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a long view of the statues of the Queen's Beasts outside a large greenhouse/conservatory at Kew Gardens, London UK
Local Heraldry

Local Heraldry

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Ever since I had visited Kew Gardens as a child and seen the statues of the Queen’s Beasts lined up outside the great Palm House, I have been fascinated with heraldic animals and heraldry generally.  [https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/the-queens-beasts]

When we moved to Sturminster Newton, every day I came home over the mediaeval bridge I saw the Town’s Coat of Arms.  We have a large (about 10ft high) coloured display of these Arms marking the entrance to the town.

In 2007, when I’d reached the age of 60 and reduced my working days to just 3 days a week, I was looking for something to keep me occupied.  By that time, I had met our Town Crier, who when not Crying worked in a local store.  Kevin Knapp was a popular figure, regularly opening events and leading processions in the town.  He had also won numerous Crying competitions.

2 images of Kevin Knapp. On left he's leading the Town's 2008 Remembrance Parade. On Right he is posing in front of the Sturminster Newton Mill
Town Crier Kevin Knap – Left: Leading the Town’s 2008 Remembrance Parade. Right displaying his costume in front of Sturminster Newton Mill

Having inspected Kevin’s Crying uniform, I realised that he had lots of different badges, most relating to awards he had won but also the County Arms, but not the Town’s.  I thought that this could be a project to keep me busy, having consulted Kevin who said he’d be pleased if I could make a badge of the Arms for him.

After a visit to the Town Council offices, where I had discovered that the original Letters Patent – the deed granting the right to use the Arms – were held, I asked the Council formally for permission to photograph the Deed and to make the badge for Kevin. Once I had received permission, I went, with my husband, to the Offices and we photographed the Deed. That wasn’t easy as the Deed was housed in a purpose made, glazed, cabinet which hung on the wall in the Council Chamber. Eventually we managed to get a reasonably clear picture without too many reflections on the glass.

Image shows hand written Deed - Letters Patent - with images of the granted Arms and Badge painted on it
The original Letters Patent showing the Arms granted top left and the Bull’s Head badge bottom centre. The other Arms shown are those of the three Heralds who made the Grant.

The Letters Patent, couched in the archaic style of the Norman French which characterised early English deeds (though thankfully not totally in that actual language) was dated 1st September 1961. It evidenced that three English Kings of Arms – Garter Principal King of Arms,  Clarenceux King of Arms and Norroy & Ulster King of Arms. authorised by the Duke of Norfolk – Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal of England – granted to the then Sturminster Rural District Council “such Armorial Assigns and in the same Patent such Device or Badge as may be proper to be borne and used by the Sturminster Rural District Council and by its successors constituting each for the time being the local authority for such place and district on Seals or otherwise according to the Laws of Arms” (note the lack of punctuation – typical of legal documents in this country even today); hence the right of Sturminster Newton Town Council to use the Arms and also the Bull’s Head Badge. The Badge’s primary use would be to mark the Council’s property (including, some 800 odd years ago, it’s serfs, servants and men at arms!)

Image of a Bull's Head within a ring with "sun's rays" around the outside, all in Gold with black outline
The Bull’s Head Badge painted on the Letters Patent

The actual words of the Letters Patent describing exactly what was granted are: “Vert [green] a Saltire [diagonal cross on a shield] Wavy Argent [silver] between in pale [one above the other] two Crosses Moline [having jagged ends] and in fess [horizontally] two Garbs [sheaves of corn] Or [gold] And for the Crest [device sitting on a helmet] Out of a Coronet composed of four Ears of Wheat and four sprigs of Oak fructed [with fruits] set upon a Rim Or [gold] a Mount Sable [black] thereon an Heraldic Panther statant [standing on all 4 feet] guardant [shown full face] proper [lifelike colours(!)] Mantled [with cloth on helmet] Vert [green] Doubled Argent [on the reverse silver/white]” and the “Device or Badge”: “Within an Annulet [hollow roundel] Reyonnée [with sun’s rays] Or [gold] a Bull’s head caboshed [without a neck] Gold”. The Arms and the Badge were also drawn on the Deed for further reference.

