Big book of felt samples
Two leather binders to neatly organize my wet felting samples and their accompanying fact sheets. The challenge here was to create a ‘growing book’; I wanted to be able to flip through my samples as through the pages of a book, but also to keep adding new samples to my collection. I solved this by making a wraparound cover, long enough to accommodate the expanding stack of samples that are held neatly in place by leather string.
Each sample has a form describing materials and methods used. 
The leather protector on top of the stack protects the paper forms. 
The samples can easily be added to, taken out and/or rearranged. 
The top one holds my fiber samples, the bottom one my felting technique samples
I had heard about the importance of creating samples for wet felting for years but I never really did it because it felt like homework and not like actually making the things I wanted to create. The examples I had seen of sample books where just binders with each individual sample put in a plastic sleeve. It all felt like having to do paperwork instead of having fun creating pretty things.
In Januari 2020 I joined a wet felting class and of course, the first thing that came up was that we were expected to take home little amounts of different kinds of wool and other fibers to make lots of samples and to bring them back for next month’s class. The teacher brought an example along for us; one of those binders with plastic sleeves. I wanted to make the most from the course so I knew I had to find a way to make this fun or I’d be frustrated pretty quickly. Then it suddenly clicked for me: making AND organizing my samples had to became an art project in and of itself (without any plastic sleeves). That way I’d be able to get into the habit of making wet felting samples and I’d end up with a beautiful personal sample library that could grow with me for many years to come.
Some samples include other fibers (like bamboo) added to the wool 
Some samples include a dip dye test. 
Sampling wool and fiber blends that I created myself 
I made blending samples, like this one using just 2 colors in different amounts 
I blended an entire rainbow using just 3 colors of wool top 
I sampled fibers for nuno felting, like these three different silks 
Sampling different yarns to include in wet felting. 
Sampling how the colors of sari silk fibers change depending on the color of wool underneath 
Exploring how bits of muga silk ‘cake’ (in between stage of processing silk) can be included 
I sampled adding shapes cut from prefelt or silk paper 
Sampling ‘nuno felt drawing’ with wool top on silk fabric 
I sampled ‘drawing’ with wool top to create extremely open felt.
