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Author: frabjousfabrica

I live in North Dorset, UK. I have been working in textiles on an off for most of my 75 years. I am mainly self taught and, with no basic grounding in art or design, picked it up as I went along, usually from books, but with occasional workshops. I have experience of all types of textile work but have now “rounded down” to felt making (both wet and needle), embroidery, crochet, and basic needlework; with the odd forays back to other techniques as needed for a particular project.
Theatre Textiles – More Crowns

Theatre Textiles – More Crowns

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Some time after the Panto to be performed in February 2026 had been chosen and before rehearsals started in 2025 I was approached by the director of what is to be our 2027 Panto to give some thought to making headdresses for the villain and her cohorts.

That Panto is to be Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.  Apparently the “baddie” in this version is a Queen bee, and the director is thinking well ahead – which makes a nice change from the usual last minute panic.  Anyway, I set about thinking how best and how cheaply to do this.

But before I got very far I was asked by our wardrobe mistress to make crowns for the King and Queen of Gooseland, for the 2026 Panto, which was to be Mother Goose.  By this time we were well into rehearsal and so I had to stop thinking about bees and start thinking about geese.  The wardrobe mistress wanted crowns that fit around the head rather than “tiara” type that sit on top.  They should be white and should incorporate goose feathers.

We had some white feathers in stock, but none long enough to look like goose feathers, so first of all I would have to make some.  We had, in our initial discussion, thought about how many would be needed.  I was anxious that a fully feathered crown should not make the king look as if he was aping a native American Indian chief wearing a War Bonnet.  We decided that I would make 5 feathers for each crown, taller ones for the king and slightly shorter for the queen.

I used one of my white nonwoven cotton cloths and some black (all I had) plastic rods.  I used an old and well washed cloth, which when ironed stretched and ironed again became paper thin but remained flexible.  I cut 10 strips about 2” wide and 8 or 9 inches long.  Using “washable PVA glue … (yes, I’d never heard of it before either, it was a gift from our odd job man/friend.  According to the lable on the bottle it was a mixture of water, PVA, glycerine, stearic acid and sodium hydroxide) …  as I was saying, using washable PVA glue I stuck 2 lengths of the cloth together, sandwiching a plastic rod part way up the middle – short of the top and protruding from the bottom, so that it represented the quill.  In this way I made 10 basic shapes which I trimmed into feather shapes, and carved 2 or 3 “notches’” randomly in the sides to add to the feather-like appearance.  I painted the black quills white and, to give them extra strength, painted each side of the feathers with more of the PVA.

A bottle of washable PVA glue with 5 part made artificial feathers
Making the feathers. That funny bottle shape at the bottom right is one of my eyedrop dispensers but handy for spreading glue!

Then I could consider the design of each crown; the king’s would need to be “manly” and the queen’s elegant.  Having gone through my design source images I chose 2 crowns from the film version of Lord of the Rings on which to base my ideas – Elron’s crown for the Gooseland queen (No he’s not a bloke, he’s an elegant Elf – can’t you see his pointy ears?) and Aragorn’s for the king.

I went through my stash of beads, stones and jewels and picked out items which could adorn either crown – the idea being that although they weren’t identical they would be a pair.  I found a strip of muslin which had pearls and clear beads already attached to it and also some large round green cabochons mounted in “silver” frames.  I painted the stones with several coats of pearl coloured nail varnish and I brightened the frames with a coat of silver nail varnish, and both with a top coat of clear.

[I find nail varnish very useful in making costumes and props, so whenever I see any reduced in price, especially odd colours, or colourless, I snap them up.]

Having obtained approval for my ideas from the director and the wardrobe mistress, I then had to wait some weeks before I received details of the king and queen’s head sizes.  We had a cast of 35 in this Panto, some of whom played more than one character, and there were at least 2 costumes for most of the characters, not to mention 5 or 6 for Mother Goose, the dame.  It is not surprising therefore that our poor wardrobe mistress, who does most of the work herself with the help of a couple of members, took some time to get round to sorting the wigs for the king and queen and measuring their resulting head sizes.  Once I had these I was able to get a gallop on!

I started with the queen’s crown.  I made a drawing based on the Elrond crown and then blew it up to the size needed. I transferred 2 copies of the pattern to the card stock I was going to use, cut them out and, after auditioning the feathers and jewellery as to placement, proceed to decorate one of them.

I’m not keen on using just glue for holding things together, whether on costumes, on props or on actors (I once lost my Polly parrot beak mid performance!)  It’s belt and braces for me, so I sewed the strip of muslin with the pearl and clear beads along one of the sections of the crown, front to back on either side of the centre “V”. I also sewed the feathers to the inside of the crown and I added a shield shape to the back of the centre front to add a bit of strength.  It was as well that I had cut out a second pattern, the stitching of the muslin to the narrow sections of the crown in fact weakened the card.  So I attached the second pattern to the inside of the crown and then added a cut out shape of non-slip mat to the inside front of the crown.  I was concerned that the weight of the stones on the front might cause the crown to slide down the actor’s forehead.  (In the end however I needn’t have bothered as the actor’s coarse and curly wig had a large fringe, on which the crown sat, but again belt and braces I suppose.)  Finally I joined the two ends of the crown with a large hook and eye (the sort covered in fabric and normally used by furriers) painted white.

Then on to the King’s crown.  I had found somewhere on the internet a pattern page of the pieces used to make a version of Aragorn’s crown.

page of patterns for the parts of Aragorn's crown
Pattern for Aragorn’s Crown

I liked the basic idea of some form of emblem at the front which could hold up the feathers but I didn’t want to use the actual design from Aragorn’s crown – it was too “serious” and the Gooseland King was a comic part – so after trying out various shapes, which would also hold 3 of the cabochon stones, I decided to use a shield shape, with a smaller version at the back and smaller versions still at the two sides.  I decided that I would not use the remainder of the muslin with the pearl and clear beads for the King’s crown (too feminine) so I decided to add a border of yarn around the edges of everything to add a sort of metallic rim as if the metalsmith had added a border of twisted metal, as indicated on the page of pattern pieces. So here I deviated from my glue+ method and just soaked some white yarn in PVA and ran it around the edges of the shields and the bands of the crown.  I did stitch the cabochons to the front shield and also the feathers.  I covered this on the inside with another shield shaped piece of card.  I wasn’t sure how to decorate the two side and the back shields and I wondered if I could find a suitable monogram for Gooseland.  In the end I found, somewhere on line, a drawing of a winged shield, I added a capital G to the centre of that and printed off three copies which I attached to the centre of the 3 blank shields.

Once all the glue was dry I packed them up and delivered the Crowns a couple of days before the first dress rehearsal.

Now I can go back to thinking about bees.

 

Metal bead shaft for decorated key ring, with a small ring on one end and a small globe screwed onto the other
A Few Oddments

A Few Oddments

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On looking through my file of possible posts I have found that there are several subjects on the list about which I don’t have a lot to say, so I thought I’d put them all together.

First, my work basket.  You may recall that I told you about the craft basket makeovers that I had done some years ago https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/06/12/craft-basket-makeovers-part-1/  After we moved to Dorset I acquired a marketing basket, can’t remember where from now but at the time it was “in” to be seen wandering around the shops with a basket on your arm.  I didn’t use it for that for long though as I was worried about my purse sitting on top of shopping and being a bit of a temptation.  So I decided that I’d turn the shopping basket into a work basket.  At that time I hadn’t been introduced to felt, I was still spinning, crocheting, tatting, sewing and embroidering so a market basket would be ideal for that.

I used some more of the fabric remnants which I had bought from the same shop in Maidstone where I’d got those which I’d used for the spinning baskets.  I lined the basket, having attached some internal pockets to the lining and made a padded/quilted lid.  That was fixed at one end of the lining and a covered button and loop held it closed at the other end.  I had found a miniature washing basket at a charity shop and I turned that into a pin cushion and I made a small pouch to hold small accessories like cotton reels.  That was fixed to the side of the basket lining with a snap fastener.

The basket got quite a bit of use, as you can probably see from the state of the lining.  One drawback I’ve found to sewing the lining to the basket is that it makes laundering it a bit difficult!

One of the first projects I undertook once I had learned to needle felt was a challenge from a company which used to supply packs of mixed yarns – at least I think it was from them though it might have been a Guild challenge.  It was back in 2002 and as I did not make any notes that I can find, I’m not entirely sure.  I seem to have taken some progress images as I have found lots of these though unfortunately they are not of particularly good quality.

What I do remember is that I had decided that I would make a miniature of a herb knot garden but |’m afraid that my memory of how I found/chose the design is now so hazy that I can’t be precise. I do remember that when I learned to needle felt our teacher gave us pieces of old woollen blanket on which to draw a design that we could fill in with needle felted fibres.  The idea was that we could then wash the work and it would become permanent.  I have amongst the progress pictures images of the design as drawn on a piece of blanket and of the lines becoming “box hedges” and the spaces being filled with “flowers”.  I can also see from the last couple of pictures that I added a “topiary tree” in each corner.

A couple of years later, I acquired a quantity of (I think) Jacob fleece which had been carded all together so that what I had was a sort of grey mixture.  I didn’t really want to spin it as I think I had been duped into buying a bag of really rough fibres.  At about that time I had become interested in stone carvings – gargoyles (water spouts), grotesques, and  heraldic beasts – particularly the Queen’s Beasts which are statues on display at Kew Gardens.  Anyway, I decided that I’d have a go at needle felting some gargoyles using the grotty grey Jacob.  No progress pictures I’m afraid, just finished pieces mounted on fabric covered card or canvas blocks.

Finally  you may remember that Ann M told us about some sheepy key rings that she had made.  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/06/13/sheep-key-chain/ These looked so good that I’m afraid I stole her idea.  I told you back in December 2024 about the Norwegian Gnomes that I made at our local Museum Shop, for sale there. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/?s=The+Museum+at+Christmas

Ann’s idea made me think that some miniature gnomes impaled on the metal “spike” could look good as bag charm gnomes to sell in the Museum shop.  I had to change the description from key chains to bag charms because the gnomes were a bit too fragile to sit inside someone’s bag/purse, but should look good dangling on the outside.  Here are photos of the “shaft” on which the gnomes are made, and a few of the gnomes.

 

Another Tapestry Workshop

Another Tapestry Workshop

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In my last post Two Coats Colder I told you about my attendance at a tapestry design and weaving workshop run by professional tapestry weaver Bobbie Cox.  The report of that workshop, along with that of the workshop I attended shortly afterwards,  appeared in the March 2003 edition of The Journal for Weavers Spinners & Dyers, and I repeated the report on the first workshop in my post.

At the end of that post I promised to tell you about the second workshop, so here’s the rest of the published report:

“Sydling St Nicholas, A Bit Warmer than Peter Tavy, But Not Much.”

“Two weeks after Peter Tavy, I attended a two day Miniature Tapestries workshop run by another resident of Devon – Pat Johns, but this time in Dorset.  Our Guild had arranged for Pat to talk to us at the April Guild Meeting about the Tapestries she had been commissioned to weave for a Synagogue in Washington DC.  This really whetted our appetites, although, having been given details of the size of the Synagogue tapestries (larger than Pat’s living room in which they were woven) we were pleased that we were only attempting miniatures.

“The workshop took place at another Village Hall, over the two days following the Guild meeting.  There were fifteen of us, and (I think) only one beginner (me).

“Pat’s approach to warping was to use frames fitted with rows of nails at either end and to wind a continuous double warp from one end of the frame to the other round the nails, starting and ending with a fixed loop.  The warp was then tensioned by taking up the slack from each section of downward travelling thread until the last section was reached.  The slack on this was taken up by moving the end loop around one or two extra nails until the thread was taut.  A strip of hard nylon parcel banding was then woven into the bottom of the warp and pressed down so that it sat against the nails and provided a base for the heading.  A length of warp string was also woven through on the opposite shed and tied at each side of the frame.

“The double warp was made up of two colours, an ordinary white cotton thread and a cotton thread of the colour of our choice.  The heading consisted of four rows of twining (as in basketry) using the same thread as that used for the coloured warp.  This made a very neat start.

“We were then sent off to look at Pat’s vast array of weft threads in all sorts of fibres and all sorts of colours, from which we were to take our pick.  We were not given a specific subject or theme, but were to take our inspiration from the available threads.  There were also various books to look at and Pat’s folder of notes and samples.

“Also available for us to look at were Pat’s three miniatures of an apple in various stages of being eaten.  One unusual effect demonstrated in these was the coloured section of the double warp – red – being allowed to remain on the surface of the work, adding to the shading of the rosiness of the apple.  This illustrated to us why Pat had suggested that one thread of our double warps should be coloured, so that we could incorporate it into the design if we wished  by leaving it unwoven.

“Pat’s other reason for using a double warp was to facilitate, the smooth transition of curves in her work, curves being notoriously difficult in any weaving.  The idea was to split the warp where necessary so that a curve could increase by half a warp at a time.   This method is also helpful when negotiating diagonals which are more vertical than 45º.

“Pat showed us how various effects could be obtained by using different formal tapestry techniques in conjunction with the use of colour and handed out some very useful notes.  She also gave us some hints on finishing and hanging – although none of us got anywhere near that stage at the workshop.  Pat insisted that each of us should take sufficient threads from her store to enable us to finish our pieces at home, and packed us off tired but happy at the end of our second day.

“Judging by the noise that we were making most of the time, everyone enjoyed the experience.  Indeed I believe that we were making more noise than the pre-school children who occupied the main hall on the morning of our second day, I certainly don’t remember hearing them at all over our din!

“Pat Johns and Bobbie Cox both have individual and distinctive styles.  Bobbie’s work incorporates lots of straight lines – vertical, horizontal and diagonal – with hard and stark colours.  It makes great use of symbolism.  Pat’s work contains many curves and flowing lines with softer colours and, quite often, lettering.  Her work is much more representational than Bobbie’s.

“Both are excellent teachers.  Despite their different approaches to their subjects, they both take the view that if what you do in your work (even if it breaks orthodox rules) works for you,  it is right.  If you want  to do something that they think may not work, neither of them will say “you must not do it”; they will both say “try it and see what happens”.  The best way to learn is to make your own mistakes.

“I am privileged to have been able to attend  classes with both Bobbie Cox and Pat Johns.”

As I mentioned in the previous post, I didn’t own a camera at this time so I don’t have much in the way of pictures of this workshop for you.  However I have found a photo of the tapestry which I started at Pat’s workshop and, unusually for me, finished at home.  The subject was a beech tree which had just come into bud in the spring, which I had seen while attending a completely different workshop at Sydling St Nicholas Village Hall.  I had managed to beg a friend to take a photograph of this tree and I have photographed the photograph, so it’s not as clear as it might have been.  Here’s the photograph and the tapestry.

Just to fill in a bit of space I will quote from the chap who’s regular posts on You Tube my husband watches avidly.  The presenter always finishes up with “Here’s something to put a smile on your face”:

I was indoors sheltering from a really heavy downpour one afternoon.  I peered out of the window to see if the sky might be lightening a bit.  It wasn’t, but this is what I did see.

pigeon sitting in a puddle on a tarmac surface with right wing held up
A pigeon in a puddle – is it hurt?

 

I was horrified, frozen to the spot, just staring at this poor bird.  I thought I was going to have to go out and try to catch this obviously injured pigeon and take it to our vet.

And then while I was watching I saw this:

Bet you’ve never seen a pigeon taking a shower before.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  There was this pigeon standing/squatting in a puddle with one wing in the air.  Then I saw it preening a bit and then it changed wings – we’re obviously not the only beings who wash under our arms!

Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful, peaceful Holiday and New Year.

Two Coats Colder

Two Coats Colder

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Back in April 2002, before I became infected by felt and  was still interested in woven tapestry, I plucked up courage and attended a Tapestry Weaving Course run by professional tapestry weaver Bobbie Cox.  If you live in or near Rochester in Kent you may have seen some of her work as there are four of her tapestries adorning the Lady Chapel in Rochester Cathedral.  My report of the workshop was published in the March 2003 edition of The Journal for Weavers Spinners & Dyers.  I have reproduced it here.  I’m afraid that there weren’t any photographs for me to show you as I didn’t own a camera at that time.  I have tried to produce the sketches that I made and you will see why I say that I can’t draw, except with a felting needle!

inside a cathedral showing stained glass windows with tapestries below and a tapestry on the front of an alter with 2 candles on it
Lady Chapel, Rochester Cathedral – Bobbie Cox Tapestries

“Peter Tavy, Two Coats Colder than Tavistock”

“And I wish I had known before I went!  Still this only related to the weather and was in contrast to the warmth of the welcome from the inhabitants of Peter Tavy when I joined 16 others on an ‘overflow’ course on Design & Tapestry Weaving given by Bobbie Cox at Peter Tavy Village Hall (formerly the school) in the second week in April 2002 (the original course had had such a long waiting list that Bobbie had arranged an additional one).

“Our first task was to explore the village taking in textures, colours and atmosphere, making notes, taking wax rubbings and collecting samples.

“On returning to the hall we discussed what we had found and then Bobbie told us that our theme for the course would be ‘windows’.  She showed us slides of photographs she had taken from the inside looking out, outside looking in, of misted window glass, and raindrops, of reflections and shadows.  She reminded us that windows are the eyes of a building and can be looking at us whilst we are looking at them.  (I’ll never regard a window in the same way again!)  Then she sent us out around the village again to ‘collect’ windows.  The villagers were (with one unpleasant exception) very tolerant of the students gazing at their properties in a very odd way, even the overwintering inhabitants of the sole remaining farm’s cowshed.

“The students were of mixed ability, from complete beginners (three of us – one of whom was our ‘token man’ Peter) to the quite advanced.  Bobbie showed us three ways of warping our frames, how to decide on the set of the warp and how to spread the warps appropriately.  She gave us advice and encouragement and showed us some of her many sample pieces to illustrate her points and her tips.

“After a picnic lunch beside the River Tavy, it was back to work – perfecting our designs with paint and pencil.  (I stayed up till 11.30 getting mine done.)

“Next day Bobbie set up an Indigo vat – in the back of her car!  (Well it was very cold out and much warmer inside the car which was standing in the sun, indigo vats need to be kept warm.)

“We all took turns to dip various yarns and fibres, re-dipping and over dyeing some coloured yarns for various periods during that day and also leaving some in the vat over-night.  In between times we started the actual weaving of our tapestries, all the time receiving tips and advice from Bobbie.

“She advised us to watch out for shrinkage or ‘waisting’ – the tapestry pulling in at the sides as the weaving progresses.  It is unlikely that this will be the result of poor selvedges, but more likely to be because the use of several different yarns in one pic, or ending one or more kelim slits in a single pic.  Bobbie’s suggestion was that we should insert a number of ‘guy ropes’ by sewing one end of a spare piece of warp thread near the edge of the tapestry (but not too close to it) and tying the ends to the sides of the frame.  If this is done on both sides of the tapestry, the tension will help to prevent the waisting. (I wondered what the purists would think of this, but if it’s good enough for Bobbie Cox it’s good enough for me.)

“Day 3; and after removing the yarns which had rested in the dye vat over-night, some of us tried some more in what was thought just to be the exhaust of the indigo.  In fact there was still quite a bit of life there and we dipped several skeins each.

“As the sun was still shining, we decided that we would lay out on the playground the yarns which had been dried over-night so that Bobbie and those students with cameras could photograph them.  It was then that we received some exuberant visitors.  They were some of the inhabitants of the cowshed on their way through the village to alternative accommodation.  They were moving at high speed in all directions, frantically followed by the farmer.  Bobbie saw off the ones which had decided to see what the activity was at the Village Hall.  I understand that they were eventually rounded up and led of to their new abode, having left liberal donations for the rose garden in the streets.

“Before lunch, delivered to the Village Hall by Jill, the Peter Tavy Sandwich Lady, some of the students accompanied Bobbie on a walk up to Dartmoor.  Some of us, not having sufficient warm clothing, decided to stay and work on.

“During the day Bobbie showed us some more slides of windows and also some of her own work.  However the highlight of the day was a visit to Bobbie’s own studio.  She was not working on anything at the moment, being very much involved in the administration of her touring exhibition ‘Woven Water’.  She did have two of the larger pieces from this Exhibition, ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’, which she  hung along with some other pieces for us to see, including a recently completed commission – a large tapestry inspired by the beach at Blakeney Point in Norfolk entitled ‘Tidelines, a Woven Memory of Blakeney’.  Also on display were picture boards showing the inspiration and development of that design and some of the Woven Water tapestries as well as some smaller samples and bundles of wefts tied and dyed.  Bobbie explained the mechanics of her large high warp loom and how she works on it.

“The next day – our last – was Sunday.  Now we were all working hard trying to get as much weaving done as possible before our visitors arrived.  At Bobbie’s suggestion we had all asked our bed and breakfast hosts to morning coffee and to see what we had been doing during our stay.  This is apparently a feature of Bobbie’s courses and many villagers visit regularly.  The noise level rose dramatically as the visitors wandered around and chatted.

“Bobbie did manage to fit in a few more tips for us though:

“1        Don’t be in too much of a hurry to cut the work off the loom, live with it for a while in case you subsequently decide that you want to add to it or make some changes.  It won’t be possible after it’s off the loom.

“2        Ends of yarns are usually left hanging at the back of the work, unless it is to be viewed from both sides.  Don’t cut them too close to the weaving or they will start to work through to the right side.

“3        Darn in yarn ends which are near the selvedge or kelim slits.

“4        When you darn in, slide the needle up or down the warp thread, not across the warps – it might show.

“5        Consider the mechanics you will use to hang the finished tapestry (although this should have been thought out at the design stage).  You may need to weave further pics in the heading, for instance if you will be incorporating a metal (preferably stainless) rod or a wooden slat.

“6        Weighting the bottom of the weaving will help it to hang better.

“7        Steam press the work on the reverse side – using a cloth and pressing lightly.

“At three o’clock we started to pack up and then display our work and our design drawings so that they could all be looked at and photographed.  It was amazing what diverse designs had been achieved.  We had all learned something, particularly we three beginners.  Bobbie  had encouraged us to try our own ideas and allowed us to make our own mistakes, lessons being better learned by trial and error than by example.

“By the time that we finished at about four, we were all very tired by very happy.  One usually finds on a course like this that there is one person who spoils things for the others, but it had been noted that our group was particularly lucky in that we were not “blessed” with the student who wanted to grab all the tutor’s time, or the one who wanted to be the centre of everyone’s attention (boring or noisy or both), or the hypochondriac.  We all had a great time – thank you Bobbie.

“PS If you attend another of Bobbie’s courses in Peter Tavy, better diet before you go – the food in the local pubs is marvellous – so’s the beer!”

partly completed tapestry of the four paned window on a wooden frame loom
Window Tapestry – still on the loom I’m afraid and I don’t think it ever progressed any further.

A couple of weeks later I attended another tapestry workshop run by another professional but I’ll save my report of that one for another day.

 

FELT SWAPPING

FELT SWAPPING

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The International Feltmakers Association has been running an annual Felt Swap – setting a theme and linking members who’ve elected to join the challenge with a “swap partner” from somewhere in the world – since 2020.  I spotted the invitation to join in the 2025 swap on one of the regular emailed Newsletters and decided to have a go.  I started to write this post about the entry and remembered that I’d entered the first Swap and had posted about it.  However, when I trawled back through my posts to find the link for you, I found that I hadn’t actually written the post, let alone published it.  So we’d better start there.

The subject of that challenge was “Light”.  I thought a lot about this as it seemed such a wide subject and I didn’t know where to go with it.

To begin with I listed as many things as I could think of that could have anything at all to do with light and came up with: Light bulbs;   Bright light – dazzling – blurred;   Rainbow;   Prisms and light splitting;   Dark area with light coming in from one side;  Sun beams from behind clouds;   Fire light;   Moon light;   Lighthouse;   Northern Lights.

Clouds and especially stormy skies fascinate me and I thought that I could do something with this idea.  Initially I went for a sun low on the horizon just showing through some dark clouds but with rays going upwards behind the clouds.  For some reason this was not a success so was abandoned.

Then we had a thunderstorm and I had a lightbulb moment!  So I looked through some of Mr Google’s images just to remind myself what forked lightning looked like and then went for a storm over the sea, and used this image for reference.

dark sea, dark stormy clouds with forked lightning running from clouds to sea
Lightning at Sea

I have a collection of fibres, yarns and fabrics in my “stormy” project sack – too big to call a bag – and my first thought was to use some of those in the picture I had in mind.  I had already made a mixed media image of a storm at sea using various textiles and fibres and thought of doing something similar.

Mixed media picture of stormy clouds, rough sea, rocks, spray and wind tossed seagulls
Storm at the Coast

So I looked out some of the fabrics and yarns and other bits and pieces to see what I might use.

But in the end I decided that I wouldn’t use these for a couple of reasons: 1. this was supposed to be a “felt” swap; and 2. using the mixed media would possibly need a larger picture than I was making – we were limited to A5 size – 5.8 x 8.3 inches (sorry I don’t work in “the foreign” if I can help it).  I did use my stormy fibres though.

I was reasonably happy with the picture after it had dried, but decided to do a bit of tidying up and embellishing with some needle felting.

This is the final result

completed felt picture of storm at sea with dark clouds and forked lightning running down into the sea
The swap picture of LIGHTning

 

My swap partner, from Denmark,  sent me a felt bag, which was really good.  I didn’t want it to get dirty or damaged before I was able to use it and show it off so I wrapped it up and put it in a safe place.  So safe that …..!

Anyway, back to this year’s swap.  The theme for this one is “Inspired by an Artist”.

Again this was a very wide subject, first choose your favourite artist then find a piece of their work that sparks an idea.  I don’t actually have a “favourite” artist, I love the work of many: Constable; Canaletto; Turner; Rowland Hilder; William Morris and most of the Arts and Crafts artists and architects; Rennie Mackintosh….  I could fill up the page with names.  I trawled through works by most of these, bearing in mind the maximum size of the piece I was to make (8″ x 8″) the while.  In the end I decided that I would go with Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

I searched google and found several stained glass windows, one wall carving and a draft fabric design that I liked.

In the end though, I decided to go with a section of the last one, which I squared up and manipulated to make it the right shape and size.  The window is typical of the Art Nouveau period and “attributed to Mackintosh”.  I could not find out if it is actually his design but it is certainly very like his work.

I picked the centre of the window to work on and the enlarged and reshaped (slightly) design was printed off in greyscale and laminated.  I would be able to use the laminated design as a base on which to lay out the fibres.

a monochrome image of the window section covered in polythene sheet and the original image in colour
All ready to lay out the fibres

While I was looking through my stash for suitable fibres and pre-felts for the project I  happened to glance at the design which was inverted.  I immediately saw a face with an extremely runny nose!

the monochrome image rotated 15 80 degrees
This was when I spotted the runny nose!

Nevertheless I thought it would be fun to use the design of the face, since we were to produce something “inspired by” a favourite artist, rather than copy what s/he had produced.  This would allow me to get rid of the runny nose and I also wanted to change the colour scheme.

I had decided to use a piece of pre-felt which I had bought from Wingham Woolwork some years ago, especially as it was slightly moth eaten and I could use what I might otherwise have to throw away.  This was a lovely strong purple colour so I decided that my colour palette should be purple, turquoise and orange.

various fibres, yarns in purple, orange and turquoise, and an orange chiffon scarf
Picking colours and materials

The basic design was laid out in reverse, that is with turquoise knitting/felting yarn “face down” on  the design, with some fillings-in of orange fibres on top and two squares of turquoise where the “eyes” would be.  The purple pre-felt backing was placed on top of that and the whole wet felted.  Unfortunately this resulted in the straight lines becoming distinctly wavy – a good job this wasn’t a straight copy of the original!

After the piece was rinsed, dried and ironed, the remainder of the design was added by needle felting (which, together with the shrinkage during wet felting, had effectively removed the moth holes) and finally some simple embroidery stitches.

The piece has been mounted on foam board for stability.

finished face - orange eyebrows, nose and eyes with turquoise moustache, and facial features on a purple background
Finally – the Swap piece

This is the piece I received from my Canadian (Calgary) swap mate.  It is inspired by “Violet Poppies” by Emile Nolde https://arthur.io/art/emil-nolde/violet-poppy

Isn’t it gorgeous?

3 felted poppies with dark leaves on a yellow felted background, displayed in a circular embroidery frame
Swap piece received from Canada

skeleton of a hare standing on hind legs
Hare Today !!!

Hare Today !!!

Comments 14 comments

I had been wanting to go back to needle felting sculptures for some time, so when I came across a tiny picture of a hare in our local free newspaper New Blackmore Vale Magazine,  I knew I’d found what I wanted to do.  Rather than the usual boxing hares, which I may well have a go at sometime in the future, I felt called to this solitary speeding hare.  He only had one fore foot on the ground and was obviously in a great hurry.

Brown Hare running on snowy ground
Original Inspiration

On getting my necessary supplies together, it was clear that I would obviously need a good strong armature for him and a solid base to hold it steady.  Trawling through my drawer of wires, I found what looked like an unused coil of old, cotton covered, bonnet wire (probably pre-WW2).  I’ve no idea what gauge it was but it was obviously strong enough to hold up an old fashioned bonnet brim, so I was sure it would keep the hare upright.  Having  resorted to Google for images of hare skeletons (naturally I wasn’t able to find one in the actual pose I needed, but I did find a couple of useful references) I looked out some other wires which would probably do for the pelvis and rib cage.  I fiddled with the images and printed off one enlarged to the size I wanted to make the hare and then made a tracing/drawing to use as a working pattern.

My idea was to have a base made from two pieces of wood, with  extended leg wire from the only leg actually touching the ground passing though a hole drilled in one piece of wood, and then bent at an angle of 90º. The wire would then be pressed into a slot cut into the underside to stop the hare swinging around when mounted.

image of wire protruding from bottom of piece of wood
Showing the extension of the armature from the grounded foot protruding from the bottom of the base

The second piece of wood would be fixed under the first piece to keep the wire in place and also to add extra weight to avoid the whole thing being top (or hare) heavy.

I would use the bonnet wire for the spine and head, and pipe cleaners for the pelvis and ear armatures, then go back to bonnet wire for the limbs.

While I was working up the armature I first had the leg wire stuck in a heavy reel of wire.

Subsequently, when I was needle felting, the leg wire was passed through a newly made slot in my felt needle felting cushion.

Using more of my scoured merino, which I had bought quite some years ago now from Wingham Woolwork, I started to fill in the inner body.  The wool is scoured but not otherwise prepared, so it required quite some carding to get it into a state where I could use it to wrap the armatures and to fill in the muscles to give some substance to the animal.  Here are some views of that work in progress.

I had of course gone to Google Images for reference pictures of hares from an all round perspective, both for body shape and for colour, from which I blended various colours for my palette.  Here are a few of those.

Then I started adding the “top coat”.  Working on a sculpture rather than on a “painting” was a bit complicated (and painful at times) until I found myself a small piece of polystyrene packing foam to use when I couldn’t rest the part of the hare I was needling onto my felt cushion.

Another complication was transporting the hare from home to the various venues where I was working on him.  In the end I used an empty plastic box and turned him upside down into it.  It was a bit of a squeeze but he just about got in safely.

Bit by bit, over several months, he began to emerge from the fibres.

I had originally thought to use a pair of glass eyes which I had in stock as they were the right colour and had the black surround which can be seen on a real hare.  Unfortunately they were too big so I fell back on giving the hare orange woollen eyeballs and working them up from there.

When he was substantially finished, I added some “grass” and “rough undergrowth” to the “soil” on top of the wooden base.  This consisted of all sorts of odd bits of fluff, fibre, yarn and fabric selvedges, plus some suitable acrylic paint.

4 different images of waste fibres and yarns in greens, creams and browns
Some of the bits and pieces of scrub and grass

The footwire was poked into the hole in the ground and bent under so that he was running across the scrub land. Then, using his carry box as a stand, I added and secured the second piece of wood.

showing clear plastic box topped with 2 blocks of wood on top with needle felted hare attached upside down inside the box. The two pieces of wood are stuck together with masking tape and partly screwed together
showing his carry box and adding the 2nd part of the base

Although the 2 pieces of wood were from the same larger piece they did not look good when screwed together so I painted them green, obscuring the fact that they were not one large piece.  I thought I was done then, but unfortunately one of the pieces of wood started to warp and spoiled the illusion.  Eventually, after some thought, I removed the bottom piece of wood and glued some non-slip matting over the base (having first taped the footwire into its slot in the bottom of the base) and painted the underside the same green as the sides.

Whilst working and looking at the reference pictures of the whole animal, I realised that he probably had had lots of whiskers.  So I looked for more reference pictures of hare(y) faces and saw that indeed he did.  So how to add these essential appendages?

4 images of close up pictures of whiskery hares' faces
harey faces

I have for some years now been collecting cats’ whiskers.  (They make great fishing rods for fishermen living in the countryside of 00 gauge model railway layouts!)

Black paper with many white cats' whiskers
It’s the cat’s whiskers

I would use some of these for the hare.  Initially I was adding a dot of glue to the end of the whisker, poking a hole in the hare’s muzzle and pushing in the whisker.  The problem was that the whiskers were life-size for a cat, but too big for my hare.  The whiskers were actually strong enough to be poked into the hare’s muzzle without first making a hole, (provided there wasn’t a bit of armature in the way), so in the end I just poked them in and through and out the other side, chopping off the protruding bit and leaving the right length behind.  In fact, unless someone tries to pull them out, the whiskers will stay where they are.

needle felted hare's head with whiskers poked through muzzle and protruding ends being cut off with scissors
cutting the poked through whisker ends

I am hoping to find some form of clear box to cover the hare and stand, if only so I don’t have to keep dusting him.

Here he is.

completed and mounted needle felted hare placed on juniper branches to resemble running free
Out enjoying his run, whiskers and all

Since making him, I have inherited a book all about gnomes.

front cover of book "Gnomes" showing front and back images of gnome with pointed red hat, leather belted blue coat, brown trousers and "deer skin" boots. Gnome has brown face and white hair, eyebrows, moustache and beard
Cover of Gnome book

One of the fascinating things I have learned about them is that they can run as fast as a hare and are small enough to take a ride.  So you never know my hare may gain some friends some day.

Final thought – what should I name him, any ideas?  (Don’t say Harry, I don’t think the Prince would be amused.)  I understand that Hares were introduced to the UK, probably by the Romans, so perhaps he might be named after a Caeser!

 

pantomime cast lined up on stage
POLLY PUPPET or It’s Amazing What You Can Do With Empty Milk Bottles

POLLY PUPPET or It’s Amazing What You Can Do With Empty Milk Bottles

Comments 14 comments

Back in November last year, I was asked by Tanya, the author of our upcoming pantomime, if I would make a parrot puppet for the show.  I was a bit surprised since the show was Cinderella and I wasn’t aware that there was a parrot in that panto.  But then, when I read the script I found that it had a camel in it too, so what was a parrot between friends?

I agreed to make the puppet and, having found the appropriate place in the script, I set about working out how it was to operate.

The scene was nearing the end of the panto when the comedy duo, Stanley Wright and Ivor Watt (you can imagine the “he’s right and what’s what” dialogue), were returning from their holiday in South America and had arrived at Compton Abbas Airfield in Dorset.  Upon being so requested by a customs officer Mr Watt placed their suitcase on the customs desk to be checked.  The customs officer proceeded to pull out of the case what appeared to be a dead parrot.  This parrot would, after having been banged on the desk (à la Monty Python sketch) and thrown back into the case, climb back out of the case, hiccupping the while.

It would be necessary for the puppeteer to be inside the desk so as to manipulate the parrot whilst assisting the customs officer to pull odd things out of the case like the vodka bottle the parrot had emptied, a washing line  (for shopping on line) sporting all sorts of odd bits of clothing; an old fashioned phone with ears eyes and a mouth ( a head phone);  a basket (for the on line shopping); a bag of apples (Apple Pay); a fish and two tins (a perch for the parrot and toucan as company for him); a credit card, and a teddy dressed in a PayPal tee-shirt, just in case the Apple Pay and the credit card weren’t enough to pay for the shopping; and an email invitation to the wedding of Cinderella to Prince Lee.

The puppeteer had to manage this while at the same time holding the drunken parrot high above his/her head so that it could be seen to be watching the action and hiccupping loudly from time to time.

This needed some thinking about.  Obviously it was necessary for the base of the case to be removed and for a similar sized hole to be cut in the top of the desk so that the various items could be handed up to the customs officer – that seemed straight forward.

The puppet would need to be at least life-size, and reasonably strong to withstand being bashed about. The scene was not a long one, but nonetheless a sufficiently substantial puppet might be so heavy that holding it up in the air would be painful.  The answer of course was two parrots.  One which could take the abuse, and one which was light and manoeuvrable and the beak on which could open and close.  To be able to manipulate the beak the puppeteer’s hand would need to be inside the parrot’s head, but since it would be way above the case on the desk the puppeteer’s arm would have to be inside the parrot’s body as well.

My thought was that the parrot could stand on the rim of the case and this should help the puppeteer hold the parrot up for the length of the scene.  I discussed this with the director of the panto and it was agreed that this would be the best option.  I also offered to be the puppeteer, mainly because it would be easier to fit the parrot to my arm if I was to “wear” it than to have to keep checking the fit with another person.

Unfortunately the customs desk and the suitcase were not available for me to work with – the desk not yet having been constructed and the suitcase not chosen, but I was anxious to get on with making the puppet because the cast members who would be in this scene would need to be able to rehearse with both the parrots.

The puppet would need to have legs and feet so it could stand on the edge of the case.  I could also have it “walk” along the edge of the case by having one of the legs more moveable than the other and attaching an operating stick to the foot.  I would then be able to make it side step along the case and back again.  I might also be able to mimic the parrot scratching it’s head with that foot.

I’d decided on a red macaw so I did a trawl of our two charity shops to find some really bright red and blue fabrics.  On my first foray I found a large Christmas stocking in bright red foam-backed velour, some red lining material and a bright blue plastic mac.  Subsequently I came across a bright royal blue velour jogging suit – trousers and hooded top – and I used that instead of the mac.

As the puppet would have to be at least life-size, I did my usual trawl through Google for skeleton and size information as well as reference pictures. It was at this stage that I decided to go for a Red and Green Macaw because it’s a bit bigger than a Red Macaw and has green rather than yellow feathers on its wings.  (I can’t remember now why the colour was important).

Next I got out my stash of empty plastic milk bottles, wire coat hangers, some thinner wire and my masking tape.  Having consulted the skeleton for sizes and fashioned the legs from bits of the coat hangers, attaching feet made from the thinner wire, I wrapped the “thighs” with some of my non-woven cotton cloth and covered the lot with masking tape.

 

a pair of legs and feet for the parrot and the top part of a beak made from milk bottle.
7 pair of legs and milk bottle beak.

Then, using the skull images for size and shape, I made a rough shape of the head from bottle bits.

After first attempting the parts of the beak using curved bits from the life-size milk bottles, I decided that I’d be better off needle felting them, especially as I had been advised that the parrot’s head should be oversized for the body, to be more easily seen by the audience – the milk bottle beaks weren’t big enough.  The felt beak was a better idea anyway as it enabled me to stitch on the inside a piece of foam tubing just big enough to get a finger inside which would help with opening and closing the beak.  I stitched the beak parts to the head – one advantage of using milk bottle bits is that you can stitch through them quite easily.

I drew a line on the skull where the white skin of the face would meet the red head feathers and covered the face with masking tape.  Then, using black glass eyes, I constructed slightly protruding eyes surrounded by masking tape eyelids,  Next came the head “feathers” using part of the toe of the Christmas stocking, which was basically the right shape. This was stitched on following the line I had drawn and the top of the beak.

Finally I painted the face white and added the red lines which appear on a parrot’s face and I also added extra pieces of the red velour to the puppet’s neck.

Next the body, which needed to be hollow so that I could get my arm up through it with my hand protruding from the top so it would go inside the separate puppet-head.  This would dictate the size of the body – from my wrist to the crook of my elbow – as my elbow had to be outside the puppet.  I had already made a pattern for the body based on the skeleton image which I had downloaded and luckily it was the same length as my forearm.  The body “skeleton” was constructed from a couple of milk bottles stitched together and covered in masking tape.

The legs were then attached to the body with more wire and so that the right leg could be moved up and down and side to side using the stick which was attached to the foot for ease of manipulation.

The legs and the lower part of the body were painted red, rather than covered in fabric “feathers” .  The body front was covered with more of the red Christmas stocking fabric.

A tail was needed and this would have to cover up that part of my arm which wasn’t inside the puppet.  I made it from pieces cut from the foam sling which the hospital gave my husband last year after he tried to cut his thumb off with a circular saw.  I covered this (the foam, not the thumb) with blue velour from the jogging suit.  I also cut three foam feather shapes which I covered in some of the red lining material and these were stitched to the blue tail and  then onto the bottom end of the body front.  I also added some more blue velour to the front of the body between the legs.

Next some wings.  These I also made from the foam sling and covered with blue velour and red lining material and also some green fabric – painted calico.  When all was stitched down, Polly was finished.

Time was getting on by this stage, it was January and the desk and suitcase still hadn’t appeared so I couldn’t practice the moves Polly would have to make.  However I still had to make the other parrot – the “dead drunk” one.  With so little time available it would have to be a lot less detailed if more substantial than the puppet.

Out came the milk bottles again and the foam sling.  The body was just one bottle – a bit square-ish but it would have to do – covered in red lining material.  I made a pair of legs with feet with wire covered in masking tape.  These were attached to the body – stuck straight out in a “dead bird” position.  The shape of the wings and tail was cut out of the last of the foam sling and this was stitched to the body, then covered in red, green and blue fabric.  The head was made in a similar way to the puppet’s but with closed eyes.  The beak was actually the one previously made from bottle plastic covered in masking tape and painted.  The head was stitched – very firmly – to the body.  It stood up well to being bashed against the table, thank heavens.

I think it was barely 2 weeks before actual performance that the customs desk and the suit case turned up for us to rehearse with.  It transpired that, because of the size of both, I was only going to be able to get head and shoulders and body down as far as breast bone visible to the audience, so I needn’t have spent time with the legs and tail after all.  Had I known I might instead have made the wings so they could open.  After a few rehearsals I decided that, for operational reasons, I would actually fix the puppet’s head to its body permanently.

Here he is performing his little heart out!

Performing parrot with assistance from actors playing Mr Watt, Mr Wright and Customs Officer
25 Performing parrot with assistance from Mr Watt, Mr Wright and Customs Officer. Note Watt & Wright’s “sunburnt faces”

Performing parrot with assistance from actors playing Mr Watt, Mr Wright, Customs Officer and Security Officer
26 Performing parrot with assistance from Mr Watt, Mr Wright, Customs Officer and Security Officer

26 Performing parrot with assistance from actors playing Mr Watt, Mr Wright, Customs Officer and Security Officer
27  Performing parrot with assistance from Mr Watt, Mr Wright, Customs Officer and Security Officer

part of the ring showing the "dragon's eye" surrounded by chains and wires
A FEW MORE PROPS or An Exercise in Futility

A FEW MORE PROPS or An Exercise in Futility

Comments 12 comments

I have made quite a number of props for various productions put on by my local amateur dramatics society SNADS and they usually get used.  However, because of one thing and another, there are some that ended up “in the bin”.

Last February our pantomime was Aladdin.  It was the version which has a genie of the ring as well as the genie of the lamp.  The ring belongs to Abanaza, the baddie, and when it is rubbed the genie appears.

The script did not indicate what type of ring it was – finger/ear/curtain/boxing/circus – though the former was probably what was meant.  It was felt that a finger ring would not be seen by the audience and, since this was a pantomime not a play, and “over the top” was the order of the day, we’d make it big enough for the back row to see it.  It was to be bangle size.

I showed the production team a page of different types of ring for them to decide what the ring should look like.  The director chose the ring with the dragon’s eye.

showing 12 different ring designs
This is what I showed the Production meeting and asked for a decision on the required design. The dragon’s eye ring is 2nd from the right on the top row.

To begin with I decided to use a wooden curtain ring as the base but it soon occurred to me that unless I used glue I would find it very difficult to safely attach a glass dragon’s eye to it.  Glue is always a last resort in stage props or costume because if it is going to fail it will do it in mid performance, sod’s law being what it is.

piece of non-woven cotton fabric, wooden curtain ring and fimo "eye"
The original materials for the ring

So it had to be textile based so that I could sew everything to it.  I used some scrap felt “moulded” into a circle and wrapped it with strips of the non-woven cotton cloths that I tend to use for just about anything these days.  The felt and cloth together would keep the shape I needed by the time I’d finished with it.

a ring wrapped in non-woven fabric strips, stitched down
scrap felt strips covered by strips of unwoven cotton cloth, yarn wrapped and stitched down.

I had researched glass eyes but could not find exactly what I wanted that could easily be affixed to the ring so in the end I decided to use one of the Fimo eye blanks I had made some time ago.  They had short pieces of pipe cleaners embedded in the back to help with fixing.  I did use an image of one of the glass eyes as reference for painting the Fimo eye, which I did with acrylic paints, glitter glue, glitter nail varnish topped with several coats of clear nail varnish.

fimo "eye" painted with acrylic paint, glitter and nail varnish
The finished fimo eye, painted with acrylic paint, glitter and nail varnish

I attached the eye to the ring with the pipe cleaner and then stitched the pipe cleaner to the ring to make sure it stayed there.  I added a piece of scrap felt around the eye in the shape of the edge of eyelids which I stiffened with PVA glue, at the same time adding the glue to the rest of the ring.  After a couple more coats of PVA had dried I set about decorating the rest of the ring.

The original design of the ring was somewhat “steam punk” so I fished out some chains from my stash, some lengths of threaded black bugle beads and some wires.  I also found some gold cord and, pinching an idea from Lyn which she showed us in one of her posts, I wrapped some wire around the cord so that I’d be able to bend it to my will.

The silver chain I used mainly to surround the eye, and wrapped the rest of the ring with the black chain, the gold cord, with and without wire wrapping, and the black beads.

The gaps of the ring showing between the wrappings I painted with a couple of coats of silver, bronze and gold metallic acrylic paints and there we have it.

A decorated large size ring
The finished ring

I delivered this to the rehearsal space and a couple of weeks later, when they got as far as rehearsing the scene in which Abanaza would remove the ring from wherever he was wearing it and hand it to Aladdin, it was decided that it would have to be a finger ring after all (and we had plenty of those “in stock”).  So now the ring is hanging on my bedroom wall.

The other props that I have made that didn’t get used were intended for a play entitled “Chase me Up Farndale Avenue S’il vous plait”.  I don’t know if any of you have heard of the Farndale Avenue Townswomen’s Guild productions – they are plays within plays.  I think it likely that the original “Play that went Wrong” was based on these.  Anything that could go wrong did, of course.  This latest production was to take place in May 2022 and the main thing that went wrong was that it wasn’t performed after all – various problems mounted up and it was decided not to proceed with it.  By that time, with sod’s law still operating, most of the props that were my responsibility had been made.

The three main things that I needed to make were a vacuum cleaner, a paper bag of baking flour, and an iced cake.

“Simples” do I hear you say?  Well the flour bag falls open at the bottom on being picked up, and lets loose a load of flour.  The cake gets trodden on during the play but was sufficiently intact to be offered to someone to eat.  As far as the vacuum cleaner was  concerned, it had to look like a Hoover Junior, which does (or rather, did,) have a distinctive appearance.

I actually make my own bread so have ready access to paper flour bags.  When I had emptied one of these, I carefully opened the bottom of it.  Using some white polystyrene, I made a “pile of flour” shape that would fit inside the bag.  I smoothed off the polystyrene and gave it a coat of PVA glue and some of my non-woven white cotton fabric.  When that was dry and placed inside the refolded bag, I added a little loose flour – enough to be seen to puff up when the bottom opened, but not enough to cover the stage in it.  I had also asked Mr Google for a suitable image which I could manipulate so that I could paste a recognisable baking flour design over the bread flour image on the bag.  It would have been quicker to just write “Cake Flour” in large letters and if we had been producing a pantomime that’s what I would have done.  However a play requires a little more verisimilitude.

An open baking flour bag and a mock up of a pile of flour
The loose bottomed bag and it’s load of flour

Next the vacuum cleaner.

Not surprisingly, no-one had a Hoover Junior to lend us, so I had to do my best to made a cordless electric carpet sweeper look like one.  All that there was to the carpet sweeper was a base with the brushes in it on the end of a pole/handle.

a cordless electric carpet sweeper
A generic cordless electric carpet sweeper of the type used as the base of the Hoover Junior

So I found an old fabric bag of about the correct size and colour to replicate the dust bag and suspended this from the handle on some string attached to a slide-on plastic filing bar.  The bottom was gathered onto a plastic ring and attached to the top of the cardboard mock up of the hoover body which was affixed to the sweeper body with masking tape.  My husband produced a length of cable with a plug on one end.  The cable was secured down the handle and onto the mock up body, again with masking tape.  Google had kindly supplied me with an image of a Hoover Junior (complete with adoring housewife thanking her kind husband for the present!) from which I was able to obtain a print out of the Hoover logo and also the appropriate font for the word Hoover.

advertisement photo of woman with Hoover Junior also showing logo and font for "Hoover"
Reference pic – a Hoover Junior and a “housewife” delighted with her birthday present! It also gave me the logo and the font needed to add “Hoover” to the dust bag.

The letters of the word were affixed to the “dust bag” and the logo to the mock-up of the body of the cleaner.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the completed cleaner, or any of the stages of construction, but it would look sufficiently like a Hoover Junior when viewed from the auditorium.

Finally the cake.  Since we manage, during panto rehearsals, to empty quite a few of the round tubs of chocolates that abound around Christmas we usually use one of these to represent a cake.  Turning it upside down we paint it white, or whatever colour the icing is supposed to be and stick on pretend cream or icing decorations.  We actually had one in stock, well it was a work in progress, the tub base/cake top had been painted, but the sides were awaiting completion.  All I had to do was insert a size 9 footprint.

Mr Google (what did we do BG?) gave me an image of a suitable footprint and I enlarged it to the appropriate size, printed it out and, using it as a template, cut out the footprint shape from the surface of the “cake”.  I then stuck the printed foot print onto that piece of plastic and, using stiff white paper, suspended the footprint below the hole in the cake surface, to replicate the damage that treading on the cake did to it.

The lid of the sweet tub aka the bottom of the cake
The footprint from underneath.
Someone’s size 9’s in the cake

I would then have painted over the cake again, including the sides this time, but by this time the powers that be had decided that the production would not go ahead.

So the cake was binned, the Hoover dismantled and the flour bag put into storage, and we all went home!

 

A leaded window decorated for Christmas taken from the outside
The Museum at Christmas

The Museum at Christmas

Comments 19 comments

I have been volunteering in the shop attached to our local Museum for several years now.  I have to keep an eye on the Museum, welcome any visitors, dispense information (if I can) and serve in the shop.  Visitors are infrequent unfortunately and, because I get bored easily and can’t stand doing so, I tend to bring in something crafty to keep me occupied between times.  As I am using the Museum’s electricity to light and heat my work space, I feel that I should use the time to make something that could be sold in the shop to help to raise funds for the Sturminster Newton Heritage Trust which runs the Museum and also the town’s Water Mill, renting the latter from the Pitt Rivers Estate.

I have told you about the Mill before here and thought you might like to hear a little about the Museum and the things I have made (or attempted to make) over the years to sell in the shop.  Though first I must show you a chap who, a few years ago, came to visit the Mill with his mates from one of the local biker groups.

A small dog sitting on the back of a motorbike dressed in a leather jacket and wearing goggles
Biker Dog – So cool! I’ve forgotten what his name was, though it might have been Jack, but he certainly attracted a lot of attention from others visiting the mill at the time, and he lapped it up!

This is the building which the Museum Society, as it was then called, purchased from the Town Council in 2007.

An old thatched building

The building started life in the 1500s as a cottage.  In the early 1800s it came into the ownership of the then Lord Rivers and was occupied by a farmer/baker and then a well known clock maker (we have one of his grandfather clocks in the Museum).  After being sold in the mid 1800s it was occupied by an insurance agent and then an auctioneer, before becoming a sweet shop and restaurant as well as a home.

Infamously, before the Second World War, the restaurant was visited for a meal by Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists.

After the war the property was bought by a solicitor and eventually sold to the Town Council in 1996.  The Town Council occupied the building until 2007 when it was purchased by the then named Museum and Mill Society.

The Town Council moved into purpose built Council Chamber and offices, which are part of The Exchange building. The Exchange was built and opened in that year on the site of what had been the largest Calf Market in the country but which had closed some 10 years previously.  The Town has had a market/fair since 1219, having been granted a Charter by King Henry III, and we continue to have a (much reduced) market each Monday with stalls around the town.

The first of my donations which the Museum sold (eventually) were these two small felt pictures of the Mill.  They were my versions of photographs which Graham, my husband, had taken.

Then I had a go at crocheting snowflakes, which did sell quite well in the run up to one Christmas.  I seem to remember that I have shown you these before but I can’t find the link so here are some of them again.

crocheted snowflakes displayed on a swag of green and white tinsel
A few Snowflakes

The Museum Shop has a number of items to sell which sport images of the Mill, Museum and, in the case of tea towels, our mediæval bridge over the River Stour.  I did use one of the tea towels to make a Memo Board for sale, with the intention of making a series of these if they sold.  Unfortunately that was not to be, the Memo board I made is still hanging on the shop wall.  Though to be honest I’m not sorry that there’s no call for more of them because it took a lot longer to make and was a lot more complicated than I had anticipated, and I had actually made it in my workshop rather than in the Museum shop, so it didn’t really meet any of my criteria.

A memo board constructed from a blue and white tea towel printed with images of a water mill, a stone bridge and an old thatched building; crossed with blue ribbons.
The “one off” Tea Towel Memo Board.

In fact over the months I have come up with lots of different ideas for items for sale which haven’t worked:  Making books in boxes using unsold cards sporting very old photographs of Stur (as the locals call Sturminster Newton). Making Etuis, but I couldn’t work out how to get Mill, museum or bridge  images onto them; I would have had the same problem with making chatelaines with fabric covered thread cutters, scissors and needle books.  I did think of making pincushions to sit inside glass or ceramic pots or ornaments bought from charity shops but I couldn’t find a way to make sure the pincushions stayed inside them without using lots of glue, which I hate doing. I did try fabric paper weights and door stops, but obviously couldn’t use my sewing machine in the shop and hand stitching would have taken ages and probably wouldn’t have been strong enough to keep inside the grains of rice, which I was to use for the weights.

I was fast giving up on ideas for things to sell in the shop when my stint at trying to sell my scarves and fabric covered note/sketch books in 1855, our Artisans “Superstore”  https://www.1855sturminsternewton.co.uk/ came to an end.  I had not been able to sell much during the 6 months I’d allowed myself so the Museum Shop ended up with most of the unsold stock!

The covered books and the silk scarves aren’t on display at the moment due do lack of space.

I have at last found some things which I can make in the shop and which are going on sale in the runup to Christmas – I have become addicted to making Norwegian Gnomes.  Some people these days call them Gonks, but they are nothing like the Gonks that used to be around in the 70s.  Here’s one I made back then – it still sits on my landing windowsill.  I can’t bring myself to get rid of it.  It is made out of a hat which was left over after one of our WI jumble sales.  I stuffed it, putting in a scrap fabric base, and added eyes, ears, hands, feet and a tail, and have loved it ever since!

A gonk made from an old fur fabric hat with added eyes, ears, hands, feet and tail
My vintage Gonk

For the gnomes I used scrap fibres, mainly scoured but unprocessed merino, to make the basic shape and stitched large buttons on the bases to help keep them upright.  I stitched on noses, in most cases these were wooden beads, though there were a couple of needle felted noses.

Part built Gnomes in various early stages
Gnome “cores”

I covered the bodies in various unused fibres, mainly prefelts or carded batts which had become compressed in storage, or failed UFOs.  I added “hair” – some of the large stock of locks that I found in my stash (I’d forgotten that I’d got so much!) and added beards and moustaches from the same source.  Then I covered the pointy hats with more of the fibres used for the bodies.  A few of the Gnomes were female – plaits from scrap yarn rather than curly hair and facial fuzz.

I started off making Autumn Gnomes but soon ended up making Christmas ones.  There were quite a collection in the end as I was making them at home and at various workshops as well as in the Museum – I told you I was addicted!

Here’s what the Museum Shop looks like at the moment in it’s Christmas finery and with all the goodies currently for sale.

The Museum proper has 6 rooms housing various alternating displays which at the moment include:

Our famous writers/poets Thomas Hardy (he wrote The Return of the Native while living here); William Barnes (his dialect poetry is famous – you might remember the song Linden Lea – if you’re old enough!); and Robert Young (he also wrote dialect poetry under the nom de plume Rabin Hill).

A fascinating display on the history of weights and measures (for instance a cricket pitch measures 22 yards long, or a “Chain”.  I always wondered why a chain?  Now I understand, there was an actual metal chain used as we have one on display.)

We have the earliest map available of the Sturminster Newton and surrounding area dated 1783.

Swanskin  (as mentioned in the link at the beginning of this post)

The Hinton St Mary Roman Mosaic – this was part of the floor of a Roman villa found in the next village up the road from us, which is also the base of the Pitt Rivers Estate previously mentioned.  The mosaic was discovered in 1963 and unfortunately was removed and is now in the possession of The British Museum.  It was hoped that it could be returned to Dorset when the Dorchester Museum was enlarged but they won’t let us have it back!

As part of the Roman display there are a number of photographs showing what flora and fauna was introduced to this country by the Romans.  You’d be surprised what plants and animals they introduced that we now consider to be “native”.

Upstairs we have a new working model of Sturminster Newton Railway Station showing how it used to look before being closed in 1966.  Very few of the original buildings are still here.  That will be a permanent exhibit (hopefully!) whilst most of the others will change from time to time.

Certainly the Museum is well worth a visit at any time of the year.

 

An adult fox, side view, in a green field
The Fox

The Fox

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You may recall that in a recent post I told you about the outsize flea I had been asked to make for the play “Flea the Pandemic”.  About a month ago the director of that play asked me to make a prop for one of the three one act plays he had written which SNADS have just performed under his direction.  He asked for a dead fox!

In fact the play called for a vixen which had been killed by hounds and he wanted it to be as gory as possible.

Once again I asked Mr Google for some assistance with basic reference images – of live foxes.  From these I determined the colours of fur fabric which I would need to use.

composite picture of a fox from all directions.
Reference photo – All round a Fox.

Having spoken to our wardrobe mistress and acquired some bits from our stash, I realised that I was going to have to get some paint as we didn’t have much in the way of correct colours.  I was able to obtain some “match pots” of acrylic decorating paint in tan, and dark greyish-brown together with a “fresh blood” red and a “drying blood” red.  I collected together other items which I usually find helpful in making props – some of my non-woven cotton cleaning cloths, empty milk bottles and other plastic vessels and a couple of plastic tubes of different diameters.

collection of materials for making fox carcase.
Collecting the materials and reference photos.

Mr Google next helped me with the size of a vixen carcase (though from whose website I cannot now remember) and the shape of a fox’s skull.

table of measurements and outline of fox to reference size of model.
Reference information re size of “carcase”.

fox scull side view
skull

The basic skull shape I made from some pieces from an opaque white milk bottle and masking tape.

Image of skull, white plastic milk bottle and partly constructed skull "armature"
Part made skull “armature”

I made an approximate size body using one of the non-woven cloths, which I stuffed with some recycled polyester stuffing and I covered that with fur fabric, but leaving the “belly” open.  I covered the skull with fur fabric using PVA glue and some strong thread, and stitched it to the body.  I added two back legs in fur fabric, one full length front leg and, as I was then running out of the fabric, a short one leaving the paw end open and painted red, inserting some more of the opaque white plastic cut into “shards” to represent a bloody shattered bone.

inner body of model fox
Basic body shape

I was lucky with the tail, as amongst the bits in the fur fabric stash there was a piece which was stitched  into a vague tail shape and it was darker and fluffier than the rest of the fur fabric I had found.  So I stuffed it and added a white tip to it.  I stitched that onto the fox’s rear end.

Long piece of dark red/brown long fur fabric and small piece of white fur fabric.
Tail Fabrics

I added some ears to the head, using scraps of the fur fabric stiffened with PVA and paint.  I didn’t bother adding teeth to the open mouth as the head was likely to be less visible to the audience.  I painted a black nose and black eye sockets.

I then had to brush over the rest of the light tan coloured head and body with a darker tan, which I had mixed from the new paint and some in my paint box, using the dry brush method, to represent something more fox-like.

Next came the gory bits.  I fashioned some organ shapes from the plastic bottles, and some entrails from some of the tubing and a couple of the milk bottle handles.

plastic tubing and pieces of plastic vessels painted to look like entrails and organs
Painted plastic organs and entrails

I noticed that a couple of the non-woven cloths which had been through the washing machine several times were beginning to break down.  Stretching them pulled the centre into holes which began to look a lot like caul fat.  So I cut some sections out and wrapped the “organs”.  This would make them more realistic although the full effect would be unlikely to be seen by the audience.

Then I got busy with the “blood”!   The paint covered the “organs” and the “entrails” quite well, although I later found that it would flake off the milk bottle handles and would need touching up. I also treated the open belly, the short front leg and the mouth with lots more “blood”.

The fox was to be fixed to a black board, which would hopefully blend into the black flooring that was to cover the shiny wood floor of the stage.  Once this had been delivered to me by the Producer, I stuck the body to the board with more PVA (what would we do without it?) and then arranged and stuck down the organs and entrails.

But something was wrong, it didn’t look right.  Then I realised that there wasn’t enough blood.  If the fox had been torn apart by hounds there would be blood everywhere.  So I got the paints out again and spread a good deal of it over the board and added lots more to the body.

model dead fox with entrails showing and one front leg short and showing bone. Blood everywhere.
Dead Fox

I have now seen the play and at the end the poor fox was accorded a solo spot on the stage.

The End.