Having got all this information from the Deed I started to prepare a working drawing indicating what stitches, yarns and cords I would be using.

A drawing of the Coat of Arms in outline with lists of goldwork stitches and indications of where these are to be placed
Working Drawing – you may be able to decipher my scrawl of what I was intending to do at that stage.

In doing so, I realised that the Heraldic Panther was a very odd creature: it appeared to have orange flames coming out of its ears and mouth and it was spotted – red, blue and green spots!

drawing of heraldic Panther, yellow body & face, with large blue red and green spots on the body and flames coming from ears and mouth
The Heraldic Panther painted on the Letters Patent

So I headed to the library to see if they had any reference books which might throw some light on this.  Luckily there were several in the catalogue, but none at our local branch, so I would have to wait for one to arrive.  When It did I was able to find that the flames were a mistake made by the artists painting the arms on early Letters Patent.  In the book there is a reference to the Garter King of Arms writing in the early 17th century regarding the Heraldic Panther: “this beast … is admired of all other beasts for the beauty of his skyn being spotted of variable colours; and beloved … for the sweetness of his breath that streameth forth of his nostrils and ears like smoke, wch our paynters mistaking corruptly do make fire.” Further reading indicated that the origin of the panther was likely to have been a cheetah, hence the (guessed at coloured) spots.  You will note that I was down another rabbit hole!

Well our panther was shown on the Arms as having flames coming from his ears and mouth, so that’s how I’d got to depict him.  It was also then that I realised that the Arms as granted were not exactly the same as the Arms currently used by the Council.

You will see that in the current version of the arms, the Bull’s Head Badge appears five times on the mantle, which has been altered to enable the badges to fit. (The mantle represents the cloth which the Crusaders wore over their helmets to ward off the rays of the sun)

Apparently the then Sturminster R.D.C. decided to use it to decorate the actual Arms instead of to mark it’s property (and/or servants!)

After some manipulation of the photograph of the Deed I managed to get a reasonably clear image of the Arms and could make a tracing to use to transfer the design to the background I had prepared

During the time that I’d been waiting for the book, I contemplated the fact that the actual badge would be very much smaller than the original tracing and I’d be lucky to be able to carry out all the various stitches I’d originally envisaged, and I wondered if I might make some of the badge in felt.  I needed to make a “sketch”.  Using a piece of old blanket as a base, I transferred the design and filled in some of it in needle felt.  I thought that this would work.

image of partial needle felted coat of arms
The partially needle felted “sketch” of the Arms

It would certainly make life a bit easier as I was not very experienced in gold work and doubted that I could do a good enough job in the smaller scale. As it was I managed to lose the “jagged” ends of the two gold crosses and the Saltire was not really “wavy”. It was supposed to be a nod to the river Stour, which divides Sturminster from Newton (which despite it’s name is in general the older part of the town).

In the end I felted the Helm, with the gold Rim and the Panther. I also padded the sheaves of corn. Here’s a progress picture and another with felting needle which will give you an idea of the actual size of the whole thing.

Once I was reasonably happy with the shape of the helm, I painted it with artists’ gesso and then (when it was dry) sanded it as smooth as I could get it.  Then I painted it with some of my husband’s metallic enamel paint to represent steel. (Can you imagine what a squire’s life must have been like sanding and polishing a suit of armour and weapons made of steel to get rid of and keep it free of rust? – no stainless in those days.)

It did take some time to complete the badge – some 4 years in fact although I wasn’t actually working on it all the time.

Image of finished Coat of Arms with full coloured green satin stitch, silver and gold work.
The finished Badge

Oh I nearly forgot – the motto “Quis Metuit?” means Who’s Affeared?  It is apparently used by many local authorities – I’m not sure why though and, for once, the question defeated Mr Google.

The Town Council, in the form of it’s Leader, formally presented the badge to Kevin on 30th November 2011.

