All packed up

Well I have spent the last few days packing up items to send to Kate for assessment.

It quite amazing how much I have accumulated in the last few months.

I have been making boxes for my paper manipulations.

 

I have been sorting through masses of sketches some I remember drawing on the train.

I have collected together all my felted items showing texture and dying techniques.

There is a collection of needled felted items.

My 3D objects

Finally my scarfs. I am very happy with my green scarf especially as I made the green dye myself by mixing the turquoise and yellow. I would happily wear it. But the hooded scarf, it might remind me of the beatiful waters of the Hebrides , in its colours, but in terms of style , My god its a disaster for me and it is something I would never wear!

 

 

 

 

This lot all needs to be packed up safely and sent off to the UK. Though bulky they are all very light so the costs should not be totally excessive. Thank goodness.

And the big question is now , what am I going to do with myself?

 

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A fibre mountain

How has it happened.

How have I come back from holiday with a fibre mountain. I struggle to find room for the fibre I have already and now I have an extra three large bins bags of washed fleece.

Well one is my own purchase at Woolfest, my Mule. I am very proud of it all.

Then I have two bags courtesy of a friend of my eldest daughter. At least they arrived cleaned , so I did not have to run the gauntlet of hygienic dangers in the kitchen . But what are they - now, no- one can remember.

Here they all are, taking the place of the rehomed futon.

My Mule is at the right , quite a lot smaller than the two others and it was enough work.

The fibres feel good to my inexperienced hands and they are British , so that narrows it down a bit. I think I should just get on and felt them and don't worry about their pedigree. I just need to do one felted sample from each . But before that I need to do some carding - well quite a lot of carding if I am to make anything bigger than a sample . So samples will have to do for now.

But in fact I need to get back to my final course work , so this lovely mountain of fibre will just have to wait for a few weeks.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second we had

 

Ant ideas

 

it's a rl pity if hey have to be anoynmous

 

 

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My North England Mule

When I went to Woolfest at the end of June , I bought a fleece. I had decided I would buy one before I got there . I was quite determined to buy one. My sister thought I had now gone completley mad.

The idea came from Kate of Arty Bird, take some raw fleece said the assignment. What , where am I supposed to get that from, so she sent me some and ever since then I thought well maybe I should make soem of my own.

So here I am at Woolfest determined to buy, truthfully I was bit overwhelmed by the choice. How to choose? In the end I bought a smallish fleece from a north england mule. A cross between a blue face Leicester ram and a swale dale ewe. Bred I believe to mix the hardiness of the upland mother , with the more prolific genes of its lowland father. My decision process was simple. I recognized the originating sheep , I like blue faced Leicester fibre, the fleece wasn't too expensive at GBP 7:00, and it looked fleece shape as far as I could tell.

 

It came from a sheep who lives at High Stanger near Cockermouth.

Here is a picture of a mule , taken at at Hawkshead show. It is a far nicer looking sheep , in my opinion than a straight Blue faced Leicester. For those of you who are interested.

It's taken me a while to start to clean it, in fact it's taken me until I returned to the North of England as there was no way I could take it on a plane in its raw state.

Here I am lying it out and trying to decided what to do with it

Having thrown away the really horrible bits , I washed it big by bit. It had to be bit by bit as a did not have a big enough pan for more than a small amount at a time. I think it taken me 6 pan loads! and has resulted in me filling the house with a sheepy smell, and in me getting lots of lectures on hygiene in the kitchen.

Drying, I would like to say in the sunshine, but as its pouring with rain I can't so it's in the house.

 

And here is a small amount after hand carding.

I am really pleased to have managed to produce something out of my crazy buy at woolfest. I love the way its turned from greyish to lovely creamy white and I am interested to see how much of the orginal 2.3 kg is now usefull fibre .

 

I am now thinking about what I am going to do with it. I will dye some and felt some . Pretty predictable really,

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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 .

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Time for some reorganization

I have decided it's time for some reorganization . I have built a chaotic collection of fibres , now residing in two towers of Ikea boxes and numerous tins, recycled takeaway containers and boxes containing small precious items.

 

I have a range of dyed fabric and fibres . I have lot of white yarns and fabrics that could be used for dying. I have balls of yarns that can be incorporated into felt and I have a range of silk fibres and wastes. Not to mention paper, paints, pens, knives,scissors, threads, beads, and books. Try as I might everything is always lost. So whilst in a lull before I can make the final items for my course ,as I need yet more supplies I decide to have a clear out is needed.

But where to start. Not with my precious equipment , reference books and textiles, and junk , that might be useful one day. But with all the other stuff that's occupying space in my little attic room.

First the exercise bike. That can go to the spare room. Easy. Done.

Next the futon, Can we do without this? I think we can as we now have a spare bed, and we do not get so many visitors. What to do with it. I know recycle to one of the daughters who is about to move. She seems interested, demands photographs.

 

Probably she will have it . Well there is one option , in two weeks time , when we can take it on the ferry to England. Only snag she will not have her new house by then. We can work something out I am sure. She already has stuff stored at numerous locations , one of them can be persuaded to just squeeze in a futon, alongside a bureau and a settee for a few weeks.


So I have not actually reorganized anything much , just have a plan to make more space , which I can then fill with more Ikea boxes and maybe some labels so that I can find things.

 

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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.

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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