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Happy New Years

Happy New Years

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Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you are having a great holiday time. May the new year treat you well and help you get where you want to be.

Last year was a bit of a crazy, busy year. One thing I did that I have been wanting to do for a long time is to make an online workshop. I had to make a firm commitment that I would do it by a certain date, or I would never have managed to get to it. It was a huge amount of work, but so worthwhile. It’s funny, I was sort of dreading doing it, even though it was something I wanted to do. This year, I am planning to expand the existing workshop and possibly create another one. I am thinking of a ruffle scarf workshop, but we will see. I don’t know if it’s something people would like to learn.

I am taking a how-to photograph you fibre art workshop in the spring, so maybe my pictures will be even better

 

The second thing I want to do this year is take more pictures of scenery, plants, and things. I want to have a better library of pictures to work from. I am sure I will never get to Jan’s level, but I can work on it. This is some frosted milkweed in my garden

 

The third is to take some workshops. I am signed up for the Photographing Fibre Art that I told you about above, Spindle Spinning with a Medieval Distaff and Build your own LEGO Spindle.  They are all taught by the Ottawa Valley Weaves and spinnes guild. I would have liked to take Rock wrapping, but everything I signed up for is clustered together, and rock wrapping is in the same time frame, plus I am teaching twice during that time.  It never fails. Oh well, hopefully it will be offered again, and I can take it then. If you’re in the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada area, here’s a link to the workshops the guild is offering this winter/spring. https://www.ovwsg.com/workshops/

Lastly, I want to learn to crochet. I understand the concept. I’ve made a chain before. I am told I should make some dishcloths to start, but that doesn’t appeal to me. What other beginner/learner project do you know about? How did you start?

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3 TOFT sheep

 

 

Am I losing my marbles?

Am I losing my marbles?

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Do you feel like the days, weeks and months just keep getting away from you? No matter how hard you work, paddling faster and faster, the to-do list never gets any shorter? It has been 6 weeks since Felters Convergence, I was hoping for a quiet spell before the Christmas rush but it feels like it has been another insanely busy period. When I stop and think, “What have I done / achieved?” I’m at a loss…. I can’t remember!

Thank heavens for the camera roll in our mobile phones!

Early October saw my first ever pit firing with the Manurewa Potters, it was a lot of fun, with a shared lunch but, for me, the results were a little disappointing. I love colour and contrast and this style of firing produces more muted, subtle tones. It’s probably not a branch of pottery for me but I’m glad I got to try it.

These were my pots, the red / orange rings around the top were from underglazes I painted on before firing, the browns, greys and blacks were from the materials added to the fire. I have started waxing the one on the right, which has intensified some of the colours and it’s growing on me but the one on the left I think will be re-fired with some more traditional glazes.

In mid October I hosted my first Open Studio event in New Zealand, as part of the Franklin Arts Trail (which gets unflatteringly abbreviated to FAT). It was a huge success, I met so many fascinating people, introduced some of them to felt-making and even sold a few of my finished pieces, so now I have space to make more!

This photo was taken during the reorganising / scurryfunging, I’m sorry to say I forgot to take any photos during the event. Can you spot the ever-helpful cat (Aoife)?

A few felty friends and I had a play date just before Halloween where we made felted eyeballs using a variety of different techniques (felting around glass marbles, polystyrene balls and making solid wool balls).

Halloween weekend was spent with the lovely Waikato Creative Fibre group at a wonderful 3-day fibre retreat. I even managed to get some spinning done in between teaching a couple of short felting classes and taking a mosaic crochet class.

Fingers crossed I now have enough yarn to finish making a sleeveless top with a tulip hem:

Auckland is starting to feel much more summery and the weeds in my veg patch agree, they were definitely winning…

But after 6 days of hard graft and 1 broken garden fork later I was delighted to find half a dozen leeks, some potatoes and a couple of onions ready to harvest and I no longer cringe at the state of this part of the garden:

I contacted Spear and Jackson about the fork because it had a “10 year warranty” sticker not really holding out much hope that they would replace it but amazingly the replacement has just arrived, all the way from the UK, less than 2 weeks after I emailed them! Now that’s good service 🙂

A few months ago Auckland Felters applied to hold a group exhibition at Nathan Homestead, an historic building that has just completed a year-long renovation, and we were successful – YAY!

The exhibition doesn’t open until next March but deadline for the marketing materials was last week so there has been a lot of frantic activity as we formulated a plan for a felting workshop and market day. The date of our workshop falls on 25th April, ANZAC day (the antipodean equivalent of Remembrance day) so we thought a field of felted poppies would be a fitting project.

