Feltfull

I have had a wonderful time at Feltfull. I met many wonderful people from all over the world and I learnt so much about felting . I can't really write it all down its just too much !!!!!!!. So here are some photographs of the people that were there and their work .

Just a few of the amazing felt works of art that were made during this fantastic week.

Posted with Blogsy

Trying to make a Bowl

Well what I have really been trying to do is felt a bowl , but I have been having a few problems.

I thought a bowl depicting a misty Dutch polder winter scene , would ideally match the colours of my Gotland fibre bought from Woolfest. I made some dark prefelt , cut out some trees and a couple of birds.

Here they are ready for felting in. The last time they were ever seen.

I have used a resist many times but this was going to be my first experience of using a ball and bouncing to felt the fibres. I was a little minimalistic with the amount of fibre I used. Far to minimalistic.

After the felting started I realize that I had been just too mean with my precious fibres and not only had I felted a holey bowl , but my trees and birds had completely vanished. The weight dry was only 37 g just not enough fibre.

What a disaster.

Thinking about it I decided , more fibre and only use the darkest for the trees and the lightest of the sky , plus lots of white silk fibres behind the trees and forget the birds!

The final result.

Better

but

the trees are still virtually invisible and although there are no holes there are some very thin patches. Now I have manged to used 65g of fibre. Still not enough I reckon I need between 80-100g . I am really not sure why I have lost the trees in the mist. Perhaps it's the bouncing.

Unfortunately I now have not got enough fibre to try again. Mayb it's time to ask Artybird for some advice.

Posted with Blogsy

Needling

Needle felting requires a barbed needle to be pushed through wool fibres, tangling them together . In my mind, until recently , needle felting was for making fairies, gnomes and animals or emergency repairs to sort out thin areas of wet felted prices. Not my thing at all. But I was wrong.

In the last few weeks I have discovered what happens it you combined needle fleeting , prefelt and fabrics with wet felting. It is a truly wonderful combination. You can build texture , make three dimension structures and incorporate all kind of fabrics.

Here are few examples of my exploration.

Starting with just white and getting a feel of pleating.

 

 

Adding colour and some points.

 

 

 

Lots of colour and fabrics , with pleats and points and spikes

 

I love these effects and will definitely be trying needling again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

50 shades of .......

Brown

A small clutch bag made as one of the last assignments of my course. Incorporating merino wool and wendleysdale curls, all in beautiful shades of brown.

Simple but effective.

I like my shades of brown but I don't think it will raise millions or a cause baby boom unlike it's infamous namesake

 

 

 

 

 

Sharpless

Stewart Sharpless was a surveyor of nebulae. He first published his work in 1953 .

A nebulae is a interstellar cloud of dust , hydrogen , helium and other ionized gases. The starting point and the ending point of stars and planets in the solar system. Really he was an astronomer. His images and those of others which have followed him are truly amazing. They capture the tattered remnants of stars , supernova explosions , solar dust clouds etc. Most of these events have taken place 1000s of years ago , but are so far away , they have taken light years to get here. The images are taken by telescopes such as Hubble.  Here is just one example



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/ESO-The_Omega_Nebula-phot-25a-09-fullres.jpg


The imagines depict the colours of the elements that are emitted during the explosions. Blue oxygen , and green is hydrogen. Red is nitrogen and helium is violet. Perhaps these chemicals names and their associated colours is what attracts me so much to these pictures, or perhaps its because it all happened so long ago.  I also love the names, Omega, Pelican, Trifid, Barnard's Loop, Cygnus and Deneb are just a few.

I discovered all these wonderful images as I researched the theme of the dying of the sun,

I hope to turn some of them into felted pictures.

My plans are in place , and I have enough fibres and beads I hope and the pictures will be made shortly.   The deadline is the 3rd August.

 In the meantime here's a few pictures of test pieces.

And some carded fibre and silks ready for laying out into a picture.

Hand stitching , I'd rather be felting!

I have been doing a lot a stitching recently. This is not my favorite occupation. It's just to fiddly for me and I am never so happy with the end result. This is a bit strange as I come from a family of stitchers. 

My grandmother born in 1893 was apprenticed to a tailor when she was 14 in about 1907. The apprenticeship was in Blackburn approx 9 km ( 5 miles) walk from her home in Accrington where her father worked in the mills. At some point she moved to work for Jacques and Juby Tailors of Blackpool maybe after her father retired. She worked there until aged about 28 , in 1921, she married my grandfather . Less then a year later she gave birth to twins. The second baby who totally unexpected. We know this as she had only made one christening robe which we still have .

 

We have a photograph of her work as tailor. A dress she made for her mother.

 

We don't have the dress but we do still have the brooch, which is pretty amazing to still have after about 100 years. What a work of stitching and beading the dress looks.

 

She never sewed again for money but passed on her skills to my mother who made all ours clothes for many years , including my most hated camel coat! Which she and I both remember well.

 

I made a lot of clothes myself for years with a sewing machine including my own wedding dress.

 

But ask me to hand stitch a picture and I am sorry to say I'd rather be felting. My friends Els makes beautiful embroidered pictures incorporating all kinds of stitches and fabrics but I'd rather be felting. Even my love of knitting has been eclipsed by my love of felting.

 

So rather reluctantly I have been stitching a rock pool. Fishing in rock pools was always a favorite occupation of mine at the beach ,but this has not helped much and it's actually pretty hard to make rocks out of fabrics. Neither has my fabric dyed in random red , blue and green patterns helped much. Works well for seaweed , but I did not think I could just make seaweed. I needed I few mussels , starfish , barnacles and anemones and rocks to stand a chance of it looking like a rock pool.

Here it is and I think there should be a prize for anyone, who recognizes it is a rock pool , if they haven't read this explanation.

 

 

Keep calm and Blogsy

I am not really an Ap person.  I am a fibre person.

 I do not need news beamed to me 24/7 , I do not like computer games , or navigation aids whilst I walk about , I  do not have an iphone , and although I have a mobile, my family will confirm ,  I rarely answer it and I am certainly not seeking out Aps every day to help me improve my life.

The process of writing a blog for me , was for the last 9 months :

Have an idea

Write a few notes on my iPad

Think about it for a while.

Take some photos.

Upload the photos to my computer

Send my iPad notes to my own email address.

Copy my notes from my email address on the computer and paste into blogger

Add photos ,

Adjust layout ,

Preview at least 11 times checking for spelling mistakes,

then publish

quite easy really , but lots of steps.

Then I was away from home ,with no computer and I wanted to write a blog. Was there an Ap I wondered ???

Yes there is ----  Blogsy.

 It makes the whole process a slicker , leaner and more efficient and more fun. It is call Blogsy and it's wonderful. I can type straight into my iPad , spelling gets checked, layout and font are variable and flexible . I can upload my photos straight away and put then where want.


It is quite frankly wonderful and I am using it now.

 

Photography or Physics

As a child I was exposed to the mysteries of photography through my father , who was a keen amateur .Carefully setting his exposure and his F stops and then developing his own photographs in our blacked out kitchen. This was the bit I enjoyed most as in the dark , the prints emerged. It was very complicated and exciting. Thanks to the developments in electronics, I have since become a point and shoot photographer. Today my husband is heavily into his photography , but now not only do I have the F stops to contend with there is also a million adjustments possible via the computer .

I was quite content with my old camera except for one thing , it really ate batteries. So when I wanted to use it I was forever running down the road to buy batteries , as I couldn't usually wait for the recharger to work. I was a serous risk to the environment. I therefore requested a new camera for my birthday. Thinking again simple point and shoot. This was not possible . There was a perfectly serviceable , high spec Lumix going spare. It just wasn't quite up to the photographer's standards and I was his excuse for a new one!!. So I am having a trial of it and I cautiously asked for some advice on photographing my felts.

I wanted a normal picture on a nice background , some photos of the detail and a photo showing what the piece would look like framed. Simple ?. Well we got the light right and decided automatic plus a bit a computer adjustment of brightness and contrast was all the was required. Thank goodness, we didn't need to go through the F stop theory again . We did have to get out the super deluxe tripod , but that's easy to work.

Then we came to photos of the framed pictures. A big problem of squareness emerged. No matter how carefully we set up the angles between the sophisticated tripod and the picture hanging temporaliy at a crazy low height on the wall, the frames all looked cockeyed. No solution was possible. Until we had a brain wave , forget the wall and all those complicated vertical hanging mechanisms. Just lay the framed picture on the floor , and pretend its the wall. I think it's a paralax probelm. Physics not photography. And the solution requires no photography knowledge at all.

So here a selection ofmy attemptand the question is wall or floor?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right Royal Do

This week I have been in the UK and watched the appearance of flags ,and bunting every where

 

I especially like this window display. Very innovative , wouldn't you just love those Wellies.

 

 

Alongside this there are just so many events planed for the forthcoming weekend. Where I am staying there will be a play , a concert, childrens sports, a BBQ, a Hog roast and an ABBA tribute band.This is just a small place .

 

 

Imagine what it must be like in London, with the flotilla and free concert with all the great British stars.

 

Whoa this is some kind of celebration . I guess you don't get so many opportunities as a country to celebrate 60 years reign of a queen, so you should make the most of it. I do remember when in 1977 , the 25 year reign celebrations coincided with the week in which I was 21 . There were some good celebrations then as well.

