This week I decided to try a new style of hat. As it’s the first one and I don’t know if it will work I am making it fairly plain.
To save time I started with a template I already had. I traced around it so I would have the nice round part in the right size all ready to add the new part.
This is the final shape.
Next, I added some silk from silk hankies. The hankies are gray and pink. I stretched the hankies out long so I could wrap them around. They are hard to see, you can see them sticking out the sides.
After I wrapped the first side around, I added another hanky going the other way as well.
Here is how it looks with the first side of wool wrapped around.
And lastly where I had to stop. On the outside of the hat, I added more of the gray and pink hankies. They are very hard to see, on the wet felt they pretty much disappear. I am hoping the pink and gray on the light gray wool will make it shine nicely. It is a very conservative hat but this is a government town so that would work ok.
And here are some of the reasons I haven’t got back to it yet.
The red light is a heat lamp. It has moved to another pen now. They just needed it the first night as it was very cold. These 2 moms and babies are not much trouble but these three below take a lot more work. It is not a great picture but to get a picture of them not moving, standing in front of one another or showing the camera their tails is quite difficult.
After more than two years, I am finally completing my Level 3 Art and Design course at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center. We are having an exhibition to show our class work, sketch books and finished pieces of art work. The exhibition will be on Saturday, March 23 and Sunday, March 24 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at the new center at 503 Morris Street in La Conner, Washington USA. You are cordially invited! I know that many of you that read this blog aren’t even in the US, but if you are in the La Conner area, I would love for you to stop by, check out my efforts from the last two years and say hello.
I haven’t shown all of my work for this class here as it isn’t felt or fiber related but I thought I would show you a bit of what I have created in this class.
I have tried various techniques and what will come as no surprise to regular readers, I have emphasized trees and the woodlands as my inspiration.
It’s been a lot of work but I have really enjoyed the journey.
If you have the chance to further your education in the arts, I would highly recommend it. I love learning!
If you would like to know more about each of these pieces, you can read my posts over on my personal art blog Permutations in Fiber. You will just need to scroll back through the last two years 🙂
The exhibition will also feature the art and class work of my three fellow class mates and their work is so different than mine. I will see if I can take a video of the work on display and show it to you after the exhibition.
I have many sketch books and boxes of work, it’s really hard to show the scope of everything in one post.
This is the biggest piece I created. Framed, it is 30″ x 30″. All the paper started as white rice paper which I painted and cut out individual leaves. This one took a “bit” of time.
But I hope you have enjoyed a few examples of the work I have created for this class. So please, spread the word if you would, about our exhibition. I would love for you to come if you’re in the area.
2018 was a big year for workshops for both myself and my husband. He finally got time off in the summer coinciding with the Blacksmithing conference he has wanted to attend for more than 10 years. Even better it was finally a drivable distance! I think he was feeling guilty because after many years of not traveling we take a big trip and it’s to go to a conference for him. From Ottawa, Canada our ultimate destination was just north of Richmond Virginia. But first; Via Landsdown fiber festival (for Jan),
Kingston Spining guild and flax wheel for sale
Flax wheel gose on a vacation with my roadbug travel wheel and the camera. Shouldnt everyone take 2 wheels when going blacksmithing?
then cross the border and head to the steam train museum in Scranton Pen.(for Glenn)
Blast Furnnice at Scranton
Interesting bits of train i wonder if i could make that in felt?
textural train bit
This one makes me think of Ann i wonder why?
Oooh colours!!!maybe silk and dyed blue faced lester?
this was a cool shot lots of wimon working in the silk company in 1929
the thinkg you see when you are visiting the states
this was a cool dispaly in the same rest stop
Turn west and drive, the next day reaching the Woollery in Kentucky (for Jan)
I also discovered that although the distance from Scranton Pennsylvania to the part of Kentucky I wanted to see was not that great a distance on the map. The diagonal lines crossing the highway on that map were not some decorative feature but small mountains. With lots of tippy truck signs!! I had not realized it was such a big problem for trucks in the states.
the Woolery!!