With only a few hours before the deadline I found myself hastily felting a sample for the brochure. The result is ok but not my best work. If I can find a spare 30 min I would like to fix the central flower with some needle-felting and add some more highlights and shading.

My local craft / gift shop, Clevedon Creatives + Co, have started stocking some of my work so there has been quite of lot of trips back and forth to get it set up. Now my studio looks even more empty than it did after FAT but I am pleased to have a wider audience for my work.

The Christmas season has already started here with my first artisan craft fair last weekend. This market, at the Franklin Arts Centre in Pukekohe, was a very successful start to the season, fingers crossed this is a good omen for the next few weeks after 2025 started with a bit of an economic whimper.

The felted soaps are eternally popular at my local craft markets so I have been furiously making these most evenings for the last few weeks:

There has been quite a lot of dyeing going on too, mostly silk hankies and silk top as I try to keep up with demand. These plaits will be added to my Etsy shop over the next few days.

Finally a bit of felting fun, a new journal cover. When I started laying out the wool for this I was planning to cover it with yarn in a grid pattern but just as I was about to start laying out the yarns it screamed, “WATER!”. So I rummaged in my bag of prefelt scraps and found some space-dyed orange and yellow pieces. Perfect for fish! A couple of white silk hankies to emulate splashing water / surf et voila!

I’m so glad I ditched the yarn, the jumping, playful fish are much more fun! I can’t help but smile when I see them 🙂

Phew! No wonder the last few weeks have felt busy 🙂 Why couldn’t I remember any of that without my phone…?

Woodland Pictures and a Sunflower Wedding

Woodland Pictures and a Sunflower Wedding

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This month Region 8 of the International Feltmakers held an Autumn Woodland themed wet felted picture workshop led by Susan Mulcock. As with many other regions we’ve been struggling with workshop numbers recently so it was great to receive so much interest in Susan’s class that we were able to fill two separate classes over the weekend. A big shout out has to go to IFA member Kerry Thomas who travelled 250 miles from Lockerbie in Scotland to join us on the Sunday.

  • Kerry

We were encouraged to bring our own photos to use as inspiration and I chose one I’d taken while walking a local section of the Viking Way between Horncastle and Woodhall Spa. The Viking Way is a 149 mile long walking route through Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Rutland. The route opened in 1976 and its name recognises the influence of the Norse invaders on the east of Britain. The route is clearly marked with the recognisable signage of a viking helmet on the yellow disc. 

 

Photo shows a wet felted Autumn Woodland themed picture. it was inspired by a stretch of the Viking Way near Horncastle in Lincolnshire.

I didn’t think to take photos of the process but this is my finished picture. Looking back at my original photo I think I must have been in a colourful mood when I was laying out my fibres! I’ve added some free motion stitch to help define the tree trunks and some of the finer branches but drew the line at adding hand embroidery. I feel I’d like to do some but I know that if I start I would have to add lots of it so I’ll live with it for now and maybe more stitching will be done at some point.

These are some of the wonderful pictures that were created over the weekend.

Something else I wanted to share with you, with permission from the bride, was my friend Sally’s wedding. Or rather the incredible textile/fibre creations that Sally produced for her wedding to fiance Chris. Sally joined the South Lincs Spinners, Weavers and Dyers three years ago where she learnt to spin and weave. She fell in love with both of these crafts and challenged herself to use them to create her own wedding outfit.

Chris’s mother is German and Sally has a thing for sunflowers so Sally aimed to combine both these themes for her big day. She began by purchasing green mulberry silk fibre from World of Wool which she spun. Next the spun fibre was woven and blocked before being cut out and sewn to create the beautiful bodice for her traditional German style dirndl outfit.

Extra fibre was spun and woven (just in case!) and this was used to make her usher, son Lewis, his waistcoat and to make the ring cushion. The gold apron features a white band made up of number of symbols, designed by Sally, that represent members of her family and these were crocheted using a fine thread to add a very personal detail to the outfit.

During our visit to Ampthill Fibre show this summer we saw a stall selling kits to create your own parasol. Sally bought a kit and had the fibre specially dyed to fit in with her sunflower colour scheme. She then crocheted her parasol cover and put the whole thing together to create a stunning accessory for her outfit.

Another beautiful touch was the wet felted Sunflower with Tyvek daisy’s that she made with me. It was attached it to her veil which in turn was lit from beneath with fairy lights.

At our Spinning meeting the month before the wedding we had a drop spindle demonstration and members that took part had the chance to spin a short length of fibre to take to Sally’s wedding. At the reception we took it in turns to add our yarn to a small piece of weaving which Sally and Chris will keep as a memento of their special day.

At the end of the ceremony I can imagine Sally breathing a huge sigh of relief that all her hard work had paid off and resulted in a day that was incredibly creative, unique and very much “Sally”!

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

The Museum at Christmas

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

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

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

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

An old thatched building

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part built Gnomes in various early stages
Gnome “cores”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

gold foil placed within the design
Inspired by nature – part 2

Inspired by nature – part 2

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In my previous post I had completed two nature inspired collages https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/03/28/inspired-by-nature-part-1/ and had then decided (in my infinite wisdom!) to create a third and form a set. Collages one and two were partners, now I was heading for a family!

 

My original completed piece
1   My original completed piece

 

A second work including a found twig, fabric snippets and embroidery stitches
2   My second piece

As I was now creating a ‘triptych’ – meaning the two different nature inspired collages needed to be tied together – I had to concentrate on colour and texture, because I didn’t have enough snippets of all the various fabrics previously used. At the same time, I needed to think about the design direction.

One of the hardest decisions was deciding which way up, I finally wanted to present collages one and two, as this would have a bearing on three. When doing abstract work, I usually work from different directions so that, to me, it is balanced from all sides. This enables me, or a client, to decide which way to hang the piece, or simply present the opportunity to ring the changes!

 

Design sketches and potential fabric pieces to be used
3   Thinking about the design

 

the final auditioning of fabrics
4   Auditioning the fabrics

 

Once I’d decided on the final hanging direction of collages one and two, the next hurdle was the actual design layout. Again, the priority for me, was to unify and compliment the previous finished pieces, for which my various sketches proved very useful.

I’ve been asked many times ‘where do you get your layout ideas from?’ Zimples…I look through my vast collection of images that I find interesting (landscape, architectural, food etc), then finding one I like, I either trace or freehand copy the main shapes. These then become the kicking off point. I’m repeating myself I know, as I’ve mentioned all this before….I just want to get the message over that this method is available to everyone – whether they are ‘arty’ or say they can’t draw for toffee!

 

Fabrics finally chosen and laid out in position
5   Layout of fabrics finalised – including some paper birch bark (the yellow underside was more interesting than the white top).

 

With my final decisions made on the design layout and the fabrics to use, it was time to start adding some embellishing stitches.

Although not immediately obvious each work also has some golden elements (paper or foil) included with the dried peeled cherry & birch bark (from felled trees), twigs, or dried bark chips (these were a beach combing find!). All from my ‘that’s too good to throw away/it might come in useful’ stash!

Then it was back to the entire same auditioning process re the placement of Mother Nature’s treasures with the added complication of now having to balance these elements with those of the other two completed works, which in turn, might decide in which order the three collages should be displayed (1,2,3 or 1,3,2 or, 3,1,2 etc).

In terms of design, balance, or colour – if I saw a glaring ‘gap’, yet more embellishing stitches were added, particularly to subtly enhance the circles.

 

gold foil placed within the design
5a   Just to show the gold elements. Notice the copper thread too on the bark

 

These collages are all about being nature inspired, so the following photographs show some close-up details which I have paired with various of my (oh so many!!!) images of Mother Nature’s spontaneous creations that surround us, even in the tiniest of corners.

close up details from my originally collage
6   Detail 1 – A variety of stitches on the original collage

 

 

close up of stitched bark paired with a twig
7   Detail 2 – Stitched cherry bark overlaid with a sheer with crocheted lichen and copper wrapped twig

 

 

close-up detail of second collage
8   Detail 3 – Eco printed fabric, expanded wet-wipe and yarn tufts

 

 

Embroidery stitces to emulate moss and lichen
9   Detail 4 – Embroidery stitches to evoke lichen and moss

 

 

Placement of fabric evokes the cracks seen in rocks and cut tree trunks
10   Detail 5 – Reminiscent of cracks in rocks and aged cut tree trunks

 

 

detail of copper wrapped bark with a tufted yarn to resemble moss.
11 Detail 6 – Copper wrapped bark, ‘cracks’ or maybe twigs and yarn moss

 

Framing the three collages….

I used my favourite method – by stitching each to card cut to fit the frame. I was so lucky that on one car boot sojourn, I found 3 IKEA frames, just perfect for my wall space. Each collage is 22 x 22cm (8½x 8½ins). At some point, I might present them in larger square frames with a wide 10cm (4in) mount (mat) to provide a counterfoil….before that….I’ll need to move house to have more wall space!!!

