Recently, a friend of mine mentioned that she was heading to a class to explore Joomchi. It is something that I would be interested in learning about but I have enough rabbit holes in my life at the moment. Curious (for future reference) I asked about the venue and headed online to check it out. I was scrolling through the lovely website and I came across a different course, one offering a three hour session on Kinusaiga. The photos of the finished work were really attractive but I got a bit of a shock when I saw the cost, which I considered prohibitive to most people. So out of principle, I decided to give it a miss. But my curiosity was roused at that stage so I googled the term and found many videos on YouTube. I can’t attribute my new knowledge to just one of these videos as presenters had their own view of what to look out for when making Kinusaiga. So this post is an amalgamation of my learning from my short visit into the rabbit hole.
Kinusaiga originated in Japan and is a form of fabric collage. It is a great way to use up fabric scraps and I found the whole process quite meditative and enjoyable. The process involves drawing a simple pattern which is transferred onto a foam block which has been covered in double sided sticky paper. Each section of the design is treated as a pattern piece which is used as a basis for a shape cut from fabric. You add on extra fabric to the shape to allow for tucking into the foam block so that none of the raw edges are showing. The sticky background holds everything in place. I think it’s probably easier to explain if I go through it step by step. I improvised with my materials as I wanted to produce my picture from stuff I already had. This might suit but you can buy kits online – I checked some out but I found them very expensive for what was on offer.
Materials:
Foam board – I used leftover scraps from the board I use when I am framing pieces but thicker is ideal if you have it to hand as there is less likelihood that you will pierce the back of the board.
2 sided sticky paper. One side will stick to the board and one side to your fabric to keep it in place. I used some 2 sided sticky tape that I had left over from sticking down a floor rug.
Craft knife.
Metal nail file (one with a pointy end) or sharp small scissors (like an embroidery scissors).
Paper and pencil (for drawing your pattern)
Marker (for example a Sharpie pen) to outline your final drawing.
Fabric scraps (I used fabric I had left over from my mask making days of the early 2020’s)
2 Scissors one for paper and one for fabric cutting.
2 sided selotape
The how to:
Step 1
Sketch a very simple design being mindful that each outline is going to become a cutout. I used a two sided felted mobile that I made some years ago as my starting point:
My inspiration was based off a felted mobile I made some time ago
Here is my outline:
simple recreation of the chosen design
Step 2
Now number each section that you are going to cut out and take a photo of this for reference:
Here I numbered all the pieces and took a photo for reference
Step 3
Stick the two sided sticky paper or tape to the foam board, leaving the protective cover on the top layer of the paper/tape (I did not take a photo of this but you can see it in the next photo)
Step 4
Place the drawing on top of your covered foam board and secure. Cut through each of the shapes using your craft knife. Be careful with the knife and make sure it pierces through the sticky paper/tape and through the foam BUT that it does not pierce the back side of the foam board. Set aside each of the cut pieces of your design (now you can see why it is helpful to number them).
The drawing was secured on the foam and each section was cut out with an imprint left on the foam block
Step 5
Choose fabrics from your stash that you feel will look pleasing together
my selection of fabrics
photo
Step 6
Start cutting out your shapes making sure that you allow extra fabric so that you can push this down the side of the corresponding cut in the foam board. Remove the cover off the sticky paper/tape (my tape was blue so it is easy to see this in the photo)
Inserting the first shape (the blue is the sticky tape)
Step 7
Align your shape so that you have enough fabric to push down the side of the foam board. Use your metal nail file or your small scissors to do this. Carefully trim off any excess if you find that the allowance is too big.
first piece inserted
Be sure to work methodically when securing the fabric. It makes it easier to complete and you can see your picture build up, which is nice. I was unhappy with one of my fabric choices when I laid them down initially so I was able to change them – the materials were very forgiving. One of the photos has an arrow on it to show where I changed my mind about a particular fabric.
first piece inserted
building the picture
Step 8
Finally secure the overhang at the side of your picture to the back with double sided sticky tape. Add a frame if you fancy. My fabrics were chosen at random from the stash so are a tad garish. It’s far from perfect but not too bad for a first try. Also, looking at the last photo I see I could have ironed some of the fabric before I used them, but sometimes it is good for me to leave precision behind and just go have fun.
finished picture
I hope this is a project you will try. It is fun, mindful and quick to complete. Let me know what you think and be sure to post your work so that we can include them in the gallery.
On the last weekend in March, the European Wool Exchange (EWE) event travelled to Ireland for the first time. EWE acts as a bridge between wool breeders, processors and end users and have a particular focus on using European wool to improve wellbeing. They help establish and grow a circular economy for wool by connecting end users back to the sheep, the farmers and the origins of the products they enjoy. Here is a link to their website: https://ewe.network/
It was a real triumph for the event to be hosted in Ireland and this was all down to the dynamism of one Irish lady, Sharon Wells. https://www.sharonwellsart.com/ Sharon and her small team brought about an unforgettable weekend that brought so much joy to the locality and rural surrounds – this is before I even mention the wide variety of groups exhibiting, all of whom shared one commonality; being passionate about wool, sustainable processes and showcasing the variety of creative and practical uses currently ‘on the go’ for this home produced material.
9th April each year is set aside to celebrate and promote European Wool Day. Delegates, demonstrators and exhibitors from across Europe gathered in Tralee, Co Kerry for this event. The event was filmed and the video was launched on European Wool Day. Here is a link to the video if you would like to check it out.
My friend, Jane and I represented the International Feltmakers Association (IFA) https://www.feltmakers.com/ at the event. We were there to promote our Association – Jane is our Regional Coordinator for the island of Ireland and I am the Course Coordinator for the series of educational courses offered by the IFA. Here’s Jane and I, working hard at our stand:
I thought it might be fun to take you briefly through a small number of the stands that were at the show.
First of all, there was a joint exhibition held by Feltmakers Ireland and The Irish Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers. This was a lovely quiet space for people to relax and enjoy the exhibits as the other rooms were thronging with visitors. Here is a link to a video Feltmakers Ireland made during the event. You will find it embedded in this page on their website if you would like to see all the lovely pieces. They also had a stand at the event and were busy teaching workshops and promoting the guild (Jane and I are both members) throughout the day: https://feltmakersireland.com/2026/03/30/recap-feltmakers-ireland-at-the-european-wool-experience/
Thank you also to Liz in the Irish Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers who provided a link to their video exhibition. Here it is, if you would like to take a peak:
Afterwards, we were chatting to the hotel staff who said that the day had been the busiest one on record so it is understandable that we did not get a chance to leave our stands for very long. Just before we closed the doors I got to take a quick run around the various stalls and checked out some really interesting projects.
First up is the Wool Storehttps://www.woolstore.ie/ the majority of Ireland’s fleeces are sent abroad for processing. This means that wool fibre needs to be imported to meet the country’ textile needs. Wool Store is a small wool processing facility which is working to reverse this trend. At the moment it is equipped to focus on the provision of high quality washing, picking and carding services for small farmers and textile enthusiasts and they are working hard on securing funding to take this further by settig up a full scale scouring plant and woollen mill. You will find more about this on Katarina’s website. Here she is photographed with her friend Emer who was helping her on the day:
Here is Katarina and Emer from the Wool Store currently crowdfunding so that Katarina can set up a mill.
