Fiber Art – Felting and Fiber Studio

Felting in Arnesby & Yarn Bombing in Cosby

August 24, 2026 Karen Lane Comments 19 comments

A few weeks ago I travelled down to Arnesby in Leicestershire to take part in the Feltmakers Region 8 annual Summer School. The name is a bit misleading as this isn’t a “tutored” gathering but more of a two day Play Day doing whatever takes your fancy. It’s just great to have the luxury of two whole days of uninterrupted felting and for me this would be my first felting project since March so I was particularly keen to make the most of it.

I knew I wanted to make something to display at a Coastal themed exhibition I’m taking part in September but hadn’t exactly planned what that was going to look like. So I dug out my tin of shells and chose a spiral one, covered in barnacles, to take with me as inspiration.

My initial thought was to create a vessel with a tiny opening in the base to remove the resist through. After working out the size I wanted my vessel to be I drew and cut out my resist, elongating the bottom section of the shell to give this more emphasis and more height.

By the time I’d finished my first coffee I’d changed my mind about what I was doing and decided the shape I’d drawn would lend itself nicely to being a lidded vessel. Its just as well I hadn’t got any fibre laid down yet!

The main body of the shell got laid out first and put to one side while I made the nuno prefelt to cut the craters from which would represent the barnacles.

I did wonder if that narrow base was going to prove a bad idea and whether I had the weight distribution right but by that point I was too invested so just had carry on and hope I could make it work!

This could have gone so wrong so it was a big relief to see it standing!

The finished vessel stands approx 45cm tall and is 25cm at its widest point.

After our first day of felting the friend I was staying with offered to drive three of us to Cosby, a village close by that stages an enormous themed yarn bomb. This years theme was “Round the World in 80 Displays”. The event happens every two years and the exhibits are in place for three weeks so we were lucky to catch the final evening before the displays were taken down. I can’t begin to describe the scale of this project! I’ve a friend who’s heavily involved so I’ve known of it for several years but it’s the first time I’ve visited and it surpassed all expectations!

The two leading lights behind this mega yarn bomb are Mel Charnock and Natalie Smith. These fun loving creatives have a passion for colour, textiles, jumble sales and people plus experience of TV & film costume styling, community events, visual merchandising, teaching better mental health & crafts for adults, not to mention a brief stint sewing gussets knickers! All of which led them to founding Gather Create Grow CIC, a local not for profit community group focused on connection and bringing people together, reducing isolation and improving wellbeing with creative community projects.

From very young school children to the very senior residents in the village everyone is encouraged to get involved. Each display area had its own information board telling the viewer a little about who had made what. The exhibits are spread far and wide around Cosby but there is a map available if you want to ensure you see the lot! There was lots we didn’t get to see but I hope you can get a feel for the event with these photos…..

The evening was topped off with a cuddle from this very friendly, and thoughtfully placed, Polar Bear before we headed off to the local chippy.

If you are wondering what happens to the exhibits at the end of the show they are taken down, dismantled, washed, repaired and packed away ready to be reborn again in two years time. Some will re-emerge looking much as they did this year, but in a different setting, while others will have a complete makeover and become something new. If you happen to be in the Leicestershire area when the next Yarn Bomb is on I can recommend you make a detour to Cosby and experience this wonderful event close up for yourself, you wont be disappointed!

Clicking ‘Buy’ was so darn easy, now what to do?

August 21, 2026 helenefeltzen Comments 22 comments

Years ago, when the kids were small, I became a collector of recipe books. I didn’t particularly want to cook out of any of these, I simply loved reading the books and marvelling at the beauty of the process and the presentation of the meals.

More recently I have found that I have started collecting felting courses. I have been rather busy over the past few years – not sure where the time has gone – but last May, I decided that I had best do a stock take of the courses I have signed up for and not done. I discovered that I have at least 20 in my list. These courses either have indefinite access or I have been able to purchase and download the videos so there has never been an urgency in completing them. That said, I don’t want these to fall into the same category as the cookery books – lovely to look at but I wouldn’t like to do them.