And herewith the final pieces, enough collage work for now I think….

The first collage
12   The original work – I blame this one for setting me off down this path….I enjoyed it so much!

 

Collage two all framed and ready to hang
13   Collage 2

 

The fianl collage all framed ready to hang
14   Collage 3 – Giving birth to this baby was not quite so easy as it had to share it’s parents’ features!

 

But maybe something beckons….

Lichen and moss covered rocks on top of a stone wall
15 Mother Nature’s circles – Mmmm food for thought perhaps!

Did I forget to mention that I also love the rocks and stones on which the lichen grow!!!

 

We’d love to hear about any dip or triptychs you’ve created.

 

Retreating Beautifully

Retreating Beautifully

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The last few weeks have been filled with teaching events, as much as I love teaching felt-makers all over the world through online courses it is so nice to be able to teach face to face again, getting that immediate reward of seeing the delight when someone learns a new skill or makes their first piece of felt, is priceless.

My first group were felting novices, learning to felt a vessel over a flat resist. They were all super-creative and keen, producing some outstanding vessels that I hope they are all proudly displaying.

The second and third events were at the Auckland Creative Fibre Retreats. These are amazing weekends away where 20-30 fibre enthusiasts converge at a retreat centre to focus on all things fibre while a wonderful team from the centre look after us, feeding us and keeping us supplied with tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

These retreats are great opportunities to learn new skills, share ideas and teach (if you want to). I offered to teach felted soaps and it was a huge hit, with each person producing at least 2 beautiful soaps.

In return Shaz (in the green sweater) taught us a cable / crepe-style plying technique. This is the first stage:

And the finished yarn:

I am the first to admit this skein is a tad garish, however, Shaz also shared some gorgeous versions she had made with less contrasting colours. This is definitely a technique I would like to try again in different colour ways and with finer, more evenly spun yarn – this yarn was a bit rushed as we were all trying to finish the hank before dinner!

I also managed to finish / make progress on a couple of crochet projects at the retreats. This poncho is a brioche crochet project I started in 2021, the pattern I was following required quite a lot of focus so this project only saw the light of day when I knew I wouldn’t be multi-tasking, hence it took so long to complete.

I also made some good headway on a brioche cushion cover I started in August. I’m not following a pattern for this one, just making it up as I go. This is using some hand-spun yarn that I dyed before plying it a few months ago. The colours are brighter IRL and it reminds me of light coming through a stained glass window.

The retreats definitely aren’t all work, knowing you have comfy bed to fall into and don’t need to drive home, most of us arrived well supplied with chocolate, wine and other beverages…. (don’t be fooled by the oranges, they were just for show! 🙂 )

An awesome time was had by all!

If you ever find yourself near south Auckland I enthusiastically recommend a visit to the Franklin Arts Centre in Pukekohe, they have 2 excellent exhibition spaces and run a varied program of affordable arts and crafts courses from their workshop.

Yarn Bombing Our Hanging Pots

Yarn Bombing Our Hanging Pots

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This post is going to be short and quick. It’s been a crazy couple weeks for us, and on top of that I am experiencing vertigo. Apparently a crystal in my inner ear, is floating around, where it’s not supposed to be. Eventually this crystal piece will move along, through the fluid in my middle ear, and out. Until then, I have to be careful of every movement of my head.

Today, I want to show you an idea, Brian came up with. We made a trip to Home Depot, the Friday before Mother’s Day, and my crystal incident. I wanted to get a nice potted plant for the inner courtyard at Mom’s Memory Care facility. I’ve never had good luck, at Home Depot in general, but this time we were pleasantly surprised. We found carts full of glorious colorful blooms, herb plants that were strong and healthy, and a couple varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Yay! Best of all, by the checkout, we saw a freestanding hanging plant stand, that would be perfect for hanging herbs off the ground and away from a curios canine. Brian created a perfect area for growing herbs, last year, when our puppy was very young. But, through the winter, Porter (at 75 lbs.) found my sage bushes, perfect for hiding lost tennis balls, and super comfy to lay on.

Double begonia flowers in bright orange and hot pink, herb plants, surrounding a bright white bucket.
Beautiful plants and herbs surrounding a very white bucket.

Home Depot displayed their plant stand, with plastic 2 gallon paint buckets, filled with gardening tools. I thought that idea was genius. Hanging pots are so expensive, and paint buckets are relatively cheap. My only problem, all that white overwhelmed everything. Brian came to the rescue with the suggestion “Why don’t you Yarn Bomb them.” That’s a great idea, Brian!”

white bucket, turned over, crochet covering it
This was my first attempt. Didn’t consider drainage holes leaking dirt all over my hand dyed yarn.

Man holding a decorated pot
I think they call this free form crochet! I started with super bulky yarn, a US-P size hook, and made up my own doily pattern.

We had to think a few minutes, about how to attach the crochet to the bucket. Suddenly I realized, “S” hooks would work, and we had some with our grid wall supplies. That worked for the first bucket, so I ordered more hooks from Amazon. They were on our porch the next afternoon. With my dizziness, I was only able to get 3 of the 4 finished.

This is how it looks so far.

We have some fun ideas in mind: like hanging a full recycled bottle of water from a hole in the rim of the buckets. That will tip the buckets, so the plants will grow as if they are pouring out. No matter what happens with this project, we’ve had a lot of fun, thinking outside the box. I hope you find some joy in your own crafting this week!

Capi

Update: Thank you everyone for your wellness wishes. Thankfully, the crystal issue is gone. I had been tested and diagnosed with low Vitamin D years ago: we live in Michigan, so that’s not surprising. I normally take extra Vitamin D every day, but recently a new doctor warned me I was taking too much! I lowered the dose…and had crystal issue within 4 months. (I’m not a doctor, so don’t trust the following information without consulting with your own physician.) There are thoughts by some in the medical field, that extra Vitamin D3 chemically binds with crystal chemical properties…and essentially moves them along. I’m not saying that happened for me, but coincidentally after returning to my original dose, it cleared up quickly. 🤔

Fibre and Friends

Fibre and Friends

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It’s been a while since I published anything, as I have been going through quite a difficult time.  But I was determined to finish the year with a blog, so this one is a bit of an amalgamation!  Way back in April, I was lucky enough to be invited on a day trip to Wonderwool 2022 by my friend Debbie.  I hadn’t even heard of Wonderwool when she invited me, but when she told me all about it, I couldn’t wait to go!!

For those of you (like me) who have not heard of Wonderwool, it is an annual wool and natural fibre festival that is held in The Royal Welsh Showground, Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, Powys, Wales.  It was first held in 2006, ‘to promote the market for Welsh wool and add value to product for small wool & fibre producers in Wales’.  The festival has grown over the years, and ‘covers everything from the start to the end of the creative process’.  There are exhibits of sheep, raw and hand dyed fibres, yarn, embellishments, equipment, dyes, books and also finished textile art, craft, clothing and home furnishings.   Basically, it’s a felt and fibre artist’s dream come true, where like-minded people can find almost anything they need, and it instills a feeling of excitement, much like a child in a toy shop (at least that’s how I felt!) Because of the covid pandemic, it hadn’t run for a year or two, but this year was to be the first event since the pandemic, so there was great anticipation of the resuming of this popular event.

 

Around the same time, I had been looking for a carding machine, as I wanted to start making my own wool batts to spin.  Just before my friend invited me to Wonderwool, I had found a lovely Pat Green Carder for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and I had decided to purchase it.  However, the lady selling it (Mary Rogers) lived in Birmingham, England, so I was trying to work out when I could make the drive up to Birmingham to collect it.  As it happened, Mary told me that she was planning to go to Wonderwool, and could bring the carder with her!  Fantastic, I thought… this is definitely meant to be!!  Don’t you just love it when things just fall into place?!

 

Having made all the arrangements, Debbie and I took the drive up to Builth Wells for the day, and boy, was I totally inspired!  When we walked into Wonderwool, I can honestly say my eyes must have lit up!  I really did feel like a child in a sweet shop!!  There was stall after stall of beautiful fibre, yarn, and all things sheep (not to mention other types of fibre, including alpaca, angora to name a few)!!  What struck me first, was the wonderful array of colour.  There were exhibitions of different fibre craft, demonstrations of spinning and weaving, with exhibitors from all over the UK.  We also had the chance to talk to a range of like-minded people, who were happy to share their tips and techniques with us.  Wow, what a wonderful time we had!

