Nuno Felted Scarf

I took a Nuno Felted Scarf class with friends at Kali Basi’s studio in Yelm, WA. It was a wonderful day with an excellent instructor learning a craft that was brand new to me. When I laid out my fibers before the felting process, my fuzzy table looked like the Muppets had been put through a wood chipper. With encouragement, I kept going, and I ended up with a fun nuno felted scarf. Bonus: nuno felting is quite a workout!

Here’s the finished scarf. Layering fibers (in this case, wool roving) onto fabric (I used pieces of silk saris) on top of bubble wrap and thin plastic sheeting begins the process. I wet the fibers with water and soap, covered them with another layer of plastic, then rolled on a plastic tube. And rolled, and rolled, and rolled. Loose fibers compress and interlock into new fabric.

Before felting, I chose embellishment fibers and placed them on the fuzzy surface. The whitish bits are wool nips. Those that I covered with a light layer of roving did not adhere as well (left). I got better results with a heavier roving layer, and excellent results with silk hankies (both right). I embellished other parts of the scarf with contrasting wisps of silk roving. Do you think it needs beads?