Image of three people - Left Charles Fraser, the Author and Kevin Knapp, he being presented with the completed badge.
L – R: Charles Fraser, Town Council Leader; Me; Kevin Knap at the presentation of the Badge. The picture above my head shows Sturminster Newton Station as it was in the days of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.

Kevin decided that rather than attach the badge to his coat, he would affix it to the back of the roll containing his Cry so that it would be visible when he was reading from it.

Sadly Kevin died on 9th October 2018.  His wife donated his costumes (which she herself had made) to the town’s Museum.  I’m not sure what happened to the Badge though as the Museum doesn’t have it.  The position of Town Crier remains vacant.  If you are interested, I’ve found an obituary for Kevin published by the Bournemouth Echo.  https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/16998263.kevin-knapp-died-earlier-month/

 

Bringing up the colour

Bringing up the colour

Comments 12 comments

It was back to school week so I was busier than usual. re-adjusting times and schedules.

Last time I showed you the finished visor. It had a lot of fulling and it was nice and sturdy. When the piece is well fulled, you often end up with a dull picture. This is caused by the backing fibres migrating through the coloured fibres. Sometimes they end up dull or fuzzy looking.

When I make pictures that will be mounted or framed I fix this by not fully very much as the picture will not be handled much and it will have the matting to help support it. for something that will be handled or used more light felting won’t help so it’s time to break out the the razor and shave it.

I get them at the dollar store. notice I did not pay the pink tax for my razor, I buy the cheapest ones they have regardless of the colour. It’s a pretty simple thing to do and it makes quite a difference. I hope the pictures show it well enough. It is hard to pick up with the camera. I tried to do one half at a time for you.

Before
1/2 shaved
Finished

 

 

Before
1/2 shaved
Finished
Before
1/2 way
Finished

and lastly, the sheep, I think it shows the difference very well.

I shaved the rest of the piece as well. This is the pile of fluff.

Here are the before and after pictures

 

Before Shaving

 

After shaving

I think I still want to add some stitching I am just not sure what. outlining seems redundant. Maybe I will add some leaves scattered about. and I don’t know about eyes for the sheep. Curved lines make it a bit cute and like it is sleeping and round makes it look odd. Sitting here looking at the flower, I can see something else now, how about you?

Row of handmade cane baskets sitting on deck bench with water view.
Salt Spring Island Retreat

Salt Spring Island Retreat

Comments 25 comments

I recently went on a trip to Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada with a group of my friends from my Level 3 Stitch Class. What an enjoyable visit we had!

We drove up from Anacortes, WA to the Vancouver Tsawwassen ferry and then ferried over to Salt Spring Island.

We stayed at Catherine’s sister Fran’s, who kindly hosted us at her house/farm. It was a gorgeous property on the water, with a working farm/orchard.

The first day we went to the farmers and craft market. I took a bunch of photos of colorful produce as you can see above. We also visited the town of Ganges and went to a few galleries and shops.

Next up was a walk on the beach which was rocky but Edgar had a blast. There were four dogs during our stay and I think Edgar thought he was in heaven. He played and explored and had an absolutely wonderful time.

Then we started making baskets. Fran is a wonderful basket maker who supplied us with everything we needed and taught us how to make a simple basket. We thought it would take two days but it actually took three. I haven’t made a basket before and I think this will be my last one.

Here we are working away on our baskets. You can tell by my face that I am having a great time – ha ha! We also made a basket for one of our classmates who could not come to the retreat. That’s the basket I am working on in the bottom right photo.

Here is the result of our basket making. We all have a finished basket and they are pretty colorful too. Group of women sitting at dining table folding small books.

We also had a short session of folding small books with pockets.

Sunset over the water from deck.

We had a wonderful time together, great meals and Fran was so welcoming! Thanks for everything Fran and Catherine!

