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?
I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to, so we jump to the end.
Two ladies decided to cut slits and make their vessels into small bags. They need to work on the edges some more.
And one lady decided to turn hers into two small bowls. One was turned inside out so you can see the pattern better.
All in all, I think they did very well having never felted before, I don’t think any of them had ever handled fibre before.
Here we are at the start of a new and exciting adventure: making a felt box out of, yes, wool!
You think that I am stating the obvious, felt is oftentimes made of wool and of course you can make felt boxes: just look at the internet and you will see tons of them for sale (mostly made with industrial felt)! But you would not believe how many times I have had to explain those two bits of information to people during the time that I was making my box: yes, I am felting it. Yes, it is made of wool. No, I am not going to sew it (if I possibly can), I am felting it. Yes, I make it by felting wool. W-O-O-L. How, you ask? You can make all sorts of shapes by felting with the right resist..no, I am not going to sew it, I assure you it will come out with the box shape. Well, hopefully.
To be sure, a box is just another type of wet felt vessel made with a resist, and yes, of course you can make it by sewing the single felted flat sides and a flat bottom together, but…sewing, where is the fun in that? (total respect to people who like sewing, eh, it is just not me)
Long story medium-short, we decided that we needed to organise our living room in a better way, changing bits of furniture and generally trying to sort out the chaos, also because we are in the process of adopting guinea pigs (oh, my! let’s see) and we need the space for an indoor cage. So, we are plus bookshelves and minus an office desk with drawers, and we need some kind of storage box that fits the shelves and, crucial, does not seem something that you find in your shed. Unfortunately, the size of our shelves is not standard, and a standard storage box will not fit, either because too small or too big. So I thought, let’s have a box that is good to look at and the maximum size that will fit in there, let’s make it ourselves!
(well, I would not want you to think that I normally talk to myself with that royal We. It is clear to any who know me that all that was just me and me thinking “What, 30 pounds for that soulless box that does not even fit properly? no way, I can make one better than that and spend less!” or something of the sort)
The size of the bookshelves that we have comes in two flavours, big and small, both somewhat non standard, so I originally thought about making a smaller box as well, and took measurements for both. All measurements are in centimeters.I arbitrarily added a 40 % increase on all sides, and did the same also for the height of the lid (all other measurements being the same for lid and box, of course)
To start, I prepared my resist for the bottom of the box: this involved a bit of sewing, namely attaching together the various bits of bubble wrap in the shape of a very floppy box without a top, as I will make a lid to fit it (some time in the far future). It does not show well in photo, but here it is:
Here is the resist seen with the bottom part prominent (naughty).And here is the resist bottom down: very floppy, you can not really tell that this is a box shape.
I hate hand sewing on bubble wrap, the plastic just clings firmly to your needle and it is worse than sewing sewing, in my opinion, so let’s not dwell on it.
I did not have as much wool as I needed, so I ordered some from World of Wool. I wanted to try out something different from my usual Merino, as I needed something coarser that could be hard wearing and stand a bit stiffer, because the box is not small and will be full of quite a few things that are on the heavier side, such as tape and packing tape, some cables, and so on. Unfortunately, I am not used to coarser wool, the room was in a chaos and I did not have time for much research on our brilliant Blog or Forum (yes, it is lame. Let’s say, it is not the best excuse for not doing my homework that I have ever found, I’ll admit, but if you give me a bit more time I can say that the guinea pigs have eaten my research), anyway, ahem, later on our wise felt experts from the FFS Forum have determined that apparently I picked the wrong wool.
Well, you know, it can happen to anyone if they skip research and sampling. Well, yes, I also skipped making samples, because, let me think, the guinea pigs ate my sample? OK, maybe not. I’ll get better, pinky promise.
Anyway, I got my generic “English wool” from World of Wool, and yes, it was a bit coarser than Merino but still quite soft..in hindsight I may have been suspicious when it felt so soft, I do not know. Actually, that is a mix of different breeds’ wool, some that may actually be quite good for stiffer felt and some that are not, although they are coarser than Merino. Perfectly fine felting with it for all sorts of uses, but , a word to the wise, do not use it to make big boxes, eh.
Here it is, the challenging wool.
So, I got on my white horse and started felting on my resist straight away with a lot of good will. I assumed that the coarser wool would need less layers to obtain the same felt (do not ask, pre-christmas chaos guinea pigs mind fugue hobblegobble chicachicacha) and I decided on 4 good layers.
Here are a few photos of my felting the first box:
Starting from the bottom, that was the biggest area.First layer on a short side. I took care to cover each already worked on part with a layer of plastic (I used plastic bin bags) as I learned from Lena Archibold’s advice on how to work with a book resist.Figuring out how to fold the different sides to get an even result was a bit puzzling at first, I spent some time opening and closing folds, it must have looked weird from outside!Yes, we are at the fun part of the 5th layer, when I could use dyed Merino wool for the wow effect!Here is another side. I actually decorated both four sides, but forgot to take photos of the two smaller. Anyway, it is the same colours for all the sides, only different layout.This is one of the small sides, all wet and soaped, being worked on.And here we are at the rolling stage. I also used throwing and variously manipulating the shape.
Wait, let’s see if you were attentive: have you noticed that I said “first box”?
Exactly: here is how it stood after drying, that is to say not at all:
No words, really.
It took more or less a day to felt, and a few days to dry. I liked the colours (a last layer of Merino wool, the 5th, to do that), and the shape ended up exactly the right size, but it would not stand, and I thought that it was because the layers were just not enough. I had enough wool to start a new one doubling the layers, so I went back to it using the same resist and the same type of wool (not my cleverest day, fine).
I weighted the remaining wool and I found out that I only had used about 150 grams of it, so I had still about 450 grams to try again.
The steps were the same, only more layers, so I will not show more pics of it, only the final result when the box had dried:
One side....the other side. I did not decorate the small sides this time, but left them natural white, as they are not going to be seen when the box is in the bookshelf.
It was better, but still the sides were not holding up.
At that point, it was definitely time for my felting fairy godmothers to intervene: I asked the classic “Help, what did I do wrong?” on the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum and, thank goodness, got kind replies that explained the generic English wool issue as probable cause (so, no, adding more layers was likely not going to cure that, in case I still had not clicked on to that) and gave me very good advice on what I could try next to avoid throwing the 2 boxes into the scrap pile and to salvage them.
The suggestions were:
– to try and stiffen the sides or corners with machine or hand stitching
– to try and put a wire armature inside the felt or stitch it on the inside of the box
– to use PVA glue to stiffen the felt
– to stitch the two boxes together one inside the other, and maybe also
– to add some stiff padding, sandwiching it in between the two boxes.
Or possibly to try a combination of the above suggestions until the aim was reached. Which is exactly what I did, apart from the PVA glue and the stitching, both left as last resort, the glue because I was not fancying working with glue with such a big object, and the stitching because I do not have a sewing machine and it takes ages to stitch by hand.
What worked? well, clearly not one thing only, I had to go on trying to the last, but in the end I have a workable box and we are already using it, even though there is no lid yet.
First, I added thick wire to the inside of the box corners, with a few stitches. The felt was not thick enough to insert the wire into it, that would have been better. Sadly, it did not solve the issue totally.
Then, I stitched in place the first box (the thinner one) into the second box, leaving the upper edges open for putting in some padding if required. It was better still, but not there yet.
Lastly, I started looking for padding. Floor underlayer was suggested as good for that job, but when I went to look at my local DIY builders warehouse I did not find the exact type and thickness that I needed, and I came home empty handed. The same research online left me with too many choices, some of them a bit on the expensive side because with a required minimum purchase limit that was also way too high for my storage capability (What, 20 meters rolls minimum?? I do not live in Versailles palace!)
Luckily, as I told you, we were changing some pieces of furniture and it so happens that some had polystyrene sheets in their packaging: initially, I did not want to use that for a few reasons (it breaks easily, it is not going to be washable, it can disperse plastic bits in the environment in time..), but in the end it was there and I could use it instead of chucking it in the garbage bin, so it is kept out of the dump for a little while more. And it was free for me, and readily available.
