Collaboration

My husband is a photographer, and he has published a photograph every day since 1/1/2013 on Blipfoto. You can see his photos here at Bizonderimage. Sometimes he publishes transformational photographs . I generally love these and one really spoke to me.

He took this photograph at the gashouders in Amsterdam .

And transformed it first to give this .

And then this.

When I saw it I wondered what it would this look made in felt ?

Well here it is .

Wet Felted incorporating silk , scrim , prefelts and mulberry bark . Then machine stitched using variety of threads.

I used mulberry bark for the first time which you can see better in this close up. I really like the effect it gives.

I feel that this is a wonderful collaboration , maybe we have a new future together.

 

 

 

 

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A Roman blind and a Rug

A few months ago I helped my pregnant daughter make this Roman blind for her babies room. I have made curtains many times before but never Roman blinds. The tricky part I think , as in a lot of sewing is the cutting. We did a good job between us and we're pleased with the final result.
This got me thinking over making a felted gift for my new grandchild and eventually I decided on a rug , echoing the birds on the blind. I wondered whether I was up to the task of felting a thick sturdy rug.
I draw / painted my design and then cut out prefelt birds , and leaves and used fibres and roving for the branches and flowers.

It then had to be reversed and laid out in order with the birds on the top.

I filled in the gaps with merino fibre.

With the addition of four substantial layers of fibre and a prefelt backing it was ready to felt.

I really spent a lot of time rubbing to ensure it was felted before I transferred to the garden table where I could add loads of water from the wateringcan and I rolled in a cloth directly onto the wooden slated table. It was not as much work as I had imaged.

All ready and waiting for my my new grandson , Sebastian, who was born on the 9/10 /14. He is too young to appreciate this master piece but I think it looks very good on his bedroom floor.

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A splash of colour

This week I decided to give natural dying a rest and try using my pleated technique with coloured fabric and fibres. The fabric was all hand dyed. I used a small element of a filterstorm manipulation below as my inspiration.

 

I deliberately went for bold and bight colours , some lime green , hot pink , sunshine yellow and bright blue. My plan as to have these colored elements on a black background.

The elements are bright and bold.

I am very pleased with the finished piece.

Well maybe it's finished or maybe not as I am just contemplating whether to add some stitching!

 

 

 

 

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Sculptural Felt International

Yesterday I went to the Sculptural Felt International exhibition at Nagele. I treat for me and a good excuse for my husband to try his new car on a really beautiful Autumn day.
This collection by 12 felt artists from around the world was hugely varied and very inspirational. Well worth a visit , here in Nagele , or at one of the other venues from now to the end of 2015. You can find more information here

I liked it all, but particularly was drawn to the concertina type sculptures of Marjolien Dallinga.

The delicate texture effects made by Rebecca Howdeshell were truly beautiful. I will be practicing my machine stitching.

Chung-Im Kim had created large undulating hangings by stitching felt together , the shapes and the contours were like surrealistic relief maps . Very fantastic especially when combined with screen printing.

These photos give just a glimpse into the wonderfull exhibition. The exhibition artists say that "We felt like crossing borders" When I reflect in what I saw yesterday I think this statement wonderfully sums up this magnificent collection of felt works.

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