Fine Felts and Silk Papers

On the 29th of June, Birmingham Embroiderers Guild welcomed Bailey Curtis to lead a dayschool on fine felts and silk papers.

Bailey brought with her a sample of her embroidery where she had combined felt, silk paper nad machine stitching to great effect.





Bailey showed us lots of techniques, including how to separate and dye mawata silk caps, leading to some gorgeous colours.

Teasing out the caps:



In the dye bath:



Some finished caps:



We also dyed some other fibres, including throwsters waste, and then incorporated our dyed throwsters waste into some felt:



Rolling the felt was quite hard work:



But the end results were very nice:



We made silk paper, both exploiting the properties of gummed silk:



And using wallpaper paste on ungummed, dyed silk:



We also experimented with nuno felting:



All in all, a good fun day was had by all: