Felters Journey

Hundertwasser inspired bag #2

2012-02-08T18:31:00.001Z

This is my second Hundertwasser inspired bag.. I love the coloures of this one - dark duck egg and bilberry. The white coming through makes ALL of the colours nice and heathery.

After finishing the first bag there were a couple of adjustments that I wanted to make next time:

Inner pockets thicker and firmer
Handle loops to be thicker/chunkie
Handle a little shorter

So this time I made the handle loops about twice as thick..

Handle loops with fluffy roots for attaching to bag body..
I wrap the fluffy ends in cling film to keep them dry while I felt the centre part

I decided to make the pockets prettier as well as thicker; first I laid a couple of basic spirals where the 2 pockets would be, these spirals would be uppermost on the inside of the bag when its finished. Then I laid a layer of Falkland, and 1 layer of the duck egg coloured merino (I did it this way so the colouring would be subtle and blend more with the rest of the inside of the bag), followed by 2 more layers of Falkland. Wetted the fibre and positioned the resists, then went on with laying the fibre layers to enclose the main resist.

Same as with the first bag I used 6 fibre layers; 3 of white Falkland then 3 coloured merino.. and then the spirals.

The handle loops were added in to layers 3 and 4. I did come across one unexpected hurdle with the thicker loops.. don;t know why it hadn't occured to me, but as they were so much thicker they were also stiffer and didnt want to stay bent. I had laid the first side with no problems.. when I bent them over to do the second side though they wouldn't stay down. I used a couple of clothes pegs to hold them bent while I finished the laying out and rubbing. I paid a lot of attention to the areas where the roots were (which I do anyway) when I was sure they were well attatched I took the pegs off. I had gotten so caught up in doing this that I forgot to take a photo of the peg positioning.. I've got one for the next bag though :)

Starting to build up a spiral..
it takes a suprising amount of time to make a big one with lots of colours!
I use thin strips of merino first and then the yarns, tucking the yarn ends under
the merino

I drew a big spiral to both front and back.

Here again I forgot to take photos of the stages as I cut the resists out! And I really should take one of the bags on top of the resists to show the shrinkage involved too.. I want all of these bags to be very tough - felted as hard as I can get them.. so there is a LOT of rolling, throwing and thumping involved.. I like all of my bags to be HARD anyway, they have a tough job to do, so I always work, work, work them. I think (and hope) the Falkland is making these hardier than just merino does, but I'm finding Falkland seems to take a lot more working than merino to full it to its max.. I like the slightly hairy character they have, its quite subtle 'cos its just coming through the merino, it makes them very tactile.

The handle was made in exactly the same way as last time.. just a few inches shorter.

I think this hangs at a better height..

Inner pockets with their spirals..
The photo doesnt show it too well but the duck egg fibres come through the white
just the same as it does on the rest of the bag

close-up

I am REALLY happy with this one :) I absolutely love the duck egg and bilberry combo - must remember to order more bilberry! Its one of my new favourite shades

Next time: Hundertwasser inspired bag #3 - different again

New year - new ideas

2012-02-05T11:54:00.002Z

I started off January by making a list of themes I wanted to explore this year.. And I actually started working on 2 of them IN January - now thats good going from me! There are a couple of other themes that I really want to work on soon, but I want to show you what I've been upto so far :) I'm going to be running with these for a while I think 'cos I am really enjoying them. So far I have started on Petroglyphs & Pictographs and Hundertwasser inspired projects.. and I'm going to start off by showing you my first Hundertwasser inspired bag, which was a nice little learning curve :)

I have been very much inspired by the work of Freidensriech Hundertwasser the renowned Austrian artist.. I love his use of colour and spirals and his love of nature. If you have a few moments and are unfamiliar with him, please go google.. the site I have linked to is interesting but there is so much more online.. I enjoyed this essay in Hello Magazine.

So far I have kept it simple.. using lovely colours and spirals, nice natural shapes and texture.. My first bags have been inspired by The Big Way painting..

Hundertwasser inspired bag #1

close-up finished spiral

I made my resist with the idea of 50 to 55% shrinkage. I enclosed my resist in 6 layers of fibre; the inner 3 layers are white Falkland and the outer 3 are coloured merino. The first thing I laid down was 2 inegral pockets to be on the inside.. with this first bag I just used 3 layers of Falkland for the pockets (forgot to take photos this early).

After laying 4 layers of fibre, I added loops to run the handle through.. These were short cords with a fluffy root left at each end, I incorporated the fluffy root in between layers 4 and 5 of the layout stage.

I didnt position it right at the top of the resist as I wanted room to cut the resist out and even up the top without having to worry about the loops getting damaged or weakened..

Once all the layers were laid I started spiraling :) This was the fun bit, it did take a lot longer than I expected though I must say.. laying out a nice spiral takes time!

I drew spirals on the front and the back of the bag using thin lengths ofmerino fibre, pretty BFL slubby yarns and boucle yarn which is an alpaca/wool blend - this is what the dark blue and charcoal is.

These BFL yarns are part of the stash I brought back from Wonderwool last year,
all naturally dyed by Alison at Pure Tinctoria

I got so carried away felting that I forgot to take pictures for a while now :( I dont have any of it partially felted, or as I cut the resist out.

For the handle I wanted to creat a double cord - a big loop that runs through the hanging hoops.. I felted a loooong cord leaving fluffy tufts at each end again. Onto the cord I twined all the colours that were in the spirals, they twist all along the length.

And then I felted that - the cord handle has a white Falkland core and 2 layers of merino, then the twist of fibre and yarn. It was worked in between each layer, but once the twist was on I REALLY worked it hard.. leaving the ends till later.

Internal pockets

The pockets are not as tightly felted as I would of hoped.. I think its to do with the different character of the Falkland wool compared to merino.. and possibly 'cos I only used 3 layers. This is an area for improvement next time..

I am very happy with my bag.. and this one is MY bag :) a keeper - yay! I love the way that the white Falkland has crept through to the front making it all heathery - it brings all the colours together - so what could of clashed horribly is actually very harmonious.

There are a couple of things to tweak for next time.. The hanging loops are strong and stable, but maybe look a little thin on such a big bag - next time make them chunkier! The handle is super long.. I like that, I can wear it across my body comfortably, if I want to wear it over the shoulder though I would probably have to tie a know to shorten it a little - next time make it a tad shorter. And the inner pockets need to be sturdier, these are stable enough, but I like them to be tight and even edged, these are a little 'frilly'.

Next time Hundertwasser bag #2

ALMOST a cake-tastrophie..

2012-02-01T17:35:00.001Z

Gary's birthday (Monday) went well.. he loved the folder and laughed his socks off over the horrid hairy helmet! I was quite surprised while washing up at lunch time to see him strolling into the kitchen modeling it in his birthday suit :) That was a laugh! We had a lovely day, and an even nicer night out with most of the family.

My weekend was spent ducking and diving trying to get his cake iced in secret.. easier said than done. It didn't turn out as I had pictured it.. mostly because there were so many mistakes and mishaps along the way.

I had decided to make him a cake with a lady jumping out of the top.. I rather naively thought 'no problem - it'll be an interesting challenge' HA. What I didn't take into account is how long its been since I iced a cake (7 or 8 years) and the simple fact that I was having to do it on the sly and hide it away from my husband! (I don't want to bore you.. the rest of this post is my catalogue of mini cake-related disasters.. so please stop here if you aren't that interested :)

I made the lady from icing and painted her in a nice peach foodcolouring; I used it for her skin, hair and bikini. Stupidly I decided to paint the back of her bikini while she was laying face down on a soft towel.. of course when her bum was dry and I turned her over to find she now had a boxers nose (flat) Never mind..

We don't like icing or marzipan on our cakes, so I decided to just use a thin layer of icing.. I knew this is what I always used to do. What I forgot is how I used to cover the cake with butter-cream icing BEFORE putting the rolled icing on to smooth out the surface. I did have a vague recollection of brushing apricot jam glaze onto the cake before icing it.. and did that. Of course when I put the icing on I couldn't smooth the darned stuff out no matter what I did! I ran out of time at that point and had to leave it till the next day.

The only thing I could think of to try and save it was frosting, which I've never used or eaten before (but now really like!) I brought a can of American Frosting thinking I could smooth it over my bumpy sponge cake to get a nice smooth surface. I tried to make it blue.. after adding a couple of spoons of the cheap blue foodcolour brought from our local supermarket I got the blue-ish grey you see above, I think I could of added the whole bottle and just about got a true blue..

When I tried peeling the icing back off - the apricot glaze had virtually welded it onto the sponge! I eventually got it off and started dolloping frosting on .. only to discover that it doesn't really like being 'smoothed' onto cake.. I could NOT get it flat. The more I tried the more it started coming back off and bringing crumbs with it. So I took a fork to it and make swirly patterns and covered the worse messy bits with white chocolate stars.

I was getting in quite a panic, thinking OMG how can I take this to a restaurant to be carried out and presented to him in front of everybody?

I decided to keep going and see how it turned out. I stuck my iced lady into the hole that I had cut and stood back to look....and she started leaning back further... and further.. till she broke in the middle - oops.

Which is why she ended up so deeply stuck in the cake that she looks more like a swimmer waving her arms for help... maybe I should of added an iced sharks fin swimming up the side of the 'waves' he he.

Anyway.. When it was all done I thought it wasn't too embarrassing after all.. and in the end everyone enjoyed it and the only thing Gary was embarrassed about was us singing happy birthday (and the big flashing 40 badge his sister made him wear :)

A very SILLY present :)

2012-01-27T17:42:00.000Z

As mentioned in the last post, my husband is rapidly approaching his 40th birthday, just 2 days left to go. Presents were needed - I thought long and hard and came up with the handprint project I showed you last time.. but I wanted to make something FUN too.. something a bit silly.

One thing with Gary - he likes his hair neat.. short, and neat. As soon as it starts getting long enough to curl, or stick up.. it must be cut. SO, I decided to make him a hat :D a big.. mad.. HAIRY hat.

Scoured locks laid tips down,
this is a shetland/jacob cross fleece

I used the resist I normally use for berets (not the oversized ones, the more fitted type). Laid the locks to cover it the added merino tops to cover the locks.

Nice brown and tan merino, layer 1

Layer 2 radiating out from the centre

And somehow I seem to of either forgotten to take the photos of the next stages, or deleted them from the camera! I flipped it over folded the edges in and laid the locks & merino in the same way on this side. Then felted it the same as any other resist project.

In hindsight the beret resist was still a bit too big.. I had to work the thing so much that it actually became more of a HELMET than a hat :)

Well its certainly silly - bordering on MAD I think lol

My sister-in-law is hoping that he will wear it to the restaurant when we all meet on the night - not very likely. Actually, fun though it was to make, I can not imagine Gary wearing this in public unless he is going to a fancy dress party as Dennis the Menace, or Sideshow Bob. I'm just looking forward to the fun we shall have when he opens it :) and seeing him with big hair.

Today I have been baking madeira sponge cake.. which I shall be sneakily icing and decorating over the weekend. OMG I have just realised - I dont have Monday to work on it - Gary has booked his birthday off of work - YIKES... I am going to have to work hard and fast while he is golfing on Sunday!

January.. the month of many birthdays!

2012-01-21T17:00:00.000Z

The birthday run down for January; dads is the 9th, sons the 15th, nephew 19th, mother-in-law 24th, husband 30th & brother-in-law 31st.. its a busy month. And of course I have been making gifts.. not for everybody.. but I crocheted a couple of hats for my mum-in-law and felted slippers for my dad..

Its my lovely husbands 40th birthday.. I didn't really know what to give or make for him.. but I thought long and hard and came up with a couple of ideas. This is the more sensible pressie I've made :D

Whenever I get into my hubbys car after work, I have to move an armful of paperwork off the passenger seat first. Soooo I decided to make him a nice felted wallet / folder to keep it all nice and tidy. I didnt want it to be boring, or silly either (can't have him embarrased if his boss needs a lift now can I?!)

SO, I decided to make it nice and bright, and decorated with our handprints..

Decided on 3 nice colours that went well with the base batts & made prefelts

Stupidly I was suprised at our handprints..
wasn't it just last year that the kids hands were half the size of mine?
Which is which?

As all of our hands are pretty much adult sized now I decided to felt them in so that they shrunk down with the felt - I think they would of dominated it too much otherwise.

Some of my favourite slubby red yarn wound around the hands.
All wetted out & ready to go

Felted nice and hard to withstand wear and tear

Look how tiny my handprint is now .. its like a 8 year olds! lol

Trimmed the 2 long edges and machine stitched (twice) up each side

Secret messages freemotion machine embroidered on the inside cuff..

where nobody else will see them.

Finished with a vintage button from a button tin Gary gave to me..
the colour is perfect for picking up the duckegg handprints

I made the buttonhole on my sewing machine.

Finished.. hope he likes it

I have also made a very silly present too.. but I think I shall save that for next time :)

TTFN x

Making Mittens

2012-01-15T13:17:00.000Z

I hate having cold hands! One thing that always freezes my fingers to the point that I could cry is scarping the ice off my cars windows.. so I decided to felt an ice-scraper mitt; a thumbless mitten with the handle of the ice-scraper going through to the inside where you hold it and keep warm. I didnt take process pics, but made 2 at once by using a double resist which I cut in half part way through felting.. giving me 2 scraper mitts

I cut a slit at the end & 'healed' the edge as I was felting.. this is where the scraper goes

I decided to give these to my aunties for Christmas.. hope they liked them (I havent seen them yet) They should be good for ice-scraping as they wont get wet.

Now I needed to make for myself. Oraigionally I planned to make a thumbless mitt, but I have I've always fancied a pair felted mittens that I can wear out and about.. last time I tried it turned out like a felt boxing glove lol (I'd used way too many layers!). Also I wanted the thumb to be positioned slightly to the front rather than at the side.. Gary solved this for me very simply, he pointed out that I can turn it slightly as Im working the felt so the thumb is where I want it.

covering the double resist with nice golden orange merino

I used 3 layers.. so it would be thick and warm, but still flexible

On the 2nd and 3rd layers I added blue for the hands
keeping the orange clear for the wrists

For surface decoration I used a pink and yellow silk cap that I dyed a while back
and some pretty variegated finger roving brought back from Wonderwool Wales

Wetted and rolled, just about to cut them apart

healing the edges

After working the left mitt look at how much it shrunk after it came off the resist

Finished front and back

Generally I am really happy with these.. I shall tweak the resist next time to make the finger area slightly narrower. When I made these I didnt want them to restrict my fingers, but I think there is just a little too much room there. I may wet them and work the fingers a bit more yet.

Safe to say there will be more mitten making in the future :)

Time flies!

2012-01-11T20:01:00.002Z

And once again its been ages since I blogged - I really must get back into the habit!

Before Christmas, I went with my friend Brenda into Birmingham to visit the German Market.. a huge Christmas market that is there each year for the month or so leading up to Christmas. We had a lovely time and spotted lots of lovely things.. the best treats of course were the real handmade /artisan made stalls. There was an Egyptian potter with exquisite wares, a stall with hand knit socks (that looked soooo warm and snuggly) and hand woven scarves in camel, mohair and yak, both of whom we had a good chat with. A stall selling the work of several local Birmingham artists which was very nice to see, and the glassblowers from the Jinney Ring were there too (also local to me) I hope that they all did well.

There was also quite a bit of felt.. but that was a bit of a downer to be honest, from what I saw all of it looked to be cheaply brought imports being sold on still at too-low prices. It makes me sad and irritated at the same time; sad when I think of how little the makers will of been paid for their hard work (must be pitifully little seeing what the end sellers are asking) which makes me irritated at exploitation, and then also irritated at how this practice devalues felt! Not good!!

We also visited an exhibition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - Lost in Lace. Quite an interesting take on 'lace', there were pieces there that I really am not too sure quite how they relate to or were inspired by lace.. but there were also some stunning pieces. Anyone who finds themself in the vicinity its worth taking a look - especially as its free entry! Very glad to say photography is allowed so here are a few pics I took..

My favourite.. I found this intriguing.
Entitled ' After the Dream'
These wedding dresses are really tall & behind an intricately woven spiders web created from string, which must of taken forever to create!
It reminds me of old, crackled photos..

Stunning HUGE chandalier created from 600 swarovski crystals..
I can't even imagine how difficult this installation was!

Beatiful Panel with walkthrough archway created in needlelace.
You can just see the 'flying carpet' behind it

This is the first thing we saw.. beautiful, peaceful and so graceful
These columns are suspended, and they just keep on going up and up!

This Christmas Eve...

2011-12-24T13:43:00.001Z

I would like to wish you all

a Happy Christmas

and

Peaceful New Year

With lots of creative fun for all! :)

I would also like to thank you for stopping by my blog, to those who have commented on my posts a special thank you - it has been a pleasure hearing from you

Love to you all
Deborah xxx

Lots of felty photos..

2011-12-22T11:58:00.001Z

I have been 'away' for so long that there are quite a few makes that I havent shared.. time to catch-up a little :) As you will notice I fixated on a couple of colour combos.. you saw the black & white and purple & petrol big fringed scarves a while back - I loved these so much that I really HAD to make more in those colours..

This shawl/poncho has one of my new Buttonalia buttons :) Black and grey merino with lots of silk; silk laps & throwsters waste, white flax (linen) fibre and boucle yarn

This plump little black & white beuaty is just right.
I felted decorative holes which double up as button holes.

I hate modeling hats!

Pin brooch

LOVE these colours! The mulberry silk looks lovely I think

Note to self.. pull jeans up before having photo taken from behind!

And especially for you Heather :) BOOTS

Turquoise blue and red.. in my head I think of these as SuperHero boots - they are the right colour I think!

Pumpkin boots

And I've got a couple of other makes tucked away until after Christmas..

TTFN xx

Finally a finished Dragon Bag :)

2011-12-18T11:04:00.004Z

I have been a baaaad blogger lately! With the run-up to Christmas I haven’t had time to post or keep up with the blogs I follow.. Its time to catch-up, and the first thing that I want to do is show you the finished Dragon Bag :)

There are 2 integral pockets, just right for keeping track of little bits like a mobile phone and make-up. I put the mustard coloured fibre down as a guide for when I cut the pocket resists out.. I’m glad I did – its a nice splash of colour in a very dark interior!

I used leather inside the bag to strengthen the places where the handle cord passes through the felt, and for the fastner loop.

This took me a while to finish, as I mentioned last time I changed my mind about using the felt & leather button I had made (it really wasn’t very good) – luckily for me the lovely Sharry of Buttonalia is much better at making moons than I am :) . She has created two big fat full moons for me.. along with quite a few other lovelies, these are the ones I haven’t used yet

I also changed my mind a couple of times about how the handle should be. Firstly the 2 cord ends were joined on top and hidden beneath a leather cuff – after a couple of days I took that apart, thinking to knot it leaving the 2 ends hanging down on one side, and to create a felt dragon to wrap around holding the cords together at the shoulder. When I actually knotted the handle in place I like it as it is.. I think the shoulder dragon would be TOO much.

I’ve used felt, leather and ceramic for this bag.. its nice using different materials, makes it very tactile. I’m very happy with how it turned out, and have plans for a few other bags in the same vein.

I have a few other things to share with you over the next couple of weeks.. some before and some after Christmas. For now I am off to try and figure out how to crochet a newborn baby cardigan. I have been searching and searching for a knit and a crochet pattern for a SIMPLE newborn cardi – round neck and 2 or 3 buttons to fasten.. can I find what I want? NO. So, Im going to try and work out my own crochet pattern today (I’m much more confident with crochet) and tomorrow I shall try my luck at the local library.. see if they have anything in their baby knit books.

Button Moon

2011-11-16T17:08:00.005Z

Following on from my last post (Dragon Bag).. I wanted a button closure but didn't want it to look out of place. Didn't really take long for a button moon to pop into my head - only problem: I didn't HAVE a button anything like a moon! So I decided to have a pop a making my own..

Inspiration came from 2 of my blogger friends this time:

Nicola at Clasheen blogged about some gorgeous little brooches she was doing as a mini workshop.. I think these are so cool, she had so cleverly used tiny resists to create texture.. I could picture a moon with tiny craters.

A while ago Heather blogged about a gorgeous felt & leather button that she had made.. I loved this button. I decided to have a play and try making my own version... as a full moon. I certainly ENJOYED myself making them.. and will make other buttons in the future. As far as my bag goes though THANK GOODNESS for Sharri of Buttonalia; she is making me some moony buttons as I write this :) I am so excited to see what she comes up with - and I know its going to be a lot better than my moons lol.

I laid out a piece of 'textural' felt with loads of different silky bits; fabric, hankies, fibres, caps. Mostly white but with some deep gold (naturally dyed) which is actually UNDER the silk hankies on this pic.. you can just make out a glow

I chickened out at the last minute from doing the tiny resists.. not sure why. I felted it really hard. When it was dry I cut circles and using the darning foot on my machine, freemotioned some 'craters' - they all look like grinning halloween skulls to me ...
.

Button backs - from the left:
* felt back with floss loop - this is the inner piece of felt
* leather back glued on
* leather back sewn on (just machine stitched around the edge through both felt layers plus the leather
* leather back sewn on first to the back felt layer in radiating circles to make it flatter then around the edge through all 3 layers

Pleased with how the loop turned out.
I cut a hole in the leather disk and threaded the loop through before attaching it.

Glued on - not very happy with this one

Zig-zag stitched through all 3 layers just around the edge.
This was ok.. but I wondered if attaching it more securely to the back layer of felt would make it stiffer.

bit creepy..

Stitching the leather & felt at intervals did make it feel STURDIER

mmm

Glad I played around with this though.. even if I'mnot planning to use them :) it was interesting and different. I would do things differently again next time (apart from using interesting and colourful felt.. HAND embroidery and maybe some beads.. I shall try handstitching the leather back on to see how that looks.

Next post will be the finished bag (I hope).. I VERY nearly finished it a few days ago.. then decided to change the way I was doing the handle.

xoxo

Dragon Bag

2011-11-10T17:11:00.000Z

After my post on Tuesday.. and having caught up with the blogs I read - and finding inspiration there :) I got down to experimenting, and playing with my new fibres (all merino in lovely deep wintery colours.. blue/black, blue/purple, deep red, juniper green, rich mustardy gold).

I have a range of Celtic inspired bags in my mind.. they have been there for a while, but I finally started sketching a couple of weeks ago. Actually visiting Glastonbury got me moving with them.. Well one of the bags is a Dragon Bag, what I couldnt decide with this one is what SHAPE the bag should be.

Reading Heathers blog on Tuesday.. in particular the Green Bag posts it clicked into place. SO, very much inspired by Heathers beautiful bag, I set to work. It was a dark, miserable day and I had the light on all day while I was working.. I did take photos and am really pleased that they are OK to post.

Resists for integral pockets. You can't see it, but the first thing I did was lay whisps of mustard coloured fibre where the pockets would be, so I now where to cut the resists out when its felted.