Next up was the Wool Wise Project. https://curraghmorefarm.ie/wise-wool-project This project is community based in County Kerry and it aims to raise awareness about wool waste and promote the use of Irish sheep wool. Sheep farmers are constantly being told that their Irish wool is worthless. For decades it has been more expensive to shear a sheep than to sell its fleece. It is considered a ‘waste product’ in Ireland and this is very sad as most of the wool products we buy in our shops are made from imported fibre. The Wool Wise Project aims to highlight this and the benefits of the beautiful home grown raw material. Here is Kerry working away at her stand:
Kerry of Wise Wool needlefelting
I couldn’t resist taking this shot of beautiful produce made with Galway Wool, Ireland’s indigenous breed. Historically other breeds were wiped out but that is a story for another day.
Next, I had a quick chat with the two ladies on the Fibreshed stand https://fibreshedireland.ie/ The group was founded in 2022 and is an independent affiliate of the global Fibershed movement which I understand, started in the USA. I am sharing the Irish chart that I have sourced from their website which best describes their vision (and a photo of the two ladies of course!)
Yamila and her friend were working hard for Fibreshed.
I could not omit NewKD Craft Circlehttps://newkd.ie/craft-circle-a-warn-hug-from-the-community/ as it will be close to many of our hearts. They are a creative group which attracts anyone who is interested in the arts and crafts. It is an inclusive group where everyone learns from each other so it is a great social space. Most recently the group collaborated with other craft circles in their area to make 21 handmade knitted and crocheted blankets which were gifted to end-of-life patients in palliative care. Their generosity is humbling. Here are two of the ladies at their station:
Olann & Seol (Irish words meaning wool and loom) are a couple (Fern and Jork) who run a small family business in Co. Kerry. Fern is from Canada and is a weaver. Jork hand builds the looms. If you like you can check out their activities through this link: https://olannseol.ie/ Here is Jork with one of his beautiful looms:
Jork of Olann & Seol seen here with one of the looms he made
This is one for the knitters among us! I was really attracted to this stand, first by the name Stolen Stitches, then by the beautiful work. Carol Feller, who owns the brand, was very busy dealing with customers so I just managed to take a quick photo of part of the stand. But I have just had a quick look through her patterns and I had to share her link https://stolenstitches.com/pages/about-us Be sure to check out her patterns (there’s a lot of them so perhaps have a cup of tea or coffee to hand while browsing!)
Some gorgeous goodies from Stolen Stitches, the website is worth investigating
Dooleys Wool took my fancy, initially because we share a surname and then because they hailed from the same area as my husband’s people. They use locally sourced wool fibre in their bedding, Duvets, pillows, mattress toppers and, through collaboration with Magee 1866 Weaving, stunning blankets. I have a wool duvet and it is very cosy. Here is a link to their business, if you would like to discover more about this company. https://dooleyswool.ie/
The Dooleys Bedding company
Liz from the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers https://weavespindye.ie/about/ was our neighbour at the show. We were so busy during the event that we only got to chat afterwards at the final dinner.
Liz hard at work spinning and chatting (yours truly and hubby in the background!)
There was also a very interesting project which focussed on wool fibre from sheep in the Rathlin Islands. The micron of the fibre is very high and it has not been feasible to use it for textiles. The fibre has been found to be very suited to rope making. There is a short supply chain as the manufacturing process is completed within the UK. The company’s name is Sustainable Rope and here is a link to their company: https://sustainablerope.com/pages/about-us
Kate demonstrating the wool rope (recipient of the ‘shell’)
I like to set myself a challenge when I am felting at events so I asked Kate for a small sample of rope to see if I could use it in a piece. I wanted it to represent its origins on Rathlin Island so I made a small shell. I dismantled the thick rope and hid the sections inside the shell. It felted in beautifully. I thought it would be nice to give it to the two representatives (they agreed custody for 6 months of the year together with visiting rights!) but I took a few quick photos before I did this:
Different views of the shell
The inside of the shell revealing its secret (rope from the project included in the background!
Different views of the shell
The inside of the shell revealing its secret (rope from the project included in the background!
Finally, I got to chat to a beautiful lady named Sabina. Sabina originated from Romania and she settled in Ireland with her husband a number of years ago. To quote her:
“one day, I saw the most beautiful Romanian blouse – the kind worn for generations by women in my homeland. Just looking at it, I felt like I was home again.
Two years later, over 3,000 metres of thread, and countless hours of hand embroidery – sometimes until my fingdrs bled – I finally finished my own Romanian peony blouse, with Saint Andrew’s Cross and the shepherd’s hook motifs stitched into every piece of the blouse.
In Romanian culture, the peony symbolizes sacrifice and the shepherd’s hook means ‘the lost sheep returns home’”
What better way to finish the visit to the event than to share Sabina’s stunning work with you.
Hand made blouse made by Sabina there are 3,000 meters of thread used in this piece (Source: Sabina’s leaflet)
It wasn’t all hard work (if I can call talking about wool and felting hard work!). Enda (hubby) brought us off for a bit of sightseeing around Kerry on our free afternoon. It was a glorious day and I thought you might like to see a little glimpse of our beautiful island:
A gravestone in Castlegregory, Co. Kerry, Ireland
The Magharees, Co. Kerry, Ireland
View from the top of the Conor Pass, Co. Kerry, Ireland
The view in the opposite direction at Conor Pass, Co, Kerry, Ireland
More Conor Pass, Co. Kerry, Ireland
A view of Slea Head, Co. Kerry Ireland
Another view of Slea Head, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Slea Head, Co. Kerry, Ireland
We met this lovely couple on the way home while stopping off at the Barack Obama Plaza for refueling. So all I can say is goodbye from us all!
Imbolc heralds the start of spring in the Celtic calendar. In recent years, a bank holiday has been established in Ireland to celebrate it. It is known as St Bridget’s Day and it is celebrated around 1st February. Before Christianity hit Ireland St. Bridget was the Celtic Goddess Brigid and like most females she was a real multi-tasker when it came to her role in mythology. If you would like to find out more about Imbolc here is a link to a good read on Wikipedia.
Seeing as how spring has supposedly sprung here (although personally I would question that given the amount of rainfall we are experiencing), the daffodils are making an appearance so I am writing this with a sense of renewed energy for the longer days ahead. I thought it might be nice to share my process from a recent little project I did. It was more out of curiousity than need that I did this. The focus is on differential shrinkage. You will not need a lot of fibre for this – you should have plenty left over if you set aside 15g. I used merino. I also used some felt ‘ribbon’ that I bought before Christmas from DHG Italy But you don’t actually need to buy this. You could as an alternative make up a rectangle of prefelt – lay down 4 layers for this as I have doubled up on the ribbon (each layer of the industrial prefelt ribbon is equivalent to 2 layers of fibre) then you could cut the prefelt into strips arouond 1cm wide.
You will also need your usual felting equipment and a few extra bits. I used decorator’s plastic (the really light plastic to protect the ribbons as I was felting them down. I also used underfloor laminate for my resist but you can use whatever you normally use for this. I am fortunate that I have some lovely wooden tools to help me with shaping but these are not essential as working the piece with your hands will also do. So now, I am going to take you through the making process:
First of all, I prepared my resist, this is oval shaped and measure 38cm at the longest part by approximately 24cm on the fattest. This was covered with 2 layers of fibre on each side – each layer will be perependicular to the other.
I have laid out two layers of fibre here – this is the first side
Both sides have been wet down
After this, I spiralled the ribbon prefelt around the oval. I tried to keep the blue spaces between as even as possible but it was not something I fretted about. Because the ribbon was only 2 layers I repeated the process. So I ended up with 2 layers of the blue on the main body of the resist and 6 layers of the blue/red on the parts that I wanted to highlight. I added my net, a little more soapy water and after a little gentle rubbing I covered the surface in the light decorator’s plastic. I made sure that this was air tight as then there would be less likelihood of the added layers moving as I felted it. I added extra soapy water to the top of the plastic so that my hands would slide easily over the surface. A little extra attention was paid when rubbing; to the sides so that the fibres stayed snug with the side of the resist and to the added layers. Then I started some light rolling. I did 100 rolls along the north/east/south and west of the piece, flipped it over and did the same on the other side. (800 in total) I kept at this until it was well prefelted and had started to shrink:
Here I have spiraled ribbon prefelt around the resist. I did this twice
Both sides have been wet down and covered in decorators plastic
At this point, I cut a small hole in the piece. I immediately set about sealing the hole by rubbing the edge so that the fibres would not contract and make the hole bigger. This was important as I wanted to sew the hole up again after I took out the resist. Once this was done, I used nylon thread to sew up the gash. Nylon thread will not felt in to the work so the stitches can be removed afterwards.
I cut a hole in the prefelt
pulling out the resist
sewing the hole with nylon thread
I want to show you all the bits and pieces at this point. You can see how much the felt has shrunk already when compared to the resist. You can also see three felting tools which I am using to work the piece and direct the shrinkage. The ball like one I found on a wood turners stall at a show. I wanted to buy it from him but he could not sell it to me so he generously donated it to the cause! The unusually multiangular shaped tool is most cherished as it was a gift from a friend who had travelled to Japan. ‘The third, more pointed one I purchased from a friend who is based in Germany.
all the equipment. the shrinkage so far!
Then I got down to the job of some serious fulling and shaping. Lots of rolling and rubbing with the well soaped tools happened at this stage. It would also be possible to do this stage with your fingers but it might be fun to see what you have around the kitchen that could also work. Here are a few photos of the work in progress:
focussing on in between the red sections using tools
another view with the tools to hand
Of the many joys felting brings into my life, I simply love the stage in the process where the wool begins to act like clay and starts moulds to my will and desires. These are always happy moments and they make what can often be lots of hard work seem very much worthwhile. Once I removed the nylon thread, I continued on to the final shaping and drying. And here is the final result from a variety of angles:
Spiral and its reflection
photos of the final piece (shaped but not completely finished)
photos of the final piece (shaped but not completely finished)
photos of the final piece (shaped but not completely finished)
photos of the final piece (shaped but not completely finished)
photos of the final piece (shaped but not completely finished)
photos of the final piece (shaped but not completely finished) (I like this angle!)
I may continue to play with the shape a bit more when I have time. I have since made a bigger version where I doubled the size of the original oval and used a different breed of fibre. This piece was made with a natural cream coloured fibre and I have to say I prefer the two colours as it highlights the spiral shape better. That said, I enjoyed my explorations into differential shrinkage.
I hope that this post will tempt you to try some differential shrinking. If you decide that this project is for you, please let me know. Better still, show me your results and let me know what tools (if any) that you have discovered around the house to help you with shaping.
Happy felting to all!
Helene x
Upcoming workshops:
I currently have two on-line workshops on offer through the Felting and Fibre Studio College of Fiber and Arts. The 3D felted pod is available all year round so you can apply to join it anytime. The workshop is recorded in real time so you can work alongside the videos. There are also PDFs that fully follow the video recordings. I am also available in the virtual classroom should students want to ask any questions or share their beautiful creations. Here is a link to further information on the course: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/online-course-wet-felting-a-vessel-using-a-simple-resist/
Wet Felting a Pod!
Laying out your fibre
Checking for ridges
The finished pod
Different shapes …
Registration opens on 13th March for my Wet Felted Hanging Spiral course. The course will start on 27th March and will run until 24th April. If you would like to find out more about this course, please head over to the page at https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/hanging-felted-spiral/.
Here are some photos of students’ beautiful work from past courses:
Els’ spiral is a lovely shade with beautiful surface decoration
Elizabeth used a variety of autumnal colours on her lovely piece. Her decorative leaves are die cut. Inspiring!
Debbie’s beauty!
Margarethe P (Northern Italy) Isn’t it stunning!
Marie’s second beautiful spiral, spinning in the spring sunshine
A few years ago I was invited to join a felting group. It is called Unperfect 10 and it is currently made up of 10 members who are based in Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland and Canada. Distance requires that we meet online and we aim to be there every 6 weeks. The challenge is that we can only use 10 grams of fibre in our projects.
There’s a good deal of catchup and banter when we meet up. Then we each present our piece, our thinking behind our design and we briefly describe how we made it. After that we decide on a theme for our next meet up, whether we can use a resist and at times we will work to a specified colour too.
I thought I might show you some of the pieces I have produced over the past while and tell you a little about each piece.
The Twister:
The challenge was 10 grams of fibre over a 20cm circular resist and incorporating prefelts.
I thought I would play with differential shrinkage here. The dark base took a little over 4 grams of fibre (2 layers each side). The remaining weight was divided between 6 colours and an ombre effect prefelt was made in 4 layers. Then it was cut into 1cm strips, 7 in total. These were wrapped around the circular resist. This gave 6 layers around the main section of the resist and 30 layers where they all came together at the top and the bottom. It shrank nearly 50% and then I twisted it until I got this spiral effect.
close up of spiral twister
view of the array of colours on the spiral twister
the top of the twister
Facing darkness:
was this session’s 10g challenge. My theme was life’s challenges, the curveballs that are thrown at us all. At first, they appear insurmountable, difficult to navigate, and find a way through. Then, often, we start to see the possibilities as we look closer. Or we experience acceptance and light dawns. We regain our momentum and move forward often stronger from the experience. My slide show takes the viewer through this journey from the darkness of the challenge when initially faced to personal progression. For this challenge, I laid out a variety of different colour fibres on the resist. Then I topped it off with the black merino and some angelina fibres. Once fulled, I cut out shapes and added a little stiffener to it as I wanted it to maintain its shape. An LED tealight completes the piece.
The sphere before it is lit up
The felted sphere has angelina fibres on its outside
the darkness is abating
light and shadows – Facing Darkness
another view – pretty colours and shadows reveal themselves on Facing Darkness
Pretty colours and shadows reveal themselves on Facing Darkness
Pretty colours reveal themselves on Facing Darkness
Home:
The theme on this occasion was Home. We were free to decide how we represented it once we kept to the 10 grams.
Home to me involves a specific room in the house, the kitchen. It is the place for gatherings, family and/or friends, happiness, and informality. This is not a time to pull out the best china cups. It’s the mismatched crockery and, at its centre, the cup of tea. It can be my kitchen or yours. It’s home, and no one present cares about dusty surfaces or dirty windows. It’s home and it’s love.
I worked around a resist and kept a little fibre back for the handle of the cup. I worked with a number of colours; peach and green for the outside, white for the inside and brown for the tea. I added the handle to the prefelt and formed the ‘cup’ by turning the top of the area (white and brown part) to the inside of the cup.
a cup of wooly tea
a cup of wooly tea another view
a cup of wooly tea the cup is half full!
Carnival:
Another theme was Carnival. For this challenge we each made a piece of prefelt which we then sent to a partner. Our felting buddy interpreted the theme on the prefelt and then returned it to its owner.
I chose to go back in time to the early Venetian carnivals. These were “silent” celebrations, participants did not speak lest their accents gave them away! (In theory it was supposed to allow the classes to mix but I suspect that the wealth showed through on the garments) To ensure this ‘anonimity’, masks were held in place by the mouth, a strap for the men, and a ball or button for the ladies. Today, many feel it safer to ‘button our lips’ as our opinions are being shot down. This ancient addition acknowledges it.
The curls are a ‘nod’ to the Romans, who are believed to have invented carnival. I used part of the prefelt that my buddy sent to me, and added margillan silk, extra merino and, of course a button. Everything brought the weight back to 10g.
Spikies!
The components of the Carnival mask
building the mask
The back of the mask is covered in margilan silk
checking the weight!
Carnival mask
Silence was the key to anonimity.
side view of the Carnival mask
Escher inspired:
The next theme was Escher inspired.
Black and white fibre,
optical illusion,
tessellation,
3D.
My illusion was the creation of 2D that presents as 3D. Mine weighed in slightly under the 10 gram (9.62 to be exact 😉). I decided to mount the finished work on pins so that it floated above the base. I created three prefelts which were then cut to a pattern I had made and felted together. I had to take great care that I did not all it to distort when it was shrinking. It was a real challenge and I learnt a lot during it.
Escher Inspriation
working out the calculations!
prefelts laid down ready for fulling
side view of the work
another side view of the piece
side view ‘on the flat’
front view of the work
Botanical:
I have many more but I will just show you one more.
The challenge was as follows:
3D or sculptural art piece
Botanical
3 colours of summer
2 pieces unconnected, can be interactive, second piece can be hidden or integrated inside
use resist or no resist
My inspiration came from the poppies growing in my garden. Being the lazy gardener, I love the way they self seed! Their petals are fragile so not a lot of fibre is needed. So photos here attempt to show the stages of growth, the closed petals opening and falling to reveal the pod. I hand beaded the seeds.
poppy in vase 2
poppy in vase 1
Worms eye view of the poppy flower
in two parts ready to lose its seeds
another photo of the seed head
seeded glass beads were sewn on for the seeds
I hope this post might inspire you to set up your own group. A resolution for the New Year? It doesn’t have to be felting, it just needs to have a particular focus and a challenge that everyone commits to for the following meeting. I am here thinking it’s a bit like a book club but instead of reading and discussing a chosen book, everyone is presenting their interpretation based off an agreed theme and limits.
As a group, we are always amazed at how diverse the interpretations are. It’s great fun but it also gives me direction when I feel my creativity is drying up!
I wish you a wonderful festive period.
Thank you for reading this post (I know everyone is so busy at this time of year).
Wishing peace, happiness and great health to and your loved ones in 2026.
I’m hoping the featured image will make you curious!
Before I start into my post I want to mention my new course on wet felting which was recently launched with the Felting and Fiber Studio. It’s designed for felt makers who are new to using resists.
It’s fully supported by ‘how to’ videos and PDFs and we work with the simple circle. You will learn how to make a vessel and at the end I discuss with you the possibilities of how you can take it further.
So, you start by learning how to make something like this ….
Then I discuss a few variations that can be made with the circle and you could choose after the course, to make something like this ….
I discuss how to make this sculpture on the new course
I had set aside around half of the onion skin dye pot to try out on some fabric (I used the rest to make the pigment). I decided to experiment with a little margilan silk and some woven wool fibre. I mordanted these fabrics first, using an alum solution. The alum attracts the dye particles and the colour is less likely to wash out.
Margilan Gauze dyed with yellow onion skins.Woven wool sample dyed with yellow onion skins
I love the vibrancy of the results. I would describe the wool sample as deep orange while the silk sample turned out more of a golden colour. It is quite the challenge to get the photo to reflect the true colour of the fabrics. I now need to work out what to do with these two fabrics. To be honest, there is not a lot of either and I don’t have a toning fibre to use behind the margilan – I think I will have to make up another batch of the onion skin dye.
Once I finished dyeing the few bits of fabric, I transferred the remainder into a 5 litre container. I basically forgot about it and only remembered it when I came to put together this post. So it has been sitting around for two months.
Now I need to digress a bit. Our lovely little pooch, Archie developed a lump on his elbow a number of months ago. We have been keeping an eye on it as his vet warned that it would become impossible to remove if it grows much bigger. (there would not be enough surrounding tissue to easily sew up the wound). As fate would have it, it grew and Archie went ‘under the knife’. He was discharged wearing his ‘cone of shame’ which we quickly swapped for an inflatable version – much more comfortable for Archie and for the humans too – less bruising on our lower limbs. The only downside was that the cushioning around his neck caused him to snore. He sleeps in the bedroom with us and this was cute for about five minutes….. The cone was tied with an elastic bandage. I was having fun playing with the weave and thought it might be fun to felt with.
Archie in his blow up collar and sore paws
I made a bangle. First I laid down the bandage and wrapped it around a resist which matched the length of the bandage. Then I laid down layers of merino fibre – 6 thin layers in total. I felted it to fit my wrist and shaped it. The whole purpose was to see how it would take the old onion skin leftover dye. I did a cold mordant – I soaked it in 10% of its weight in alum and left it overnight. I rinsed it out and popped it into the dye bath, slowly bringing it to the boil.
Here is the result. The colour is a lot lighter than its first run. That said I decided to speed up the process as the smell of the dye bath was pretty awful. In fact it was pretty disgusting. I endured it for around one hour and then my nostrils got the better of me. I poured off the majority of the dye bath and then left the bangle to cool in the rest. I also lit a scented candle (it really did take away the stink – good to know going forward!)
Bangle made with merino and elasticated bandage dyed with yellow onion skins
While I like the colour, I think I will use it as a base to play with stitches. So I may be back to you on that.
I mentioned in my last post that I had just ordered a book on pigment making and that I might review it, if readers would like that. I know I am stepping away slightly from textiles and felt here but it is possible to combine pigment and textiles (alcohol inks anyone?). I was feeling quite excited as I had ordered the book and it was on the cusp of delivery. I got a positive response so here it is.
The book is called ‘Natural Watercolor Paint Making’ and it is by the artist Joanne Green. Some of you may already follow Joanne on Instagram (#joanne_green_art). I love watching her magically transform plant matter into pigments and then reconstitute it into a paint which she uses in sketches of the plant which has formed the basis of the actual pigment. Very clever and a great pleasure to watch.
Cover sleeve of Joanne Green’s book
Joanne’s book is beautifully presented and very readable. It’s a bit like sitting with a knowledgeable friend having a chat over coffee. The materials and supplies list is very comprehensive and I found that there’s really nothing on the lists that could not be sourced. With regard to the topics covered, I think the easiest way to show this is by sharing the contents pages. As you can see, there’s a whole section devoted to step by step instructions on how to make the lake pigment from the moment you have produced your dye bath through to turning your powdered pigments into watercolours and how to store your new treasures. Joanne is living in Canada but I can easily access many of the plants she uses in her recipes in Ireland.
Photography (primarily by Canadian photographer Tegan McMartin) – is sumptuous and a pleasure to view. It’s interspersed with Joanne’s tiny watercolours that are a feast to the eyes.
I am so pleased that I made the leap and purchased this book. I found it easy to source too. If you are a fan of Joanne’s social media postings or are curious about producing pigments, then it is a worthy purchase.
This particular post has been inspired by some of our regular readers so here’s a quick advance thank you. I really love it when comments lead to further exploration and sharing!
Just a few cautionary words before I go on. I dip in and out of dyeing, definitely a hobbyist and I purely play so my dyeing exploits are experimental. There are lots of great sites out there if you really want to dig deep or if, like me you sometimes just love to watch someone’s process on social media you could check out @thedogwooddyer or @sashaduerr or @joanne_green_art on Instagram. Joanne has recently published a book which I would love to get hold of – it’s all about pigments. I have Sasha Duerr’s book; Natural Palettes and although it focuses on plants grown around California, there’s plenty of botanical commonality going on. It can be hard to believe that it’s Ireland I am talking about – and yes we do have some specimen Californian Redwoods here!
Second cautionary note: please exercise caution when dyeing and keep all of your dyeing equipment separate to your cooking equipment. It’s very important. Also, just because something is natural doesn’t automatically mean it is safe to handle without gloves or a mask. We recently had to burn wood in our pit. I extracted the charcoal and made some lye as an experiment. The pH is such that if it lands on skin it will feel like soap, lovely and soft, but what is happening is that it is dissolving the outer layer of skin! But please don’t be deterred by this. Just exercise caution and common sense and all will be grand!
When I started looking around for something to play with for this blog post I found some fallen branches from one of our cedar trees. I stripped the bark and left it to soak with the intention of throwing some fibres straight into the mix as the high level of tannins in the dye lot would mean that I did not have to heat the mix for it to work. After about a week soaking the mix I made the mistake of stirring it without gloves on. The resin in the mix started irritating my skin (yes, I learned a lesson that day). So it was back to the drawing board to find something safer to extract the dye from. (I haven’t yet learned how to extract the resin from the mix!)
This time I decided to opt for something most of us have at our disposal – compost! Onion skins to be more precise. I have been collecting these for quite some time (we are talking months here – I have been storing them in a cotton bag and they kept perfectly!). I had approximately 110g of skins which I just threw in a huge stock pot (used only for dyeing). I filled it three quarters way with water – not particularly scientific, probably around 6 litres, and put it on a low heat for about 4 hours. During this time I should have checked it (oops, I forgot!) but it was fine. It came to a rolling simmer. By this time it was bed time so I just turned it off and left it overnight to cool and then drained off the skins. There still appears to be colour left in the skins so I popped them into a nylon bag and left them to dry on the washing line – I will try to extract more dye another day.
The colour was a lovely rich colour – like a golden red. So I decided to extract the pigment from 1 litre of the liquid and use the rest for sample dyeing. I will hold on to the dyeing section for my next post as otherwise this will get a little too long and boring for you to read.
110g of onion skins ready for dye extraction
Overview Yummy colour.
Yummy colour against the light
Discarded onion skins. I dried these and I will dye with them again before composting them
Let’s start with the pigment making. We are talking natural dyeing here. Extracting the pigment from the dye liquid involves introducing a few ingredients which bind the molecules to themselves and cause them to separate from the liquid. First I am using an acid (alum) (which can also be used as a mordant on fabric and fibre to prepare the surface for dyeing). Then I add an alkaline solution (soda crystals). The two chemicals react and the pigment separates and sinks to the bottom. This can fizz up so make sure there’s plenty of room in the container. (Remember those great lava making experiments done back in the to encourage kids into science? You get my drift). The liquid is drained off then the remaining pigment is left to drain in a coffee filter. Once drained, the colour can be filtered in distilled water, dried, ground et voila! Pigment.
So, what do you need for this. As we are playing we will work in small quantities:
1 litre of dye liquid (filtered to remove all the plant material)
Alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) You will have to check where you can source this as it differs depending on location. Like me, you may need to buy online.
Soda crystals (I also use these to clean my washing machine so I can buy them in homeware shops)
pot and cooker to heat the liquid
2 Litre jug that can withstand hot liquid.
Glass jars (if you are patient, you will fit everything in 1 jar
Funnel
Coffee filter
Spoons (measuring and stirring)
weighing scales
pestle and mortar
boiling water
distilled water
Heat the dye liquid but don’t let it boil
Add the alum to a container then add boiling water and stir to dissolve the crystals. This may take a little while so be patient and make sure they are thoroughly dissolved. Quantities? My research has shown that this very much depends on the plant material, but a good starting point is 10% alum to liquid. I used 10 grams here.
Carefully (don’t burn yourself!) pour the dye liquid into the large jug. I tend to do this at the sink. Then add the alum liquid and stir well.
Now dissolve the soda crystals in boiling water. I used 5g here. Once dissolved add this to the big jug and stir. You may notice a fizzing chemical reaction.
Leave the solution to cool and separate. The pigments will sink to the bottom of the jug. The liquid on top should be clear. If it is not, it means that there is some pigment left in it and you could choose to play further with this liquid, once it is drained off. (In other words, repeat the steps outlined above).
Carefully pour off as much of the liquid as you can, without disturbing the pigment.
Set up your glass jar: place the funnel into it and then add the coffee filter to the funnel. Make sure that the funnel is not hitting the bottom of the jar – we want the drained liquid to escape through the bottom
Next slowly pour the wet pigment into the coffee filter. I find if I hurry at this, the filter can disintegrate so I let the filter soak up some of the damp as I am pouring.
Leave this overnight so that the water has mostly drained off and the pigment remains.
Now if you are planning to store your pigment, it is recommended that it is washed at least twice with distilled water and filtered through fresh coffee filters. This is to remove any unwanted mineral salts from the pigment. I am only playing so I did not bother with this step. I know that if this whets your appetite to find out more, you will remember this step.
The next step can be done either when the pigment is completely dry or getting there, scrape it into a mortar (bowl). Once completely dry start grinding using the pestle but be sure to wear a mask for this part as the dust is quite fine.
I store my pigments in tiny glass jars (yes, you guessed 1 litre doesn’t produce a lot but it makes up for it in satisfaction!). Make sure to label and date.
I have put together a slide show on the process I used.
Materials for making pigment
Heating up the liquid dye
Dissolving the alum – be patient, it takes time
Alum and soda crystals are getting to work
The pigment has sunk to the bottom of the jug
I do like this colour!
A bit blurred but here we can see the settled pigment
Here’s a photo of the filtration system
Slowly pouring the pigment into the coffee filter
The filter has soaked up some of the liquid
Here you can see the clear liquid draining off the pigment
Pigment is still draining
Checking on the pigment as it dries
Opening the coffee filters before scaping them clean
Scraping the pigment into the bowl. This will be left to dry
It takes time to grind down the pigment particles, patience is needed.
The yield is quite small but it’s still rewarding
This is the basic process. Colours can be altered before making the pigment by introducing an acid or an alkali and if this is of interest to you, it will be worth doing a bit of research.
I have, in a way, put the cart before the horse here, as I am showing you the process of making the pigment before running through the fabulous colours I achieved with this in dye form. But a promise is a promise and I wanted to deliver so I hope on this occasion you can forgive me. The general ‘rule’ that I have found is to use 10% of the volume of the dye as the binder. So for every 1 litre of dye liquid use 10 grams of alum. Then use 5 grams of soda crystals (or similar) and let the substance perform its magic. This is a good starting point. But like all rules a bit of flexibility can be needed so these figures can change and this is where experience comes into play (knowing what adjustment is needed for different plants). Most importantly, your curiousity and willingness to play comes to the fore here. Just give it a go and have lots of fun.
Helene
A little post script before this blog is published:
Since my adventures with onion skins, I decided to experiment with the yellow Chrysanthemums flowers from a lovely bouquet that had seen better days and was destined for the compost heap. I used the same ratio of alum and soda crystals only this time I didn’t hold back some of the dye material for fabrib experimentation and I made up pigment with the full dye bath. Here is the result:
Chrysanths pigment made from the yelow flower head
I may have mentioned this last year, but we have a farmer who grows a number of acres of sunflowers every summer. It’s done for charity and it is open to the public to come along, pick the sunflowers and make a donation to the Hospice Foundation. There’s an honesty box on site. It is a form of Meitheal – part of Irish culture where people help others out. By the time I arrived last week, a lot of the sunflowers had ‘gone over’. That said, after a lot of searching I found some that had yet to open and I was very pleased. So I picked and made my donation. Once home I started cutting off the lower leaves and I cut some of the stems so that they would look better in the vase. Rather than discard the waste I decided to run a little experiment. I slowly brought them to the boil. The smell was not particularly nice so I let everything cool down outside. I found I had a lot of liquid (and plenty of dark green dye), so I reduced down the liquid by heating it up again. (I did this out doors this time!). Then I made my pigment. It’s hard to see from the photos but it is a lovely dark green. I worked with a little over 2 litres of liquid. As you can see, it doesn’t produce a lot of pigment but it is very concentrated:
Sunflower leaf and stem pigment
I have decided to treat myself to Joanne Green’s new book Natural Watercolor Paint Making. I have followed her for a long time on Instagram and love her short videos on how she makes pigment. She had followed this up with a book about the process and I could not be happier. I heard from the book store that it is on its way to me so I’m quite excited about that. Please let me know if you would like me to review it in my next post.
I think I might have had too much time on my hands a while ago. As we say here ‘What’s seldom is wonderful!’ So I got a little curious about some things. Fibre of course had to be involved.
We don’t drink coffee in our house – my husband was never a fan and I found myself to be allergic to it after going cold turkey in China back in the 80s. I do love the coffee aroma and I can be sometimes found near one of our oldest coffee houses in Dublin, Bewleys, just sniffing the air. At this point, I really have to post a link to their rather famous cafe in the heart of Dublin. It’s a haunt of mine, even though I can’t drink it. It is worth calling in to if you are on vacation (the food is amazing). There can be queues so it is worth going early. Besides the food, the original works of art are breath taking. https://bewleysgraftonstreet.com/
What has this got to do with my post – absolutely nothing – but I just had to share so you have a special spot to add to your itinerary when you visit Dublin, Ireland.
But, I digress. We drink a lot of tea in the house and while I like lots of different flavours, I tend to consume mostly an Irish brand, Barrys. It, along with an Irish brand of crisps (potato chips) called Tayto are two products most requested when visiting ex-pats. We use tea bags rather than leaf tea and we compost the remainder as the bags are now biodegradable.
My first thought during this time of being busy doing nothing was, would the tea bags (without the tea) felt into merino fibre. Before I could experiment I had to empty the tea bags and wash and dry them. I have to admit this was not a favourite job. The smell of the used bags assaulted my nostrils, so I worked quickly (every cloud, silver lining and all that!). Once dry I divided the bags into two groups and I made marks on one group with what I thought was alcohol based walnut ink and let it dry. Then I went to work laying down the ‘marked’ tea bags and adding 10g of merino fibre on top (4 layers) I finished off with the unmarked tea bags, layering them so that I could see how thick it could make them before the fibre would stop permeating them.
It was a successful experiment. The bags fully felted into the fibre and the sample shrank by 45%. The marks, however disappeared, so I will add them again. It turns out the ink was acrylic – note to self: next time, read the label before buying!
I do like the textural finish on this piece and it is good to see that something as mundane and ordinary as a used tea bag can yield a successful result. Here’s a very quick peak at the bags and outcome:
Marking on teabags with ink Felted sample plain tea bag up Felted sample mark side up – lots of the marks washed out
Recently, I’ve been doing a bit of reading up on the science behind making felt. What we usually do is add soap to water, in my own case, I use olive oil soap which has a pH of 8. The paper I read maintained that wool fibre would felt once the pH value was moved from neutral. This meant that I should be able to felt a sample by adding an acid solution to the fibre. I was keen to try it to see what would happen.
First of all, I rinsed off all my equipment, my water bowl, ball brause, bubble wrap and fulling cloth to make sure there was no soapy residue around. Then I laid out my sample (4 layers). I checked the pH of the water, which was neutral. I then added a quarter cup of vinegar to my water and checked the pH value which was now 4. The water was tepid. I wet out the sample. The first thing I noticed was that the water did not soak into the fibre as it usually does when soap is added and it took a lot more water and pushing on the fibres to encourage them to soak up the water. When I turned the sample over, there were still dry patches so even more water was needed! That (plus the smell) were the only differences I noticed. It felted easily and shrank down 47%. When it came to fulling the sample, I heated up the water/vinegar solution in the microwave. One advantage of using the acid solution is that the ‘water’ could be used for the next project. That said, I reckon it could be very hard on the hands if this was my main way of making felt. So I am going to decant it into a spray bottle and use it to clean windows, no waste!
Sample of layout for acid experiment
Checking the PH of the water before I start
Ph of sample during felting
We have a beautiful Norweigan Spruce tree growing in our front garden. I like to refer to it as the gift that keeps on giving because it constantly suprises us. For example, last year, while I was mindlessly staring into the garden, it launched a pollen bomb. For those of us (this included myself up to this point) unfamiliar with the term, the tree released it pollen all in one go. So the whole tree was suddenly surrounded by a yellow haze. In an instant, the haze lifted into the sky and was carried off in the wind. It was truly spectacular. I have lots of allergies and pollen would be one of my nemesis but I would put up with the discomfort to see this again. Here’s a short Youtube video on the topic. Our tree did it on its own while this one was shook but you will get the picture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh2Da8Ms45M
Anyway, back to my story. I found I had lots of fallen pine cones at the base of the tree so I gathered only some of them and put them on to boil in my dyepot. The house was filled with a gorgeous pine scent during this process. Once I had extracted the dye from the cones, I filtered the mix through some muslin to remove the resin. The colour was absolutely stunning – a jewel red. I used it for four experiments; first of all, I extracted a litre of the liquid to make a pigment, then I used the remainder of the dyebath to dye some fibres (unfortunately I do not have a photo of the results and they are now added to my mountain of experiments (unlabelled – what was I thinking!). Experiment number three involved adding some of the leftover dye bath to citric acid to make a pigment. In the last experiment I left the liquid alone and just added the alum and soda crystals to separate the dye from the liquid base. Once separated, I filtered the liquid out of the pigment, then dried and ground all the results. So, I ended up with three different pigments and some dyed fibre experiments. I have inclluded a photo of the pigment made last summer and the result of the latest experiment in winter. There is quite a difference in the colour as you will see from the slide slow:
Gathered pine cones in the dye pot
Filtering the resin during dye extraction
Glorious colour from the cones!
Catching the dye colour in the sunshine!
Making pigment
I threw a variety of fibres into the dyepot
Cone pigment before it dries
Not sure which experiment with pine cones this photo related to
The filtering process with the pine cones
pigment comparison on pine cones: summer one is to the right winter to the left – same tree, different result
Pine cone – liquid extracted before using the dyebath.
leftover dye bath from the pine cones with citric acid added
pine cone pigment from leftover dye bath
There’s a back story to the last project. We have a number of fruit trees in our garden. Unfortunately we lost one of our plum trees last year. This was despite our eldest son’s (naturally green fingered which he inherited from paternal grandmother having skipped a generation) efforts to save it. Finally, there was no other option but to fell it. He also decided to remove the roots which was a big job as the tree had been there a number of years. It became the focus for my last household and garden project. I wanted to find out if the dye from plum tree bark differs from the dye from plum tree root. To find out, I decided to peel some of the bark off one of the branches. I did the same with the outer cover of the root. I soaked these in different containers for up to a week. Now, here’s what I found interesting. Whereas I needed to heat the pine cone liquid to extract the dye in my previous project, this was not needed for the bark/root projects; the dye naturally extracted sitting in its vessel and the high tannin level meant that all I needed to do was soak my fibres and fabric. It was like magic! I wanted to use the dye in some small vessels I made for the 10g challenge I spoke about in my last post. Then, I took what remained in the dye pot and made pigment from it. I found it interesting that the result from the plum bark dye yielded a lighter colour dye but a richer pigment – the root was the opposite. The fabric/fibre experiment produced is a lovely rich golden hue on the different surfaces. Also, it turned out to be another gift that kept on giving as each time I used up all the dye, I added more water to the two mixes and it kept extracting dye – I could not even notice if the dye was weaker in the second round than it was in the first. In the end I composted the bark and roots as I needed to move on with life (I got busy again!)
Here’s a quick run through in photos:
Paring back the plum bark
Paring the plum root
time to play with dyeing fibre plum root
Trying Shibori – not particularly satisfactory when opened up
sample of all the different fibres I played with – plum root
Dye -v- pigment comparison plum bark
dye -v- pigment comparison plum root
Plum root final colour when rinsed and dried – Yum!
Do you use household or garden items in your textile practice? Have they ever surprised you? I would love to hear about your experiences.
Between exhibitions and challenges, I have been busy for the past few months – at least it kept me out of trouble. I thought I might present some of the pieces to you here.
Just by way of background, I am a member of a small group of feltmakers. At any time, there are a maximum of 10 in the group and the group is called Unperfect 10. I recently learned the reason for the name. It is in recognition that all members are very ambitious but far from perfect. I like the name even more now that I know its history. We meet online every six weeks and we agree a theme for a challenge, the result of which we present at our next get together. Although the theme changes each time, the weight stays the same. The piece we present should weigh 10 grams. It’s not always that easy to weigh in at exactly 10 grams (perhaps that is another reason why our group is called the Unperfect 10!)
So far, we have met three times this year. The theme for our January meeting was ‘Home’. Members’ interpretations were very personal. For me, home revolves around the kitchen. It is the place for gatherings, happiness and informality. This I represented in a cup of tea. Unfortunately I cannot find my original resist but I have drawn one here to give you an idea what it looked like. I laid out the orange fibre on the cup, the handle and just inside the rim and the laid the white and light brown fibre on the upper dome to represent the tea. I then added the circles on the cup as decorations. I felted and fulled the cup, cutting a hole in the base of the cup to remove the resist. I turned the dome top to the inside of the cup, shaped and finished it off. Here are photos of the result.
rough sketch of the concept
View of the cup
I’ll have a half cup!
View inside my cup of tea!
Our meeting in February required a little more planning. The theme was ‘Carnival’ and each member had to make a prefelt for another member and post it on to them. This prefelt then was used as the main fabric for our creations. Once finished, the piece was posted back to the person who made the prefelt. After a lot of research, I decided to make a colourful version of the Venetian Moretta mask. While in its day, the Moretta mask had other connotations (think Dangerous Liaisons) I was attracted to the button or ball which was attached to the back of the mask as it stopped women from talking, something I felt was pertinent in many societies today. I included curls on the mask – this was a ‘nod’ to the Romans who are believed to have invented carnival, although it was a different affair back then. I used part of the prefelt I received, added some extra fibre, margillan silk and, of course, a button.
Front view of the carnival themed moretta mask.
Side view of the mask. The Curls are a reference to Roman sculptures.
The back of the mask. I added margillan silk and, of course the button!
We had our third meeting in early April. The theme this time was a little more challenging as we worked from a number of words. M.C. Escher; Optical Illusion; Tessellations; Black and White fibre; 3D Sculpture; Resist; Template; Stencil. All of which had to be completed in a 10g presentation! M.C. Escher was a Dutch Graphic artist and if you like you can find out more about his work here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher
I found a section of an Escher piece that I liked and got to work. First, I made my pattern which comprised three identical diamond shapes that made up a cube. Then I made three different colour prefelts (Black/White/Grey) which I then cut out and made into 25 joined cubes (75 pieces). These were then felted together. Once dried and shaped, I stiffened the piece and mounted it on pins in a box frame. The optical illusion is the 3D effect, especially when it is viewed in the frame:
My inspiration: Portion of MC Escher’s artwork ‘Cycle’
Checking the diamond shapes
Checking the layout of the prefelts
prefelts are ready for felting!
Altogether Cubes weighed in at 9.65g
Another side view of the cubes. I removed the glass as it was causing too much shine!
Cubes front view. The shadowing can be seen here.
View 3: walking around the piece
Side view of the cubes. It is pinned into the backing
I also had two pieces in exhibitions during March. The first was a live exhibition which was run by my local felting guild, Feltmakers Ireland. The guild is very well run and there is always something happening in it. If you are based in Ireland, it is well worth joining. The theme of the exhibition was “Symbols of Ireland” and I chose the Irish dry stone wall which was recently formally recognized with its inclusion in UNESCO’s prestigious list of protected cultural heritage practices, and the native Galway breed sheep for my piece. Ireland’s dry stone walls have been around since the Neolithic period so I felt that it would fit the brief. The Galway sheep produce beautiful fleeces which are very versatile and can be used for spinning, weaving and of course felting.
I first had to design and build my wall on paper. Then I made lots of different shades of grey nuno prefelts which were cut to the shapes of the stone drawings. Once the wall was felted onto its background, I needle felted the sheep’s head so that it would add dimension to the piece. This was attached to the picture and then the main body was needle felted using Galway fibre. I made a variety of prefelts which I then cut into the shape of foliage and lichen. These were then needle felted onto the stones. Unfortunately I did not keep a record of my process but here is the result.
Irish dry stone wall with sheep
A close up of the 3D effect and nuno work
Another closeup showing 3D plants and lichen
The top of the wall with additions
My final piece was for the online exhibition of the International Feltmakers Association. The theme here was ‘Connections’ and I was not sure what I would do for this. One morning I woke up with the words ‘Chaos theory’ in my head. I knew I needed to investigate this. It led me to my chosen topic ‘The Butterfly Effect’. The butterfly effect suggests small actions can have massive, unpredictable consequences. In society, this idea highlights how individual decisions—like a single vote or a small act of kindness—can ripple through time, influencing social movements, global events, or personal lives, ultimately shaping broader cultural and political outcomes.
Lyn and Annie’s beautiful work with tree canopies provided me with the inspiration for the background of this piece. I have been looking up a lot more since reading their posts on the beauty of the tree canopy. My base was inspired by a photo I took in New Zealand some time ago. I then needle felted the butterfly and then wet felted it. I wanted to be able to manipulate its wings so I added a light wiring to the back of the wings. I then decided that the tree canopy deserved a different perspective – what did we do as kids when looking up at the sky? I remember spinning around. So my square picture became a circle. I attached the butterfly by needle felting it securely to the picture but I also secured it to the felt backing to give it added dimension:
My inspiration. Taken in Auckland NZ last year
The tree canopy is laid out
close up of the felted butterfly
Checking possibilities for butterfly placement
I decided to cut the background into a circle. This gave me freedom to hang at any angle!
Closeup of the 3D butterfly
I hope you enjoyed my little ‘retrospective’. I would love to hear about what you have been working on over the past few months.
Just a little reminder: Registration will open shortly for my wet felted hanging spiral workshop which will begin on 2nd May. Please feel free to click here if you would like to find out more.
For a long time, I have been promising myself that I would take a workshop to get some sort of grip on how to use a spinning wheel. My friend Trish Kerr runs Irish Alpaca Yarns and she has for a long time been offering me a space on one of her spinning workshops – the stars never aligned as, invariably I was busy on the day. Then, in December, the offer was once again made and, I was actually free! The beautiful venue was not far away, Cornstown House (https://cornstownhouse.ie/) which was not far away from me. Happy days! Unfortunately there was a huge storm the night before but, despite fallen trees, we awoke to a clear bright day and I negotiated my way to the venue.
We were spinning using alpaca fibre. I hadn’t realised it until then but some people who have an allergy to wool fibre can wear alpaca. The irritant in wool apparently is the scales and alpaca does not have scales.
There were 5 students and some had previous experience. Luckily Trish is an amazing teacher. I had warned her that, given my hideous coordination when learning something new, that this could put a serious strain on our friendship. She laughed it off. Trish has great patience which she got to draw on in bucket loads when it came to teaching yours truly!
We were working off Louet wheelswhich she supplied. She is quite an expert on the older more traditional wheels too, and she was able to offer good advice on how to get an old wheel which a student had brought, back working again.
A traditional wheel one of the students brought in for some advice
What a beauty, owned I think by our host Fionnuala
All she wanted were cuddles
Trish got us all set up and was very attentive throughout the morning. The first skill we worked on was treadling, as a first timer it took a lot of effort but after a while I had the wheel moving in a clockwise direction. She set us up with alpaca fibre and soon we were all spinning. Some (by this I mean most) much better than yours truly here. But I was having fun.
Trish started us all off drafting setting us up with Alpaca yarn
The morning flew and we stopped for a delicious lunch and tour of the farm, both supplied by our most gracious hosts, Fionnuala and Dominic. The tour was great fun, featuring lots of Alpacas, some rare breed sheep (including one that loved to be patted, a cow and donkeys. The farm offers Alpaca Trekking and workshops along with other events. When I explained that I primarily was a feltmaker and showed an interest in the Teeswater, Dominic disappeared for a few minutes and arrived back with some raw fleece for me to play with when I got home.
I had to include this photo. The pumpkin was still going strong!
She just wanted cuddles
Chatting up the girls!
The donkeys were very friendly, and happy out if you had a carrot in hand!
Just look at that pretty face!
What a beauty!
Those eyes!
When we returned from our tour, Trish gave us a presentation on alpaca fleeces which was very interesting.
So soft and of course no lanolin!
Trish showed us what to expect from a quality fleece
We plied our yarn in the afternoon. Now that I had ‘mastered’ the clockwise, introducing the ‘counter-clockwise’ was, let’s say, interesting. This is what I produced. It is, I believe, kindly referred to as ‘Art Yarn’. Now, I am in the horns of a dilemma. I want to spin more but I don’t want to ever spin a nice even ply. The general consensus in the room was that once you perfect the spin you can’t return to the Art Yarn. Now, while I appreciate that at my learning speed, perfection is a long way down the road. I don’t want to get there but I would like to spin more art yard and, if I’m honest, I would love a new toy in a spinning wheel. Any ideas?
My plied alpaca art yarn
I played with the Teeswater when I got home. Here is the result:
Scouring the teeswater
Final view
another view,lit by LED
A view of my experiment with Teeswater
Last year, I wrote up a number of posts about various dyeing workshops I had attended. In one I dyed a lot of fabric samples and wondered what I should do with them. I think it may have been Ruth who suggested that I could think about stitching into some. I have never embroidered by hand before but decided to give it a try over Christmas. Here is my first effort. I was inspired by a photo online. Once completed, I padded it with some cotton batting and backed it with linen. I might frame it at some stage but I will need to find a suitable frame.
Using the dyed fabric samples, I tried my hand at embroidery over Christmas
I totally enjoyed my day spinning, even though I was pretty dreadful at it. But I love the result and for once, I really don’t want to improve greatly at this. Long live Art Yarn!
Do you agree? Any hints and tips on how I can retain my current standard? All suggestions will be very gratefully taken on board. I’m just looking for an excuse to buy a wheel.
Happy Christmas everyone! At the moment you are probably up to your eyes getting ready for the days of festivities which lie ahead. So, I will give you a few options here. Here is a slideshow of my blog which you can go through in a few minutes if you are stuck for time. Alternatively you can read my narrative or if you have a while to spare why not grab a cuppa, pull up a chair, watch the slideshow and read the narrative!
I covered the resist with orange viscose and two layers of red merino
Then I added silk paper I made. I didn’t like it so I pulled it off when it was at prefelt stage
This is the lid of the furniture polish I used to shape my bells
Here they are after drying. I cut them to size as they were rather long
Here is a view of the inside of one of the bells
I rolled the bottom edge to show the orange viscose
I pinned the soluble paper to the bell and drew my pattern
I cut back the excess paper ones I had stitched the pattern
Then I added the beads
Here they are ready for dunking
The paper dissolved once the water hit it!
Then I crocheted the ‘rope’ I painted the silver bells with some bronze nail varnish
Here they are, ready to go!
A detail of the free motion machine embroidery and beading on the tree
Disaster struck using masking tape on the inside of the card. Back to the drawing board
I stippled the card using a stencil brush and red then gold paint
Inside the card (no masking tape this time!)
A selection of handmade Nepalese paper for Karen to play with
All packed in the box
Here’s the finished card which I glued to the lid of the box
All ready for posting
And finally, here they are, on Karen’s beautiful Christmas tree
I was so delighted when I drew Karen in the Christmas card exchange this year. I was also a bit daunted as I have been going through a bit of a dry patch creatively over the past number of months. I knew I wanted to do something that ‘stood out’ (in other words 3D) but this can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to postal systems.
While searching through one of my fibre presses I came across a deep small box that I had used to transfer a porcelain bowl home from my holiday in NZ earlier in the year. We won’t even talk about how my weird creative mind works but seeing the box instantly brought to mind bells so, decision made, I got to work on them.
First I made my resist. I intended making two bells. I covered the resist in an orange viscose fibre and then laid two layers of red merino on top. I added a hanging loop to each bell and some silk paper to each bell which I later pulled off as I didn’t like it. Once prefelted I cut through the resist to make two shapes and then started working on shrinking and shaping. Next, I searched for a suitable bell shape which I could use for the next stage. That’s where the beeswax came in! The lid is shaped like an old fashioned beehive which is an ideal shape to work with. Lots of rubbing and shaping ensued (and I will admit a bit of cutting as the shapes were too long), until I ended up with bell shapes I was happy with. Then I rolled the bases so that the orange showed on the outside.
I decided I wanted a simple embroidered design on each bell. I drew my tiny design on water soluble paper and added my stitches and a few beads to each bell. Then I dissolved the paper and reshaped the bell on the top of my little beehive! Once dry, I got to work on the ‘rope’ and the bell. My little jingle bells were silver and I had been searching, to no avail for gold ones which I thought would look better. Then I thought of using some nail varnish on the outside of the bells. Worked a treat! I then took some cotton embroidery thread and made the ‘rope’ which I attached to the body of the bell and to the inside of the little ‘jingle’. Then I threaded ribbon through the loop at the top of each bell so that Karen could hang them up. They fitted nicely into the box but I felt there was something missing. So I added a few little squares of Nepalese paper which I thought Karen might like to experiment with. Some of these are quite a lot heavier than the usual ones which are used in felting but I have managed to felt them into pieces. I thought she might have fun trying them out.
Next to the card. My cards were the same size as the box so I thought it might be fun to attach it to the box when it was ready. I opted for a monochrome effect to start with; I prefelted a tree which was made from black merino and margillan silk. Then I laid the tree onto a white merino background and felted the lot together. Once fulled, I cut it to size. Then it was decorating time which I did on my sewing machine using free motion embroidery. I added some beads too.
Time to address the card! I stippled the outside of the card with a stencil brush using red and then gold paint. Then I decided to do the same on the inside but got too creative and used masking tape so I could control the area where I was adding the colour. Once happy, I went to remove the masking tape. Disaster! It took away a goodly portion of the card too. I was not a happy bunny! On to the second attempt with the card (without masking tape this time), I was more successful. All done and ready for the post.
Karen has received her card today and I got mine from her yesterday. I love my card. Karen has gone to such detail with it I am going to treasure it. Like Lindsay’s card from a previous swap, it will be putting in an annual appearance at Christmas time.
I love the concept of the card swap. It keeps my felting friends close in my heart, especially at this time of year. Thank you to Ann who organised it and us.
Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2025!
