color in between: red merino fleecewool.
Now that was the dry part... now I needed to wet it all with soapy water. I think I used at least 3 of these buckets completely filled . Luckily I have the table slightly lower in one corner, so all the water ends up in and even bigger tub and i can re-use the water again.
From "airy" heigh to wet solid low.....
When all the wool was completely wetted and little massaged, I rolled it up first in bubble wrap after that also in an old blanket. So while rolling the "roll" it could not slip away all the time, but being able to roll.. Lots of water came out ofcourse..... needed all my buckets I coul find ..... praying for help with rolling up the wool, as it became more and more heavy to roll it up into a nice bundle, but I managed!! And Janna all of a sudden came to help me 
And as an extra handy tip for you: I secured the blanket with ropes so while rolling it stayed as a nice bundle....
after opening and re-rolling it few times, Janna wanted to roll the felt with the "Knackebrod" roller I bought in Sweden some years ago
After a long time, I descided it was enoug felted, rinsed the whole piece and wanted to add it into the spinner.... but the rug was too big 
So I took out as much water as possible and let it dry flat on my floor, which has floor heating... and still in use due to the very cold weather here (
Here a detail while still wet,
And a picture nearly in total. I never worked with colored wool in combination with this pure natural wool, but somehow I think it is ok. What do you think?
Enjoy your weekend!
Special textile event!!
TASARA On Tour in Europe
Eind april begin mei in de voorjaarsvakantie komt dhr. Vasudevan van het Tasara weaving centre, Calicut, India
in Bunde textiele verfworkshops geven.
26 april: Zeefdrukken op katoen
26 april avond, 27 april hele dag: Multicolorbatik
28 april: Shibori op zijdestof
29 april: Blokprinting
1 mei: Tas vilten met tie-dye
Meer info via tel: 043-3649825 of 06-38312343
mail: viltk@yahoo.com site: www.viltalakim.com
Today I took the blanket to the lady whom family made all the pieces in Aug 2012 . (read about the layering of the back here ) As it was a gift I wrapped it up in giftpaper adding my card and a little extra handmade felt. I drove to Maastricht and they asked me to come in for a cup of tea.
How surprised she was, to see it wrapped up and opening it carefully, that really made me feel good She and her husband really liked the result and is now proudly laying on their couch. I hope they will use it very often.
Ok enoug written, time for some more pictures. I bet you all are anxious...
this is how it looked when I was rinsing it with water.
inside on the floor drying in the tiles as we have floorheating
and this was today outside again to make a nice picture
a close up.
I am very proud of this project and think it really came out very nice. Hope to make many more of such projects.
Some time ago a whole family of 19 people wanted to have a workshop felting at my place. They all came as a birthday party for the mother of the family whom turned 73. Her husband was the oldest 75 and the youngest grandchild was 8 years old.
They all made a piece of prefelt and after that a mobilephonecase.
The plan was that 2 daughters and the mother would come back to felt all the prefelt pieces into one blanket on a base which was woven by the mother years ago.
Somehow they couldn't find a proper date so I was asked to finish it by myself. A huge task to do all alone. But once I say "A" I also say "B". So I started by desciding where to add which prefelt , turned the pieces upside down and layered the wool. As I didn;t want the blanket become too small I added 2 layers of wool in between all the prefelt pieces, making it bigger and getting the same thickness there as the prefelt.
All prefelt pieces and the -inbetween- pieces were then covered with 2 layers of merinofleece. The grey and white wool is Gotland wool
As last layer I used a sheet of prefelt which i bought, so I was sure I had no holes in the blanket .
Then the best part came: wetting and soaping, but oef, that was more work than expected... before all the 10 cm airy wool was wet... I didn't have time anymore, the weekend was over. So after 5 days seeing the blanket laying on the table, half wet, ready to be finished. I must admit my hands itched everytime I saw it.
So today was the day I finally had time to finish it. I asked a friend whom also felts a lot to help me out as rolling this amount of wool all alone isn't funny... Thanks for your help E!
After rolling it for some time now kneeding time
Now it was time to rinse, closests was taking it outside and use the garden hose. Eventhough it was cold outside I think the best option, no messed up bathroom now
The final result I cannot show you yet as I think the first ones to see the blanket is that family... so I only share the backside, which I think is also very nice 
I'll show you the front side once the family has got it, ok?
Yesterday I had one lady coming from far to learn how to felt. She had never felted before and was excited to get started. She descided to felt a scarf with a "corner" in it for extra protection in purples, aqua and green
The result was a very nice scarf and she was amazed by the wetfelting proces and very happy with her scarf as it was nice soft and thin.
After she left I had again some time left before the next workshop started. Yes it was again a day with 2 workshops. While this lady was bussy with her scarf I was also able to felt. I made a lovely musicbox, but not yet completel;y finished so not picture of it yet. .
In the evening 2 ladies came to felt a flower This time they wanted also to felt a stem to it so we did.
"it is more work as thought" and "so amazing to make felt like this we never knew"
After the flower was felted , there was even time to add some beads to it:
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the final result, but I can guarantee they were both very happy with the flower and best thing of all they assurred me they will come back again to felt some more with friends. Best Pr ever