Rag-Rug mania

We decided to take a break from felting and start doing some rag rugging. This is an addictive craft, once you start it's hard to stop. I was re-introduced to the wonders of rag rugging by Megan Dowsett via the Urban Craft Club which is run by Rowan Arts. 


So on a sunny June day I descended with my trolley full of fabric, scraps that I have collected over the last six years, and we started. Everyone else brought along some other fabric to share around. You will never want to give away or throw out any clothes ever again. 

The tools we used are called a hooky - pictured above and a proddy in the picture below.

It took no-time at all before everyone got the hang of how to make a rag rug, now every bit of fabric has the potential to be turned into something else!

Summer is here!

We continue another crafty get-together with felting and welcome another new member Cecilia who is one of the founders of the Chile Makers.  We were in the garden for this workshop on a beautiful sunny day, perfect for sloshing around lots of water. And hard to believe that the summer is here? Let's see if the sun sticks around. 

The pictures above shows Pepa's fleece before it is felted, we use the white fleece as a base. And below sort of half way through the process, we are fixing on some of the yellow dots. These little details can move around when you are rolling it in the bamboo and bubble wrap, but you can always needle felt in fine details afterwards. 

Some more beautiful felted beads...quite a production we have here.

And here is the whole process in situ. I'm doing some carding with those strange wooden things that I am holding.  

Wet felting continues...

Combined needle felting and wet felting going on today... and more members both little and big. The wet 2-D stuff can get messy with lots of water all over the place, but the results are worth it. This is the start of so many things you can do with this fantastic material. 

And also lots of friction needed. This is a bamboo blind that you can pick up very cheaply and it's the best thing for rolling the felt so that it shrinks. 

And voila! the finished piece by crafter Clare...you can use this to make all sorts of things with some needle and thread, or just keep it the way it is. 


The wool that I use in the workshops is Merino 70's which is super soft and I get it from Wingham Wool Works. It needs to be carded first before it's made into felted pieces. I'll have to get a picture of this process the next time we have a felt making gathering.