Something different and then something different again!: Trophies for Marathon Eryri Take 3!
Updated: Oct 10
I've been honored to make trophies for Mathon Eryri for the last two years. In 2024 it was ceramic trophies which was quite a challenge with the numbers but 'its what we do'! Then Marathon Eryri organiser, Jayne Lloyd, and all round star was good enough to accept my rash offer to make something different for 2025 - I offered fused glass trophies - having a little experience with this craft. Luckily I was reasonably sucessful at mastering this skill and Marathon Eryri liked what I did and so I offerered something different again - this time I offered felted trophies - and again having a little experience with this craft.
So here I am up to my elbows in the wonders of felting and, because I like a challenge, preparing raw fleeces from a local farm!
I found the fleeces on Facebook! They just popped up on marketplace or maybe I went searching but anyway I saw that locally Dominic was selling some Shetland fleeces and I asked for 4 with as much assortment of colour as he had! Dominic brought the fleeces to Eldon square on the T2 bus - 'I have bright green glasses and will have a bin bag with me' he said!
Of course I would have loved to use Welsh Mountain sheep wool but the variety of colour in the Shetland fleeces is great for picture felting. (I had briefly considered dying the fleeces with natural dyes but I'm quite glad that I didn't need to).
I am a bit of a 'ooh thats a good idea' person before finding out whats involved. I love Google and what Google's Gemini comes up with. Maybe generative AI-powered mobile assistants are the thin edge of the 'end of the world' wedge but Gemini has enhanced my web seraching experience enormously! Anyway ... a good number of searches later I had some idea of what I was going to do. At this point I emailed Jayne to check she was still up for my offer and to reassure her that the prizes would be ready for the day despit it being late August and my imminent hip replacement operation. She said she trusted me and was reassured.
Stage 1: washng the fleeces (see image above) My searching said to do this carefully so as not to pre felt the wool. A lot of interesting organic material came out and I rinsed and rinsed until the water appeared to run clear. We then had 4 large bundles of wet fleece in the bathroom! Hmmmm! We hung them over our vintage drying rack in the cellar and went a while without anywhere to dry our clothes! They took a good while to dry but luckily wool doent go off - theres sheep out on the hills that can attest to this!
Stage 2: Carding. I bought carders from a wonderful business - World of Wool in Huddersfield. Click on the name to find out more about them. I do love a UK based family business! And I found out all about carding watching videos online and referring to my second hand book from World of Books!!
Here's a video of the carding from Facebook
Stage 3 : Start making some fleece
To recap on the method I made a quick sunset from some felting wool I just happened to have in my possession. If I find a bit of time I'll make this look more like a sunset over a beach but the felting worked.
Stage 4: Get an image sorted.
Meanwhile Ive got a pre op appointment at Bangor for my hip replacement giving an excellent oportunity for taking a phot from the Marathon Eryri route. Don't you just love this run up from Llanberis!
Time out for my hip replacement!
Stage 5: Start felting
Armed with the image and newly carded wool I wet felted my first picture . I decided to purchase some partially felted backing material from World of wool.
The wet felting was messy with lots of soapy water going everywhere but pretty successful. I did some needle felting of detail for a final product. Result - and looking pretty good in its frame.
Time out: Hip replacement and lots of carding of wool while pretty immobile!
Stage 6: Wet felting in ernest
Feeling confident and a little more mobile I wet felted 12 more pictures and then it was time to take stock!
Taking stock
The wet felted pieces need time and a place to dry
As the pieces dried the wool came away from the backing and sat there looking fluffy and free! Hmmm!
More help from Gemini - yes - raw wool retaining some lanolin can be wet felted. The lanolin allows the wool to slide and so helps the felting but only if the soapy water is warm to hot. Wool from Shetland fleeces is ideal as it is has relatively low lanolin content and is naturally kinky! The kinkiness is called crimp!
A change of strategy
Scour the wool before or after carding (as I've got a fair amount of carding wool at this stage).
Only wet felt the basic layers and not worry too much about getting it to felt well.
Dry the pieces on towels and by the kiln before needle felting them to ensure a really good bond.
Stage 5: Scouring
I found my mum's old marmalade pan to use for the scouring. Lots of fun - but more wet fleece to dry. I laid it on cake cooling racks and took it down to sit by the kilns!
Comments