 

 

A cover for my visor mirror part 2

A cover for my visor mirror part 2

Comments 17 comments

On Mondays, we have a social in the guild studio. I think some guilds call it open studio days. Because it is summer I usually go in around noon. I thought this would be a good time to do my visor cover. Jan can take some pictures too and all will be happy and bright. So naturally………

I packed my rolling mat, plastic, bucket, spray ball, rubbing tool, and wool but I forgot to ball of pencil roving. This is essential if I am going to try Ildie’s method of making the design with wet wool.

ball of brown pencil roving
The forgotten ball

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. I am not a Mouse or a man so I had a look through the donated yarns and found one that was not too thin or tightly spun

This is as far as I got before I gave up. Yarn is not a good choice. It has too much structure so it doesn’t want to stay where you put it.

Besides learning that yarn is not good for this I also decided I had made the design too small. It will be very fiddly to add the colour.

Now I am back in the studio with all my supplies.  All but one of the colours is Corriedale. One is Merino. the grey bat is unknown. I would say a medium wool and it is a short fiber. I sized my template for 30% shrinkage. you can get 30% out of most fibers. And why do a sample when you can live life dangerously?

     

The pencil roving was much easier to use to outline the designs. I wet it with soapy water and it stayed where I put it. The yarn had too many ideas of its own. I just did them freehand using the template to keep my design inside the lines.

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Next was adding the colour. I got better as I went along. the first colours that have to be completely within the lines but right up to them is the hardest. When you add a colour next to another colour you can overlap and no one will see it. It will be between the other colour and the backing. Thinking upside down is a hard thing to do. you feel like you should say inside the lines. although I didn’t mess up the design lines I kept smudging the outside line. next time I will add them at the end.

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I added the bat to the back. it was quite thin so I did 2 layers, one in each direction. and made nice straight lines, not that they will stay that way.

 

I rubbed this side first and then flipped it over. Doesn’t it look pretty all wet and bright under the plastic?  Once I flipped it I was pleasantly surprised the sheep was on the right. Which, if you think about it, makes sense but when I was adding it I was thinking I wish I had left more space for it on the right. So that was a good thing.

I rubbed this longer than I usually do because I wanted the design to set well and stay put. I had no problem with it moving. boarder was another matter. it was constantly moving. I would lift the plastic and fix it. Then rub carefully and then it would move. In the end, I put it back where it should be and thought if it doesn’t stick, I will just needle felt it in place.

It moved a little while rolling but for the most part, it stayed put so I was quite happy. I rolled it a lot to get it to shrink. Whatever the bat is it makes a sturdy felt but does not shrink as much as Corriedale. I rinsed it with hot water and rolled it more, and more and when it wouldn’t budge anymore, I stopped. It got close but not quite there. I am sure it will still work but I haven’t checked yet.

It needs to be shaved to bring the colours back up and ironed to block it. I haven’t decided if I will add any stitching or beads. but I am out of time for now.

 

 

Nuno Felt Landscape with Summer Birch Trees on Green Matte Ready to Frame.
Thick with Green

Thick with Green

Comments 13 comments

I have been busy trying to get pieces ready to go to the framers and I also needed to create my tree piece for the 3rd Quarter challenge, summer trees. Here’s the piece I created called Thick with Green. I am sorry about the quality of most of these photos. Somehow, many are blurry but at least the final few photos came out OK, my apologies.

Sketchbook Page with Painted Birch Trees in Summer

I was thinking about a thicket of birch trees from a distance with green leaves. The sketchbook page above was created in one of my art and design classes. I used this as inspiration.

For the background, I used a piece of nuno felt. The silk is on the back this time. I had some white yarn that I decided to couch down to make distant tree trunks.

Then being inspired by the leaves Ann M. used on her summer tree, I decided to try some variegated green cheesecloth. I tore it into pieces and stretched it to give a more organic feel. Then I hand stitched it in place. The stitching disappears into the cheesecloth.

Nuno Felt Green and Blue Background with Birch Tree Trunks.

Then I added more tree trunks. This time I twisted two pieces of the yarn together and couched them in place.

