Felting with Orikiri Cutouts

My felting group got together recently to learn about orikiri cutouts and incorporating them into

 a felted piece.

I made a flowy one, with bits of wool and a cutout or two, felted onto silk.

And another one that is reversible, with wool on both sides.

Our instructor, Sachiko, lives in Australia, but is originally from Japan. Orikiri is the art of folding and cutting to create shapes. Similar to the more familiar origami (the folding of paper), the base material is first folded, then cut, like the snow flakes we made as kids. Sachiko also incorporates weaving into her pieces.

We first learned the weaving technique on construction paper.

Then used various colors of prefelt to weave in and out, forming an organic, free flowing design.

 We cut out prefelt in various designs

laying them out on a silk base.

Sachiko brought many of her finished pieces to offer us inspiration.

Lots of silk on silk (with wool in-between)

I chose this lovely, whimsical shawl as a jumping off point.

My supplies were ready

 Forming loose circles

 and placing torn and cut pieces of thrift store silk 

 I had my shawl ready to start the felting process.

 Everyone else did intricate weaving and cutouts for their pieces.

I knew I just wouldn't have the patience for this so I did just a few cutouts.

A sample to show us the weaving technique using various colors.

After laying out the design, we got busy rolling to start the felting process.

Our group does eat well at these workshops. We ate the first night at my house (where it poured down rain) and the second evening at Bev's on her deck.

It was a lovely evening and Bev's crape myrtle was in full bloom.

Our view from the deck, overlooking Bev's gardens and fields.

Since the derecho had cancelled our last day of our felt workshop in June and we didn't have a chance to see our finished coats, we brought them to this workshop and had a little shoot.

Both these workshops were three days of felting fun. But my felting days will continue as I'm participating in a 5-day workshop in a couple weeks in Michigan. This is more up my alley....five different teachers, a different project every day. Now to just find time to do more felting at home before I forget everything I've learned!