A little silk magic is coming to the blog! The new photo banner offers a tantalizing close-up of a tiny woodland visitor from my latest needle-felted wool and silk sculpture. Look closely, and you’ll discover that even this little face incorporates some rather unusual silk forms! This project opened the door to exploring and using a marvelous variety of silk textures, shapes, and curiosities—some familiar, others downright peculiar! Over several posts, I’ll share the discoveries, experiments, happy accidents, and creative inspirations behind incorporating these marvelous materials into a needle felted wool & silk woodland fantasy.

To begin with: the Hatchling you can peek at here wears wings of Ceranchia silk cocoon. Hair of magically metallic, fluffy fuzzy bits tweezed away from the cocoon before dyeing it…. and who knew you could needle felt some forms of silk!?. Note: the cocoon kept it’s metallic gleam after dyeing. The visible bit of knit garment is a lackadaisically spun form of Tussah silk.

Much more to come…. I’ll be back soon

There will be cocoons, stems, moss, happy “accidents” and a bit of sorcery along the way. For now, I’ll keep the full scultpure under wraps. Consider the Part 1 of a lengthier adventure in silk.

Look up at the banner photo and meet The Hatchling!