Nuno Felt Green and Blue Background with Birch Tree Trunks and Stitched Pieces of Cheesecloth for Leaves.

More cheesecloth was stitched down on top of these tree trunks. Now what to do with the ground? I feel like I am always saying that about my landscapes. I never seem to plan the ground very well in advance. I don’t do much needle felting but I decided in this case, it would work the best. I felt like stitching would be too detailed since this was supposed to be a more distant landscape.

Nuno Felt Green and Blue Background with Birch Tree Trunks and Stitched Pieces of Cheesecloth for Leaves, Grass Needle Felted at Base of Trees.

Here’s the grass added with a variety of green roving and needle felted in place.

Nuno Felt Landscape with Summer Birch Trees on Green Matte Ready to Frame.

Then I found I already had some green fabric that would work for the “matte”. I stitched the nuno landscape down and laced it around card. This piece ended up to be 8″ x 12″ and it’s ready to frame. Now to take all the pieces to be framed and then send them off to the gallery. Check, another task off my list.

The Bull

The Bull

Comments 22 comments

We have three public houses in Sturminster Newton (at one time there were 11 in our small market town!) and The Bull Tavern is one of the oldest. The building consists mainly of a 3 roomed 17th Century cottage with an attic room, built of old timber infilled with wattle and daub. Some additions were made in the 18th Century. Records show that the cottage was definitely an alehouse by the late 1700s. Apparently there was a slaughter house at the rear and a Pound where straying animals were kept until collected – upon payment of a fee of 1 shilling (which must have been a fortune when you consider that a married man’s weekly wages at the Town’s Workhouse were all of 9 shillings and a single man’s only 6). Part of the C18th additions was a stable block (which eventually became a skittle alley and later part of the restaurant of the pub). It is rumoured that the horses stabled there were used to help get carriages and carts up the adjoining steep hill leading to Sturminster Common and the small community of Broad Oak.

The building, known to Thomas Hardy (one of our famous inhabitants) as The Old Bull Inn,  is shown on the earliest known map of the area dated 1783, as being part of the Pitt-Rivers Estate.  You can learn more about the Pitt-Rivers family here: https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2012/04/sturminster-newton-and-the-pitt-rivers-family

About 18 months ago, after our then favourite landlords moved from the White Horse Inn in Hinton St Mary, the pub was closed for refurbishment. Hinton is a village about 1.25 miles away, where the Pitt-Rivers manor house is situated.  We used to walk there 3 times a week – our exercise with benefits – but since the benefits had disappeared we decided to patronise The Bull – for our exercise of course.  The only trouble with that was that it’s uphill on the way home whereas it was down hill from the White Horse.

During that time we had come to enjoy the chats with Marianne and Lance, the Bull’s managers.  Lance being the very good chef, and Marianne “Front of House”.  Early in January 2021, they announced that on Christmas Day they had got engaged.

One of my felt paintings – commissioned by a mutual friend –  had been given to the White Horse landlords as a wedding present a few years ago, and Graham, my husband, suggested that I do something similar as a wedding present for Lance and Marianne.

Felt picture of sepia tint image of old public house
My interpretation of an early image of The White Horse, Hinton St Mary

Although The Bull itself is a very interesting building, I wondered if I should do a picture of an actual bull for them. No date had been set for the wedding at that time, but I thought I should at least start collecting reference pictures, both of the pub itself, including some of their Pub sign and of some animals. I thought about breeds that might have been around in the 16th Century – White Park Cattle and black Gloucesters; and also looked at Herefords since that was the breed on the Pub sign.

image of Bull Tavern sign with hereford bull above image of the public house
The Bull Tavern and it’s sign
image of black bull with winners rosettes and image of large white bull
Gloucester and Park White Bulls
image of hereford bull head, image of bull grazing, image of bull in field
3 Hereford Bulls. I eventually picked the one at top left.

In the end I decided on a Hereford bull. After a lot of thought and manipulation of pictures, and also starting on a background field for the bull to stand in, I still could not come up with a layout that I was happy with. One idea was to surround the image of the bull with cameo pictures of nearby local landmarks – the water mill and the mediaeval bridge – with perhaps an image of the pub itself as well.

