Felting Resolution

In late December I had the very good fortune to attend a workshop at atelier Fiberfusing given by Lisa Klakulak . This was not a workshop about making a wonderful finished piece but a workshop about techniques to make hollow forms. We learned with lots of maths and felting examples.

Here is the tiny piece I made with its three lids. Just waiting for a genie to rub it.

I am now brimming with ideas on ways to improve the felt I make , new things to make and ways to fix previous felt problems.

I also am left realizing the importance of recording what I have done . I knew this and Artybird certainly requires it for all course work , but I do have a tendency to to be a bit slapdash when making things for myself. Progressing my ideas will start in January, tomorrow , and my New Years Felting resolution is going to be better recording of what I am doing.

 

 

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Feedback please

I am a novice at natural dyeing. The chemistry of the reactions with the animal and plant based fibres. The use of mordants. The actual process of the dyeing , of extracting the dye out the plant material and getting it into the fibres to enable them to react. The whole process fascinates me. This is not really surprising as these kind of process have played a large part of my career as an engineer.

So I recklessly decided that my final C&G wall hanging would be naturally dyed. I decided to use madder. I didn't not grow the plant in my garden , although this is possible , I bought ready ground roots. Madder gives orange to red colours depending on the conditions of the dyeing. I determined not to try and be too clever but just dye my two pieces in my madder bath and wait and see what happens.

I am pleased with the results and one of the requirements of the course is to obtain feedback on the pieces. so I am requesting readers of this blog to please give me some feedback on the two pieces below. So I hope you can spare me a little of your time to tell me what you think .

Photographs © courtesy of Dave Mercer.

Thank you

 

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