 

All this patriot fever in the air was beginning to effect me. It was a rainy morning , and my thoughts turned away from walking and to felting. Just on a small scale . I had been given some fibres from world of wool for my birthday , with a goodies bag containing yes you guess red, white and blue . I had a small piece of bubble wrap, a rolling pin and one large plastic bag . Was it possible with this limited equipment to felt. yes of course it is. So here it is my own felted flag

 

 

I really feel a part of it all.

 

A secret commission - revealed

Many years ago , well at least 10, I bought my mother a bolt of pink silk from Thailand. Just her colours. 

Well it's taken her a while to make anything from it as she was waiting for a really special occasion. That occasion will occur later this year , when my youngest daughter will be the first of her grandchildren , to get married. So long before any of the rest of us, even the bride, had even though about what we might wear she started to design and make an outfit from the pink silk, and she asked me to make her a bag to go with it.

She sent me some of the silk I had given her and some of the deeper coloured silk she had bought for lining. What was she looking for I asked. "I leave that up to the designer" she said. OK there's a challenge. So I played around with samples of back merino and silk fibres and I ordered some Fushsia fibres. I eventually developed a kind of styled flower incorporating the lining silk and the fuschia fibres- see top left below.

What about the handles , always tricky for me when I make a bag . 

Then I had a kind of revelation. What about the bamboo handles that my mother  gave me . Vintage I decided, recycled from a 1950s bag,  although I could not ask as it would give away the plan.  They where not I now know. They were some kind of left over from a store room unwanted and unloved in 1979.  Any way a  starting point for a design.  And in this year of the jubilee,   a queenly, HRH Elizabeth II style. WAS it possible?  

So I made a mock up with fabric and a paper pattern, and I measured and I calculated the shrinkage with my calculator.  So much  planning I can't believe it.

Yes it could work. With great trepidation I started.  The whole extended planning process had made me nervous.  Crazy.   It is not even as though there Is any hurry as the wedding is not until October .
I think it worked. Here is the finished bag. Fit for a queen? 

The reaction of my mother , who is you must realize is the number 1 secret fan of this blog , is  ".... ."

Dying again

Well here I go dying again , and this time I can't be banished to the garden as I need to heat everything up to boiling point. I have a brand new, to me, pan to use bought for euro 2.50 from the local charity shop. 

So collect my BFL fleece, Shetland white snd grey fibre and merino fibre , merino half felt, silks, an alpaca yarn , some yarn of unknown origin or fibre , but wool I think and extra special lace weight Jamiesons shetland yarn .



Trial weight 80 g. Near enough to 100g for an engineer to be perfectly satisfied.

What colours to dye. Well I was very uncertain , especially when I thought how the planed second and maybe third dying would turn out. But in the end I I decided on scarlet ,yellow and green, 

Wet out fibre.

Place it in the pan. 

Bring to the boil, slowly , how slow is slow. 

I have no idea, but I think on my lowest setting it would never boil. 

So I turned it up to middling. 

After boiling turn off and sprinkle the dyes. 

Quite simple really!

All without dying the kitchen .

The first batch

LOVELY

The second batch is more muted

but still interesting.


The third is is all too muted for me and its  time to stop , before I dye any more of my precious fibres mouldy looking pinky grey.

Lot of felting opportunities ahead!.

In pursuit of the perfect straight edge

My felt does not naturally made itself into straight edges. Free flowing might be a better description of my edges.  I need to take control.

It is actually very easy to make straight edges, just cut the felt when dry with a rotary cutter. I think that is so easy it can only be described as cheating and when you have done it there is whole feeling to a piece.  So how can i get a straight edge with our cheating.

I think a lot probably goes back to the original layout of the fibres past the point of the place were the edge is meant to be. These extra fibres should be fine and even and then edges must be turned to give any chance of a straight edge.

It's a really delicate balance.

Too much to turn , gives a thick edge which then tends to pleat up and the corners curl up like wings. Too little gives a nice wobbly lace effect. Care and attention, not my strong point, is needed I think right from the start. Why this not my strong point , is because i get too excited over my design in the middle of the piece and let the edges take care of themselves. 

Another problem I have found is use of prefelts distorting the edges. This is an example of what not to do.

The lower rock , did you recognize it , needs to be moved away from the edge , so the main body of the felt has enough strength to overcome the effect of differential shrinkage. I never thought of this until it happened. Complicated. 

Of course after drying pliers and steam ironing are useful to flatten straighten and disguise the manufacturing defects. As I type this I wonder if this might also be a new use for my redundant hair straighteners now I have let my hair return to its natural up kept state. 

Having thought this all through , I decided I would make a special edge piece. 

To try out calmly to make the best edges I could. 