Then, just after Christmas 2022, Marianne said that they had set the date for the wedding – 10th June 2023.  Now I had to get my ideas together and get on with it.  The picture would need to be simplified if I was going to get it done and framed in time.

It was about then that my picture of the horse on the hillside in Devon was finished and it occurred to me that I could use a similar method of producing a figure with more depth.

image of felted horse on background of trees and stream
Detail from my Glorious Devon picture showing the horse added to the finished landscape.

  I finally decided upon a cameo type picture of the bull’s head and shoulders and I would use the background which I had made back at the beginning of this saga.  I would paint (with wool) the shoulders and neck and outline of the head on to a piece of flat wet felted core fibres.  With a separate face and ears, and a further separate set of horns and the nose on another piece.  I would cut all of the pieces from the backing when these were substantially finished.  I would fix the torso and neck onto the original background and layer on the face and ears, horns and nose, then I would do the final titivating and framing.  I made a start and here are the initial progress pictures:

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As I said earlier, it was intended that this picture would be a wedding present for Lance and Marianne, but at the beginning of April this year, they told us that, because of various unforeseen difficulties arising out of successive pandemic lockdowns (which included them catching Covid between lockdowns so having to shut the pub again)  they had decided to give up the tenancy of the pub.  They had obtained a job, with accommodation, managing a Touring Caravan Park in Cornwall.  Marianne was leaving almost immediately and Lance would stay on for a couple of weeks, with his last trading day on the 19th April.  So the picture was going to have to be a leaving present.

That caused a bit of a panic at home as you can imagine, so I had to get my head down and finish it NOW!  These were the final steps;

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I managed to finish the picture and, with Graham’s help, I mounted it in a deep box frame in time to hand it over to Lance on the 19th, when we went in for a final lunchtime meal.

So here’s the completed and framed picture – my entry for the 2023 Third Quarter Challenge – Something Special About Our Town.

image of felted bull head and torso on a field and sky landscape in wooden box frame
Finished and framed.
Summer tree Finished.

Summer tree Finished.

Comments 12 comments

Thankfully I have friends with grey wool. Jan and Bernadette found me some grey in many shades so I could complete my picture. I explained to both that I only needed a little bit, a handful would be more than was needed. I just needed it for a few rocks on my picture

Picture of wool

picture of me taking a picture
I didn’t take any progress pictures of the rocks. I was busy poking and talking.

And finally the finished picture, or so I thought. when you take a picture, you can see so much more sometimes. I really don’t like the roots over the rock. I had tried putting a rock in front of the tree but that looked worse. So, I will take the roots off and continue from there.

I managed to take the roots off and played with the rock some more and now I think it really is done.

Adding leaves to my summer tree.

Adding leaves to my summer tree.

Comments 13 comments

The next step to do for my summer tree is to get it some leaves. I decided I wanted some texture so thought I would use some silk fabric to make some needle felted nuno felt.

I found some of my boxes of fabric and had a rummage for some green I found mostly silk and some stuff labelled nylon which is a very good imitation of silk.

The green and brown was my first thought but best to try them all.

I pulled out my sampling tree. The one that looks like a peg having a bad hair day. 😉

I then thought maybe I could put the dark fabric down and then add some other fibre on top. the dark fabric is the nylon. It’s a very loose weave so it pulls threads when you poke it.

I tried adding some loose threads but they just looked messy. I think they would make great vines in a swampy picture

I decided it was a waste of fabric to put the dark green down first It would be too hard to leave some showing properly and it would prevent any of the branches from showing.

On to the real tree, I did fiddled with the branches in the middle and it does look better naked. Not that much of it will show but still, it was good practice.

I tried adding it all as one piece but I couldn’t scrunch it properly. So I pulled it off.

I added the silk in small amounts

and all done, I left a few holes for the sky and a few branches peek through. I left the edged raggy to add to the texture.

