A Felting Adventure

A Felting Adventure

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This is a guest post by Lindsay Wilkinson. You can find her here: Lindsay Wilkinson Artwork (Facebook and Instagram). I am also excited to say that Lindsay will be joining us as a regular contributor and I am looking forward to seeing more of her work.


Last week I set off on a felting adventure I’d been looking forward to for a long time. I was travelling from the UK to the Netherlands to do a 2-day wet felted seed pods workshop with Gladys Paulus, an internationally acclaimed felt artist whose work I’ve long admired.

I’m one of those people who cannot go on a walk without coming back with pockets stuffed full of found natural objects like shells, pebbles and seed pods and they have often inspired my felt work so here was the opportunity to learn from an expert.

The first challenge began before I even left home: how to fit everything on that long list of course materials into a suitcase that I could take on a plane? The answer? – ditch most of the clothes.

The venue (Atelier Fiberfusing) was a large warehouse-type building in a beautiful setting which had acres of working space – it was a real luxury for me to work on an enormous bench as my studio work area is pretty small.

 

After brief introductions (my nine fellow participants were all experienced felters from 5 European countries, the USA and Australia) we quickly set about making our first experimental piece using pre-felt we’d pre-made then stitching and felting to create very textured pieces.


Mine looked decidedly like a brain and I love it!

Our second experimental piece investigated differential shrinkage – using the fact that thick felt shrinks less than thin felt – to create shaped structures. I’ve exploited these properties before, for example in making 3D shells, but was still amazed at how much shaping we achieved in our pieces.

Finally we set about our main piece. I decided to work from this small eucalyptus seed pod I’d picked up somewhere on my travels.


We worked on these for the rest of day one and the whole of day two. There was plenty of expert one-to-one advice and support throughout the process and we also got to share in others’ learning as we were encouraged to gather around each other’s benches at key moments.

Here’s my eucalyptus-inspired seed pod. It’s not perfect but I am really pleased with it and learned so much through the process of design, making and experimentation. I particularly like the very textured surface (created by adding silky mohair locks and a small amount of kid mohair) and was thrilled to learn how to create the shaping of the body and how to attach a stem.

We finished by putting all our work together and everyone seemed impressed with how much work and variety we’d produced in 2 days. (Most of these are in the top picture)

Take-home lessons? Lots! I was particularly struck by how different our pieces were even when starting with the same template. There are so many ways you can work with and manipulate the felt and I realize a resist is more of a starting point than a defining feature. I also really enjoyed learning from others, particularly Gladys but also the other participants. Apart from a one-day beginners felting workshop about 8 years ago, I’m a self-taught felt maker but will certainly look out for other group learning opportunities.

I’m now buzzing with new ideas and can’t wait to start using some of the new skills and techniques.

Here’s a bonus photo of the scenery near Atelier Fiberfusing on Sunday morning.

Someone send inspiration and help…

Someone send inspiration and help…

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I recently moved from London to Edinburgh. When asked why I was moving farther north by my baffled English friends, I couldn’t resist telling them it was because England just wasn’t cold enough for me, nothing but Scottish weather would suffice! Some of them actually believed me…

It’s not easy packing up a whole life and its contents, but having a work studio mixed with the personal makes things even harder. Once almost your whole life is safely hidden in boxes, only half the work is done – the unpacking, deciding where everything goes, both in the domestic and business front, is hard work. I’ve been at it for two weeks already and my new place still isn’t finished!

Feel free to be horrified by the mess and judge me, I can’t hear you.

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This was the lovely blank slate I had to work with. The ceiling is very high (typical of early 1900’s flats around here), the wood floor is real and the fireplace works. Happy sigh.
(Now comes the cringe-y part)

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It looks like a hurricane passed by, I know. I think I panicked and simply started to take things out of boxes before I had any inkling where anything should go. I kept coming back to the room, standing in the middle and staring at everything, having no idea how to organise my precious stuff. This went on for days!