Mixed colours on the back. I had a couple of layers of solid blue/black beneeth the colours.. I like the way it mutes the colours and brings them together.

Wetted the fibres on the front before putting the dragon on. I had cut the body and wing shapes from acid green silk chiffon and laid this down first, then whisps of green merino, finished with pistachio green tussah silk fibre.

Removing the pocket resists part way through

Felted. You can sort of see the resist behind it.. its shrunk by 1/3
- which is what I expected as it was laid out pretty thickly

Next day I started pinning and sewing decorative ridges to emphasis the shape of the bag

I used my darning foot to freemotion around the dragon.
I had debated whether to machine or hand stitch around him.. went with the machine because I like the extra dimension it gives felt. Didn't turn out quite the effect I wanted though..

So I am hand stitching OVER the machine stitching.. the felt is still pulled in by the machine stitch, the hand stitching is hopefully adding a little more definition.

I haven't finished the bag yet, so I'm breaking it down into 3 posts.. next time I'll show you the button I made today :)

Highs and lows

2011-11-08T10:10:00.001Z

I've had a couple of really productive weeks.. worked on some custom orders, some new designs, some bits n bobs for a Christmas fayre Im doing this weekend... and then WHAM today I'm feeling totally lost. Demotivated. I really dont know what to do - and I know I can't afford to waste a day. Grrrrrr

Instead of moaning I'm going to post some pics of a few of my makes :)

These are my custom orders.. all either at their new home or on their way now..

Custom coasters.. part way through (love these colours)

parallel stitch lines border

I had to rush to get the coasters shipped & didn't get chance to photograph them all finished.

Remember these?
I posted pics of them part way done.. here they are all finished & ready to go

I played with textures on this one.. curly locks, silk caps, nuno silk chiffon (vintage sari), slubby woolen yarn and MASSES of sari silk fibre inside

And new designs..

Black, grey & a little white merino with LOTS of extras.. bleeched flax fibre (linen) silk laps, throwsters waste on one side and curly BFL locks on the other

Big and snuggly

I fancied a substantial fring on these.. so I felted 14 cords, leaving the fibres fluffy at one end & incorporating them in at layout stage

And a bit more colourful & glitzy

I added some strips of synthetic fabrics to this one.. this silver is torn from a vintage (prob 70s) disco type top - not mine :) Its a very solt & slinky mesh-like fabric.. it felted in well & is much more silvery in real life than on the pics..it's still really soft to the touch too (thank goodness). Lots of multicoloured firestar fibre blended in on this side too.

More felted cord fringing :) 16 this time. I love the teal with the purples

This is the lighter, plumier side.. nice bright sari-sil ribbons and irridescent synthetic organza (it changes from midnight blue to copper depending on the light)

There you go.. now I'm feeling better :) And as a bonus my latest fibre order just arrived.. Wingham have a nice range of non-standard merino at the moment and they are LOVELY.

OK, I'm off to play xxx

A wild and windy seaside stay..

2011-10-30T09:23:00.000Z

This week the children have been home from school for half-term.. and we managed to sneak away for a last, late seaside break in Dorset. We had a great time as a family; it was very wild and windy which of course meant the waves were spectacular.. good job we weren't planning to kayak this time :) There were a couple of days that I have no photos of - they were all out of focus 'cos the wind was buffeting me SO much, but I do have a few pics for you.. the first lot were taken at Lyme Regis. We have never been there before, what a quirky and picturesque place..

Whenever I see seagulls close up I think of Pyramids by Terry Pratchet (LOVE that book)

I recon that poor chap got soaked

Lyme Regis is on the Jurasic Coast and is well known for finding fossils - Matthew found this one just lying there on the first beach we walked over.. needless to say he is thrilled to bits, Gary and Rachael tried hard to find their own fossils too.. but nothing near as good as this one.

You can clearly see 2 big critters (one on top of the other) plus 1 smaller very white & crystalised one, and what looks like quite a few much smaller ones

hello old friend..
on top of Glastonbury Tor
The remains of the chapel built in the 1300s

We havent been to Glastonbury for far too long.. it is a place that has always pulled me very strongly. Of everyplace that I have ever been Glastonbury has to be the most welcoming, accepting and inclusive... a day spent here soothes my soul. We had an even bigger treat than expected this time.. As we were walking up the lane toward to Tor we came across the White Spring Water Temple for the first time. For many years of visiting the Tor this place had been used for other purposes, but in recent years it has become the most amazing water temple.

Through the doorway, we stood letting our eyes get used to the dark, down the old stone steps in to a candlelit vaulted stone cavern.. there were puddles and rivulets all over the floor and the sound of running water was SO loud, burning incense and sweet music in the air. I must go back and spend longer there, it was such a peaceful place. After too short a time we had to leave.. we were off up the Tor.

.... When we got to the top there was a man playing hauntingly beautiful music on a flute... How much do I love it here? ... I want to go back already..

Now we are home & I made my first piece of felt for just over a week yesterday :) Today its going to be all about pumpkins! As a family of Harry Potter fans we have a Halloween feast every year, Rachael is planning to make a special spooky desert this year so we shall be having our feast tonight rather than on Halloween (my girl does everything at a snails pace so she will need lots of time :)

Beeeautiful Buttons

2011-10-20T17:29:00.000+01:00

If you have been reading this for a while.. or know me in person, you have probably picked up on my love of buttons.. I hoard them, my button tins are little treasure chests. I have always felt that way about button tins actually, I loved my mom & nans button tins when I was a little girl and spent many happy hurs sorting through them. Even my husband is always on the lookout for buttons for me :) bless him.

I want to share a seller that I have found.. I have been admiring Buttonalia ceramic buttons on Etsy for about a year now.. they are always such gorgeous colours and look so plump and non-uniform.. each one is unique. Every now and then I go look and drool and wonder what I would make with each one I fancied.. not really settling on a particular use... I just coveted them :)

A couple of weeks ago I spotted a couple of big beauties and straight away I could picture them on shawls / wraps as a closure instead of one of my usual stick pins. So I brought them.. Sharry the talented potter behind Buttonalia, is absolutely lovely :) she got my buttons to me the very next day - which was great 'cos I was bursting to get hold of them! I was so excited to get them I didnt even take a photo of them unattached!

First thing I did was attach one to my own shawl.. the nuno one with the Indian scarf which took forever and a day to felt in..

Perfect size to allow me to use the decorative holes as button holes :)

The button is black and green

The next one was just right for a wrap which which turned out just as I was picturing it (HUGE layout for this one) its more of a cape than a shawl..

SO, if you like buttons go take a look at Sharry's shop.. I can honestly say hers are the nicest ceramic buttons I have seen.. and as lovely as they are to look at they feel even better - you just wanna keep touching them

xoxo

Helenium Cushion - process pics

2011-10-06T17:35:00.001+01:00

This all started with a lovely project article in FELT magazine - an Australian magazine which celebrates felt in all its forms :) I have only been able to get hold of the one issues of this (issue 3) but really enjoyed it.

The project was for a poppy cushion and was written by Wendy Bailye. Lovely clear instructions and lots of photos for making a seamless 3 dimensional poppy cushion with 3 petal layers (1 being the outer frill). I very much enjoyed making this.. as you can tell from the fact that I followed Wendy's instructions :) something I rarely do. After making my poppy cushion I decided to be daring and make one with even more petals. I wanted to have a go at making a rose for my nans birthday.. nan has a beautiful rose bush that my grandad brought her many years ago and I decided to try and make the rose- cushion in those colours.

As you can tell from the title of this post (& the photos) my cushion had a mind of its own and did not want to be a rose.. its more like a marigold or a helenium - and as heleniums are one of my favourite flowers thats what I'm calling it :)

My first step was to card batts blending the colours that I wanted.. gold, bronze & pink, and turn them into roving. (I LOVE carding batts and blending pretty colours - its so satisfying) They actually look a little dull on the picture, in real life the pink against the gold and bronze was delicious!

Then I cut the resists; one big circle of foam underlay for the centre + 4 layers of thin plastic for the petals

The first layer of fibre was layed as rays extending out past the edge of the circular resist.. (all the fibres for this outer frill were layed going in the same direction so when they felted there was plenty of give to allow you to shape them into ruffles).

Then the centre of the circle was filled with perpendicular layers

Next came a layer of plastic with a hole in the centre where the petal layer felts into the main part of the cushion.

This was repeated 4 times.. each layer of petals I made just a little bit smaller than the last.

Flipped over and layed the back out

The next stage took AGES. Cool wetting and rubbing till it was ALL holding together well.. and finally rolling it - again there were a fair few hours spent doing this.

When it got to this stage it was strong enough for heat and more vigorous fulling. Making sure to stretch the petals out sideways as they shrunk so they were nice and flouncy..

(can you see all the silk? I used LOADS)

Till it looked like this..

I cut button holes and healed the edges, for a button close back

It really doesnt look much like a rose to me unfortunately.. nan likes heleniums too though so I'm hopeful that she will still like it :) I made this in early summer.. nans birthday is in November - talk about being prepared!

Sunbathing in October.. In ENGLAND?!

2011-10-02T18:19:00.000+01:00

Who would of thought it.. but this last week has been absolutely stunning! Better weather than we had in August. Most of my time during the week has been spent inside felting, but what a treat to sit out on the bench in the sunshine (wearing a sundress!) for a cup of tea or my lunch.. feels like a gift this late in the year.

I snapped this little fellow taking a stroll across the field at lunchtime yesterday.. he was only about 30ft - 40ft away, I've never seen a fox that close in bright dayight before, I think he was too hot to be bothered about being seen :) Had him lined up sitting facing me & just as I pressed the camera button he turned round to scratch his chin! Never mind.. you can see what a lovely sunny day it was.

Feeling hot n itchy

So, what have I been felting this week? I got my hands on another vintage silk sari and made my first scarf from it :) took a while for the wool to migrate through nicely but it was worth it.

super long & skinny

I'm working on 2 pairs of slippers.. a version of the 'franken-boots' (Rachaels slippers from last year)re-christened Funky Boots.. they are about half way done. And some mens mule slippers.. a special request from a very good customer for her hubby. They now have some pretty stitching around the openings and I just need to sew the soles on. Think tomorow is going to be a sewing day.

LOVE this colour combo - chartreuse & turquoise

This weekend though has been spent in the sun and thoroughly enjoyed :) Its been a lovely long weekend too, the kids school was closed on Firday for a training day.. with a little forethought we could of had a few nice days by the sea - ah well.

My next post is going to be the process pics of my Helenium flower cushion that I promised many months ago..

TTFN xx

This weeks makes..

2011-09-24T18:23:00.000+01:00

Ooo I've had a wonderfully productive week - I have been a bit of a felt-o-holic to be honest! It feels so good to of made everything I hoped & planned to at the start of the week.. I havent had much computer time at all & I'm running out of time today I just really wanted to show you what I've been upto :)

As promised.. last weeks witches hat :D

I played around with vintage silk sarees and nuno felting..

This is an asymetric wrap/scarf with a crinkle silk chiffon.. love the turning leaf colours

This one uses the softest prettiest silk chiffon sari I ever saw!

Just noticed you cant see the sari fabric on this pic - duh!
It has the same emerald green silk as the skinny scarf below

With emerald green vintage sari with peacocks & deer, dancers & musicians pictured

And 2 pair of boots ready to go! I felted the blue/white ones last week but finished them off with toggles & ties this week.

The blue & white are Norwegian - super thick & snuggly
Purple & blue with green accents are Icelandic (am I obsessing with halloween colour combos?)
I have a lovely customer looking for size 6.5 (UK) as these are both 7s, & I dont really do half sizes, I'm hoping one of them may find their home quickly :)

They have been loooong days this week!

And now my spare time has gone.. I'm off to bring the washing in before it gets dark. Have a good weekend folks
xx

Felt and Stitch

2011-09-17T17:54:00.000+01:00

My sewing machine is getting a good workout lately! :) This week has found me felting boots - I have 2 pairs 'on the go' - neither quite finished yet - and making hanging felt hearts for a commission. I went to town with the stitchery on these.. adding abstract shaped felt appliques & machine embroidery to a nice textural piece of felt.

Absolutely stuffed full of lovely lavender buds.. these are nice fat hearts :)
This is just 6 of the 11 I made..

I had so much fun applique-ing and embroidering these..
I just LOVE the dimensional effect of stitching into felt!

Working on the heart project got my imagination going.. as soon as I had finished them I stitched a hanging Christmas tree filled with allspice berries and cloves to smell like Christmas :) ...

And then went off at a tangent thinking about holidays & seasonal stuff - Halloween. The night before we had watched Batman Begins (Christian Bale is my fave Batman!) and I guess this must of still been in my mind 'cos I suddenly started picturing a felt bat with stitched details & swarovski crystal eyes

You cant really tell in this pic but the eyes GLOW. They are AB swarovski crystal and sooo irridescent. He is nice and chunky too - I used 2 layers of felt to stitch into

And THEN following the Halloween vein I felted a witches pointy hat! Hows that for random? Its still drying at the mo.. pics to follow soon :)

Anyhoo.. time to go rustle up some food for my lot - enjoy the weekend folks

The best kind of collaboration - mother and daughter

2011-09-09T14:16:00.005+01:00

September.. the year is turning! Autumn is definately in the air.. Misty morning fields, bright berries on the trees, cool crisp evenings.. it shall be time for thick soups, hot chocolate and woolen socks soon!

Well the summer holidays went by in a bit of a blur they were gone so quickly.. and I have been a bad little blogger! Hopefully things shall be back to normal now.. the children are newly back at school - I am felting again (YAY) and this morning saw the Woolgatherers meet for the first time since July. I should be hard at work, either working on my newest pair of boot slippers.. or making textural flat felt for a commission.. but my concience is telling me its time to blog :) but I must be short and sweet and get back to work!
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This is not a new make but a piece from July which I didnt get round to showing you. Rachael had drawn a picture which I fell in love with.. and immediately imagined it as a felt panel on the wall.
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This is Rachaels trademark flower.. in year 4 they did a William Morris project and all had to design and make their own wallpaper.. this is the flower Rachael designed - she has been drawing it ever since :)

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I love this picture - its simple.. but I can almost hear the wind singing in the leaves of the tree..making the branches dance. I thought it lent itself to freemotion machine embroidery - which has really gotten a hold of me I afraid - I'm addicted. So one day I set about felting the picture (minus the chickens and bunnies :)

Wetted out and just started rubbing

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I used the colours of the fields by our house at that time.. apart from the flower of course (which is imaginery) - Rachael always uses these colours for it so I stayed true to her design :)
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When it was felted and dried I set to with my sewing machine & freemotion foot (which I LIKE) adding in the detail..
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From a distance

I LOVE the textures you can get adding machine embroidery to felt..
the trunk and branches stand proud against the leaves.

Signed with our initials and the date :)

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I just need to mount it now! Which is where I have come to a standstill.. my embroidery frame is too small for the piece of linen fabric that I want to mount it on (it needs to be stretched before I stitch it on - then I stretch the linen over a board & stitch it in place). Im puzzling my way around it, while trying to avoid the need for a bigger frame... and then it shall be on my wall :)

So.. NOW I am off to do some felting before collecting the children from school

Have a good weekend folks

New wall art.. and a week away

2011-08-22T19:26:00.000+01:00

I just HAVE to show you this..

My son is 14 and about to start his GCSE subjects in September, one of the subjects he is dropping is art (OMG school with no art class would of been sheer purgatory for me!) as such he brought home a folder with all of the work he has done over the last 3 years. When we were going through it my heart almost leapt out of my chest when I saw this.. I LOVE it! It is now mounted and framed and hanging in pride of place in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs :)

'The Blue Ladies'
sorry about the glare across the glass.. really should of brought non-reflective

A3 size, worked in oil pastels.
I love this so much

I cant believe that his art teacher actually marked him down on this piece because he strayed from the red,orange, yellow tones.. isnt art about doing what feels right? He is getting lots of positive comments from our friends and family who have seen, and I'm hoping this will boost his self confidence (which has been ground out in art class!) and inspire him to keep drawing & painting.

We have just spent a wonderful week camping and ocean kayaking in Cornwall :) The weather was a bit dodgy, but my goodness did we have some fun!

Gary & Rachael on Daymer Bay

We camped right on the cliff overlooking Polzeath beach (a lovely place to camp). Polzeath is a great surf beach! The first half of the week, while the weather was not so good, the waves were pretty big on Polzeath - too much for us with the kayak, so we stayed on Daymer Bay just inside the Camel Estuary.. the water was calmer here. When the weather changed for the better the sea calmed right down - the surfers were seriously unimpressed - and we could get out there! So lovely kayaking up close to the sea birds bobbing around & diving, or nesting on the cliffs - they took no notice whatsoever.. if only I had a waterproof camera! Here are a couple more pics anyway..

Polzeath looking out to Pentire Headland

Daymer Bay.. so peaceful

I had an awful head cold for the first few days (I'd had it a week before we went too). It really fuzzed my poor brain up for a few days! I did quite a few daft things - most noticable of which was my mishap with hair removal cream.. Night before we went I did my legs (as you do) and didnt realise I had hair removal cream on the back of my hand when I put my hair up.. I didnt notice until I put my hair up the next day.. luckily its just a short chunk and not a bald patch that I'm left with - and I'm due a hair cut anyway.

I also managed to fall in a humungous rock pool! (Blame it on the head cold) Sods law it was on a cold day and we were on a nice long walk so I was all layered up; trousers, t-shirt, fleece, coat, scarf, backback.. I went in upto my armpits and soaked the lot - I've never been so unintentionally wet in all my life. Amber was swimming across it at the time - she though I had come to join her lol. It was funny though I must admit. And it proved the water repellant qualities of felt too! I had my phone and camera in my felt backpack - both were perfectly dry.

The kids just have 2 weeks of their summer holiday left now - where has the time gone? Its flown by!

Hope you are all having a good summer too

2011-08-11T15:09:00.000+01:00

Not many words today.. just a picture to share :) My first wallhanging with a little freemotion embroidery on.. Its a reasonable sized wallhanging 22" x 24" Inspired by photos taken on many wonderful walks along the North Cornwall coastline between Daymer Bay & Polzeath.

Hung from a nice bit of Dorset driftwood.. collected this piece in Feb 2010, it was just perfect for this hanging.

Just a little stitchery in the sea.. to define the horizon and some swirls in the sea. I needlefelted the sailing boat. Did think of hanging a couple of Cornish seashells from the end of the driftwood.. may still add them.

Freemotion grasses

And a freemotion seagull flying high

My next wallhanging has a LOT more stitching on it :)

Have a good week folks - hope you are enjoying the summer xx

Experimental Felting #3 Going BIGGER

2011-07-31T18:42:00.004+01:00

Firstly apologies about any odd spacing in this post, or html type rubbish - blogger is having a mad one and after about 1/2 hour trying to get this look right - I'm giving up and going to cook dinner!

Its been a while.. but continuing the story of my experementation using the tumble drier as a tool to make nuno felting less back breaking..

My most exciting discovery was how brilliantly it worked nuno felting onto synthetic organza! After the smaller sample piece I jumped right into felting a shawl...

Started by carding some lovely batts.. you cant really see it but theres loads of silk and a good sprinkling of firestar twinkling away in this :)

I laid it out on the floor 'cos it was 3m x 1 m..

Piece of plastic sheeting allowed me to add extra bits for the collar and bottom fringe detail (which I cut out part way through)

Plastic wrapped & rolled in an old towel - tied up nice and secure.

I chucked it in the tumble drier on no-heat for 20 minutes

After 20 minutes you can already see the organza starting to pucker. Wrapped & rolled it up & put it in for another tumble

You can see how well the fibres have come through the organza here - worked a treat!
This was after 50 to 60 minutes tumbling - which is all it took

Just to make doubly sure that the fibres were evenly through I gently ran a rubber-gloved hand over the organza side (this helps the fibres through)

Now it was time to get physical :) Heat, vigorous rolling & throwing you name it - I did it. To finish I ran the wool side over my well soaped ridged plastic roller tray - this tightens the felt up nicely.

Finished!

My dear friend & fellow Woolgatherer Brenda found me a torso for displaying shawls on :) Isnt she a treasure?!

So there you go thats my final 'Experimental Felting' post ..... until the next time I get curious

Freemotion..

2011-07-21T11:24:00.001+01:00

I mentioned that my (long anticipated) freemotion embroidery foot arrived last week :) I could not wait to try it out!! After doodling on the kids old school shirts that were destined for the rag-bag, I jumped in to my first little project. This has been brewing in my mind for a while.. Finally got it out on Sunday :)

I think this might be classed as mixed-media? :)

I cut out a wave shape from cotton fabric - 2 different patterned pieces of fabric (can you see them?) I used one for the main part of the wave and another for the curling under-part of the wave.

I positioned the wave on my piece of felt, covered it all with a piece of blue organza and stitched around the outside of the wave. Then I sniped around the outside of the stitches to remove the excess organza.. and started doodling :) I covered the raw edges of the organza with tiny swirly movements... indicated movement with lines of stitching... added surf with white cotton thread... tiny little bit of metalic thread for sparkle on top of the wave.

Next I handstitched it to a slightly bigger piece of felt, and added a row of glass seed beeds to the edges of both felt pieces. Pin back sewn on and a scrap of felt to cover the metal bar. For fun I embroidered my initials on the back.. then kicked myself because I could of signed it with machine embroidery! lol..

I'm happy :)

brooch measures 6cm x 4cm (2.5" x 1.5")

So, there you go.. my first freemotion.. mixed media :) adventure with my new foot!

Woolgatherers meeting and challenge #3

2011-07-19T17:42:00.002+01:00

I'm a little late posting this.. been busy as ever! Just over a week ago the Woolgatherers met, at Clares new home (thank you for hosting Clare :) ). We had a lovely morning filled with the usual drooling over fibre.. eating cake.. drinking tea.. (and baby cuddling!)

Sue was unable to join us, and I know that she has felted some flowers for the challenge.. but for now here are the others :)

Challenge #3
' Flowers'

set by Brenda

On the spinning wheel is Clare's challenge piece; thinking laterally about the theme she brought nettle fibre & bamboo fibre to spin.
The beautiful pink flower is Brenda's beaded brooch.
I felted 2 seamless cushions.. which I'm planning to post about soon (guess what - I took process pics :)

Our 4th challenge theme is 'Holidays'. We are set to meet next right in the middle of the holiday season - Fri 5th August .. anybody in the Birmingham, Worcester, Kidderminster area.. if you fancy coming along give me a shout, we would LOVE to meet you!

I made out like a bandit from the meeting.. Clare gave me a big green wool blanket to do 'as I please' with :) Great news for me.. I'm planning to make a woolen coat for myself this winter - and I LIKE green. Brenda has lent me a lovely (and what looks simple) pattern.

Blanket behind. I want to make the short green coat

Brenda has also, very kindly, given me a large microwave oven to do my dyeing in! How great is that?! Its living out in the garage too, so my family will be spared the smell in the house lol.

Funnily enough they don't actually complain about the smell.. possibly because they know I can do MUCH worse things with a microwave :D - like the time I microwaved TRIPE for Jesse (our oldest dog). It wasn't long after we had her & she had been raised on tripe.. I had to ween her off it - the smell made me retch.. and this was the only time I gave her cooked tripe! OMG worst smell I think I've ever come across.. The children were about 5 & 7.. they ran down the garden and wouldnt come back in for 2 hours! Apart from the smell, it was pretty hilarious. To add to the farce, our next door neighbour chose that day to lock himself out and ask to come through our house to climb the fence - I dread to think what he thought - it stunk to high heaven!

And now the kids are just about ready to break up for the summer holidays! I'm felting like a mad woman trying to get as much done as possible this week.. I have a few projects planned for the holidays.

I have been enjoying my new freemotion embroidery foot on the sewing machine :) and have got a thing or 2 to share with you over the next little while.

Experimental Felting #2

2011-07-13T18:07:00.001+01:00

Following on from yesterday, I promised to show you my latest bargain felting tool.. it may not be pretty, but my goodness does it do the job?!

Industrial painters roller tray £4 from B&Q, makes a fantastic alternative to a washerboard!

I have an Ashford wooden washerboard, which I rarely use (the woodgrain swole up on its first use making it far to rough to use without covering it in thick plastic first - a real pain). Glass washerboards cost about £30, so this alternative is a real bargain. The ridged part is at just the right angle, and the paint trough is perfect for dipping the felt in while you work - its a washerboard & mini sink all in one :).

I did find a few snaggy bits around the edge which I flattened by heating them briefly with a lighter flame and pressing flat with the back of a teaspoon.

Back to the nuno scarf..

Once the fibres had migrated through the silk well I added heat, rolled it by hand for a while, then tossed it to get the lovely nuno texturing of the silk chiffon.

Stood on a towel it doesnt slide around while you rub.
I personally prefer it to a washerboard!

Once I was happy with the texture I ran it over my ridged roller-tray to really tighten up the felt.

All finished.
When first laid out this measured 7feet x 45cm.. finished it measures 4.5feet x 20cm

This still took quite a few hours to make with the time spent laying out & finishing by hand (not counting drier time) using the tumble drier to replace most of the rolling made it physically a much easier job. I dont plan to do any more nuno scarves in silk chiffon using this method..simply because I find that wool fibres travel through silk chiffon easily with the normal rolling method, and I like to use as little electricity as possible.

BUT... my second experiment was with synthetic organza which takes forever for the fibres to catch hold of with the traditional rolling. I have to say I was very suprised & thrilled to bits with this experiment; using the tumble drier the fibres worked through synthetic organza faster than they did the silk chiffon!

When it came out of the tumbler I treated my sample piece the same as the scarf above, heat + tossing then rubbing on ridged roller-tray. I was left with a very pretty & sturdy piece of nuno.. that I just HAD to make something from

So, I machine stitched around the flower petals to define them and
turned it into a pretty & ethereal clutch bag

I have been BURSTING for weeks and weeks to do some freemotion embroidery onto my felt. Actually, its been on my 'to do' list for about 3 years now..ever since I first saw Helen Melvins (Fiery Felts) landscapes. I would love to go on a workshop with Helen..hopefully one day..

More recently RosiePink's beautiful wallhangings, and the adventures of many blog friends have rekindled the desire. Just over a month ago I managed to find and order a freemotion foot to fit my machine.. it had to come from Texas USA to the UK, and unfortunately it still hasnt found its way here. The seller is lovely though and has just refunded me. I have now found the same foot in the UK and repurchased it (why couldnt I find it a month ago?!).. hope the postman doesnt lose this one. Until it gets here I am making do with my normal open toe foot for my decorative stitching (my machine missed stitches without a foot).

After making this clutch I was left with a decent sized offcut.. so decided to play some more :)

Normal pin fastner sewn onto the back.
I originally fancied this as a closure for a shawl..

..but it works much better as a companion for the clutch I think.

Next time.. my experiments got even BIGGER :)

TTFN xx

Experimental felting... #1

2011-07-12T15:14:00.001+01:00

I have to confess to being extremely curious! And just being told that something works is not enough for me.. I have to try it myself - cant settle till I have. This has led to some funny situations in the past believe me.. This time my curiosity was piqued by reading about people using a tumble drier as a felting tool. Not something I have ever done before.. The curiosity became unbearable when I heard about it being used to speed up nuno felting!

... you may recall the large nuno shawls that I made earlier in the year - they took, what seemed, an eternity of rolling (many, many hours over 2 days) to get the fibres to migrate through the fabric. I had no plans to felt any more of these shawls, even though I LOVE the way they turned out, because they took so darned long - and near killed my back!

Some experimentation was in order.. so I googled and found this excellent tutorial on Treetops Colour Harmonies website.. and followed it :)

For my first experiment I used silk chiffon to make a nuno scarf - using a lot less wool than I usually do:

Used a piece of the silk chiffon I dyed a couple of weeks ago

Didnt have a clear idea of the design when I started.. it just 'grew'. I got quite carried away and spent 3 or 4 hours in a very zen like state laying out the pattern :) ..only realised how long I had taken because I got hungry - I was 1 1/2 hours late for a meal!

Wetted out with cold soapy water

Decorators plastic layed on top

Edges folded in to 'seal the parcel' and rolled around a damp towel

Dry towel rolled around the outside, then tied up nice and tight.

Then into the tumble drier it went - on a no-heat settling, for 15 minutes. Then, like with normal felting, unroll & straighten, then re-roll from the opposite direction. Back in the tumble drier for another 15 minutes. This was repeated rolling from all 4 sides, though for the final 2 sides I only did 10 minute tumbles - this was plenty.

After all this bumping & tumbling the fibres had migrated through the silk beautifully.. and was ready for heat and throwing - this is the bit that I like.. the magic nuno moment when you get the lovely texture.

I had also prepared a sample sized piece with synthetic organza to see how this behaved & tumbled it at the same time (this only took 3 tumbles!)

I am going to leave it there though for today.. Tomorow I shall show you how it turned out, what became of the synthetic sample piece AND my new bargain must have felting tool!

Hammered copper jewellery..

2011-07-03T09:18:00.000+01:00

Had a nice couple of weeks.. Gary had some time off work and though he did 4 long hard days work at his moms house, we have had some nice days out together while the children were at school. Between time spent with hubby & days at work I havent had any time for felting... I should get a couple of days this week though hopefully..

I have however had time to play around hammering copper! I started tinkering with it because I seem to be getting a touch of arthritis in some of my fingers.. which I absolutely do not want. SO I decided some copper jewellery was called for (I have heard that its good for curing/preventing arthritis).

I used one of the pretty shell buttons that I brought from the Button Lady at WonderWool Wales

Kept it nice and simple & rustic (bit like me lol). It didnt take long for Rachael to ask me to make her a copper bracelet too (no suprises there :). I decided to make a mother & daughter set using another of the pretty shell buttons, and take some photos as I did.

Jewellers pliers & flush cuts, hammer, 'anvil' (any strong smooth steel, mine is an old shoe last), 16 guage copper wire, thinner copper wire (I used the stuff out of electrical cable) & a pretty button

After measuring a length of wire (circumference of wrist plus a little extra for the loop & hook) I bent the loop about an inch from one end. I used a slim pencil to go round.

Bend the neck of the loop back a little so it makes a nice round loop rather than a teardrop.
Holding loop with one set of pliers & the short end with the others, wind the short bit tightly around the longer

Using flush cuts trim off the bit marked by pliers - this is excess anyway.
A quick squeeze with the pliers tucks it in nice and neat

Pop it on the 'anvil' and give it a good hammering.
This strengthens the copper wire - suprising how warm it gets when you beat it.

Check the length - hammering stretches the wire. Used flush cuts to trim it to length (remembering to allow extra to form the hook). I filed the cut edge smooth and beat it again to flare it out a little.

Cut a piece of thinner copper wire - 4 or 5 inches. I hammered just the very centre piece. Then bent it around my pliers so it was the right shape to go through the button.

I twisted it at the back being careful not to damage the button.

Then bent it over the bracelet wire nice and tight & wrapped it around the back of the button again. Used flush cuts to trim the ends, bent the ends in toward the centre of the wire 'nest' up close to the button.

I used my round nose pliers to make a tidy little hook.

Ideally I would of hammered it on a bracelet mandrel, which would make it stronger... but as I dont have one I make do with whats available. I bent the bangle into shape around a small china vase :)

My girlie is very happy with it.. she has just come down the stairs in her PJs (lazy Sunday morning) with it already on.

Progress photos - felting my wave

2011-06-25T18:21:00.000+01:00

I usually get so caught up in my projects that I forget to take progress pics.. I am trying to remember though. And I did take a few as I was laying out the wave panel in my recent cushion cover..

4 merino base layers

You cant tell from this photo (on my moniter you cant anyway!) but the base layers were all a deep Atlantic blue that I had dyed myself. I used Landscape dye for this, now I have always found Landscapes to be very colour-fast - I like them. But I wanted a very deep, dark blue so I used the full amount of dye for the dry-weight of fibre I was using.. to get the deepest colour possible from it. Dont know quite what I did wrong (maybe should of cooked it a little longer?) even though I thought I'd rinsed the fibre well.. when I started felting with HOT water the blue ran!

I liked it just like this..without doing anything else to it at all.

On the surface I used LOADS of white silk for the surf & spindrift; mawata silk hankies & caps, throwsters waste, and some bleeched linen fibres too.

I added a some white merino to the mix too

So, with all this white detail, I started to panic a little when the blue started to run.. Nothing much to do really though at that point but keep going and see how it turns out.

Close up of what had been white surf.
This photo catches the sheen of the silk quite well..

The colour run did lend a blue-hue to the white areas, but it was a happy accident - I really like it. To me it looks like waves do in bright sunshine.. you know when they are sparkling so brightly that it almost hurts to look at them?

I DID forget to take a photo of the finished panel BEFORE trimming and sewing

I trimmed the edges nice and square with my rotary cutter, and added a nice backing fabric with a double row of stitching around the edge.

So, now I really must try to remember to take more pics.. I do have one more recent (& as yet untold) project with lots of pics to share with you later in the week :)

TTFN xx

Going Coastal!

2011-06-23T14:03:00.000+01:00

You an certainly tell that we have been to the seaside! Look at whats happened to my work...

Only had 2 cushion pads when I took this :(

I had been planning to make some seaside inspired cushion covers, a trip to my local fabric shop presented me with the perfect backing fabric for them :)

If I had my dream cottage by the sea I would have things like this there...

I made a mess cutting the back of the first one - my brain was totally out of gear and I forgot to add the seam allowance! Didnt want to waste the fabric though, so I have just finished making them into lavender sachets for my mother-in-law (she mentioned wanting some a few weeks ago). She was born & raised in Cornwall and loves everything that reminds her of the sea, so I think she will be happy with these.

Different picture each side

Fishy keyrings were next on my list. I find it hard thinking of anything 'blokey' to make from felt - I think these fit the bill quite nicely. Pity I didnt get them done in time to go in my shop for Fathers Day! Never mind theres always next year..

These are cut from super chunky Swaledale (spun by Clare) crocheted, I wove blue & green mohair through in places and then fulled in the washing machine. Just right for these, its about 1cm thick and very sturdy.

And finally the yarn that I was spinning from the batts with banana fibre in..

I'm thinking of making myself a beaney hat from this.

Tuesday being the summer solstice we had planned to get up early and climb Clent hill to watch the sunrise.. didnt bother in the end though as it was pouring with rain on the night and promising to be a cloudy sunrise. We got a little bit of sunlight through the day, then the cloud cover came back to hide the sunset. Always feels like we should have a blazing bonfire, with music and dancing (and maybe jacket spuds!) to properly celebrate midsummer like our ancestors did. Something else to do when we get a place with a little land!

Blogger is behaving EXTREMELY strangely lately, dont know if anyone else is experienceing this.. I'm having real trouble commenting on some blogs (which makes me wonde if people have trouble commenting on mine - I know it wouldnt even let me comment here a few weeks ago!). Yesterday it wouldnt let me add any photos to this post, today it has... And now the spacing has gone mental, I hit delete on one line and it deletes from the previous paragraph?! Seriously weird. Hope it resolves soon.

Hope you have a good rest of week & weekend :)

Shearing time..

2011-06-17T10:11:00.001+01:00

I just read this lovely post on one of the blogs that I follow, and really wanted to share it with you.

Jenny Holden keep a small flock of beautiful Shetland sheep, which she raises for their fleeces. I have a real soft spot for Shetland sheep and their fleeces. This post is all about shearing her flock, which she does herself using old fashioned shears (not electric) its a very interesting read. The following link will take you there..

Wandering Gecko

I recon those fleeces would be amazing to work with! My very first raw fleece was a Shetland (from Shetland, brought back by a friend) and was an absolute pleasure to clean, spin and felt with! I LOVE a nice Shetland fleece!

Enjoy xx

Double dyepots on the go!

2011-06-16T17:23:00.003+01:00

Feels like I have been dyeing everything in sight the last couple of days :)

This is just todays dyeing...

Norwegian wool tops & silk chiffon

I had a big wool order a couple of weeks ago, all undyed. So last week I brought an Ashford chemical dye set - 12 colour pots, each one will dye a kilo to full strength.

Yesterday and today have been my first 'go' with them - today I even found a second dyepot so I could get more done. I have 2 kg of Norwegian tops and wanted quite a few strong colours, so I decided to dye up 100g of each colour.. decided not to bother yet with black & brown. They are all strong, clear colours and I think I should manage to get quite a few shades by mixing, and making weaker dyepots too. The only thing I have struggled with is my darned scales! They are playing up and not reliably measuring the tiny quantities I needed. Ashford dont give a teaspoon guide like some of the other dyes I have had (i.e. 1/2 tsp = 5g or whatever). So I resorted to guessing & then weighing the pot to see how much it had gone down. Turns out I'm a pretty good guesser :)

So now I've done 1100g of my Norwegian tops (they look like a super bright rainbow) and 4 meters of silk chiffon, in scarf length pieces. I must admit I'm not keen on the smell though - glad I have finished for now!

I've just had a big order of sari silk fibres & silk scraps for my Folksy shop. I quite enjoyed getting them sorted, weighed and packed over the weekend - Monday I got them into my shop. its nice seeing them all in there, they look pretty :)

Unfortunately the photo doesnt do justice,

they looked so bright and pretty all lined up like this

I have also had my carder and spinning wheel out to play! Carded up this batt with lots of banana silk fibre in it so I could take an example photo for the listing..

Sunrise? or sunset?
cant quite decide which it reminds me of most..

ANd now I'm spinning it in bits and dabs, whenever I get 5 minutes of quiet time I spin a little more..

And now another week is almost over... another weekend nearly here - where does the time go?!

Summer bag & purse

2011-06-14T14:28:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post.. time is getting away from me again, can't believe its been a week since I posted our holiday pic!

Thought I'd tell you about my new bag.. I made it a couple of weeks ago actually, it came away with me and was very well used :)

For summer adventures I like a backpack type bag, to keep my hands free for whatever; scrambling over rockpools, helping kids and/or dogs.. you know how it is as a mom! My trusty denim backpack (which I've used for about 8 years!) finally gave out a few weeks ago. So I decided to make myself one..

Of course it HAD to be felt.. in 2 of my favourite coloured fibres.. with shiny, colourful decorative bits, and I decided to add some pretty cotton fabric my mom gave me too.

I love these buttons for some reason...

I did take photos as I was making it but somehow managed to lose them!

Basically I made a pretty long seamless bag, which was wider at one end (this is the bottom). I'd used merino, so I felted it as hard as it would go - shrunk at least 40% & its lovely and pebbly now. After cutting the flap I set aside the spare bit of felt till later. I used pins and steam to set the folds in the sides.

The straps are sewn from the pretty cotton fabric, machine stitched into place. I later hand stitched squares of felt over the top to look prettier & add a little more reinforcement to the area where the straps join the bag.

I wanted this bag to have a drawstring closure too, so out came the lucet..

Use thick blue crochet cotton to lucet a long cord.
The nice thing with lucetted cord, it doesnt fray when you cut it to length.

I sewed a sleeve of cotton the same width as the bag top, with a channel running along the top for the cord to pass through - and stitched this into the bag an inch or so from the top. I handstitched the closure loop in place then machined stitched the flap lining into placed, going over the loop as I did.

Unfortunately I did all three things without sitting back and just looking and evaluating what I'd done. I sewed the sleeve in place the WRONG way round! The back of the fabric is showing. At the point when I noticed, too much would have to of been unpicked to take it off and turn it.. so for now I'm ignoring it. I may try adding a piece of the pretty fabric over the white bit - well maybe, if I feel like it..

Luckily this bag is for me.. so I can ignore my mistake if I want to

The swirly pattern is made from the lovely bright pencil roving brought at Wonderwool,
there is loads of sari silk fibre too

I wanted a robust and functional purse, so decided to sew the zip into a cotton liner, then machine stitch the felt on. I just love using this purse :) it feels nice in my hand.

The blue button is one that my lovely husband picked up off the floor when he was out walking - he knows that I have a thing for buttons & brought it home for me :)

Anyway, I'm off to make a cup of tea and find some lunch - just got back from work & I'm feeling pretty ravenous!

TTFN xx

A week of family fun...

2011-06-07T17:10:00.003+01:00

As hoped last week was great! We decided to weather-watch and go camping when the weather promised to be fine.. Late Monday afternoon we made the decision to go; spent a few manic hours collecting camping gear from various nooks & crannies, packing and preparing - Tuesday morning we were on the road bright and early.

We took a bit of a gamble and set out with no campsite booked, only to find that everyman and his dog had decided to go camping in Cornwall that week lol. We still had no real trouble finding a good place to stay, it just meant we were not as close to a beach as we like. Regardless of this we had a really fun break... We were based just outside St.Agnes, on the coastal path right by an old tin mine..

Along the coastal path heading back to our campsite (which was behind the tin mine)

This is Wheel Coates tin mine, partially restored and very beautiful, perched on the slope heading down toward cliffs.

Just look at how TALL it is! This doorway was already about 20feet up.

Lots of hidey holes and tiny gaps to squeeze through exploring

It was worth the squeeze and climb for this view though!

Thought this was quite interesting. We saw lots of the medieval workings - you certainly wouldnt walk across the heather where you cant see whats beneath it!

We had 3 wildlife encounters - 2 of which were quite unexpected!

We came across a beautiful little adder (snake) basking in the sun on the coastal path just about 300 yards past the tin mine. Didnt have my camera to hand unfortunately, he was so pretty; about 18" long, shiny and with a clearly marked black zig-zag/diamond pattern down his back. He gently wove his way into the undergrowth when we got to within a couple of feet from him, didnt seem all that bothered about us - it was lovely. A lizard ran across a few minutes later but only Matt saw him (he was leading the way)... shows how quiet that stretch of coast is for them to be out in the open, they are usually pretty shy.
.
While brushing my teeth ready for bed on the first night I had a bit of a fright (nearly swallowed my toothbrush!!) when a bat crash landed in the sink I was using! He must of chased a moth in through an open skylight. Fortunately he found his way back out very quickly.
.

Our biggest wildlife treat however was planned. We took a boat trip out of St.Ives to seal island and saw the seals lazing on the rocks there.. there were snowy white babies too :)

This is the boat we went on.. the Dolly Pentreath. Shes a replica of a traditional St.Ives fishing boat.

We had such fun see-sawing over the waves on the way out - it made my heart soar I LOVE it! Rachael was less enthusiastic ("why is it moving so much?!" followed by lots of girly squeels) and turns out Amber is no sea-dog! She would not settle till she was on Garys lap. Though in fairness she was getting bounced around pretty well.. Jess had the good sense to lay down & go to sleep behind my feet.

Big baby!

It was funny watching them lift their heads & tails everytime a wave came along to keep them out of the water

Lying there like a sausage :)

We had a couple of lovely days on the beaches..

Thats my little man in the sand dunes - he didnt stay still long enough to get a closer picture!

We visited Gwithian beach, Hayle for the first time - and what a beautiful beach it is! You walk over lovely big sand dunes to get on the beach, which is 3 miles of soft golden sand, crashing Atlantic surf and dogs are allowed on all year round. Its lovely and clean too - we will definately be going back there. Infact we spotted a campsite nestled right at the foot of the dunes that we shall investigate further.

Favourite days!
I think they were pulling faces at me, but Im not really sure :)

And now life is back to normal.. kids at school, husband at work. Yesterday was spent weighing fibre & dyeing, with a little bit of felting to finish off. Today I was at Oak House (doing living history) taking on a role I rarely do; Mistress Jane - the la-di-daa lady of the house - a role I find rather tiring if Im honest. Livened it up though with 1/4 of an hour of dancing to finish off.

Lots of felty plans for the rest of the week.

Felt and Materials

2011-05-27T17:12:00.001+01:00

More recent felt to share :) Couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I have been asked to send some shawls upto Woolfest with Classic Carders (for their display & for sale). I had a grand old time carding up lots of yummy batts on their newly teaked design Jumbo Carder. Here are 2 shawls made from them. These shawls are a little heavier than most of my shawls.. really snuggly & warm. I made beaten copper wire pins to go with them, using a couple of pretty beads salvaged from broken necklaces... my mom gave me a pot of them for Christmas :) They are coming in very useful.

Used my favourite aubergene pure silk velvet (strips torn from it anyway) for the sirface design

Lots of silk in this one. I pulled a silk cap into roving and used it to 'draw' on one side. Used some pretty green BFL locks too for texture

Had an unfortunate incident with this green one. For what is now the inside I had planned a swirl of silk leaves blowing across... all was going well; I had cut lots of lovely leaf shapes from a dyed silk cap and scattered them across the laid out shawl. Unfortunately my brain must of gone to sleep while I did this 'cos I laid them down BEFORE wetting the merino, of course when I sprinkled water over it most of them distored out of shape. The leaves were so delicate that there was no chance of lifting them and pulling back into shape. So now the inside just has an abstract silk pattern in it... which is fine it still looks nice enough.

I do learn from my mistakes though.. I made a little summer scarf from a pretty blue batt (with masses of silk in) I peeled extremely thin layers and laid in on white silk chiffon.. then cut some silk fish shapes. And remembered to wet out before putting them in place :)

Silk fish swimming upstream

I loved using this silk chiffon, it felted in SO easily. The picture on the top right of the collage shows the silk side. I decided to dye a load and offer it in my Folksy shop in scarf length pieces - scarf length for nuno felting that is - 2 meters long by about 45cm. I had a peacock blue dye bath going earlier this week, after I'd dyed everything that I intended to there was still quite a bit of dye left in the pot - so I dropped in a scarf length to exhaust the bath. Its turned out a really delicate light peacock blue..

dyed silk chiffon for nuno felting

Today I placed a 10kg wholesale fibre order that I am planning to dye up. I'll be keeping some for my own stash, but lots will be finding its way into my shop. The only thing I havent figured out yet is just where all of this extra fibre is going to live...lol

The kids broke up for half term today (off again already?!) so there shant be much work going on here next week! Gary has next week off too - I'm looking forward to some nice family time, lets hope the sun shines and it doesnt rain.