Over the years, I have signed up for different Felting Camps offered by Corinna Nitschmann. Each year around April, Corinna invites a number of felting tutors to join her in her studio. The tutors record their respective workshops and then deliver the workshops on a specified date during the camp. Students can opt to work ‘live’ on the day, working with the pre-recorded videos with the tutor available to answer any questions they might have; they have access to these videos for a number of months, if they prefer to work at their own pace. Alternatively a student can pay a little extra and download the videos so that they are there indefinitely. This is the option I choose but I still enjoy being present during the live sessions as the sessions are always upbeat and great fun. Corinna herself is an amazing tutor and has a great sense of humour. There are lots of other activities taking place (besides the workshops) during the felting camp. Here is the link, if you would like to find out more about these https://cornitfelt.com/. I have 3 years of felting camp courses downloaded, that accounts for 15 courses. Then I purchased some courses that I found attractive from individual tutors and need to take. But for the summer months, I decided to focus on some of the felting camp courses. I thought I might share some of the results with you.

My first venture was called “Wet Felting Jewellery Basics” by Judit Haulik. It was part of the 2025 felting camp. This is a well paced course and the videos are divided nicely into sections so that it is possible to complete a task and walk away from it for a while. Students work with very small pieces of felt and Judit herself acknowledges that it can be a bit fiddly but, to be honest, I found that once I got into the groove, going small was not a challenge. I loved the repetitive nature of the design too and I can see possibilities for upsizing the process which Judit is teaching. My main learning on the course was how to integrate very fine chain into the overall design. I chose a very light chain for this process and I reckon that I will use a more robust one next time. That said I am very pleased that I rose to the challenge of the very fine chain as, after this, I feel the bigger size will be a dawdle. Here is the piece I made. I didn’t investigate further as I wanted to move on to another course. That said, I have ideas on where I can take my learning. I have done some quick sketches before they go out of my mind!

Full view of the necklace. Holes felted with sequinned material
Top section of the necklace with sequinned fabric in the centre
Base of the necklace with sequinned fabric showing in the hole

My next workshop came from the 2026 Felting Camp. It was one of the courses that originally attracted me to this year’s camp. The introduction to “Stool Covers” by Bea Nemeth was very joyous and depicted a variety of different shapes and sizes of stools which could be worked on. Bea also presented different possibilities for fibres which could be used in the design. We worked our design on prefelt and then if we wished we could adorn the stool cover with locks. Bea was fun and a little mischievous and at one stage headed to a dye pot with one of her samples. It was fun to see all this in real time at the session. As for the result ….. beautiful! I didn’t have a stool to work off so I headed out to our local Ikea. I made a variegated colour strong merino prefelt and I used my own geometric pattern for my design. I had some Bergschaf left over from making boots a number of years ago so I used this for the background. The resist was huge and I don’t know if you ever have that moment when you feel that a piece will never shrink down sufficiently (I had that on the stool) but it didn’t disappoint and, finally, with lots of patience, shaping and using tools it fit perfectly. I love the result and it acts as a reminder that patience works wonders when I am trying to fit to size.

full view of the stool – blue base is bergschaff
pattern on stool made with merino prefelt

Next up, it was a bit of a return to a comfort zone for me, fine art felt. I checked out Jorie Johnson’s ‘Fine Art “Small Works”’ Jorie studied textile design both in the USA,where she is originally from, and in Finland. She moved to Japan in 1987 and has been based there ever since. If you would like to find out more about Jorie you can visit her website at https://joirae.com/biography/. There was something very special about Jorie’s approach to the workshop – it kind of gave me permission to play with my design while being mindful of her teaching. While students had the freedom to use any style resist of their choosing, I decided to use the one Jorie presented, principally because it had some really challenging angles and shapes included. I also favoured roving over prefelt when I was laying out my background. I got a bit carried away with the design (Jorie recommended leaving more space between each element), but this was playtime and experimentation was the key for me here. Here is the result. Again, there was lots of learning on what can work and it is a great reference for future pieces.

sculpture with resist to show shrinkage (resist design by tutor)
front view of the sculpture
Nuno felted ‘window’
closeup of raised area and nuno felted pattern
closeup of textures and nuno
detail of some of the locks and textures
closeup of the linen section
Second side of the sculpture featuring a variety of textures

That’s all I have for now. I know there are 17 more courses to go, but at least I have made a start. If you like, I can keep you updated on my progress, but the danger is that I am likely to disappear down the odd rabbit hole (I can already see two opening up). Like Alice in Wonderland, there is a possibility that I might meet (or transform into) the Mad Hatter although I wouldn’t mind having some of White Rabbit’s energy (perhaps it would help me get through the classes quicker) because at the moment in this (what appears to be at time of writing) never ending heat wave, my character is more akin to the Dormouse, constantly ready to roll over for another sleep!