 

One of the exhibitors we spent time talking to, was a lady by the name of Edna Gibson, who explained that she had spent time living in Japan being taught the wonderful art of Kumihimo, an umbrella term for several kinds of Japanese braidmaking that were unknown outside Japan until about 30 years ago.  Edna told us that she was instrumental in introducing Kumihimo to the UK.   The term Kumihimo is a composite of two words, ‘kumi’ meaning coming together or group, and ‘himo’ meaning string, cord, rope or braid.  Whilst most of us will have  heard of Samurai,  I didn’t realise that the Samurai armour plates are laced together with cords, traditionally Kumihimo braids, which are also tied around ‘obis’, the sashes used on kimonos.  Edna explained that she was taught Kumihimo by a very skilled Japanese person, and brought her knowledge back to the UK.  The looms used for Kumihimo are known as ‘dai’ or ‘stands’, and are usually made from either wood or bamboo.  All the dai are set up with carefully measured threads (as many as 80 strands of fine silk are wound on each bobbin or ‘tama’).  The weighted bobbins are lifted and moved in specific repeated sequences  to produce each type of braid. Traditionally, silk was used to make braids but today, braiders also use artificial silk or rayon.

  This is my friend Debbie, with the lovely and very knowledgeable Edna.

This shows the two types of dai used.  Apologies for the poor quality of this photo, but it was taken from one of the information boards Edna had put up…

  The top photo shows braiding on a ‘Marudai’ and the bottom photo shows braiding on a ‘Takadai’.

Edna’s braiding…

 

As you can imagine, it was hard not to go on a full-out spending spree at Wonderwool!! There were so many beautiful fibres on offer, not to mention everything else!! I haven’t crocheted for many years, but was inspired by a beautiful pattern, by Janie Crow called ‘Mystical Lanterns’.  I ended up purchasing both the pattern and the yarn!  It’s a work in progress, but I’m enjoying the process!

These show some of the exhibits on show at Wonderwool.  Hopefully, my scarf will turn out as lovely.

 

There were so many exhibits and stalls, too many to include here, but this will give you a flavour of a few of the exhibits on show…

  To be honest, I was so busy choosing fibre to purchase, I didn’t take any photographs of the actual stalls!!

 

At the end of the day, I met up with Mary and her friend, to collect my drum carder.  It was lovely to share a coffee and a chat with her, and she was able to share the history of the carder with me.  We parted the day friends who share a passion for fibre, and agreed we would definitely meet up again at next year’s Wonderwool!  We shared a ‘selfie’ before we left…

 

As I mentioned, I haven’t posted for a while, due to going through a very difficult period in my life, which resulted in me not having the energy or inclination to do any fibre craft whatsoever, so I had not actually even tried out my new carder until quite recently.  But when I felt able to resume my spinning, I found it really helped me in a very mindful way.  I particularly found that spinning brought me a sense of calm and peacefulness, with positivity and joy.

 

My first project was back in October, hence the autumnal colours!  I put together a collection of merino fibre of different colours, with one part of bamboo in a dark shade.  I weighed the fibre first, as I wanted to make two batts of fibre that I could spin ready to weave with.

 

Having never used a drum carder before, this was all experimental but in the end, I was really pleased with how it turned out…

I didn’t want to blend the fibre too much, as I wanted to have the different colours come through when I spun it.  Also, I’d heard about people ending up with ‘mud’, so that was something else I wanted to avoid.  Having blended my fibre to reflect my need, I then proceeded to spin it….

This shows the difference when using a flash (on the left) verses no flash (right).

Once I had filled my bobbin completely, I proceeded to wind it into a ball, so I could ply it from both ends of the yarn.

This is the finished yarn, once it was soaked to set the twist, thwacked and dried…

  I’m quite pleased with the results.  I also feel that my spinning has improved a bit since I posted on her last time!  I’m looking forward to weaving with this yarn over the Christmas holiday period.  Hopefully I will be able to show you the end product in my next blog!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2023, from Lisa and Alex 🙂

 

Second Quarter Challenge 2022 – I can’t do that

Second Quarter Challenge 2022 – I can’t do that

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As soon as I saw what Lyn was setting as our next Challenge I thought “but I can’t do that”.  I have always stumbled when trying to understand Design because, although I can see pattern in a lot of things, I fail entirely in translating what I see into my work.  I am very literal in my thinking, and when I see abstract pieces (usually “modern” embroidery pieces) based on images of say, a broken brick, or the reflection in a window, or a rusty piece of metal, or a “fractal”, I think to myself “yes, very clever, but why?” and “what would I do with it?” and “I can’t see that on my wall” (and just occasionally “I wouldn’t give that house room!”).   This is why I tend to make my pictures or 3D sculptures as realistic as I can.

I was going to just not bother with this Challenge, and then I remembered that some years ago I had attended a course on Design – I had forgotten all about it and it is relevant to this Challenge.

