Monday, April 25, 2005
YAY!! Some real work, finally!
Well, I started feeling better tonight, so I thought I would get back to work.
So I made felt. OK, so I started to make felt. I had a display I made up of several different samples of wool for an A+S competition some time ago, that it was time to do something else with. I now have a 19 qt tubby full of wool bats, ready to make into felt.
Yes, felt is related to armoring. Remember earlier I mentioned those leather finger gauntlets? And the helm padding made out of felt? I am the cheap one here, so I am going to make my own felt rather than try to locate and buy the harness felt....
I participated in a bit of the felting a couple years ago at Artisan's Row with Mistress Derbhail, but have yet to really get into the felting on my own. The first step (after shearing the sheep and cleaning the raw wool) is to card the wool. I bought a nice set of Ashford cards at Pennsic a couple years ago, and actually had to get them out of the box and put them together last night. Wool cards look like the dog brushes that have the little metel tines on them, but are a bit larger. You use the cards to comb the fibers out, to get them all aligned into a single direction.
I will post a link here to some class notes that Mistress Derbhail uses to teach felting. I am going to develop a "Felting for Fighters" class to teach at events, once I decide what in particular is the "must know" stuff for fighters when it comes to felting. Just think, if you make your own felt for armor padding, you never again will have to search for an Art/Sci entry for those dual lists (the ones that you need an Art/Sci entry to enter....).
So I made felt. OK, so I started to make felt. I had a display I made up of several different samples of wool for an A+S competition some time ago, that it was time to do something else with. I now have a 19 qt tubby full of wool bats, ready to make into felt.
Yes, felt is related to armoring. Remember earlier I mentioned those leather finger gauntlets? And the helm padding made out of felt? I am the cheap one here, so I am going to make my own felt rather than try to locate and buy the harness felt....
I participated in a bit of the felting a couple years ago at Artisan's Row with Mistress Derbhail, but have yet to really get into the felting on my own. The first step (after shearing the sheep and cleaning the raw wool) is to card the wool. I bought a nice set of Ashford cards at Pennsic a couple years ago, and actually had to get them out of the box and put them together last night. Wool cards look like the dog brushes that have the little metel tines on them, but are a bit larger. You use the cards to comb the fibers out, to get them all aligned into a single direction.
I will post a link here to some class notes that Mistress Derbhail uses to teach felting. I am going to develop a "Felting for Fighters" class to teach at events, once I decide what in particular is the "must know" stuff for fighters when it comes to felting. Just think, if you make your own felt for armor padding, you never again will have to search for an Art/Sci entry for those dual lists (the ones that you need an Art/Sci entry to enter....).