Is there anyone out there in the same boat with lots of outstanding courses? Please tell me so that I know I am not alone.

Happy felting!

Hugs

Helene

Multi colored nuno felt background with trees and autumn foliage

Transitions

August 3, 2026 ruthlane Comments 16 comments

I had a wonderful sales month at the 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula and sold four pieces in the space of 30 days! Yay, happy dance and then… I suddenly realized that the gallery only had 2 small pieces left. I needed more work and it’s summertime and I don’t want to miss the tourist season.

I found I had a multicolored piece of nuno felt big enough to split into two pieces. You can see the edge of the second piece on the right. My trees always seem to sell quickly so of course, more trees it is. I found a piece of handdyed fabric that I had used as “matte” fabric and it was perfect for making tree trunks. I worked out a configuration of trunks that I liked.

Then I hand stitched the trunks in place and tried out some cheesecloth as foliage. I had created a piece before with cheesecloth and tried that idea on the left. It looked too Dr. Seuss in these colors. So I chopped up smaller pieces and thought that would work better.

So I added more, spread the pieces out a bit and added some cheesecloth to the foreground for undergrowth.

Here it is before I stitched it all down. The cheesecloth moves around easily so it changes as I stitch but hopefully, that makes it more organic and less regular.

Here is the piece after all the stitching is complete. The funny thing I noticed is that there are several areas that look like shadows in the foreground from the tree trunks. They weren’t planned but I guess I must have noticed them subconsciously, as they seem to work perfectly. I’m calling this one Transitions.

I dyed a piece of muslin in dark burnt orange for the “matte” fabric, laced it to a backing and took it to the framers.

Here’s the piece framed. I have worked on two other pieces and traded around some pieces that I had at a gallery in Kalispell, so I will have 5 pieces to take to Missoula in a week or so.

In other exciting news, I have a new online class that will be starting on August 21st. Click here to learn more about the class.

Bountiful Botanicals Exhibition at Lincoln Cathedral

June 22, 2026 Karen Lane Comments 19 comments

Last Monday the Lincolnshire Textile groups Bountiful Botanicals exhibition was opened to the public in the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral. We always feature a central group piece and this year it consisted of a large vase framed by a floral arch which was adorned with individual flowers created by our members using a wide variety of materials, colours and techniques.

This can be a tricky venue for displaying textile art due to the fact that the Chapter House is not brightly lit and very little natural light filters through the stained glass plus there are limitations regards hanging the work. That said the team putting up the displays always do a wonderful job and once again we’ve had some fabulous feedback from visitors. These are just a few of the pieces that were on display…..

WDO CAMERA

There was a wedding taking place in the Cathedral yesterday and the members who were stewarding were paid a surprise visit by the Bride and Groom who had heard about the arch and were keen to pose for photos under it. I’m only sorry I cant give the happy couple a name check but if by any chance its you and you see this post we wish you all the best!

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to visit this years exhibition, the images I’m using have been to sent me from another member, so it was a lovely surprise to see several beautiful pieces on display that members had created as a result of attending my Tall Trees workshop in 2024

My submission was this wired 3d Tyvek fabric Iris.

Also this week I took part in two competitions that were held at the annual Lincolnshire Show. This is an event I used to love to attend when I was younger but at some point it must have lost its appeal as it dawned on me that it must be forty years since I was last there! Anyway, my friend Lucy told me a couple of months back about a craft competition she was taking part in with all entries featuring as part of a two day display in the huge Floral Marquee. Everyone entering a piece of work would automatically be sent two free Show tickets, it wasn’t dependent on winning, simply entering any of the numerous categories would ensure your free tickets so that sounded like a win-win idea to me! Each theme had its own criteria regards size and all entries were to be created using mainly plant based materials. Loving a challenge I chose to enter two categories, the first being “If The Shoe Fits”, which Lucy was also entering, plus a category to create a Necklace titled “Cartier, Tiffany, Chanel or….” We were given a huge list of what “plant based” materials would be accepted including cotton fabrics & threads, paper & cardboard, all cellulose fibres, wood, etc, and there were a few things on the list that wouldn’t have occurred to me including latex balloons, birds nests, cereals and pasta!

So knowing I wanted my two pieces to have a woodland theme I began with a walk in the local woods looking for inspiration and foraged various plant based bits including different types of tree bark, acorn hats, small twigs and tiny fir cones.

Having measured the length and width of one of my shoes I knew it would just fit in the space allocated so used that as a template to create a padded, stitched cotton fabric sole. One of the little twigs found on my walk was the perfect shape and size for the heel so that got added next. I spent a while cleaning up pieces of Birch bark and then applied acrylic medium to make it supple before glueing it on as the shoe insole, along with a little bit of moss. The leaves were all made using free motion stitch on water soluble fabric and by ensuring some of the glue remained on the stitching after rinsing I was able to form the shape I wanted the leaves to be by wrapping them around my “real” shoe. Once the shoe had been assembled the little flowers were created from frayed cotton fabric and wired in place.

There were some impressive entries in the Shoe category, and sadly my submission didn’t get placed, but it was great to see that Lucy’s amazing “paper” Walking Boot won first prize. In fact it looked so real that I overheard a lady telling her friend that someone had “obviously simply pasted paper on to a boot!” I was so pleased I could put her right and say I saw it being made and the whole thing was entirely made from paper! The look on her face was priceless!

As the deadline for submissions was looming I realized I didn’t have time to procrastinate over the design of my necklace. This would have to be a very quick and easy project so I made a base of soaked Kozo fibre and attached some of the bark and other left over bits that were on my table. The asymmetrical shape came together very quickly but it was lacking a bit of bling so I used a little gold and bronze metallic paint to bring it to life.

With it being a rushed job I didn’t think for one minute it would receive any votes so it was nice to discover it had taken third place!

I’ll leave you with the stunning exhibit that won first prize under the theme of Catwalk Queen and also won Best in Show…….

Anyone for Kinusaiga – a crash course?

June 19, 2026 helenefeltzen Comments 22 comments

Recently, a friend of mine mentioned that she was heading to a class to explore Joomchi. It is something that I would be interested in learning about but I have enough rabbit holes in my life at the moment. Curious (for future reference) I asked about the venue and headed online to check it out. I was scrolling through the lovely website and I came across a different course, one offering a three hour session on Kinusaiga. The photos of the finished work were really attractive but I got a bit of a shock when I saw the cost, which I considered prohibitive to most people. So out of principle, I decided to give it a miss. But my curiosity was roused at that stage so I googled the term and found many videos on YouTube. I can’t attribute my new knowledge to just one of these videos as presenters had their own view of what to look out for when making Kinusaiga. So this post is an amalgamation of my learning from my short visit into the rabbit hole.

Kinusaiga originated in Japan and is a form of fabric collage. It is a great way to use up fabric scraps and I found the whole process quite meditative and enjoyable. The process involves drawing a simple pattern which is transferred onto a foam block which has been covered in double sided sticky paper. Each section of the design is treated as a pattern piece which is used as a basis for a shape cut from fabric. You add on extra fabric to the shape to allow for tucking into the foam block so that none of the raw edges are showing. The sticky background holds everything in place. I think it’s probably easier to explain if I go through it step by step. I improvised with my materials as I wanted to produce my picture from stuff I already had. This might suit but you can buy kits online – I checked some out but I found them very expensive for what was on offer.

Materials:

Foam board – I used leftover scraps from the board I use when I am framing pieces but thicker is ideal if you have it to hand as there is less likelihood that you will pierce the back of the board.
2 sided sticky paper. One side will stick to the board and one side to your fabric to keep it in place. I used some 2 sided sticky tape that I had left over from sticking down a floor rug.
Craft knife.
Metal nail file (one with a pointy end) or sharp small scissors (like an embroidery scissors).
Paper and pencil (for drawing your pattern)
Marker (for example a Sharpie pen) to outline your final drawing.
Fabric scraps (I used fabric I had left over from my mask making days of the early 2020’s)
2 Scissors one for paper and one for fabric cutting.
2 sided selotape

The how to:

Step 1

Sketch a very simple design being mindful that each outline is going to become a cutout. I used a two sided felted mobile that I made some years ago as my starting point:

*My inspiration was based off a felted mobile I made some time ago*

Here is my outline:

*simple recreation of the chosen design*

Step 2

Now number each section that you are going to cut out and take a photo of this for reference:

*Here I numbered all the pieces and took a photo for reference*

Step 3

Stick the two sided sticky paper or tape to the foam board, leaving the protective cover on the top layer of the paper/tape (I did not take a photo of this but you can see it in the next photo)

Step 4

Place the drawing on top of your covered foam board and secure. Cut through each of the shapes using your craft knife. Be careful with the knife and make sure it pierces through the sticky paper/tape and through the foam BUT that it does not pierce the back side of the foam board. Set aside each of the cut pieces of your design (now you can see why it is helpful to number them).

The drawing was secured on the foam and each section was cut out
with an imprint left on the foam block

Step 5

Choose fabrics from your stash that you feel will look pleasing together

photo

Step 6

Start cutting out your shapes making sure that you allow extra fabric so that you can push this down the side of the corresponding cut in the foam board. Remove the cover off the sticky paper/tape (my tape was blue so it is easy to see this in the photo)

*Inserting the first shape (the blue is the sticky tape)*

Step 7

Align your shape so that you have enough fabric to push down the side of the foam board. Use your metal nail file or your small scissors to do this. Carefully trim off any excess if you find that the allowance is too big.

Be sure to work methodically when securing the fabric. It makes it easier to complete and you can see your picture build up, which is nice. I was unhappy with one of my fabric choices when I laid them down initially so I was able to change them – the materials were very forgiving. One of the photos has an arrow on it to show where I changed my mind about a particular fabric.

first piece inserted
building the picture

Step 8

Finally secure the overhang at the side of your picture to the back with double sided sticky tape. Add a frame if you fancy. My fabrics were chosen at random from the stash so are a tad garish. It’s far from perfect but not too bad for a first try. Also, looking at the last photo I see I could have ironed some of the fabric before I used them, but sometimes it is good for me to leave precision behind and just go have fun.

I hope this is a project you will try. It is fun, mindful and quick to complete. Let me know what you think and be sure to post your work so that we can include them in the gallery.

Helene x

Medieval Spinning

May 14, 2026 Shepherdessann Comments 12 comments

I took a Class in Medieval spinning with a distaff last Thursday. I originally signed up for the class before the COVID-19 lockdown. So I have been waiting a while to do this class. This was a 2-hour evening class. We were learning 2 things at once. How to spin in hand and how to use a distaff. Our teacher Judy said it’s like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time.

First, we got some distaffs to dress. This means we had to tie the fiberbatts to a stick. Judy had a couple of nice wooden ones, but mostly we had forked branches she had taken the bark off.

Judy brought several spindles with different whorls. The whorl is the disk that adds weight, so the spindle spins better. The whorls are removable. Once you have some yarn built up on your spindle, you can remove the whorl.

First, we practised twirling the spindle with the leader. You have to make a half hitch on the end of the spindle and then twirl it.

Judy showing us how to twirl our spindle

Lucie is seeing if it is easier standing up.

Then we practised the drafting and the twirling at the same time. milking cow motion on the right and twirling on the right. This is the patting your head and rubbing your tummy part. The only thing we had to bring to class was a belt to stick the distaff in. I do not own a belt, so I got some bailer twine and braided myself a belt for the night. You can see this great fashion piece below.

Then we started spinning. It’s hard to know where to look, at the hand that’s trying to twirl correctly or at the hand trying to draft the fibre down from the distaff.

Here I am winding on. The idea is to make a football (rugby ball) shaped cob on the spindle.

Here’s a close-up of twirling and short suspension. You can let it drop a bit on the last twerl before winding on. Usually, you need to keep it in-hand so you can twirl it again.

Here is what I managed to make by the end of the class. It’s lumpy and thick and thin just like the yarn I made when I first started spinning. I was just starting to wind off when I remembered to take a picture. I haven’t decided if I will ply it or not. First, I have to find my spindles. I’ve seen them recently in their little case. Of course, I couldn’t find them before the class. I will find them again when I am looking for something else. I hope I will be smart enough to grab them and not think I will remember where they are.

Mixed media painting "Forest Keeper" on watercolor paper - tree spirit with Mountain Hemlock

Essence of Nature

April 26, 2026 ruthlane Comments 14 comments

In my recent art and design class, I painted a series of tree spirit portraits. In researching tree spirits, I found many photos of young women with ‘beautiful’ faces. I thought that if a tree had a spirit, it would be the same age as a tree, which can live for hundreds of years. I decided to base my tree spirits on the beauty of older women, with wrinkles, grey hair and wisdom shining through. Once these were painted, I decided to create tree spirits in felt and stitch. I will be continuing with this series as I found stitching and creating portraits a challenge.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - photocopy of original painting and nuno felt background.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - tracing design on to water soluble fabric on light box.

I printed a copy of the original artwork and found a piece of deconstructed screen printed fabric that worked for the background. The fabric was silk organdy and I nuno felted it to a dark green wool. Then I taped a piece of water soluble fabric to the artwork and traced it on the light box.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - pinned traced design to felt

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - outline stitching over traced design on watersoluble fabric.

I pinned the traced outlines of the face and the pinecone down to the nuno felt. Then I used a dark green to stitch the face outline and a dark brown to stitch the pinecone. It’s not shown here but I used a white thread to stitch the outline of the hair. The tree on the left hand side was developed free hand as there was already dark green in the background fabric that reminded me of the shapes of the tree branches. Once the outlines were stitched, I dissolved the water soluble fabric and let the piece dry.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - stitched eyes and beginning darker values.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - stitching more dark values for shaded areas.

Then on to stitching. This will probably seem like an exercise/game of find the differences as some of the photos seem very much alike. I used 1-2 strands of cotton floss and stitched in a distorted cross stitch. Unlike regular cross stitch, this is a very loose form of cross stitch where the stitches do cross but they are different lengths and directions to fill the space. It is a fairly easy way to shade for darks and lights without doing precise stitching such as long and short stitch. I started with the eyes. I have found when stitching a portrait before, that I stitch the “important” areas first. If I don’t like the eyes, I can either re-do them or start over without wasting loads of time on the rest of the face.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - Stitching face and a variety of values for shading.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - beginning stitching of hair.

I continued using various shades of green and developing the face and then on to the hair. It was a really interesting process as it seemed like I would add more dark into an area and then find that I needed to add more dark to other areas. There are many layers of stitched threads and hours of work in the final piece.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - stitching lighter values to hair + curls + tree and pinecone

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - adding darker values.

As you can see, I didn’t take many photos of the tree development or of the pinecone stitching. But I continued with the distorted cross stitch for these areas too. The pine needles were done with stem stitch.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - working on value in hair.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - adding deeper wrinkles.

I changed the hair multiple times. I had added stem stitch curls but those seemed to stand out too much. I went back in and stitched over that with a variety of shades of lighter green to make the hair look more natural. I also worked on deepening the wrinkles around the eyes and mouth.

I probably could have kept working on this piece but decided to stop.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit - choosing background fabric.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit.

Once I was satisfied with the face, I needed a background fabric. I had linen that had been screen printed at the same time as the silk organdy. I tried an overlay of blue green silk but ended up choosing the linen for a background. The nuno felt was stitched to the linen background and laced over a matte board. The final piece is 10″ x 10″. I was planning on framing it but couldn’t find the correct size frame for it. I ended up covering a 10″ x 10″ canvas with green felt and stitching the edges of the fabric matte to the canvas. Sorry that I don’t have a photo so that you can see the edge of the canvas and how that looked.

The piece is named the Essence of Nature and will be in an exhibition in May at 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula, Montana.

A Catch Up

April 23, 2026 Karen Lane Comments 18 comments

In my last post I mentioned several pieces I was working on and some events that were coming up and I thought I’d use this post to update you on how those went.

I’d made several superfine Merino pendant samples in preparation for a wet felted workshop I had been asked to run for IFA Region 8 in Arnesby, Leicestershire. I had tried to cover options for all abilities from a very simple design that didn’t require a resist, through to a complex design requiring multiple resists. As it turned out all of the samples proved useful because between them my 10 students chose to make one of each of those designs. I was too busy on the day to remember to take progress photos (sorry) and nobody got fully finished before we left but these are some of the images Ive received since…..

One of the ladies, Leah, enjoyed making hers so much she’s gone on to make two more in a style very much of her own which I love!

Another project I’d been working on was Passage of Time, a wet felted Wallhanging inspired by a huge sandstone slab, for the IFA’s online exhibition “Time” which launched in March. You can see the exhibition here. I’d rushed to get this done to meet the deadline. It wasn’t as colourful as I’d intended and I knew it was far from finished! This was how you saw it last…..

After submitting it I continued to embroider and decorate adding colonial knots, free motion stitched mussel shells, machine wrapped cords and embroidered barnacles. As well as needing more surface texture I felt it should be larger and more irregular in shape so wet felted and embellished a second piece to hang adjacent to it. It’s now approximately 1m x 50cm and I’m much happier with how it finished up…..

The exhibition at Harding House in Lincoln went better than any of us could have imagined! Five months of planning and two days of setting up with my friend Jo resulted in an event that we were all very proud to be a part of. Fourteen out of the eighteen participating members travelled from various parts of the midlands to attend the launch party on Saturday 14th March.

We tried to cover as many different techniques as possible with our exhibits and included an “Education Station” with info boards, “touch” samples and the new promotional material advertising the International Feltmakers Association. We also ensured there was an artist in residence every day for the two weeks, either wet felting or needle felting. This meant visitors not only got to see felt being made but they had a point of contact if they wanted to learn more about the art they were seeing, about the IFA, or about Feltmaking in general.

We had a steady footfall throughout the fortnight we were there and it was wonderful to get to meet and speak to so many interested visitors, the feedback received was fantastic!

Earlier this month I travelled over to Risley in Derbyshire to spend the day with Material Girls and the talented, and very entertaining, textile artist known as Mr Finch. Finch creates enormous 3D fabric sculptures of animals, birds, insects, fungi and other fantastical creatures such as this owl and an onion complete with arms, legs and clogs!

He also brought along this Badger and I have to say that the photos really don’t do justice to these fantastic sculptures. To touch them they are rock hard and incredibly weighty, it’s hard to believe that they are stuffed with polyester stuffing! It was fascinating to see close up how he’d made the joints and details such as the paws and fingers.

Finch provided lots of laughs and kept the ladies entertained throughout the day as we learnt his tips for designing templates and creating fabric sculptures. If I’m completely honest I was disappointed that we were hand stitching and not using machines during this class so I’m looking forward to creating another hare very soon using cotton fabric and my machine, putting in to practise some of the useful tips and ideas I picked up from Mr Finch. I think you can see from the photos how much fun we had!

Nuno felted "watercolor" landscape with couched yarn tree, close up of branches.

Embellished “Watercolor” Landscape

April 8, 2026 ruthlane Comments 18 comments

I am still working on the “watercolor landscape” samples that I created. This one is nuno felted paper that has had watercolor applied after the felting process. It needs a bit more, doesn’t it?

I scanned the piece on my printer so I had the exact size of the piece printed out. I then drew a tree over the landscape in pencil. Instead of trying to transfer the design of the tree on to the piece, I decided to just mark where the edges of the trunk were on the top and bottom.

I didn’t get any photos of the stitching process as I stitched it mainly while traveling. I had found a variety of grey yarn that I couched down with a dark grey cotton machine thread. I tried to give an impression of depth of the tree with the values of grey. I followed my sketch but “edited” out some of the smaller branches.

Nuno felted "watercolor" landscape with couched yarn tree, close up of trunk.

Here’s a couple of close ups of the stitching.

The next step was to find a piece of background (matte) fabric. I stitched the felt piece on to this hand dyed grey background that I already had in my stash. Luckily, it was a blue grey tone that matched the watercolors. The piece was then stretched and laced around matte board. Then it’s ready for a frame.

Here it is in the frame and ready to go to the gallery. This piece in the frame is 8″ x 10″ and I have decided to name it “Solitude”.

Felted Vessel Workshop

March 24, 2026 Shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

A few weeks ago, I taught a felted vessel class. A lovely bunch of ladies full of enthusiasm. As usual, I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted, but here you can see the setup.

After everyone had their base ready, people got to work on embellishments. This is the hardest part, but also the most fun for most people. So many choices of wool and silk. They have to think about where they will cut their felt to take the resist out, to open it up, how big they want the opening and whether they want a very round pot or a flattish one. Where is the top, and where is the bottom?