A first date

Doing a online course is great, it gives the complete flexibility of when you work and allows someone like me, living in the Netherlands to take part in a UK course. The disadvantage of course is you are on your own. You have your tutor in my case Kate , who is really suportive and helpful, but it is not like having a classmate , who you can share ideas with, discuss concerns with and learn from.

So when I started Level 2 and Kate introduced me to a fellow class mate who was interested in sharing ideas with, I jumped at the opportunity. We shared a few emails , and then she suggested we have a phone call, early days she said , but why not. Just like an Internet dating said my worldlywise , eldest daughter. She would know , I did not.

So our first date went ahead. How was it . Well good, in fact very good. We talked about how we had got into felting , how we both missed having someone to talk to about the course. We talked about our themes, river banks, trees or beach and the sea. All really fantastic , the sea especially a great love of mine , but here in the Netherlands totally boring and grey, nothing like the beautiful UK coast line. We discussed suppliers of felting material , felting books , our lives outside felting etc etc. All in all a very good first date. We will be having a second.

We also agreed to share some felting projects , so I thought I share a few here.

A crazy teacosy just looking for a red teapot.

A detailed shoot a a new Starkless picture , that is waiting to be framed.

A small picture testing out needling and then wet felting and my framing techniques

Some baby boots made for Dexter.

Here to lots more dates with my new felting friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Framed

Well today I have finished the framing of my felted pictures for the dying of the sun exhibition.

The framing has take me far longer than making the pictures!

First I had to work out how to stretch the felt pictures. That was quite easy really , just sew them to some black cotton fabric and stretch them over a piece of hard board that fits in the frame. The pictures have beads incorporated into them, so they needed to be set back from the glass. This was harder to work out , but after various options I decided to use some black foam board to space them back from the mount board. I liked this as it added a kind of black hole dimension.

Making sure I could hang them securely was he biggest problem. Eventally I decided on clips on the hardboard and then the hardboard screwed to the frame. The hardboard was then covered in cardboard and taped to he frame to stop harvest flys making their homes inside. Then just a wire across the back and it was finished. 

 All in all elapsed time of days!

Here they are The Pelican and Cygnus The Veil, with thanks to Mr Sharpless for the inspiration and Dave for his patience .

Posted with Blogsy

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.