Productive week

I feel I have achieved loads this week.

Firstly I got round to trying some of the techniques I learnt in December with Lisa Klakulak at the wonderful Atelier Fiberfusing. I was pleased I have not forgotten all the fascinating felting tips Lisa taught me and I am delighted with the purple pod I made.

I finished the presentation of some new jewellery and was surprised and pleased to unexpectedly sell some more earrings . I also started adding the beads to another set . My plan for all these to go into my Etsy shop, hopefully next week.

 

Artybirdcarnforth has planned an exhibition for April and I need to get my piece finished and with then by the 10th March. This is not so far in the future so I did a few pastel drawing that will form part of the inspiration for the piece .

As I want to naturally dye this piece I did a few more dyeing experiments. Onion onto BFL and with alkanent on some Gotland. Typically I prefer the felt design of the gotland piece but I am not so keen on the range of grey and brown I have produced. I like the golden colours from the onions a lot better.

When I look back it feels like a very productive week !

 

Posted with Blogsy

City and guilds

As I come to the end of my three years studying with the City Guilds, with Artybirdcarnforth I know that I am keeping up a family tradition. I did not know this when I started. In the 1940s , after the war, when my Grandfather was no longer working in munitions , he returned to his profession as a dental technician by studying with the City and Guilds. He had kept his hand in with his profession during the war by making false teeth at the kitchen table, which was Ilegal at that time - hard to imagine that now !

My and my grandfather.

In the 1960s my mother who was a health professional , who had always had an interest in dressmaking and dress design , studied advanced dressmaking and design with the City and Guilds in Liverpool. She recalls a 6 hour practical exam while she was 7 months pregnant with my sister. That sounds a bit like a very hard version of the Sewing Bee. Her father was extremely proud that she also got a City and Guild qualification.

So what is this , City and Guilds , organization ?. Well a a little research shows their motto is " Believe you can ". I had no idea but I love the power of this motto.

Today the City and Guilds organization is a global leader in skills development offering 500 courses and operating in 81 countries . Founded in 1878 in London with the aim of improving the education of craftsmen , technicians , technologists and engineers. They wanted to create a institution in London and a system of qualifying examinations. In this respect I think , they have had a significant effect on the system of qualifications in the UK and probably the world , and the fact they still exist after nearby 150 years is amazing. Today 2 million people each year start City and Guilds qualifications.

So I am proud , and quite emotional in reality, to be part of this 2 million and to have kept up the family tradition.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Felted jewellery

Over the last few months I have quite some surprising success selling my felted jewellery. My pieces have been sold through Box of Beautiful Things, based in Carnforth , UK. I had made two collections , one using some shetland tweed and one based around turquoise beads.

Here's an example of the shetland tweed pieces.

I love the ridged effect you get as the shetland tweed is forced to shrink into the wool fibres.

The turquoise beads were matched simply with black fibres and some turquoise threads.

Now I need to make some replacement pieces. As usual my ideas change and I thought I should try and make something lighter and more summery. I therefore decided to start using some indian silk, I bought in Mumbai in 2013.

Pieces are still being made , but here a glimpse of work so far

 

Posted with Blogsy

An old grey bag

At Woolfest in 2013 I bought some Gotland fibre . Beautiful carded batts in soft grey shades. Just perfect for a sturdy bag. Which I made and actually wrote 2 blog's about !!! Well I have to now be honest, this bag was not so good really as it was very thin across the bottom and a bit floppy.

For 18 months it's hung on my studio door handle , looking sad, and has never been allowed outside. So I decided to revamp it . I soaked it for a couple of days , and started re fulling. In a gentle sympathetic way you understand, not throwing it at the floor. Persuading it to shrink where it wanted it too.

I quickly cured the thin bottom , and then further shrunk the whole bag to give a more sturdy felt, it reduced in size by about another 15% . My records are a big thin but overall it has now shrunk about 40% Which I think is still debatable for a hardwearing felt . What do you think ? It has turned from a shopping size bag to a large handbag sized bag .

I decided to fit magnetic fasteners for security and remodeled it with more curves. A slimmer and firmer version all round. I even gave it a shave before it faced the world again.

Here is the new version.

And just for information here is the old one, looking strangely sepia!

 

Posted with Blogsy

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.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

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

 

Posted with Blogsy

White , at the start but not at the finish

In September 2011 I nervously wrote my first blog , about a piece of white felt I made at the start of my Artybird courses. Very basic !! I was quite happy about the felt but I was nervous about becoming a blogger. Since then I have written another 139 blog posts and I am no longer nervous at all.

This week strangely I return to all white again for my final pieces of course work - two wall hangings.

These have been made from Blue faced Leicester , as was the first piece . But that is were the similarity ends. The first was just BFL , flat felt , these last two have many many additions. First silk fibres and alpaca yarn , followed by scrim , silk chiffon and mulberry bark . Cords made of BFL wrapped in silk fibres were added next and on one piece fibre balls. The final additions were mixed fabric pleated pieces .

Here are all the elements prepared and ready for adding to the fibres before feltIng.

 

The two pieces felted.

All ready for this glorious madder dye bath.

I can't wait to see how they will turn out.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy