Felting and Fiber Studio

We think it likely that many people associate handmade felted, knitted or woven items with providing warmth in the darker months, so the ‘Personal Items’ challenge for this quarter is to make something that you could use in sunny weather.

It can be as simple or as complicated as you choose but most importantly it’s a challenge so perhaps try new colours or designs or something just a little different from your usual style.

Don’t take this too seriously though – it’s meant to be fun!

The first thing we all do at this time of year is to try to find our sunglasses so that we can read outside in the garden or on holiday.

This Kindle and these sunglasses could do with handmade cases to protect them and make them pretty and a textile bookmark would be very useful for the paperback.

Hmmm,  how about a lightweight sleeveless top or a delicate shoulder wrap and of course a sunhat is essential.

Annie said she wanted a new sunhat – one that would make a statement – so I made her one.  I don’t think it’s quite what she had in mind though.

It would be good to have a pretty tote bag for all those things too wouldn’t it?  A bag could be made from scratch or a simple jute bag could be purchased then embellished with textile panels or hand embroidery.

In January 2013 I embellished a plain jute tote bag with fabric scraps from an old skirt and a bit of rough machining.  The bag is still in use – it’s a bit grubby now but still pretty.

So whatever your skill level please enjoy this challenge and post your photos on the forum for us all to enjoy!

This challenge is inspired by our trip to Mottisfont Abbey where Kaffe Fassett exhibited over 70 glorious items including furniture fabric, clothing and wall hangings.

“I create in palettes of colour because that is my main obsession.” Kaffe Fassett

We were allowed to take photographs of Kaffe’s work at the exhibition – this is one of his wall hangings …

…and a close up of another.

Please click on the link below, scroll down a little, and you will come to a very short video of Kaffe Fassett talking about and showing some of his work.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont/features/kaffe-fassett-exhibition-at-mottisfont

So this quarter’s challenge is to make a “colourscape” using whatever fibre media you enjoy working with.  It can be realistic or abstract and any shape or form.

Go wild with this challenge and be as free as you like!

We often use our photos to inspire us, so we’d like to share some with you.

Chihuly Glass installation at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, US

Bar top in a hotel in Las Vegas, US

A Peacock in Madrid, Spain

Jellyfish in a Singapore aquarium

Gaudi mosaic in Barcelona, Spain

Meadow in Christchurch, UK

Leaves on the ground at Kew Gardens, London

Fishing nets in Crete

Glass House in West Dean gardens, Chichester, UK

Trees at Mottisfont Abbey, UK

Lego installation in Singapore botanical gardens

And finally some blueberry leaves in our garden in the autumn …

… and at this time of year, in some parts of the world, the trees and shrubs will be giving a wonderful display of colour!

We hope that you enjoy this challenge and that it brightens this quarter of the year.

Some cities in the UK have evolved over several centuries so that old and new buildings are often knitted together – this gate is in the city of Salisbury.

Councils invest in sculptures, green spaces, floral displays and bunting to make cities more attractive and some individuals will spend time and money enhancing their own small bit of the city.

Yet all this effort is often spoiled by vandals, litter louts and spray-can yobs who deface walls.

My cityscape is mixed media – I chose not to depict a whole city – just one old city building.

I wet-felted a base from white merino wool, then needle felted the building using black yarns of different thicknesses as shown in the photo below.

The bunting is cut from dupion silk scraps and glued in place, and the graffiti is hand stitched using a thick thread.  The finished piece is approx 33 x 23cm (13″ x 9″)

Is anyone else working on a cityscape?

This is going to be a real challenge!  We looked for pictures by forum members but cityscapes are as rare as hen’s teeth!

However, we did find this lovely felted picture by Ann (Shepherdess)…

…and Marilyn’s ‘Windy City’ cityscape…

…and here’s a rosiepink cityscape.

Make your cityscape using your favourite felting and fiber technique – or used mixed media – then please show it on The Felting and Fiber Forum

The word ‘cityscape’ brings to mind a view of a large part of a city, but it can be just a small part of a city such as a statue…

or a fountain…

something comical…

or floral…

or impressive architecture.

If you choose to depict a large part of a city, will it be day or night?

Will the view be ground level or from up high?

You could choose a city from history or perhaps part of your city has ancient buildings that still stand.

If you live in a city you might now look at it with new eyes as you consider the possibilities.

Have a look through your holiday photos – all the examples above came from our city trips.

Have fun with this challenge!    Remember that the challenge is not limited to making a picture – a cityscape can feature on clothing, accessories and homeware etc.

Last year we visited St Agnes, in Cornwall, on a day when there was a cloudless blue sky and a sea breeze.  So for my seascape inspiration I chose two photos of St Agnes beach and a photo of Annie’s ‘Flowers on Coverack Beach’.

I planned to make the sea the main focus with some pink flowers in the foreground.

I have a square white frame, 50x50cm (approx 20″sq) that I wanted to use, so to ensure that my seascape would fit well, I made a paper template to put under the bubble-wrap as a guide for the layout of wool fibres (photo below left).

I made two fine layers of white merino wool fibres then topped them with a third fine layer of pale blue wool fibres to make a base (photo below right).

The fourth layer (photo below left) was just bands of solid colour then I added a fifth (partial) layer of wisps of wool fibres (photo below right) to give the impression of waves and some thinly spread yellow wool blend to look like sand with a length of fancy yarn for the water’s edge…

… and the frilly edges of scrap white felt made the surf (the photo below is after felting).

I was just getting out some pink fibres to make the flowers when my son saw the work-in-progress.  I told him it wasn’t finished yet and that I was about to add flowers.  He went a bit quiet – he’s not a flower person – then he suggested that I should just stick a surfboard, upright, in the sand.  Why didn’t I think of that?

I made some yellow pre-felt then cut a surfboard shape from it.  I wetted down the sea and sand before placing the pre-felt on it.

After felting, when the seascape was dry, I added the stripes to the surfboard. Each stripe is just a large stitch of single ply cotton knitting yarn.

The felt that shows behind the white mount measures 38x38cm (approx 15″sq).

I’m glad that the days are long now because it makes photography easier. The seascape frame is deep so it stood, unaided, on my garden table … and the light was perfect!

An old music hall song’s opening line is: “Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside”.  And who doesn’t?

So this quarter the challenge is to make a seascape and it doesn’t have to be just ‘sea’. You might include beaches, yachts, lighthouses, seabirds, piers etc.  The Felting Forum embraces all things fibre and mixed media, so do your favourite thing or have a go at something new!

As in the previous challenge, size doesn’t matter and it doesn’t have to be wall art – your seascape could feature on clothing, a vessel or a mug mat.

Here are some seascapes made with various techniques:

Anne (Penguin) made this wet-felted seascape, added a gull using applique, then made a hanger from driftwood.   Anne wrote about how the picture evolved in this forum post

Tracey made this mixed media wet-felted seascape then added sea glass boats and shells.  She gave more details in this thread

Julie (Paintergirl) needle-felted ‘The Boathouse’ then added some stitching…

…she also needle-felted ‘Ailsa Craig’ shown below.  Julie has a photobucket slideshow here

More of Julie’s work can be seen at  Cloud 9 Gallery

Lindsay wet-felted ‘Big Wave’ – read more here

and ‘Winter Sea’ read more here

Annie (rosiepink) made this sea/sky image with dry wool fibres.  Un-felted fibre pictures can be photographed then the images printed to make wall art.  Or the fibres can be trapped under glass then framed.

Annie (rosiepink) made this nuno seascape with wisps of fibres and open-weave fabrics, then soaked it with CMC paste, scrunched it up a bit then let it dry.  It’s stiff enough to hang on a nail in the wall!

Here’s a part of it in close-up.

We hope you’ve been inspired to have a go at this challenge!  It would be lovely to see some new seascapes on the forum.

Lyn

I took inspiration, for the ‘Landscape Challenge’, from an old photo of my dad stood in front of ‘The Long Man’ of Wilmington in East Sussex.  The figure is carved into the chalk hill and is approx 235 feet high.

I liked the different colours and curves in the landscape, and at certain times of the year the fields in the middle ground would be brighter colours.

I was also inspired by Ruth to use up stuff that I already had, so out came the scrap box!  I sorted out several pieces of felt of different colours then chopped them into small pieces.

I decided to make the landscape first then needle felt the chalk figure on afterwards, so I arranged the coloured pieces – a bit like making a mosaic – on top of four layers of white merino wool.

This technique requires a pair of tweezers and a swear box – moving the little pieces of felt across loose white merino wool fibres is a test of patience and persistence.

I felted it all together very carefully so that the pieces didn’t move out of place.  Here is an angled shot after felting showing the texture …

… and a close up to show the variety of colour made by chopping up bits of felt …

… and doesn’t the reverse look pretty?  Quite a strong migration of colour through four layers of white!

I started to tack some white yarn onto the hill to represent the ‘Long Man’ but it didn’t look right – so I needle felted a different chalk figure!

The ‘Uffington White Horse’ in Oxfordshire is the oldest British chalk figure, believed to have been carved in the late bronze or early iron age, approx 3,000 years ago.

The finished size of the coloured area is 42 x 30cm (16.5″ x 12″).

Annie

Thought I’d do the same as mum after reading Ruth’s post about using things up so I gathered fabric and felt scraps and laid out a piece of felt with lots of blocks and bits that could loosely potentially become landscapes through a viewfinder later.

One of the more interesting pieces was created by using up all of the frilly edge pieces cut from various bits of felt over the years.

Do you remember inchies, twinchies and thrinchies?  I don’t know if they are still popular in the craft world but I decided this would be a good way to get lots of abstract landscapes from my piece of felt.  I made a 1 inch, 2 inch and 3 inch viewfinder from white cardboard (just a piece of card with a square hole cut out).  I cut four 3 inch pieces…

…then nine 2 inch pieces…

…then I was down to the scraps so I thought I’d see what I could get out of them.  With a bit of imagination, and possibly a few stitches or a dab of paint, these sixteen 1 inch pieces make cute tiny abstract landscapes too.

This was a fun little project – a bit like the equivalent of collage and cutting and sticking in a sketchbook.   I might make some more landscapes with more intention later but this was a great play exercise to generate ideas. Simple is good sometimes!

‘The Felting and Fiber Forum’ devise quarterly challenges to encourage us all to have a go at developing our fibre skills – there’s no entry fee, no judging, nor any prize money! But there’s the potential for experimentation and fun and anyone can join in by simply posting a photo of their challenge piece on the forum.

This year the theme for the challenges will be ‘scapes’ and the first quarter challenge is ‘landscapes’.

The size of your landscape doesn’t matter – it can be postcard size or ten feet high or anywhere in between.

It doesn’t have to be wall art – your landscape could feature on a cushion or your comfy slippers or a greetings card.

Your landscape can be realistic or abstract and you can use whatever fibre skills and materials you like.

Here are a few landscapes made in different ways:

Jan used needle felting to make this snowy landscape.  She describes how she made it in this blog post.

Ruth used mixed media – left-over pieces of handmade felt, yarn and hand-stitching – to create this landscape.  To read more about it please see this blog post.

Annie used free motion machine stitching on pieces of handmade felt to make a mini-landscape tea-light cover…

…and this tiny, quirky landscape.  It’s just 10cm x 10cm (4″x 4″).  The background was felted using handmade pre-felts and nepps.

Tracey used wool fibres to make the background to her landscape then added details with pre-felts, free motion machine stitching, needle-felting and hand embroidery.  Tracey describes the making of her landscape in this blog post.

Zed made this landscape using loose wool fibers to create the background then added foreground embellishments of kapok, silk, trilobal nylon, viscose and nepps.  Read about the making of this landscape in more detail in this blog post

Karen added simple stitching to a piece of her handmade nuno-felt to create this landscape.  Karen writes about her experience with nuno felt in this blog post.

We hope these lovely felty pieces have inspired you to have a go at this challenge!  It would be great to see some new landscapes on the forum.