In August 2015 the Association of Guilds of Weavers Spinners & Dyers included in it’s week long residential Summer School syllabus a course by Alison Daykin – “Design for the Terrified” and I was lucky enough to be allocated a place – most courses were usually over-subscribed.  Here is the introductory list of available courses from the brochure for you to drool over!

The course was described as offering “help to ‘painting and drawing challenged’ weavers, spinners, dyers, or other textile practitioners, in understanding Design and using this in their chosen medium”.  The brochure went on to say: “This course will provide simple, but effective guidelines in design, without the student feeling overwhelmed by theory. The tutor will also leave plenty of room for participants to express themselves in their chosen medium.

“By the course end students will have at least one sketchbook and understand the basics of: colour studies; textural studies; shape; line/stripes.

“Students are encouraged to make samples appropriate to their own textile skills. They may choose to bring their loom or wheel with them, or to develop further sketchbooks if they prefer.”

Frankly this description of the course frightened the life out of me and I nearly didn’t apply, not least because I would be foregoing the chance to take the offered very interesting felt making course. (It’s headline description was “… an ‘adventure with fibres and fabrics’, combining colour, texture and layering to produce felted fabrics for decorative purposes or garments” and that was what I was most interested in at the time.) However after exchanging a few emails with Alison, and reading the three blogs which she sent out about the course I decided to bite the bullet.
The first blog post puts emphasis on your “Inspiration” and resulted in a further flurry of emails with Alison, since I had no idea what it meant or what my “Inspiration” should be in this context. She basically said that I should pick a subject which I found really interesting. I was undecided whether to plump for trees, which seemed a very big subject, or sea shells – almost as big but of which I had recently started a collection. In the end I went with sea shells.

Sea Shell collection with Sea Urchin “
skeletons”

The second and third blog posts and a “round robin” email from Alison encouraged us to bring along as many different types of art media as we might be able to lay our hands on, including different types and colours of paper and “mark making” equipment. In addition we were asked to only bring one image of our inspiration, but as many copies of it as possible. (As I hadn’t been able to choose just one shell my image consisted of most of my collection, which also included sea urchin “skeletons”.) We would also need to take a notice board (if we hadn’t already made a mood board – “Er …. what’s one of them?”) so that we could pin up various bits and pieces as we went through the course. We would also need the equipment and materials required to make samples in our chosen technique. As I didn’t know which shell would be my inspiration the “materials” consisted of most of my stashes of fibres, fabric & yarns!
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the saying “everything but the kitchen sink” – very apt, my poor car was groaning when I set off with all this stuff plus clothes etc., and I had yet to fit in the friend I was giving a lift to, plus all her stuff and her walking aid. (She was still a bit frail after an illness.)

The Summer School was based at Moreton Morrell Agricultural College in Warwickshire, where (after we got lost twice on the way) I met Alison and the rest of the class members. There were weavers, spinners, an embroiderer and a felt maker – me.
Alison showed us her own work, and took us through her process for designing woven fabrics for specific purposes, showing us her mood boards and pictures of finished fabrics “in situ”. Here is a much abbreviated view of how she followed one inspiration from an image of ancient ruins to cloth samples.

She then started us off on our own design journey. Alison suggested to me that I should pick my favourite shell from the picture of my collection and make an enlarged drawing of the shell, both in monochrome and in colour and using different media. I had a go at this, although my drawing skills are minimal. This was before she had found that we would be able to have access to the college’s print facilities, where we could get photographs printed, and colour and monochrome photocopies made on a copier, which was capable of enlarging. We all made great use of this facility – zeroing in on just part of our inspiration image and having multiple copies made on different colour papers as well as plain white – which enabled us to speed up our progress through the stages of the design processes that Alison had mapped out for us.

One of the “tricks” which Alison showed us was to take two images, cut (or tear) them into strips (leaving one side of the paper still intact, and then to weave the two images.  This did produce some interesting results.

We also cut strips across an image and used this to reference yarn (in my case fibre) wraps. Using this method enabled us to achieve a colour swatch giving combinations, quantities and placement of harmonious colours.

Showing the progress from picture strip to felted swatch

Once we had all played around with these ideas for a day, we were encouraged to get on and start creating samples in our chosen techniques, keeping in mind how we might use the finished work. As I was interested in making felt for clothing and accessories, I had brought with me copies of designs from specific sewing patterns and tried to pick the patterns that would best suit. I had by this time branched out to using as inspiration two different Sea Urchin skeletons, one Cone shell (and when no-one was looking I did a bit of crochet based on the end of a Conch type shell).

  • Large Sea Urchin
  • Small Sea Urchin
  • Cone

As you can see, I’m still leaning towards the literal/representational side of designing.