Hope you have a good bank holiday weekend whatever you are planning

Better late than never :)

2011-05-26T14:12:00.001+01:00

Not many words today, just wanted to start sharing some pics. I have finally taken photos of the nuno shawls made back in February..

Back view. I dyed the silks used in this (cheated and brought the merino though)

Front view (all squashed together) You can just see the Indian chiffon pashmina I felted onto, its a shimmery chiffon & it looks really pretty the way it catches the light on all of the wrinkles and nobbles.

Do you remember the dyepot goodies back in February?

Here they are

Well you can finally see what I did with them :)

This is a keeper :) My new summer shawl

I like the stripes on the inside. I guess this must of been a silk blend shawl, as the dye didnt take to the white bits but took beautifully to the rest.

I actually really like both of these shawls. Im trying to be firm with myself and put the pink on in my shop... I keep putting it off cos I like it. I did find these very hard work, Im not sure if it was the fabric, maybe too densley woven? Or maybe just due to their size. I spent hours and hours - worked on each one over 3 days.

I have just purchased a beautiful silk chiffon sari in pinks & burgundy.. trying to decide what to make with it - another shawl? Some scarves? Or a dress (slightly more daunting prospect there as I have not made one before!)

Woolgatherers Challenge #2

2011-05-23T19:22:00.001+01:00

Vintage Button and Beads

Set by me

All 3 pieces

Brenda Marshall

This lovely, tactile piece features of an old enamelled brooch pin depicting the Virgin Mary. Brenda incorporated it with some beading on felted fibres.

Clare Atfield

Clare brought some sweet little plastic owl beads from the 70s that she planned to use for this challenge but with a new baby to look after didnt get chance to work on her project. Instead she crocheted with wire & gemstones this retro inspired bracelet.

Mine

I pulled one of the silk caps I dyed recently into a very thin roving & crocheted this simple choker. Button & beads have been rattling round in my stash for yonks - its good to use them on something :)

Next challenge: Flowers

Crafts with Purpose

2011-05-20T16:48:00.005+01:00

Woolgatherers

Operation Bunny Drop

As promised here are photos of the Woolgathering girls bunnies :) I snapped them at our last meeting.

by Brenda Marshall

Two lovely felted bunnies :) with soft velvety fabric inners to their ears - very cuddleable (am I inventing words?)

by Sue Longley

Sue knitted the lilac bunny, he is SOoo soft and squishy, definately made for hugs. I love this little fella, Sue recycled a felted jumper to sew him - he is just the right size for little hands to hold.

Clare Atfield
Better late than never :)
(Only late on here, not late being sent)

LOVE him!! So simple and well shaped. Clare sent 2 of these bunns, and also got the knitting group she goes to involved making more - brilliant.

I think they will all be well loved.

Checking the Crafts with Purpose Facebook page, as of yesterday 365 bunnies had arrived safely & there are lots more on their way. One lady even managed to make 50 - what a generous soul, lovely. Hope they reach their target..

My bunny has arrived safely. I did only manage to make the one, I'd hoped to make 2 but just didnt get round to it...feel a bit bad about that really.

Woolgatherers Challenge #1

2011-05-18T13:24:00.000+01:00

Tiny Frames

Challenge set by Sue ~ who also kindly provided the frames.

Sue is still working on her piece so unfortunately its not featured here

These frames are so pretty, and SO tiny! The area where the picture goes measures just 15mm x 13mm.

Brenda Marshall

This stunning little landscape is made from embroidery threads. Fantastic!

Clare Atfield

E is for Evie - Clares beautiful baby girl. Patiently knitted on super skinny needles :)

Mine

I embroidered the hand on a scrap of felt. The ribbon is frayed bias cut silk, handpainted. All the symbols on the frame are often associated with Goddesses.. so I stuck with the theme :)

Next time: Vintage beads & buttons

xx

I'm Baaaaack!

2011-05-16T12:29:00.000+01:00

YAY! I have a computer that wants to play nice with me :) It has a nice new hard-drive so hopefully should be fine now (really, really hope so!)

Last week was veeery strange, I got lots of felting done :) but it was very odd being offline for so long. Time to catchup now and I've got LOADs to tell you about.

The Woolgatherers had our third meeting - a truly lovely morning. I shall be posting seperately about our challanges later in the week; I have 2 to tell you about - #1 tiny frames, #2 vintage buttons & beads. I shall also post seperately about the gorgeous bunnies the girls made for Operation Bunny Drop.

I had a wonderful and touching suprise... Suzie Q presented me with this beautiful little seamless bag that she made for me - as a thank you for starting the Woolgatherers. I cant express how lovely this is.. Sue is quite a new felter and she has done a stunning job with this - she's so sweet and generous. I put my make-up and perfume in there & took it away this weekend to Dorset.

My favourite colour combo :)

Love this lining!

I didnt even spot this detail straight away! So sweet

Sue had a good hour or so of baby-cuddling - Clare brought Evie along with her. Brenda has booked baby for next time lol.

What else has been happening...?

Well, I still owe you pictures of the orange bag (not to mention the nuno shawls from February; note to self - photograph them!!). This bag is a little smaller than the red & blue one, but still roomy

Seamless bag with internal pocket. Icelandic wool.
Hard colours to photograph!

I had a request from a lady who has one of my Moongazing Hare doorstops, for a mate! The family feel that their Moongazing Mama Hare is lonely and needs a Papa Hare to keep her company - which I think is adorable.

Papa Hare dallying with my Moongazing Hare
... shhh dont tell Mama Hare

He is bigger, heavier and likes to stand in the shadows more than Mama, so he has more dark bits on him (for shadow). He has big masculine ears- he often flings one across his shoulder to hang jauntily down near its fellow.

I have done some spinning! I need to spin a stash of funky yarns to add to my felt. I've moved my spinning wheel downstairs with the intention of spinning a small skein whenever I get chance. So far Ive only done 2 skeins in the same fibres (1st one wasnt bumpy enough!) but its a start..

At Wonderwool, I was very interested to see Alison of Pure Tinctoria demonstrating an all-in-one method of dyeing useing her natural dye extracts, alum & creme-of-tarter. I just happened to have some at home - I havent used them much; taking the time to wet fibres out properly (24hours!) then mordant them THEN finally dye them is just too much for my limited patience. But this sounded much more do-able. The colours are aparently less strong than when mordanting & dyeing seperately, but look what I got from my first dye pot..

Dyed with Pure Tinctoria - Purple Lac dye extract

I had a bit of everything in this pot :) BFL locks, Norwegian top, tussah silk top, throwsters waste silk, silk caps and silk fabric. I was thrilled to bits with this lot & shall be experimenting with other dyes soon.

I have also done lots of carding. Paul at Classic Carders asked me to try out his new style jumbo carder compared to the one I already have (you may remember I brought his very first Jumbo carder). My original works well - but this one is wonderful! It cards beautifully, and Paul has developed a very user friendly slicker brush attachment - that I really like. I forgot to take pics of the batts before I started felting with them - but heres the carders

Classic Carders - gorgeous solid wood & so well made

Paul & Mandy also asked me to send some of the shawls I've felted from batts made on their carders to brighten up their stall at Woolfest in June - which is wonderful for me! The shawls will be for sale, though I dont think they will want to part with them until the end of the show - I can always post them on later if someone cant wait around till then. Must admit I feel really quite honoured to be asked. So if you are at Woolfest & see shawls displayed on the Classic Carders stand - they're mine :)

And thats probably about it really.. I felted 2 shawls & 2 scarves last week which I am yet to photograph - I'm about to make the pins to go with the shawls - I shall photograph all together. And I made my piece for the Woolgatherers next challenge, which Brenda set - FLOWERS.

Well, I'm off to find some food

Ongoing computer woes :(

2011-05-05T13:20:00.000+01:00

Just a quicky.. My computer is pretty much fried! Its been getting worse and worse (and I optomistically thought I had sorted it a week ago - fool!) luckily its still under warrenty and they have finally agreed to take it away and repair it. I am now computerless for the next week, maybe a little more or less.. Im at my parents house making good use of a fast and functional pc to put things in order for a week away.

So, whatever you are doing in the meantime - have fun & I shall hopefully be back with a bang soon :)

TTNF xxx

Frustration...

2011-04-23T15:16:00.000+01:00

Has been rife this past couple of weeks.

My biggest and still ongoing problem has been the computer! I could happily throw it out of a window!

I've restored it to factory settings twice in a three week period - and have to do it all over again. The security updates windows send seem to be conflicting with something and corrupting it so badly that it becomes unusable. Problem is even though I had turned automatic updates off... they still try to get onto my computer & leave it useless. AAARGH!!! Do not buy a Samsung computer folks - this is still under warrenty and they don't seem to think this is unacceptable the best advice I can get from them is 'restore to factory settings' which of course means the hassle of reinstalling my security software... which I cant do until I have put Live Mail back on & set up my email addresses so that I can receive the email from my security provider with a key to reinstal. Oh I did get some other advice from them, one bright spark advised me to 'just ignore it' - what?!

This last time I lost my address book with all my email contacts on - so anybody that I'm in direct email contact with usually, could you get in touch so I have you address again please?

Second biggest frustration was the crochet jacket. Rachael was quite poorly for the first week and a bit of the school holidays so I did a lot of crochet while keeping her company - I finished it and it looked really pretty..

Unfortunately it looked absolutely dreadful when worn! It was waaay too big. The pattern was a freebie from Garnstudio; the wool was the right weight, hook was right, I did a tension swatch and everything was good to go. Unfortunately the pattern was pretty badly written, it was supposed to be in British English but wasnt (stitch terms are different) and it gave conflicting instruction at times. There was no size guide so I made a medium - its been YEARS since I'd of classed myself as small! And it absolutely buried me... so, very disappointedly I have unpicked it. My lovely hanks are now in small balls, and the tiny bits I am using to crochet flowers. I was so pleased to of actually managed to stick to and complete a whole garment.. you know how impatient I am. Never mind - I must find a better pattern and make something else with it now.

On a more positive note I finished my bunny!

He is 10" tall, so a nice size for cuddling

got lots of BFL locks felted in for texture

I like his big chocolatey nose and ears :) If I get chance I'm going to do a very different bunny in lots of bright colours to go with him... depends if I get time before I have to post him.

And the weather has been stunning this past couple of weeks! We almost headed to the coast with our tent for this weekend.. the weather forecast wasnt looking so good though so we stayed home. Now they have changed their minds and predict that it will be lovely - sods law! oh well, theres plenty to keep us occupied here :)

Have a wonderful long Easter weekend everybody - whatever your plans

I know I'm naughty but...

2011-04-12T15:20:00.000+01:00

my lovely new yarn kept calling to me and I just HAD to start crocheting it :)

But what is it going to be....?

Crochets like a dream, and it is SOooo soft and snuggly

Just look at the pretty colours... yum. Wish I'd brought the whole basket full now lol

xxx

Journey into the unknown...

2011-04-11T16:21:00.000+01:00

ooo the suspense... what goodies are in there?

Saturday night I must of woken up 5 times, I was so excited to be visiting Wonderwool Wales the next day. For anyone who doesnt know, Wonderwool is a HUGE 2 day event featuring all things WOOLY. After 3 years of not going for one reason or another I was looking forward to it. Didnt really know what to expect; would it be horrendously crowded? I dont like crowds at all... but the lure of all the wooly goodness drew me on anyway. Would Gary and the kids find it interesting.. or be bored stiff? My lovely hubby suggested we all go as a family daytrip.. I did worry a little that they may regret that.

Well we set out bright and early with a nice picnic lunch packed in the boot. The weather was amazing and driving through the beautiful countryside (often with fields of sheep and tiny lambs) was extremely pleasant. Took a couple of hours... but it was such a nice drive it passed quickly.

I was very pleasantly suprised when we got there. The halls were so spacious that it didnt feel crowded - there was plenty of room to walk around and breathe! And there was so much to see! I wanted to look around first THEN go round and buy what I wanted (incase I spent all my pocket money only to find something I wanted even more :) It took me 4 hours just to get round everything and then I was running round like a mad woman trying to remember where all the stalls were that I wanted to go back to.

Rachael enjoyed nosing around all of the pretty things.. she inevitably wanted something off each one - got fed up of saying "no".

She even made a friend :)

Gary & Matthew even found a few 'blokes' to talk to about man-ish things. We had a really nice day (well mine was GREAT, theirs was good :) I got to meet & chat with lots of lovely people; some that I only know online, others that I dont see very often, and I bumped into Sue (a fellow Woolgatherer) and her parents.

The journey home was unfortunately very fraught. First we ended up stuck behind a circus on the move - traveling at half the speed limit for the road, which was mostly single lane & unsuitable for overtaking. We were behind them for about 20 miles which added a good hour to the journey. Couple of miles after finally passing the circus the car directly in front of us hit a motorcyclist - absolutely terrifying! Thank God he seemed to not be badly injured - banged & bruised and a broken wrist. It was one of those awful slow motion moments when you know what is about to happen - you can see it coming - but cant stop it..

So yeah that shook us up a bit..

Anyway, back to something pleasant, my wooly hawl :)

All tipped out

Lots of naturally dyed skeins of BlueFaced Leicester yarn from Alison at Pure Tinctoria

Pretty pencil rovings

Wooden and shell buttons

TOPS: Mauve Falkland wool & black alpaca

I have come back feeling all fired up and inspired.. As the children are home for their Easter hols I may get some spinning and crochet done (once I have sewn and finished off my rabbit & bag!) over the next couple of weeks. Might indulge in some child labour and get the kids carding batts for me lol.

We are hoping to get some visiting and days trips in too - although Rachael has come down with tonsilitis and a cold this morning so I think we shall have to take it easy for a few days first.

Lace, Woolgathering and exciting weekend plans

2011-04-09T12:08:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the 2nd Woolgatherers tea morning.. and a lovely morning it was too! Brenda brought me a suprise pressie :) which was very kind and really amused me. While shopping in Stroud she came across this and thought of me

Gift wrapping paper made from sheep poo

A bit gross.. but totally tickles my funny bones. Bless her, she carried it carefully around the town for the rest of the shopping trip, and stored it carefully to avoid creases :) I have to think of something 'interesting' to do with it now. I'm thinking along the lines of using it as a backdrop for a piece.. maybe. Any suggestions will be welcome :)

I'm not going to report back on the tiny frame challenge as Sue, who set the challenge & provided the frames, was unable to join us. Next time we meet I shall take photos and post them, in fact there will be 2 challenges to report on then. This months challenge is 'vintage buttons and beads' - we can make whatever we like - so long as it features vintage button/s and/or beads...

Wednesday and Thursday I played around with lace. In Fabulous Felted Scarves by Chad Alice Hagen & Jorie Johnson there is a bridal wrap made from lace and strips of merino fibre sort of woven and then felted. I didnt want to make the wrap project in the book, but the idea really appealed. SO, when I got my hands on a shoe box full of vintage lace (my aunty kept it from clearing her parent-in-laws house after they died) I decided to play.

Laying out. I lightly veiled the edges of the lace on both sides.
There are 3 perpendicular layers of fibre on each of the felt strips

I cut one of nans vintage chiffon scarves in half diagonally & added that as the focal point in the middle of the back. Threw a sprinke of white firestar in between the merino and chiffon for a little glitz.

Felted & finished and modeled by Rachael - who is too small for it really bless her.
Will get better photos in the week.

My bunny that will be going to Japan is still unfinished, as is the orange bag.. but as the kids have just broke up for the Easter holidays (which means no felting for a couple of weeks!) I can get on with them this week hopefully.

So whats the exciting weekend I have planned? We are going to Wonderwool Wales tomorow! This is the third year that I have wanted to go.. and I'm going YAY. We are heading off for a family day out.. hope the others enjoy it as much as I am sure to!

I'm off to enjoy the spectacularly sunshine - its been gorgeous the last couple of days; summer clothing weather!

Whatever you are doing this weekend - enjoy xx

Crafts with Purpose: Operation Bunny Drop

2011-04-06T09:57:00.000+01:00

I received a newsletter from Living Felt a few days ago, (Living Felt are the organisers of Peacefelt). They are currently organising something called Operation Bunny Drop follow this link for full details, here is an extract:

We will be crafting soft and simple bunnies for children in Japan who are recovering from the effects of the recent natural disastors, many displaced and all needing LOVE and HOPE.

This beautiful and inspired project was brought to us by Liz Minnick, a fiber friend currently in Japan. Liz is in Japan work with youth through a professional circus group. Liz and friends will deliver the hand-crafted bunnies in late May of 2011

If you are interested in taking part, you need to register on their Facebook page (theres a link on the Crafts with Purpose page Ive linked to above). The deadline for sending bunnies is 13th May 2011.

Yesterday I felted a bunny... he is still drying out. I adapted the moongazing hare resist, making it chubbier and with shorter wider ears.

Drying out on the radiator

These are the resists used.

I used merino for him in cream & chocolate brown for his himalayan type markings, and BFL locks for their bubbly texture. Well felted and pebbly he is soooo soft.. I'm hoping that he may bring a little comfort and love where it is so needed.

More to follow when he is finished. If I have time I'm thinking of making a brightly coloured one too.
xx

Featured maker

2011-04-04T12:45:00.000+01:00

I'm a featured maker on Tracy Markey's blog today :) If anyone fancies taking a look. It was lovely to be asked, I did feel rather self conscious though talking about myself so much..

Tracy features a different maker each week on her blog, always interesting... I was pretty amazed and chuffed to bits at being asked - thank you Tracy :)

Inspiration musings.. and outcome

2011-04-01T13:32:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I find that I have the beginnings of a design... that flutter elusively through my mind. I find myself moving on and doing lots of other things with that one little flutterby still dancing in my subconscious. Until something happens; I go somewhere or see something that strikes like lightening and I KNOW what I am going to do next.

For quite sometime (probably about a year!) I have been thinking about cave paintings, petroglyphs & ancient stone carvings... there is something so real, and familiar, and tangible about them. How to bring them into my felt though....? Which images...? I wanted them to mean something to me, to be personally significant - as the cave-painting & petroglyph depictions were to their artists.

Firstly I was thinking of handprints.. Actually I have been thinking of doing a piece of family art with all of our handprints on for several years now (so I guess the flutterby was there longer than I realised :) a touchable memory - more physical and 'real' than a photo. This project is still tumbling back and forth in my mind - it will get out soon though I think :)

New and prized additions to my book shelf

I was absolutely delighted when I received my newest felt book Nomadic Felts - Artistic Traditions in World Cultures by Stephanie Bunn. WOW what a book! It really is a visual feast; the photography is excellent, the felts shown incredible. The book looks at nomadic cultures and their feltmaking pasts and present, with really interesting photos and insights to nomadic feltmaking. It has a section on pattern meaning and belief (which I havent fully read yet!) I am about a third of the way through the book at the moment and I'm sure I will be posting about it again when I have read through. As soon as I unwrapped it, before starting to read I flicked through pretty much drooling over the photos. When I got to the 'Meaning and Belief' section I was jumping with joy..

There is a photo of a petroglyph in Kyrgystan of sheep! It is dated second millenium BC/early AD - my heart leapt, this was it! Being a felter - sheep are fundamentally important to me (and as you know I simply adore the funny beasties :) I like the simplicity of the image.. and thought it would translate well into felt. And so.. I made some nice big tote bags, with a useful pocket felted inside

This is the 1st I made. Icelandic wool, with merino for the sheep & a nice slubby woolen yarn squiggled on and felted in.

This is my bag and I want to keep it nice and long, as I can fit lots in there.. but I shall need to strengthen the handle area. It is strong but it folds a little when the contents are (?too) weighty.

2nd bag.. I put more sheep on this one and made it a little longer so I could cut the top section off, and use that to double up the handle area - its really sturdy now

3 sheep on the other side.

Hope they show up ok..I used highly saturated colours and they are a bit tricky (to say the least) to photograph.

I am working on an orange and gold bag now.. I felted it yesterday, its dry now and ready for me to cut and sew the handles when I get an hour or so.

The other book in the photograph is the Orchard Book of Shakespears Stories.. a childrens book that I spotted in Waterstones a couple of months ago. The illustrations are beautiful! Rachael has been studying Shakespear (A Midsummer Nights Dream) and I thought this would be a nice introduction to more of his work - its easier going for a 12 year old to read, and hopefully discover Shakespears magic. I was absolutely stunned to find this book on Amazon 'nearly new' for 24p plus a low postage cost! I had almost brought it at the RRP... so I snapped this one up. When it arrived it was in pristine condition, you can even smell the new ink! Dont you just love getting a bargain :)

OK, time to go get some work done. Have a wonderful weekend xx

Q~ What did I get upto last week...?

2011-03-28T17:21:00.000+01:00

A~ Lots of felting!

I had a week with no work interuptions - so I felted my days away very happily. Im not going to bombard you with photos of everything in this one post.. I'm planning to trickle them out over the next few days :)

My first projects of the week were critters! I felted a 2nd moongazing hare doorstopper... she was made on Monday. The lady who first suggested penguins to me, after seeing my penguin doorstop post she requested a mommy penguin doorstop and cuddly baby penguin - as a gift for her daughter. And so, the penguin family grew..

I actually remembered to take a couple of photos as I went along this time! So heres a bit about how I made them :)

Covering the penguin shaped resist with merino fibre

I put a layer of dark charcoal merino down for the first layer of the body, then a nice soft grey for the next 2 layers.. the way the charcoal mottles through the grey looks like baby is starting to get his adult feathers..

Flippers felted over flipper-shaped resists, and added to the body in between the 2nd & 3rd layers of merino. Plastic stops the flipper felting right into the body

Once the felt was holding together I made small cuts inside the flipper (up in the 'armpit' angled down the flipper) and carefully removed the flipper resists, stitched the slits up and carried on felting. When the felt was sturdy enough to remove the main body resist I also removed the stitching from the flippers (the slits having felted closed). Carried on fulling the felt till it wouldnt go anymore, after rinsing & pushing/pulling it into shape the penguin dries on top of a radiator.

Once dry he was stuffed with polyfibre. I sewed a sort of teardrop shaped pouch from this lovely blue wave-like cotton, with wadding in the middle. Some rice on the inner-body side for weight, then handstitched in place.. et voila - complète!

I now have a whole family of penguins :) Mom, dad & baby...

Mom, dad are both doorstops & baby is a cuddly with a beany bum for stability

The baby is so soft and snuggly; he is well felted from merino. You cant see too well in the photo but he has that nice pebbly texture.

Momma is felted from the same fibres as daddy penguin & has the same feathery texture from the Norwegian fibres coming through the merino.

Next post.. new bag design & a great new book!