So, I cut it to size with a knife (bits of polystyrene everywhere, not my idea of fun but the kids where jumping up and down like it was going to be disco party in a minute) and inserted it in the pockets in between the two boxes, and then a quick blanket stitching all around the upper edges did the job. In time I may unstitch it and change the padding, if I will feel so inclined and will have the time.
And here it is, my box done!
(the bottom part, at least)
That is one side....and that is the other. Already full of stuff.
Now, for the lid, we will see. Who knows, it might be ready in time for my next blog post..only, don’t hold your breath for it, guinea pigs may be coming and all of that (how did I manage with my lazy excuses before them is a wonder, my friends!)
I hope that you liked my adventures, feel free to leave me a comment, as long as you do not ask me about hand stitching the whole box or preparing resists by hand stitching bubble wrap together, any other thing is totally fine.
I’m hoping the featured image will make you curious!
Before I start into my post I want to mention my new course on wet felting which was recently launched with the Felting and Fiber Studio. It’s designed for felt makers who are new to using resists.
It’s fully supported by ‘how to’ videos and PDFs and we work with the simple circle. You will learn how to make a vessel and at the end I discuss with you the possibilities of how you can take it further.
So, you start by learning how to make something like this ….
Then I discuss a few variations that can be made with the circle and you could choose after the course, to make something like this ….
I discuss how to make this sculpture on the new course
I had set aside around half of the onion skin dye pot to try out on some fabric (I used the rest to make the pigment). I decided to experiment with a little margilan silk and some woven wool fibre. I mordanted these fabrics first, using an alum solution. The alum attracts the dye particles and the colour is less likely to wash out.
Margilan Gauze dyed with yellow onion skins.Woven wool sample dyed with yellow onion skins
I love the vibrancy of the results. I would describe the wool sample as deep orange while the silk sample turned out more of a golden colour. It is quite the challenge to get the photo to reflect the true colour of the fabrics. I now need to work out what to do with these two fabrics. To be honest, there is not a lot of either and I don’t have a toning fibre to use behind the margilan – I think I will have to make up another batch of the onion skin dye.
Once I finished dyeing the few bits of fabric, I transferred the remainder into a 5 litre container. I basically forgot about it and only remembered it when I came to put together this post. So it has been sitting around for two months.
Now I need to digress a bit. Our lovely little pooch, Archie developed a lump on his elbow a number of months ago. We have been keeping an eye on it as his vet warned that it would become impossible to remove if it grows much bigger. (there would not be enough surrounding tissue to easily sew up the wound). As fate would have it, it grew and Archie went ‘under the knife’. He was discharged wearing his ‘cone of shame’ which we quickly swapped for an inflatable version – much more comfortable for Archie and for the humans too – less bruising on our lower limbs. The only downside was that the cushioning around his neck caused him to snore. He sleeps in the bedroom with us and this was cute for about five minutes….. The cone was tied with an elastic bandage. I was having fun playing with the weave and thought it might be fun to felt with.
Archie in his blow up collar and sore paws
I made a bangle. First I laid down the bandage and wrapped it around a resist which matched the length of the bandage. Then I laid down layers of merino fibre – 6 thin layers in total. I felted it to fit my wrist and shaped it. The whole purpose was to see how it would take the old onion skin leftover dye. I did a cold mordant – I soaked it in 10% of its weight in alum and left it overnight. I rinsed it out and popped it into the dye bath, slowly bringing it to the boil.
Here is the result. The colour is a lot lighter than its first run. That said I decided to speed up the process as the smell of the dye bath was pretty awful. In fact it was pretty disgusting. I endured it for around one hour and then my nostrils got the better of me. I poured off the majority of the dye bath and then left the bangle to cool in the rest. I also lit a scented candle (it really did take away the stink – good to know going forward!)
Bangle made with merino and elasticated bandage dyed with yellow onion skins
While I like the colour, I think I will use it as a base to play with stitches. So I may be back to you on that.
I mentioned in my last post that I had just ordered a book on pigment making and that I might review it, if readers would like that. I know I am stepping away slightly from textiles and felt here but it is possible to combine pigment and textiles (alcohol inks anyone?). I was feeling quite excited as I had ordered the book and it was on the cusp of delivery. I got a positive response so here it is.
The book is called ‘Natural Watercolor Paint Making’ and it is by the artist Joanne Green. Some of you may already follow Joanne on Instagram (#joanne_green_art). I love watching her magically transform plant matter into pigments and then reconstitute it into a paint which she uses in sketches of the plant which has formed the basis of the actual pigment. Very clever and a great pleasure to watch.
Cover sleeve of Joanne Green’s book
Joanne’s book is beautifully presented and very readable. It’s a bit like sitting with a knowledgeable friend having a chat over coffee. The materials and supplies list is very comprehensive and I found that there’s really nothing on the lists that could not be sourced. With regard to the topics covered, I think the easiest way to show this is by sharing the contents pages. As you can see, there’s a whole section devoted to step by step instructions on how to make the lake pigment from the moment you have produced your dye bath through to turning your powdered pigments into watercolours and how to store your new treasures. Joanne is living in Canada but I can easily access many of the plants she uses in her recipes in Ireland.
Photography (primarily by Canadian photographer Tegan McMartin) – is sumptuous and a pleasure to view. It’s interspersed with Joanne’s tiny watercolours that are a feast to the eyes.
I am so pleased that I made the leap and purchased this book. I found it easy to source too. If you are a fan of Joanne’s social media postings or are curious about producing pigments, then it is a worthy purchase.
As I sit down to begin this post the sky has darkened and the rain (fingers crossed) is about to fall, heaven knows we need it, but what a fabulous summer it’s been so far here in sunny Lincolnshire! I don’t know about you but I tend to not do too much in the way of creative stuff through July and August as there are too many distractions and this year the intense heat has made me feel very lazy so lots of time spent relaxing, reading and watching creative videos. Consequently I’ve now got a table of projects I want to finish and a head full of others I want to start!
A couple of projects I did do this summer are two wet felted vessels. The first one, inspired by a shrivelled seed pod, was made at the İFA Region 8’s Summer School in Arnesby near Leicester. Our region encompasses several counties and is so spread out we struggle to get our İFA members to attend. On the other hand we have a regular group of creative ‘non members’ in the locality who are more than welcome to come along to our events, and thankfully they do! It was a busy and fun two days…..
My seed pod began life as five leaf book resist measuring 27cm x 36cm and various colours of Merino and Corriedale fibres.
It’s final shape was formed after lots of pushing and pulling and using strong clips to get it to stay as I wanted it.I decided to keep the opening as tiny as possible and, as a consequence, the resist had to be ripped to shreds in order to remove it! I’m wondering about adding some hand embroidery here and there in the shape of circles using a dull gold thread, I think it’s lacking something but is that it?
The second vessel was started last Friday when I was working at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln. I’d seen a post somewhere mentioning they were having their second Artist Studio Day and inviting local artists to apply. If successful it meant I would get the use of a table in their ground floor workspace and get to spend the day with four other artists. It sounded like a great opportunity and I’m so glad I applied! Only four artists turned up on the day and unfortunately one of those had to leave early. My other two companions were both painters and it was nice to get to know a bit about them and watch them work. We had a few members of the public come in to see what we were doing but for most of the time it was very quiet which allowed us to focus on what we were doing.
Knowing I wouldn’t get finished, but would need to get my vessel to a stable state before leaving the gallery, meant I needed to do a bit of prep the day before. So I decided on a size, cut my circular resist and made this piece of prefelt combining threads, fabrics and fibres to cut up and use as surface decoration.
Prefelt for surface decoration
By the time we had to leave I had a stable prefelt that looked like a pizza and could be folded into my bag….it was too large to carry it flat!
The finished rock inspired vessel
One of the Summer pieces I’ve yet to finish is an Iris which I started at the end of July. This is going to be for the Lincolnshire Textile Groups Bountiful Botanicals competition taking place in October. I’m creating it from hand painted Tyvek fabric and wire and the flower will be approximately 30cm dia by 115cm tall. I’ve just got the leaves to do now and then I’ve got the perfect spot for it in my lounge when it’s finished. I don’t want to reveal too much before the competition so this is a sneak preview for now…..
Finally I’ll leave you with some images from this year’s fabulous Asylum Steampunk Festival. As ever there were some outstanding costumes, some very strange costumes and some that looked like they’d missed the theme altogether but it really didn’t matter! There were steampunk enthusiasts represented from all over the UK and from various European countries. One lady said she had come over from Hong Kong especially to join in the festival! The atmosphere is the friendliest you could imagine and the whole Cathedral Quarter was buzzing!
True to form I didn’t make time to create a costume but this year I did dig out a long skirt and a waistcoat as a (very) token gesture in order to wear my oversized steampunk dragonfly brooch.
I taught a lovely and fun group of ladies how to make a vesel. One of the ladies made a really nice Instagram reel. I am going to try embedding it here. Fingers crossed. It was hosted here https://hookingoutsidethelines.com/ I will share stills of the finished vessels below it. If it doesn’t work, then try this link:
This one was cut across the circle about 1/8 of the way down to get the resist out, so she has a flat coaster, too
This one was also cut about 1/8 of the way down, but she opted for a shallow dish.
This one was cut just about halfway. She has two similar-sized bowls. Here, I was showing her how she could reverse them to have the pattern on the inside.
A nice round green one with lots of sari silk waste
Pretty pink with silk hearts on it
Jan told you about the sale we went to a little while ago. I was much better behaved and only bought a few things. Two small sample rolags and 3 bags of slubs. I have been wanting to try slubs. I know the neps are very hard to keep in the yarn when spinning, and do not like to stick to a felting project. I am hoping slubbs will stick better in both. If they do, then I may have to order some and dye them myself. One more thing on the to-do list.
When teaching my vessels workshop a few weeks ago, I was showing the class pictures and talking about some more advanced vessels. They expressed an interest in all of them but especially in the book resist vessels. It got me thinking and now I am planning to give an intermediate vessel workshop later in the year, or maybe the new year, depending on scheduling.
At this point, my plan is to make 3 samples. That will help me write down the order and figure out how to teach it. I need to work out the materials list and timing, as well as how to teach it. Making them will also help me think of where things might go wrong.
I know there will have to be a prerequisite of having made at least one item, and preferably 2 or more items over a resist.
I plan on 3 different vessels. The first is a simple 6-sided circle pot.
The second one is more oval shaped vessel, I cut down the paper template from the circle so they will be about the same height when done.
And the last has an “odd” shape, again I used the half circle from the circle to draw the new shape to keep them about the same size.
As with most best laid plans, I discovered all I had for tape was narrow painters tape. So I will have to head to the store for some wide, strong tape that will hopefully stay stuck through the wet process of making a vessel. In the meantime, I think I will start writing the instruction so I can jot down additions as I go. I am not sure how long it will take to do all that. If I want to teach it in the fall through my guild, I will need to get the proposal in when the call for workshops goes out in the spring.
I had my first workshop of the fall season last weekend. It was a fun one, Vessels. I like vessels because they do not have to fit anyone when they are done. They can go completely sideways from the original idea and still turn out great.
I had 5 lovely ladies for the day. They had a great time( or seemed to at least) and I had fun too. I love to see people marvelling at the magic of felting and go from very sceptical to amazed at what they have made.
In this class, they all started with the same round resist. Everyone always asks about size. In this case a good sized dinner plate. Very technical.
On to the pictures
Laying out the wool. I like to teach laying out 2 sides without wetting and then go back to do the wetting and wrapping. I don’t know that there is any great difference but I don’t like laying out wool on a wet resist of wet wool.
here they are wrapping one side of the wool around the resist. For those whose layouts grew a lot, we feather the wool towards the middle so it will be more even. You can see the second side waiting to be placed on top, wet down and then wrapped around.
Next, were the embellishments. This part is fun for them and me. I love to see how diverse the ideas are. I usually bring wool, handspun yarn, silk tops, throwsters waist, trilobal nylon, sari silk waist, silk hankies and locks for people to use. I seem to be missing one pot.
Then, of course, there is all the rubbing and rolling. This is the point where I usually gabb on about wool and felt, the eganomics of making felt and sheep….. and anything else that helps pass the time so there are fewer complaints about how long they have to rub or roll. It is a boring sort of thing to do, I usually listen to an audiobook.
We talked about different ways to cut open your felt to get different types of pots and how shaping can change them. one lady said she wanted a pot more like a fruit bowl shape. I suggested turning her pot into two bowls by cutting across the middle. She decided not to but it inspired 3 others to cut their pots at 1/8, 1/4 and 1/3 to get 2 pots as a set.
I am missing one there Not sure how that happened. Here are some pictures students sent me of the pots dry
Having just read Kiki’s tutorial https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/11/19/left-overs-yessss/ on using up prefelt scraps, it occurs to me that I may not have mentioned something we used to do at our Guild (Dorset Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers) mainly to raise funds for the Guild but also for fun.
When I attended the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show at the Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet (Somerset, UK) back in 2010 – I saw a stand selling (for £8.00 each) bags containing 35gr of silk fibres, yarns, fabrics scraps, carrier rods and cocoons in various colours, left over from old projects which, when put together, made a fascinating collection for future projects. So fascinating that I bought three of them.
They must have made quite a bit of profit on them because they appeared mainly to be the “waste” from artwork.
At that time (when I was part of the sub-committee organising the Guild’s Exhibition and Sale of Work) we were looking for a Guild Project which could be part of the exhibition or something hopefully to help raise some funds. Well, I thought, our weavers must have lots of off-cuts of hand woven fabric, not to mention warp ends. Then there were the spinners who would have odd bits of spun and unspun fibres of all types and colours. We also had members who were dressmakers, beaders and embroiderers, and a soft furnisher, who were bound to have the odd bits and pieces that they didn’t really need. So, with the blessing of the committee, I put it to the members in the next newsletter that if they would donate to the Guild any odd bits of fibres, yarns, threads, warp ends, bits of fabric, beads, button, feathers, felt, cords, braids, tassels, sequins, sequin waste, ribbons, silk flowers and any other bits and pieces they could think of, we could make up some “Bags of Inspiration” and sell them to members of the public at our open days and outside demonstrations. (I don’t know about in the rest of the world, but in the UK the word “bags” means “lots of” as well as “containers”, so the punning name “Bags of Inspiration” seemed apt.)
We used A4 sized polythene bags (which I was able to buy quite cheaply from our local green grocer) with an A4 sheet of card inside for stiffening, and I made up some stickers with the Guild’s logo on and a brief description of the contents, and posters also giving details of the contents.
Bag of Inspiration Poster
We arranged a few bag making days at a pub in the village where our then President lived. She had persuaded them to let us use their skittle alley at no charge, and we had a great deal of fun making up the bags and tucking in to “refreshments” from the bar and kitchen.
The members who came to these, brought with them all sorts of goodies which we spread out on tables, so that we could make collections of pieces which seemed to go with each other. Those who didn’t think that their colour theory was good enough, could pick out a picture from a selection of magazines and have a go at matching colours from this It was amazing how compulsive making the bags became. You could pick up a piece of fabric that looked so dull and dreary and be amazed how it perked up and positively shone with life when paired with different fabrics, yarns, trimmings etc. You just couldn’t stop picking up likely bits. The difficulty was keeping the weight of each bag between 80gr and 100gr, so we quite often ended up making up at least 2 bags with similar contents.
Equipment & Extra “Bits” for making up Bags
Prospective contents of at least one Bag of Inspiration
We put a price of £3.50 on each bag and they went like hot cakes – we sold out on their first appearance at our exhibition and sale of work. Embroiderers and mixed media artists in particular liked them.
After a couple of years, we didn’t get so many volunteers to make up bags but we still had mountains of “stuff”. So we added another string for our open days – Pick and Mix Your Own. I had remembered that Woolworths (now there’s a blast from the past) used to have a counter full of different sweets and you could take a bowl and pick and mix what you wanted, and in the process buying a lot more than you would have if just buying a ready filled bag.
