Looking back

It's hard for me to believe that this is now my 151st blog post. I would never have believe that was possible when I very nervously wrote my first post in September 2011.

That first post was about the difficulties in making white felt on a white background , my trial piece to show I could make felt at the start of my first ArtyBird City and Guilds courses.

When I look at the posts I have made , the most popular with my readers is the one about making a pair of replacement slipper boots , the first pair made from merino had worn through.

Oh how I hated making these things , I just could not get the supposedly hard wearing norwegien wool to felt. But they have been much loved by my daughter and are worn out now . So much for the hardwearing. Before you ask - no I will not make another pair !

I have had more that 7000 views, and I think over 1000 of these are my mother who is my biggest , albeit silent in the public arena , fan.

I was very excited the day I got a comment , from a friendly felter who was unknown to me and I know I have viewers that I don't know from all around the world .

The purpose of my blog was to record my adventures and discoveries during my on-line felting courses with ArtyBird Carnfoth I think I have achieved this while having a lot of fun and learning a lot about felting . During my journey I have been greatly helped by Kate Horner from ArtyBird , and also enjoyed workshops with Miriam Verbeek , Andrea Graham , Judit Pocs and Lisa Klakulak.

As ArtyBird wins more awards for its felt making courses I am pleased that out there in the ether will remain my few words about my experiences with the courses for future students and friendly felters to read and I am pleased that I took the plunge and became a blogger.

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Below the surface

This piece was inspirered by the felt united theme of water and the ideas conjured up by the word drift. Many things floated into my head when I was contemplating what to make and I do not know why this idea came to the top

I wanted to imagine the water lily pads which look so beautiful and peaceful with their quiet regular overlapping shapes, from the underneath. I had seen a beautiful pool in the Netherlands in spring of this year.

But I was also reminded of something I saw many years ago where a swimmer was picking beautiful water lily flowers , by swimming in the pond and holding the blooms in his teeth.

I also thought it would be a way of trying out the technique of felting I learned from Miriam Verbeek at Feltfull 2013. Here you needle felt the fibres into your fabric, making a new feltable fabric that can be cut into complex shapes, which in turn can be joined together. Perfect for water lily pads.

Here's my sketched idea and a sample , alongside by needle felted felt fabric made from some home dyed cotton lawn and merino fibres , ready for cutting.

Having made all the individual lily pads I felted it into a single piece . It is about 1 metre long.langamL

After felting I stitched some small beads for the bubbles that I think must be there? As usual I had not really at the start decided how I would display when I started, but I knew it needed to to free, drifting. I choose in the end to back it with a clear blue sky mounted on canvas stretcher bars.

The finished piece will be on display as part of the drift exhibition organized by Lagom Felt Studio in Crieff Scotland.

 

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