 

    

 

And here’s the finished overall look. I like the overall look. I am going to have to fiddle with the roots. Combined with the slant of the land, they are making the tree look like it’s leaning over. I think a little poking in on one side and poking out on the other should fix it. I am going to have a look for the wool I used for the grass portion of the background to maybe put a little over the roots. I will have to do some googling for pictures of roots.

Next, I think I will add some rocks around the roots and maybe a few around the field in the thin spots. Then maybe some tufts of grass with stitching.  I may fiddle with the cloud too. I am still thinking.

I’ve started my summer tree.

I’ve started my summer tree.

Comments 14 comments

I was looking through some of the simpler backgrounds I had on hand to jump-start my summer tree. I did this agt our guild social so I was too busy chatting to get you a picture before I started.

I decided to use some more of the pencil roving I have. It is sold as Buffilo roving or Brigs and Little Country Roving. It comes as 5 strands of thin pencil roving wound into a cake. It looks to me like it has been prepared to go through a spinning frame and then be plied into usable yarn. Why else wind 5 strands together? https://briggsandlittle.com/product/country-roving/

This is the brown I am using but not a solid colour so it has more depth. I wound off 2 strands to pop into my felting bag.

When I am not sure of my artistic ability ( most of the time), I tend to go small. If it’s little it is harder to see it’s not very good. However, trying to make a small tree in the distance did not go well. It looks more like some sort of demented scarecrow. You can see it’s quite a nice background though.

So I ripped it off and started a much bigger tree in the foreground.  You can see how using the pencil roving makes it easier to make branches as you lay them in for the trunk.

I tidied that up top and bottom and that is as far as I have made it.

 

 

I like the way the pencil roving forms the tree but I think I need to add a little lighter ( and maybe darker)  colour to help define it more. I am not happy with the blob in the top middle of the trunk. I think I will have to open it into the branches more. I will have to do some searching for pictures of winter trees to see how that part looks. It may not matter once I add the leaves. Isn’t it funny how you know exactly how a tree looks until you come to make one? I also have to work out what I want for the rest of the picture. Maybe some rocks, sheep are always popular, a fence?

 

The only other thing I did this week was to make some felted balls for my goddaughter, for her cats. Again, too much talking and not enough picture taking. they are small styrofoam balls with a bell pushed into them.

 

 

 

3rd quarter challenge and Pinhey’s Point

3rd quarter challenge and Pinhey’s Point

Comments 11 comments

I will start with the third quarter challenge.  Onf the challenges is to make something about where you live. I remembered this piece I made. It has a wet felted background, needle felted water and significant roads and stitched secondary roads.  It is about 6×6 inches or 15×15 cm. It was a fun piece to make. It just needs framing, like so many pieces.

 

 

I did a little bit of wet felting at a demo we did a few weeks ago at a historical site near Ottawa called Pinhey’s Point Historic Site. https://pinheyspoint.ca/visit-pinheys-point/

I made this little bag for my purse. I will add a few snaps.  One to keep the flap closed and 2 more in the top pouch part so I can keep something in there without it falling out every time I open it.  It is for keeping a power pack and my square point of sale device mostly. I forgot to take pictures during lay out but here it is on the resist to show the shrinkage. I will probably add some stitching at some point. the finished size is 7 1/2 inches x almost 5 inches   or 19cm x 12cm

 

I did take some pictures of the group spinning and showing how the tapestry and 4-shaft table looms work. these are definitely candid shots that I only just remembered to take so I wouldn’t be in hot water with Jan.   It was a quiet demo with there being a lot of smoke in the air from the fires in Quebec. You can see in the background the faint outline of some hills. That is about 1/2 a kilometre away across the Ottawa River to Quebec.  You couldn’t see that much when we arrived about 10 am to set up.  It was nice to spend time with friends and to chat with the few people that dropped by to see what we were doing.

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That’s about all I have been up to other than a little spinning on my drop spindle. I will try to get some pictures of my little balls of yarn for next time.

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