Alison also encouraged us to take our cameras and go out around the college grounds and look for more inspirations for design. At this stage we had all got used to looking beyond the obvious and came up with some unusual images. This was the one I chose to do something with – don’t ask me why – it’s just a picture of the wood surround (and my toes) to a raised flower bed outside the portacabin which was our workshop, where we all congregated for coffee, snacks and chat.

Being full of enthusiasm for the project, I cut down the photograph to a corner and then cut out the image of part of the surround.

which I then had enlarged and with several copies started to develop the design

This is the design I finally ended up with.

There are five versions in this picture, the basic design on top with four colour changes of the small “pops” of colour.  And here is the jacket pattern and a tracing of the design.

The last day of the course was mainly taken up with visiting the rooms where the other courses had been taking place for a grand Show & Tell. To this end, we had packed up all our equipment and materials and set up our notice boards and work tables as displays of what we had been doing. Here are mine

And here are some of the displays of other class members’ work.  Not all of them I’m afraid, I had camera shake by then so I’ve only included the less blurred ones.

The whole Summer School experience was great, with evening entertainments, a fashion show, a display of entries for the Certificate of Achievement “exams”, a traders’ market (I spent too much money as usual) and a trip to Stratford Upon Avon for a tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Theatre with a chance to see some of their costumes “up close and personal”. 

We inhabited a bubble, with little contact with the outside world.  (There wasn’t even a signal for our mobile phones, short of climbing a hill and standing in the middle of the road.)  A wonderful experience and I’ve enjoyed revisiting it.

I am afraid that by the time I got home again I reverted to type and have not made any fabrics, felted or woven, from any of the designs. I just did what I usually end up doing after returning from a workshop – I put everything away and forgot about it! So I still don’t have a 2nd Quarter Challenge piece to show you; though as a result of writing this post and after seeing some of the pieces which FFS members have posted, I do feel better about the possibility of designing from random observations and images.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next quarter’s Challenge will be.

Recycling, upcycling…..and how one thing leads to another

Recycling, upcycling…..and how one thing leads to another

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It’s that time of year when there are lots of Christmas fairs coming up & I need to make some festive items. 

Recently, I picked up some Christmas-themed small wooden blanks (for tree decorations, or maybe gift tags) very cheaply in a charity shop. I started doodling on them with acrylic pens and found I was enjoying myself – it made me think about the recent popularity of adult colouring books.  Good for mindfulness.

Some examples of the painted blanks – there was quite a variety of shapes.

I know these aren’t fibre-related but it set me off thinking about doing something similar with felt. I bought some bauble-shaped wooden blanks online and after colouring a few in (colouring in is a little addictive) …..

 Some of the painted baubles

….. I decided to make a sheet of white felt, decorated with bits of vintage lace, old tatting and shadow-work embroidery, all bought in charity shops. I have a box full of old strips of hand and machine made ‘lace’, old dressing table doilies, bits of fine crochet….anything I think might felt. I thought this was an ideal opportunity to do some creative up-cycling. 

 

As I was making the felt it struck me that I have lots of handmade felt off-cuts, test pieces and samples that I could use in a similar way. A good opportunity to recycle work and release a little studio space. To continue my recycling theme, I even used charity-shop-bought crochet cotton for the hanging strings. 

These were cut from square samples I made during Fiona Duthie’s Ink + Felt class

 

Left, some more ink + cloth samples. Right, samples I made for my ‘hippie’ bag earlier this year

Left photo: Top left a nuno sample I made using recycled linen; the others were off-cuts from other projects

Right photo – the yellow was a coaster I made with coloured yarn; the green and pink are nuno samples, the blue is an example of paper felt with some acrylic pen

Finally, I painted some of the wooden bauble-shapes white, and married them with a broad strip of black vintage lace. 

So, the chance purchase of second-hand wooden blanks led me to upcycling vintage textiles and recycling some of my own felt off-cuts and samples. I love seeking out and using second-hand materials, especially small hand made things, usually made by women, that tend to be disregarded by many people. Often they are from something that has worn out, like a pillow case, or is rarely now used, like dressing table sets or antimacassars.

I have one particular piece of embroidery on fine silk that I couldn’t bring myself to use. The work is so fine I endlessly marvel at the skills of the woman who made it. It’s so intricate and beautiful with such tiny stitches it makes me feel slightly sad.  I bought it in a charity shop for £2. To me it’s a disregarded masterpiece.

Silk and embroidery (hand / finger included for scale)

The silk is starting to disintegrate and I’m really not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?