Exhibition piece - Part 1

ArtybIrdcarnforth are having a spring exhibition in, not surprisingly , Carnforth UK. All week I have been preparing my piece.

My inspiration is this small part of Far Easedale Gill. The photo was taken on a cold April Day.

My piece will be made all in white and then naturally dyed. Just to be sure I have been doing some more dye tests. I was interested to see what difference pH would make to madder dying .

These results are not quite as different as I expected , but maybe I need a bigger pH change than from 5 to 7 . More work is needed I think!

I have also been preparing all my fabric and fibres which when added to the felt will build the texture and then the colours after dyeing.

Here they are all laid out on my table , not looking much at the moment but after felting and dyeing should be beautiful. I hope !

 

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Distracted

I have to admit to be totally distracted from starting the second year of my intermediate felt course with ArtyBird by playing with my new sewing machine. I started with the idea of getting a new a machine , thanks to Els , when my old one , which was second hand from my mother and about 25 years old , went from only having the one speed of very fast to not going at all. I did mange to get this fixed but my then I was pretty taken with the idea of a new machine.
So my new beauty is electronic , with lots of nifty features. I have discovered A needle threader , the ability to wind a bobbin without un threading the machine , eyelets , button holes, and all kind of fancy stitches, needle up and down buttons , memories , basting "
So first I played just randomly stitching and testing.

Then I have made some Christmas table mats using this lovely cheery fabric. They still need some gold stitching to finish them .

Then I did a bit of uneven stitching on some felt. This needs to get better !

One of the things I love about living in the Netherlands is all the wonderful , fabric , " stoffen" you can easily buy. Next weekend the big stoffen market comes to town , so that should provide me with some more opportunities to be distracted.
Seroiusly I have received my first second year assignments , and I am sharpening my pencils ready for some drawing.

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