Pick and Mix Sweets.
It worked with our stuff too. We gave the visitors the polythene bags and they could wade through all the bits and pieces picking what they needed, and we weighed them when they’d finished, charging £3.50 for 100gr.
We had had a lot of fibres donated so we started making up what are now called Art Batts and selling them as “Batts of Inspirations”, but because we were mainly selling these to Guild spinners and felt makers, they didn’t do quite so well as they were mainly able to make their own.
In all we made around £1000.00 for the Guild in the four years we were doing this. Eventually though the members got fed up with spending time on making up the bags and the whole thing was shelved, as the Guild seemed to be relatively well off at the time.
Some time after that I took the idea back to myself and I was making up Batts to sell at Guild meetings, using luxury fibres as well as merino and synthetic fibres. I made up some bands to fix around the Batts detailing the various fibres included in each.
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I was also making up and selling Bags, mainly at a Needlework Festival in Dorset where most of the vendors were selling materials and equipment for crafters, as well as various craft fairs and so on.
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I was getting the odd question like “they’re lovely but what do you do with them?” and “can you make a bag out of what’s in here?” So I made a sign from images of items that I’d made myself over the years and that helped.
Some of the things I’ve made with the contents of BoI over the years
However, once Covid started causing problems, my selling opportunities dried up. I had been intending to try selling Bags and Batts via my website, but it was very difficult and too time consuming to photograph the Bags so that the contents were visible, because of reflections on the polythene bags. So that sort of died a death too and I’ve now shelved that project, and am using the bits and pieces I’ve collected over the years on theatrical costumes and props.
Perhaps some of our readers’ organisations, like Ann & Jan’s OVWSG, might use this idea to raise funds?
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.
November and December were incredibly busy but I am glad to say things have calmed down a lot in the last 3 weeks. The Christmas markets have closed and I have nearly finished writing the first draft of the much requested tutorial on how to make vessels with feet and lids. The lidded vessel pictured below is the main example I will demonstrate how to make in the new tutorial (with a few others for alternative methods to make lids etc):
I just need to write one more section, then edit and proof-read it. I hope to make it available in my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks.
Other than this purple vessel I have only managed to complete one piece of work between the markets, fairs and writing the new tutorial….
Back in September I was core spinning with the intention of using the yarn to experiment with adding twining to ceramic pots, you can read the post about that here.
This is the ceramic pot I made, after drilling out the holes I unintentionally filled with glaze. Drilling the holes has made the edges a little untidy but at least I can now get my yarn through them 🙂
I used paper yarn for the warp by threading equal sized lengths through each hole. I really like working with this material for the warp, it is stiffer than wool yarns and you can open it out to decorative effect.
Once all of the holes contained a strip of paper yarn, I cut 2 metres (6 feet) of a pretty boucle yarn to use as my weft. I folded it in half with one side longer than the other, this is so that when the yarn runs out while you are twining it only runs out on one side making it easier to add a new length of yarn.
Before looping the yarn over the first warp strip, I twisted the bottom of each pair of paper yarns to help hold them in position for the first few laps with the weft yarn. For the next pot I will try tying a knot in each pair of warp strips to secure them as the twist tended to come undone while I was twining, I really needed an extra pair of hands to hold everything in place while laying down the first layer of yarn.
Floki was only too happy to “assist”….
“What do you mean, that’s not really helping?”
“Your tension is way off, let me help…”
Even with Floki’s assistance the boucle yarn proved to be too fine for the space between the holes in the pot. I could have used 3 or 4 threads to bulk it up but it had proved so fiddly trying to hold the warp strips in place while twining the first layer I couldn’t face the prospect of trying to do that with 8 strands in the weft so I had a rummage in my stash and found some chunky grey yarn to use instead.
At this point I introduced some of my hand spun yarns, starting with the grey core-spun yarn from September (they are the grey bulges you can see at the top of the woven section) and then a yarn with colourful pink and blue beehives.
Happy with the height and shape of the weaving, I tied each pair of warp strips to secure the top of the weaving and opened up the paper yarn before trimming the ends.
