Nuno Felted Vest

Teal, Rose, and Jade spent a full day at the recent Fibrefest in Abbotsford (forgoing valuable shopping time!)participating in the Nuno Felted Vest workshop instructed by Ayami Stryck from Cortes Island. Ayami studied Arts and Textile design at Kyushu Sangyou University in Japan and then worked in clothing design for 5 years before moving to Canada. An accomplished dyer (in Vancouver she worked as a dyeing specialist for Dagoli) weaver and spinner and is now a member of the Cortes Island Spinners and Weavers Guild since moving to her new home.

We spent the morning listening to Ayami explain the process and material requirements and watching her demonstrate the techniques. We picked the colours of our rovings as Ayami distributed the precut silk georgette vests and bags of special fibres (silk, nylon, mohair locks, hemp, etc) that we could use for embellishment.
After a quick lunch to fortify ourselves for the work ahead (darn the vendor booths were still closed so no quick shopping fix) we return to our tables that were covered in a towel and a sheet of bubble wrap and started to lay out our fibre on the vest.

This is Rose's vest - she choose a whole new colour palette
Hot soapy water was poured over the vests which were covered in a sheet of clear plastic and then gently rubbed to begin the felting process. All the edges of the vest were finished except those on the side seams, which were left open.



Then with Ayami's help we added more fibre to fill in the side seams allowing the one size vest to accommodate a variety of body sizes.


Once the side seams had been added it was time for the serious felting! With the plastic on the inside we rolled the vest in the bubble wrap around a piece small round piece of foam (think swimming noodle) and covered all in our towel and started rolling and rolling. And rolling and rolling. Once we were satisfied that the vest was properly fulled we washed the vest in a hot water in the sink followed by a cold water rinse. And here they are: