Mermaid day 2

(Note: This is posted a day late because I was busy watching the Canadian women's hockey team win the Gold medal in the Olympics)

Today we played with dangerous equipment - awls and needle felting needles. Here is where I started the day. After posting my first day's progress, I worked on the techniques from the day and finished a rock in each technique. Except the drizzle stitch rock - I wanted to have it checked to make sure I was doing the right sort of thing.

We learned several new thread making techniques based on stumpwork pieces that Tricia has been able to study.
One fun technique uses Purl Purl. We threaded some Soie Ovale through the coil, then stretched the coil, then twisted two of these threaded coils together. Tricia showed us wonderful slides of stumpwork using this twisted technique.This is the threaded Purl Purl. The kinks are where the needle came out and went back in.

Here are the stretched coils being twisted together.

Here are the two colours for a couple of the rocks. The 'threads' are couched concentrically around the rock outline, moving to the center.

Then we had to create our own Purl Purl with Gilt Sylke Twist - actually, this was some silver twist that we were lucky enough to work with!! We twisted the GST around a fine wire, then twisted that around a needle. It is really fun. This time we used it in the coiled form and couched it down. You can see this give a really rocky granite like look.

We also made Bouche using Soie Ovale. We clamped a block of wood with a hole to hold an awl to our tables. This acted as a holder for the thread we twisted using techniques similar to those used to make threads for Japanese embroidery.

First we twisted 6 strands of Soie Ovale for the core, then in a second colour of Soie Ovale we twisted one strand in the opposite direction, then a second strand twisted in the same direction as the core, making a nice kinky thread to further the rocky texture. The top spools are rock colours I've made, the bottom is for mermaid hair, with only a single outer twist.

After all the thread making, we ended the day by needle felting a fish form. I didn't need any band aids.
So here is the left side of the grotto with the new threads. Along the left side, the top is the silk gimp couched down that was done the first day. Then the stretched Purl Purl, then the red and pink purl purl I made, then the blue and orange bouche couched down on the padded rock to bring it forward a bit. And you might notice that I finished the drizzle stitch rock in the center, using two more shades of the Soie de Paris. I found that if I twisted even more than I thought I should it looked even better, although it is rather knotted on the back.

Thanks for the comments, I hope you find my notes helpful. I didn't take notes in class so these notes are for my reference as well. I highly recommend Tricia as a teacher - not only do you learn the techniques, but you learn the history and you find out how the threads are made. Very interesting.