Felting suplys
Fleting Fiber
Felting macheen
Felting tools
Felting Tools Rollers
The Woolery had a lot of felting tools, rollers, abrasion boards with nobbly surfaces, felting needles, needle holders, and lots of fibre. They also had wheels, looms, yarn, fibre prep and a comfy chair in the corner to leave husbands while you shopped. It was sort of like reaching Mecca!
Glenn in Husband Area
Great Restrain in Shopping
(Pic of Glenn in husband corner and Great restraint in Shopping)
While at the conference I found out there were non-blacksmithing classes for those with badges that said “Spouse of (insert name of blacksmith)”. There were a couple of painting classes, a broom making class, one on repousse for non blacksmith, leather work and 3 basketry classes. Yes I made 2 baskets and a hearth broom and had a blast. I also did a lot of spinning in the air conditioned comfort while the blacksmiths were outside in the summers most extreme heat wave with multiple forges going. What were they thinking? When they could have been cool inside having fun making brooms, baskets, spinning and felting!
BasketryWorkshop Samples
Broom Makeing Workshop
My Basket
Happily Weaving My Basket
When we got back to Ottawa we discovered there were going to be interesting felting workshops at Twist (a big fibre festival in Quebec). One was 3 days long on sculptural felting with Marjolein Dallinga , (i promise i will tell you about that one eventually) and the second was on pet portraiture, with Megan Cleland which was also lots of fun. You have already seen the fox I was working on in the second workshop. There was one more workshop in 2018 and I would like to tell you about that one. ( It took me a while but i finally got to the point to this post.)
3 day Sculptural Felting with Marjolein Dallinga
One of My Two Sculptural Felts
Megan Cleland
Pet Portraiture, with Megan Cleland
The Moy Mackay Workshop
Ann spotted it let me know it was happening. We had both looked into going to the east coast for a felting conference but after looking at the location, how to get there and the overall cost decided it was just too expensive. So we were both extremely excited to have the opportunity to take a workshop with an instructor we didn’t think we could make dues to distance and cost. Well it was still pricey but the commute was excellent!! We both signed up as soon as the store, Wabi Sabi, was open. We were joined by one of our guild-mates, Carlene, for a 2 day workshop with Moy Mackay! Day one we were to wet felt two pictures: one a landscape and one a still life. On day two we would embellish them using felting needles, stitch-work (Embroidery) and free motion machine stitching. We were sent a long list of the supplies to bring. The one we all had trouble acquiring was the garden netting. It must be a British thing?
We all looked at the list of what to bring and I was a little dismayed. Not knowing what the landscape would look like but having to bring wool to do it was a bit stressful. what to bring? Well my solution was to bring almost everything. If I didn’t have it likely Ann and Carlene did! Next problem. What is Garden netting? We discovered it’s a British thing. Not like the plastic netting we use in the garden here to keep birds out of the Saskatoons and Gooseberries! (Sorry i couldn’t take a picture of what British Garden Netting looks like.)
The day of the workshop arrived and, with a well filled car and my folding blue wagon, I headed off to the Hintonburg Community Centre just a few stores down from Wabi Sabi. This is very convenient since Wabi Sabi had promised to have a large selection of fibre in case we were missing any.
One of the advantages of taking workshops is you can see the methodology of the teacher. You can try to figure out why she is working in one way and not another. You can ask her lots of questions too. I have noticed there is often more than one way to do a thing. Just look at my spelling. Sometimes the choice is more a matter of “we always do it that way” but sometimes it’s because it is more efficient or effective if you chose this method over that one.
Moy Mackay
Moy is a fine artist and sells her pictures. She has to be able to produce images in a reasonable time to be able to support herself and continue her artwork, She does not have the option of taking hours to needle felt the background and then add many more hours to hand stitch the final embellishments after the felting is done. So she has developed a method that works for her purpose. She is fast! This is definitely not a negative thing. I was truly impressed at how quickly she worked. It was obvious that she has had many years of practice and was comfortable and confident in her colour palate and design choices.