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After a few days of this my brain seemed to finally awake and I’m now finally able to see where I want most things to be, and I’ve started arranging my fibre slowly.

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I also got one of those adjustable tables that lets me use the computer whilst standing; I’ve yet to use my chair!

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My sewing table is now tucked into the window nook, affording me a little view of the sea and the stunning cloud formations above it. Inspiration might strike more often from now on with all this weather drama…

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I promise my floor is now a lot more bare of items, and I’ve finally figured out where certain pieces of furniture will go. Once it’s all done I’ll even have a knitting chair near the fireplace, so I’m feeling very happy indeed.

Let me know if you’d like to see the finished studio, I’m happy to share.

Have you moved recently? Share your experiences with me so I know I’m not alone in dreading the sight of a moving van or two in the near future…

 

 

 

the OVWSG Guild Sail and Exhibition 2019 and Werewolf boy (a friend for Ghost Girl)

the OVWSG Guild Sail and Exhibition 2019 and Werewolf boy (a friend for Ghost Girl)

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the OVWSG Guild Sail and Exhibition 2019

Last weekend was the OVWSG sale and Exhibition.  Which means almost all the workshop database and layouts for the 2020 Schedule are behind me.  There were a couple teachers with TBD in the info and a couple missing pictures but I am pretty well done for another year. I even got to use the threat that I would write one of two missing teachers bios ! (no one wants to find out what exciting things they didn’t know they had been up to in one of my bios – the threat of me making something up in my version of English has kept missing info to as minimum for Years!) Unfortunately the missing bio arrived so no extra fun for me.

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2020 Workshop Catalogue

At the sale, I have as couple of jobs. One is photograph the entire event, set up, booths, viniettes that might be usable for next year’s advertising, happy shoppers and then take-down.  It has taken me a bit longer than it used to do all the shots (only 664 shots this year). I pulled 212 for a slide show for Mondays Guild meeting ….. let me pull a few for you. I will try to select more of the felting ones and show you a bit of the rest. Can you spot shots from Ann’s booth?

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 Guild exhibit of Wearables

 

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 OVWSG Sale and exhibition 2019

Yes Friday was set up, Saturday /Sunday were the sale, then the guild meeting Monday and West Carlton’s Guild meeting Tuesday ( I slept through to 11am, was barely able to move so missed their meeting!!), but with enough robax made it to the car  Dr’s appointment on Wednesday.  So I’m still sore, rather tired for so early in the morning and ITS SNOWING. I will apologize to the lemon grass I didn’t get into the house fast enough and the Horse Chestnuts not to have got them planted into their pots.

Another job I had in between the photography was to demo felting. I set up beside Elizabeth who is our workshop coordinator. I had brought ghost girl and had her on the table in front of me. She looked lonely and in want of a friend. (That sound vaguely like Jane Austen) So I started to work on Werewolf boy (who is likely too young to be in want of a wife and I don’t know what his yearly income is or if he wants to go to the Mariton ball). (Maybe the robax hasn’t quite warn off yet)

11-02-19 X&S Saterday (245)11-02-19 X&S Saterday (169)The Workshop table and Felting demo

 

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Part of the Guild Demo teem

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3rd Quarter Challenge Finally Finished (well… close enough)

3rd Quarter Challenge Finally Finished (well… close enough)

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I finally finished my 3rd quarter challenge. As you recall it was a cityscape. It was much harder then most of us thought it would be. I wanted to do something different. I thought about doing a scifi city on another world but no matter what I tried adding to it I wasn’t happy. So think again. I did think about doing an insect city. I even looked up some pictures of termite towers. That still wasn’t it. then I saw a picture of a city at night from space picture. I liked that so tried to find my city. No, it seems the capital of Canada is just to small to both taking a picture of as you whiz by in space. so I decided to make a map. I scaled it so I could see all of the city in a 5×7 inch frame.

The last time you saw it it was at this stage.

I have slowly been stitching in the smaller roads with thin crochet cotton. The lines were too small to try needling them in. At this magnification, there are may roads missing.

It was almost done so I took it with me to work on at the show. It was very busy and it took me all of Saturday to do the two left-hand, top parts. I did the red outline of the city on Sunday morning. Sunday morning is always slower. Why is stitching a straight line so hard?

Next, I trimmed it up ready for its bath.

It is quite a lightweight stabiliser. I picked it so I could trace the picture through it for the outline rivers and main roads. I thought I might have to wait time for it to dissolve but it was gone as soon as it got wet.

Although many people recognized it as Ottawa I think I will label it. I might try doing some other cities I really enjoyed doing this one. So where to put the name.

I like the right hand one best. I think partly because I know the north side of the river is a city too. The north side of the river is the province of Quebec. Ottawa is in the province of Ontario. I will needlefelt the name using some yarn.

 

 

 

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 4

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 4

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This is the last in the series of posts about the fabric collage landscape that I have been creating. If you have missed the prior posts, just click on the links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. I began working on the foreground by fusing the green fabric to the foreground and creating some rocks.

I used a dark purple fabric for the shadowed parts of the rocks. Then I created some paper patterns for the sunlit areas. I wanted to try and get the perspective and shape of the rocks correct before I cut any fabric. I only had a small amount of the light purple fabric and didn’t want to run out because of poor cutting choices. So I kept refining the paper pieces as I went along.

Once I had the rocks started, I began stitching the trees along the near shore line. I used cut up bits of dark green fabric and then stitched over them. As I said in previous posts, the fabric shifts around and so I wasn’t able to be precious about placement of the fabric. I think this is why it looks more natural because I didn’t have a lot of control over where everything ended up. You can see in the photos above the progression from left to right of the trees and then added a few more moving into the foreground. I actually probably should have done the ground cover first but I didn’t think of it.

So then I added in the ground cover. The part that is further away used a duller color and I used a piece of cheesecloth that had also been rusted. So that gave the rusty color which I think really adds to a more natural look. I kept testing the rocks as I went to see how everything was coming together. I also added a brighter green ground cover in the center foreground where the rocks are sitting. Again, it was a combination of chopped up fabric, thread and yarn.

Next was to create the rocks with fabric. The center photo shows how I added a sheer layer of painted nylon organza to achieve shadows on the rocks. The right photo shows all the rocks completed and fused down. Now on to add stitching details to the rocks.

I started with a dark grey thread in the shadowed areas of the rocks. All of the stitching is done with free motion machine stitching. Then I added black thread as the rocks definitely needed more darkness. The last thread I used was a light purple thread for highlights. I did go back in in several areas and add more grey to get the effect I wanted.

The last step was to add greenery to the rocks on the left. I used chopped up fabric again and carefully stitched it down. This was a bit tedious as the pieces of fabric were jumping around all over the place but I managed to get them all stitched down.

So finally, I have a finished fabric collage landscape. It was a lot of effort and took a long time but I am pleased with the results. I am still contemplating what to call this one. I am planning on framing it with a matte board and black frame. Thanks Antje for giving me the “push” to create this piece. I had a great time working out how to do it and I think I will be doing more of these in the future.

Experiments & Exhibition

Experiments & Exhibition

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I almost missed my contributing post this time….so this is skidding in with only hours to spare!

The ‘what if’ part of my brain has been active of late so I want to share some of my recent experiments and why I’ve been so busy – making everything else a blur.

A recent purchase (having seen someone on Pinterest using it in her work) was of some space dyed/variegated wool – Merino wool by Malabrigo.

Anyone here in the UK working with wool and fibre will know that, compared to other countries, it is expensive to buy. With this in mind I decided to see just how far I could ‘stretch’ this Merino. With all my test pieces I work to a 30 x 30cm paper template covered in plastic – easy to see under a bubble surface.

When I learnt to do orienteering and map reading as a child I learnt that you have to walk to the stairs before you can climb them!….you are now scratching your heads and wondering at the relevance of this statement….map references are given with the horizontal East-West first followed by the vertical North-South….I know….you are still scratching….!

