Futonji Class

Barbara Mullan is offering a set of four classes at the Embroiderers' Guild of SA in Futonji - Nuno Felt, stamp and Decorate. The classes will be one month apart and result, for those who attend all of them, in the production of a long scarf. Dying and stamping are outside my experience, but I thought I'd give it a go. I can only attend the first two classes - but I figured I'd have fun and learn a bit in two classes.

The first class was Sunday last weekend. The six of us attending had a very relaxed day. After going through the sequence of steps that will be needed, and examining Barbara's example, we got to work 'discharging' our fabric samples, by applying thickened bleach, rinsing and hanging them up to dry. We then applied dye to the samples and placed them in plastic bags in the sun to 'cook'.

While they steamed away we chose designs and carved blocks that we will use next month. I went for a simple form with no fine detail while I got the hang of carving with a very sharp blade.







The bag of fabric pieces continued to steam away at home. The fabric pieces were then washed and ironed, ready for the next lesson.

Not all of them worked well, but the effects are interesting and will be more so with a bit of stitching.

Lots of fun.