Our Insperation on Day One
She showed us the 2 landscape photos she had chosen for us. They are views from her new house in Scotland. They showed the yellow fields and looked out to her neighbours farm house. One shot had fencing and wildflowers. The other had sheep but they were very tiny. For composition I tend to like dramatic lighting or repetition or overlap that draws you into a view. Also yellow is really not my favourite colour, except if I’m painting with rhoplex to make my acrylic paints more transparent, then yellow gets much more interesting. (I bet you can smell the fumes destroying my brain cells even as I think about it!) Ann said “no grumbling and do it anyways” she is right. We are here to experience her way of working and watch her colour palate and methodology.
She did a demo for us. (she didn’t want us to take pictures of her working) It was amazing to watch how really fast she laid out her colours. Both Ann and I were sure all the spinners would be cringing if they watched her carding to blend fiber but it worked for her and gave her the amount of blending she wanted. And it was a lot faster and produced larger amounts than the hand blending I tend to do.
She sent us off and gave us the rest of the morning to finish the layout for our landscapes. From 2 pictures it was very interesting to look around at lunch to see what each of us had taken from the compositions since there was quite a bit of variation within each of the two themes. But you could still see unifying elements within all the pictures.
Insperational Image
Lay Down the Background
Photo had Queen Ann’s Lace
Changed to Milk Weed (Moy had never seen it)
Fast Felting Students
Landscape Coming Along
Ready to Wet Felt, time for Lunch
After lunch she set up a vase with flowers and then Moy demonstrated her technique for laying in back ground, table and creating flowers. The vase and flowers where there only to inspire us. We could expand upon what we were looking at. We were happily adding leaves, flowers and background and she told us we had to hurry and finish up so we could felt both pieces before we had to clean up the class room for the next group coming in. EEK!! Felt Faster!!
Insperational Flowers
Background Table Vase and stems
Layering in Shadows and Adding Flowers
Ready to Felt Look at the Amount of Wool in the Flowers
We discovered she doesn’t like bubble wrap. It is too aggressive for what she is aiming for. What she is doing in wet felting is not creating strong cohesive textile as you would for a vessel, slippers or a cat cave but a thin softer felt which more resembles pre-felt for her base. She can then still manipulate the felt after it has had its wet felt treatment. If it were felted as fully as a vessel or even worse my cat cave fish it would never fit under the pressure foot on the sewing machine.
Sorry i Did use Bubble Rap (but only a little)
I did stick with my bubble wrap but I was pretty back weary by the end of the day and was sure I could keep the fibres from over felting (I was too sore by then to be aggressive anyway). So after only minimal felting I was done and packed everything up into my wonderful wagon and headed back to the car. When we were all packed up we took a quick shopping trip up the street to Wabi Sabi. More Wool!! Really you can’t have too much wool can you? After a good dose of fibre we all headed home so we could do part 2 tomorrow!
Drying Outside In a Light Breeze
Day 2 Embellishments
Moy does some needle felting with her pieces but mostly she does a form of embroidery and free motion sewing on a sewing machine. She spent the morning with demonstrations of needle felting, hand embroidery and machine embroidery/ sewing. My sewing machine doesn’t have the feed dog covers and I’m not sure I can get them but I watched her demonstrate with the felt and sewing machine. It was interesting to see her add more detail with just a bit of stitching. And again She was fast! She demonstrated the technique enough that I am confident I have the concept if not the dexterity to understand what she was describing.
Adding Dimention to the Trees and Detail to the Forground
Ann Chose the Other Picture
Ann Chose the Other Picture
Ann Embelishing with Needle Felting
Ann Shapeing Flowers with Scissors
Ann Checking Progress
I spent most of the time working with the needles making my trees mildly 3 dimensional. By the end of the workshop I was wiped and I still had more work to do on the landscape and all the embellishment left to do on the flowers!