Remembering my ‘stairs’ I always lay out my fibre horizontally first then vertically as the second layer. Tada – you can now stop scratching! I also add (assuming I remember) a thread to the left side to remind me which is the top and front of my experiment.

Using the variegated Merino I weighed out just 3g in total and then drafted out my shingles very very finely enough to cover the 30 cm square template with 2 layers. For the second piece I again weighed out 3g total of the variegated fibre but this time loosened and stretched it to cover the template. They were felted and fulled then ironed. Shrinkage of the 2 pieces was similar-ish (approx. 30%).

As I wanted to see how fine I could actually make the felt and what the shrinkage would be, I am pleased with the results which in practice would be suitable for a scarf as they have good drape.

Again with cost saving in mind I tried a further experiment using natural wool wadding (Hobbs I think). This wadding is normally purchased for use with quilts and comes with a fine fabric to one side similar to interfacing. In terms of yardage it is much cheaper to buy than wool batting so I wanted to see if I could get it to felt and how it would compare. I spent 2 evenings with this ‘knee warmer’ carefully peeling off the fabric – I finally achieved it with only a couple of weak areas in the process – but I also achieved some sore fingers too!

I cut two 30 x 30cm squares of the wadding. Over the first I laid out 10g of Shetland fibres in 2 layers and over the second piece I laid out 5g of Merino fibres, again in 2 layers.

The Shetland sample is on the left, Merino to the right.

The Shetland sample (total weight 20g) felted well by hand as the fibres are course, producing a sturdy, even, well integrated, flexible fabric although there is little drape. Shrinkage being approx. 18%.

Front & back of the Shetland sample

The Merino sample (total weight 15g) was not so easy to felt by hand. If I do this again with Merino I think I would roughen the surface of the wadding prior to adding the Merino fibres. Shrinkage was approx. 10% which amazed me, so I actually gave it a session in the washing machine – but there was no change to the shrinkage! The fibres are integrated although the direction of the Merino fibres can still be seen, they almost look like embellishment. I’ve tried pulling them off but they are definitely anchored and being held fast. The sample has a lovely soft feel and some drape.

Merino sample front & back

A last minute photo to show the drape – Shetland top, Merino bottom

Then I experimented further with synthetic Crystal organza – except I didn’t do a test piece as I was very time pressured!

I cut out two oval shapes of the organza and placed a fine herringbone layer of white BFL between them then felted using a lot of gentle hand palming, before fulling. I was delighted that both layers of fabric are well and truly integrated with the fibres (they can’t be pulled apart) and due to the stiffness of the organza and the little amount of wool fibre the piece has retained it’s flatness without crinkling….perfect for my needs. If I was to do this again I would ‘fluff’ the fibres as the herringbone gives the organza a ‘grain’.

Although not obvious it was only a wispy fine layer of BFL!

Now an ‘experiment’ of a different kind – On the forum recently there was a discussion about signing work so I thought I would share my signing journey….

I do like to sign my work but signing 3D textiles is difficult. Over about a year I looked at so many different techniques/methods without any jumping out at me, so I let the ideas percolate.

My signature (whether my full name or my initials) has not changed over the last 40 years so I decided to stick with them. I must have signed hundreds of times on several sheets of paper then chose the best and transferred it to the computer, where I then drew it up digitally, playing with a few ideas before settling on my preferred option.

By this time I had come to a decision – to get a 2 x 2cm stamp of my initials signature made. I sent off the details and drawing and 10 days later a beautiful brass stamp came back. My reasoning for choosing brass is that it will allow me to do several things – 1. With care (as it is not rubber) dye stamping, 2. Hot foil stamping, 3. Wax stamping and 4. Leather stamping. The results of these then give me different options for applying my signature to my work

Now to the time pressure I mentioned above….to create a collection of 5 seeds for an exhibition. The organza experiment had worked, thankfully, allowing me to produce (hours before some travelling) a large Honesty (Silver dollar) ‘seed’ which I took with me to complete – the exhibition was to be only 5 days after my return.

The Snape Art exhibition (25-27 Oct) was the first since 2011 and was a lovely exhibition including works from many artists from a wide variety of disciplines. I was actually one of a team of 4 tasked with setting up the displays of work for which artists could exhibit up to 6 items. Friday was an exhausting day with only a 10 minute lunch as we worked to create an interesting journey through the works. We placed the last number on the last piece at 6.50pm, got changed and were back on duty for 7.20pm ready for the preview evening at 7.30pm….I certainly slept well that night. I’m sure it will be like childbirth….we will forget the pain of setting it up!

The following are just a few photos of the exhibition.

And some of my felt works.

The event was well attended, and we have had some fantastic comments from the visitors including one who hopes it will be repeated next year….!!!

Have you exhibited any work recently?

Happy Halloween 2019

Happy Halloween 2019

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This one is a bit twisty but I promise I will get to the felting bit. About 2 weeks ago Ann said to me “you know you have the Halloween blog post?…….”

Oh, how did Ruth know how much I enjoy Halloween? Had she heard rumours that my eldest furry son was named Evil (the good relatively speaking) and his brother was named Barraccus (not Barrabus who is the person that people who read the bible a lot mistake him for. They’re different guys not at all alike. The former, Barraccus, is ether a Greco-Egyptian alchemist or sub general under Hannibal.  The latter, Barrabus, was a murderer).

I miss Evil he was such a good guy he loved asparagus (cooked) and Chives (Raw) and wearing t-shirts but only in the winter. The only potato chip he didn’t like was salt and vinegar (yes he ate the ketchup ones…ick)  He supervised my weaving, claimed the 60inch loom was his but he would let me use it occasionally and was seriously suspicious of my first spinning wheel for years. As a teen cat, he went out to both our neighbours in the townhouses dressed in his dress black floral print puff sleeves, smocked chest, bow and buttons at the back for Halloween but wanted back in as soon as he saw the kids in costume! He looked fabulous and he knew it.

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Even Mr. B has been dressed appropriately for his Halloween walks. Tall, long-legged, long-necked, lab head, sight hound like body and looked absolutely fabulous as a monarch butterfly. (not as the small child that came screaming up to him then yell at him “look he is a ballerina too!!” and turned to show us her wings. (I was unaware that wings indicated a ballerina outfit).  Mr. B also went for Christmas eve walks with a collar of sleigh bells the big ones  (he was almost waist high so he could pull the look off) he sounded like a team of reindeer when he walked.

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Personally, I have a lovely collection of Thor’s hammers to go with my Icelandic Viking outfits. I often wear them without the Viking outfit (but I do remember to wear other clothes. It would be drafty and over educational to only wear Thor’s hammer)

So what should I blog about? This is such a spectacularly wonderful time of the year!  It is religious to many people, it’s a time of seasonal change (we had to wear snowsuits over or under our costumes when I was a child quite a few years). It’s a time that you can be whatever you want no matter how unlikely in real life. Hum, maybe I will take up my first job offer after university and become a pre-press text proofreader!! (I didn’t take the job. I liked the company and realized they didn’t read my resume… Dyslexic, severely dyslexic! all spelling looks just fine to me!)

Think, Think, Think, Think…

Whimsy, mirth, surprise, happy, joy, Halloween! Ok, kids in costume, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, sexy vampires.. hunky werewolves.. no, maybe the wrong direction? there, back up, redirect… Kids, rubber boots, ghosts, wire, dry felting, a piece of blackberry root I was saving, yes got an idea!

 

The blackberry is from the plant I brought from the townhouse to the little house I bought, it was in a pot (the plant not the house) and the next summer escaped into the space between the patio blocks. It was there for about 10 years spreading into the space beside the fence. Eventually, it grew into the neighbours’ barbeque but that is another story. The original root finally died out and I was able to extract it. It has been sitting in one of the portable forest pots for years now waiting for The Project it would be perfect for. I think this is it.

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I see boots in my head, held with wire, then arms outstretched, possibly with another ghost on a wire. Possibly a bag for candy… ok let’s make boots and I have some black floral wire. It doesn’t have a gauge on it but is mildly stiff enough to support the felting. If I run in to trouble I will double it up and that should work.  Boots I need one wire to go through the boot and into the root to hold the figure.  Hmm, what to use for fibre. I need something with shades of white and cream. Ok the understructure will be the combed waste from the Shetland fleece I had been doing. I have a few good handfuls of that and a few more bags still to comb.  (This is the fleece that keeps on giving!)

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I started by making a loose tube with the floral wire sticking out of it. Then made the front of the boot and left the back of that piece very loose so I could attach it to the leg. (note to self – the wire keeps slipping out of the boot, maybe I should have put a bend in it just under the boot so I didn’t have to keep reinserting it).  I used a coarse and medium needle to ruff in the bootish shape then started to solidify it.  (The wire stopped trying to escape by then.)

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I rolled the other end of the wire into a small loop. Then folded the one booted wire in half, bent the knee and added the other boot. I measured from the top of the body to about the knees to get arm length. ( I know that’s a bit long but I have to put in shoulder width and fold over the hands, so with that should shorten it closer to right.) The cut piece was bent into a loop with a twisted tail to become the head shape. Then I lay down some of the combing waste under where the chest and upper shoulders would be laying in the Arms/shoulders and head/ neck on top.

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 I added another layer of comb waste and started to felt (coarse needle) quickly getting the general body shape.   I built up adding more wool to build up the underbody shape adding the head/neck.  I also wrapped the arms and lightly felted into place.

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Next I turned to her accoutrements. I had first envisioned one ghost on a string (wire) floating above her.  I bent the wire over leaving a space between the parallel portions. Wrapped the fibre around then folded over the top. Then focused on the area between the parallel sections of the wire. I working towards a ghost head-like shape while keeping the tips of the locks as the trailing wisps of the ghost.  As much as I had liked my vision with one ghost I thought it looked lonely and needed friends so I made 2 more.

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Now on to the basket. This, I created flat.
It looked like the shape of an “H” until I joined the ends and used the uprights of the H to make the basket handle. Sorry I was getting very distractedly into the felting and was forgetting to take pictures!

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Next, I added another wrapping to the arms and tried out the basket. Behind her on the foam is the beginnings of her skirt. I lightly felted some of the teased apart locks to make the back underlayer of her costume. The locks did a great job of being ghostly-wispy.

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As I added the beginning of her costume I realized I needed to cover her legs a bit. I had originally envisioned her showing the wire in her legs but I thought bloomers would be the better option. I teased out the locks pre lightly felted them and then used them to hide the wire leaving the tips loose at the top of the boots.

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I continued to add layers as I went around her body with the bottom of her costume.

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Next, I added teased apart locks lightly felted into a mildly triangular shape over the shoulders as a capelet, covering the arms.  I worked out the width I needed to make a hood and fitted it to slide over the head. I firmed up the face edge and did a bit more fitting at the back of the head again leaving the tips of the locks loose. This blended visually with the pieces of shoulder cape to look like one garment.

OH NO I attached her to the blackberry root but she immediately tipped over…… oh yeah, I wasn’t going to add quite so much wool….change of plan! Add more wire to the front leg to give extra support  I was able to move the pantaloons out of the way and then back over the added wire. I balanced her on her balloon wires but she was still a bit precarious.

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Problem she was still pretty unstable on only 2 points of contact. I took her back boot and a pin and repositioned her with a pin through her boot. This gave her less etherealness but also less likely to fall over.

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I have to find a new idea for a base but the garden kneeling pad foam is working at the moment. I just don’t like her walking on water so I may make a cover for a piece of foam that looks more like land. In the meantime I’m pleased and am already thinking of other faceless ghost kids or maybe vampires or werewolves….

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I hope you will all enjoy your all hallows eve and that many of your pumpkins are felted (but not your Candy!)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finishing Hats and Scarves.