My plan a piece of bunting , based on a scene from a Cambodian temple. Nothing to complicated you understand just the pattern not the dancing girls. Of course this was a ridiculous plan as I had to make three edges and a point, all needing mathematical accuracy ,and a pattern which had to reach just to the edges but not slip over.  I think a should have planned a single colour square.

Here it is.  A partial success I think. Edges 7/10 , point of triangle 3/10, pattern about 5/10.  

A Grand Day out

This weekend I have paid a visit to Floriade.  A once in 10 years horticultural exhibition. 
No felt in sight apart from a multi-coloured hat on a New Zealand lady. I complimented her on her head-ware , but personally I thought it was a bit too hot a day for a felt hat, but then I am used to the Dutch weather

Situated in the south of holland, Floriade appeared to have got its own new motorway junction, unknown to the navigator, and an extensive efficient park and ride system. 


Inside -  well it was truly huge and in many ways a tribute to the Dutch horticultural legacy, and there was masses to see, flower displays, gardens , willow weaving, a fire breathing dragon, and some amazing video installations.


 I really enjoyed the Huis van de smaak. Cooking for children, aimed at getting them to eat fruit and veg and mushrooms. With lots of free samples to snack or smaak ( taste) on. 


I particularly liked.
The stilt insect girls- how did they stay vertical

This Japanese flower display, using the bamboo roots in such an interesting way




And the urban knitting

Wherever I go I can always find the knitting.





All in all a grand day out.

Beading

I have tried a number of ways of incorporating beads into my felting. 

My earliest experiments just using beads on wool and placing them in the felt were pretty unsuccessful as the threads and beads were not firmly enough attached.

I have stitched beads on top of the felt and that works fine , but requires sewing, which isn't my favorite occupation, and also looks like an add on.  

I have tried placing beads under some scrim , this again had the problem of just too much movement , unless they were attached to a piece of half felt first.

My next attempt was to incorporate some beads into a knitted square out of wool that I knew would felt. This worked well, but involved quite a lot of wool and time knitting for the final effect. There was also a large area of knitted texture incorporated into the felt. 

I think I might have finally solved it. Crochet. 

Thread the beads on to some thin wool that will felt. Use a really big crochet hook and just make a chain. This is actually the limit of my crochet skills. I have tried random spacing and also adding a bead to every stitch. 

The chains can then be laid into top of the fibres and with a few fibres laid on top, are easily secured into the piece. The beads , sit sometimes in the felt , invisible , sometimes half buried and sometimes on the surface. 

I really like the effect , it's as though the beads are a integral part of the felt.

Transformations

In 1882 John Constable painted some cirrus clouds using oils. The original is in the V&A, Heres a link. 

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82649/oil-painting-study-of-cirrus-clouds

In 2012, only 130 years later,  I attempted to copy this painting using pastels. Not quite my first time using pastels , but I am a real novice.

Then I made a felt picture using merino batts. I have used merino tops many times, but never batts before. They are very fine short fibres randomly mixed,like fluff, rather than lined up neatly as they are in a top. Interesting different, one I need more practice with !!

I then photographed this felt picture and printed this using my ordinary printed onto silk. I never even knew this was possible. 

It is not as clear as it would be as a photograph but recognizably,upside down, I think.

Finally, I felted the silk using some merino tops , yellow , white and blue fibres. I mixed some white and blue fibres together with my carders for the background. The shrinkage of the silk gives a wonderful crimped effect - unfortunately some of the colours have been lost.  

Transformed from oil on canvas,via the V&A website, to pastels on paper, to felt, then via the computer and an inkjet printer to silk and then shrunk into a small silk and felt picture, 130 years after the original was made.  

Bizarrely this small size felted silk is almost the same size as Constables orginal oil!

Found Items

Make a nature chaos collage from found items. What a challenge! 

First I had to determine something that means nature chaos to me. Well there are lots of things, but I decided to use something that I saw whilst walking on a beautifully sunny April 1st. Should it be the rocks, or the ragging streams or the bogs.  No I decided it should be the gnarled and twisted moss covered roots and branches if a very old tree.

Could this be a mistake as there is a lot of chaos !! 

I searched for found texture.
First binder twine picked up in a field, and twigs in various sizes from some spring cleaning in the garden. 

Old, but clean , pan scrubs, and extracted from the recycling some disposable contact lenses packing -  always good to recycle a bit of plastic in my line of business! 

In the midst of my searching I was given a present,  with some squishy packing material,  just the thing I was looking for to make some bark. 

Tooth picks, I thought  would make little twigs as they are quite strong and not likely to disintegrate.

A few ribbons and short cords, cut off some labels. 

So far so good, enough to start gluing?

Here is the work in nearly finished, perhaps I should have waited until I had it all collected, but I quite like the evolutionary aspects of finding something and sticking it on and as currently it looks nothing like the picture,  I have a long way to go!