The Front
The Back You Can See The Needle Felted Areas
Ann’s and Carleen’s are much more embellished than mine are but I hope to get back and finished them eventually!
Moy and All the Students Pictures
A Clearer Look at the Pictures
It was fascinating to see all the pieces together at the end of the workshop. There was a lot of variation on the theams we were given. I am very glad I was able to attend this workshop. I learned a new way of approaching picture felting, used pre-felt for depicting the building and really enjoyed the workshop. (But i am still not fond of Yellow.)
I mentioned in my last post that I’d played around with the hair extension fibre a bit more. This is the finished piece:
I twisted some of it around some wool twists I’d previously made, spun some with some white pencil roving, fluffed some up and made a kind of ‘ball’ out of it, blended some with Merino, and used a couple of pieces which were still partly plaited/braided. The two biggest patches on the bottom of this angled photo are, on the left, the loose ball, and in the centre, the blend with wool:
This is a closer angled pic:
This is one of the partly plaited pieces:
I undid the ends of this one, sorry, not the best photo:
This last pic is a small amount spun with pencil roving on a drop spindle. I just twisted it, then used it so it’s loose:
I’ve been trying out more unusual embellishments, so I’ll show that next time!
I have been slowly working on the 1st quarter challenge.
I started with a piece of white prefelt to work on. Starting at the back I adding the sky and the mountains. The mountains are prefelt as well.
Next I added the grass, clouds and water. This is where the water isn’t blue comment comes form, on one of my other posts. Mostly at this point everything is just a place marker to be added to after wet felting.
So the first thing to do after wet felting it was to rip the water off. It looks better white than it did blue.
I set about fixing the water using some brown, grey, neppy Romney wool I had. I also added some silk noil to give it more shine and rocks.
I used the same Romney for the Mountains too.
After fiddling with the mountains it was time to add the fence. To get the placement right I used a piece of yarn to mark the path.
And here we are at the present. I added the posts. I need to spin some quit dark grey yarn very thin or possibly I will use some sewing thread. I have not decided yet.
Are you working on a piece for the first quarter challenge?
I decided for the 1st Quarter Challenge that I wanted to do another nuno felted landscape. I still have a bunch of hand dyed silk that works great for these. In the spirit of using stuff up, I used a couple of silk pieces over white pre felt to create the backgrounds. I have only finished one of the landscapes but you will see both in the first few photos.
The top left photo shows the silk before felting. I didn’t really have a preconceived notion of what the landscape would be when I started. I thought I would figure it out as it went along. I laid out both pieces of silk over the white pre felt and then wet down and felted them by mainly rubbing. I did a little bit of fulling but left them fairly soft. While I was working, I saw distant mountains and evergreen trees in the pink/orange piece. The bottom right shows that piece after felting. I did decide to pull the edges of the silk around to the back and hand stitch them down to give a cleaner edge.
Next, I decided I wanted to give the feeling of more depth so I decided to add some sheer fabric into the mountain area. I used Bo Nash 007 Fusing Agent. It is powdered fusible. You sprinkle it on and then put whatever you are fusing on top and then iron it. The picture on the left is trying out different layers of sheer fabric and the one on the right is after fusing. Click on the photos to see more detail.
Then I began machine stitching. I didn’t want to put too much detail in the distance so it was pretty simple stitching. The middle photo shows the first thread I used in the middle distance and I thought it was too dark. It’s hard to tell the difference but I picked out the darker thread and took it down a shade or two on the right. It definitely made a difference to me but it’s hard to tell in the photos.
Next up was the trees. I followed where the blue dye was in the fabric and created the further set of trees with a dark blue green thread. It is much bluer thread than the foreground trees. Then I add in the foreground trees with a couple of different shades of green thread. They have a bit more detail than the further distance trees. Hopefully, that gives a sense of depth in the landscape.