Finishing Hats and Scarves.

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Did you think I had forgotten it was my time to post again? I didn’t I have been running around like crazy getting things ready for the Guilds Sale and Exhibition that starts Saturday. But as I am co-chair of the committee running it I have lots to do and set up is Friday at 4:00. And of course, as per my usual operations, I am not ready to be in the show yet either. Not to worry its only Tuesday, Lots of time… Right?

So, yesterday I was working on hats. I had pinned them to dry 2 days before. This one is black, with a blue silk cap stretch over ti. I am really happy with how the silk looks. I will try to get a picture of it off the block but no time right now.

This is the redo of  the one that was shapped oddly at the midway point.

I shaped and pinned and after it was dry tried fiddling with the curls. I didn’t like them. I decided they needed to be curling the other way and be tighter.

I wet them down and rolled them up again in the other direction and on smaller little crat tubes. They need to dry again.

Lastly was the purple one. I cut the elongated edge into strips and wove it together again and pinned it in place to dry.

Yesterday while waiting in the car I trimmed it and sewed it into place. Not the best background for a picture but it was better than my messy computer desk.

All in all I am quite happy with them. Next time I hope to have pictures with no pins for you to see. I will probably have to take them at the show. Where did the time go?

 

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 3

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 3

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Here’s the next edition of my progress on the fabric collage landscape I have been working on.

In the photos from left to right, I worked on texturing the middle ground green area. I used a mixture of chopped up pieces of fabric, thread and yarn. I worked small areas at a time since the fabric mixture was easily shifted around as I machine stitched it. Using a wooden skewer to hold things in place definitely helps and protects wayward fingers. Once the green was all stitched in place, I noticed that the water on the left didn’t look exactly right. The portion of water going into the distance towards the left should have been shadowed by the hill behind it and not had any pink reflection. I needed to fix that.

So I covered that piece of water on the left with more of the blue green water fabric, stitched it down and then stitched along the edge of the shore and into the pink reflection to integrate it into the area better.  I also added a few more fingers of purple sheer fabric into the water on the left in front of the peninsula. Then on to more stitching details along the shoreline.

You probably can’t see a lot of difference in the photo on the left but I added black stitching along the shore line to give a bit of shadow at the water’s edge. Then in the right photo, I used a dark green thread to add some details including tree shadows into the water and little “island” bits and tree shapes on the peninsula portions.

Next I checked the green foreground again to see if I needed to fix anything else in the completed parts before I started the foreground. Another water error was definitely in evidence. Water should look like it is lying horizontally to the horizon line. My water was falling down the front because of the pink lines that were diagonal instead of horizontal. My stitching lines should have been more horizontal as well but they didn’t show as much as those pink fingers. Those needed fixing!

I used some scraps of the red sheer fabric and filled in the areas so the diagonal pink fingers were disguised. This looked much better and I was satisfied with the background and mid ground so now to move on to the foreground. Stay tuned for the next edition!

Botanical Printing Fun

Botanical Printing Fun

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Autumn has definitely arrived in my little corner of the world, the trees are turning breath-taking shades of red, gold and orange and starting to fall to the ground.

This week I met with two friends who I normally meet every couple of months for a felting play-date but we couldn’t pass up the perfect opportunity to use the abundance of natural materials at our feet and have a go a botanical printing. Not something any of us are experts in but its always fun to try new things isn’t it?

I have been playing with botanical printing for a couple of years now, so I already had a selection of materials to hand (rusty water, logwood extract, a tea urn and fish kettle for steaming etc) but Janine and Nancy also brought materials (red onion skins, another fish kettle, hot plate etc) with them, along with the all important vegetation and mordanted fabrics.

After looking through some of my previous attempts we settled on a logwood carrier blanket for the first attempt. The leaves were dipped in iron water before laying on our fabric, covering with the logwood-soaked carrier blanket and steaming. These were our results…

Janine’s dye blanket was smaller than the fabric she was printing, I love how her leaf prints appear to be breaking free from their logwood “frame”:

unmordanted habouti silk

I loved the greens Nancy achieved with jasmine and rose leaves:

Alum-mordanted cotton

This was my silk scarf part way through the reveal…. logwood blanket with leaves still stuck to it on the left, printed scarf on the right. I was a little disappointed with the eucalyptus leaf in the top centre of the picture, I have previously achieved some lovely orange prints from this tree but not today.

Left: carrier blanket and leaves, right: alum-mordanted habouti silk

My silk scarf revealed….

Alum-mordanted habouti silk

Never one to make life simple, I added a previously printed nunofelt scarf to the other side of my logwood blanket. I was reprinting it because I did not like the original, insipid print, but I like the over-print even less! 🙁

unmordant nunofelt (chiffon and merino)

Now it is dry it arguably looks even worse! Not to my taste at all. Yuk!

Next we tried a dye bath (as opposed to steaming our bundles), we mixed a sweet-smelling concoction of eucalyptus bark and red onion skins:

I thought most of the leaf print results from this batch were a little disappointing (only the cotinus appeared to work) although we did get some nice shibori style stripes. The colour difference between the alum-mordanted and unmordanted silk was striking, mordanting really does yield brighter colours.

We sprinkled dried safflower petals among the iron-dipped leaves before bundling and simmering for 90 minutes.

Alum mordanted silk
Unmordanted silk
Alum mordanted cotton
Alum-mordanted cotton, washed and dried

Nancy had better luck with a second piece of cotton in her bundle:

Alum mordanted cotton

Finally we tried soaking our fabric in tea and using an iron-soaked carrier blanket, the tea gives a gentle yellow-brown colour but where the iron reaches the tea, it turns almost black:

I was quite surprised by how much the colour of the leaf contributed to the colour of the print, in previous tests I found the orange and red leaves gave yellow and brown prints, just like the yellow leaves…. this really is a craft that relies on serendipity! 

unmordanted chiffon/merino nunofelt

Another surprise was the beauty of the iron carrier blankets, they really stole the show!

top: nuno felt scarf with leaves, bottom: iron carrier blanket
Janine’s Acer on the iron blanket
Nancy’s Geranium leaf on iron blanket

Nancy also had a promising looking result from a heuchera leaf

But when the leaf was removed the print underneath was a little disappointing…

Our final bundles of the day were arguably the best. Janine and I used some large fatsia leaves and I included some wisteria that Janine had brought, this gave one of the most beautiful greens I have ever achieved from a botanical print. We dipped the leaves in iron water and used a logwood carrier blanket again.

My alum-mordanted habouti silk scarf

While I love the white silhouette effect of the large fatsia leaf on my scarf, I am in awe of the detailed print Janine achieved from hers…

Janine’s unmordanted habouti silk scarf
Nancy’s print on heavy slub silk

Feeling inspired by the wonderful greens Nancy’s jasmine had given, I carried on after they left, pruning my poor garden far more than it really needed 🙂 However, while the maple and liquid amber leaves printed beautifully, my jasmine wasn’t as pretty as Nancy’s:

Alum mordanted silk

I included a nunofelted scarf on the other side of this dye blanket too and was pleased with the colours from the sycamore and oak leaves, I think the yellows work beautifully next to the blue-grey background:

unmordanted nunofelt

I also put another bundle in the red onion and eucalyptus bark dye pot, but this time it was simmered for 2 hours, and I think the leaf prints were much improved from the extra 30 minutes of cooking:

Alum-mordanted habouti silk

Thinking of having a go yourself? You should, its a lot of fun if you like unwrapping presents! You can never really know what you will get 🙂

All but one of the scarves / fabrics in this post were steamed or simmered for 90 minutes, however, I found simmering in the dye bath yielded better results if they were left in for at least 2 hours. I know some botanical printers steam for a lot longer or leave their bundles to cool overnight before unwrapping, but I never have the patience to do that! 🙂

All the leaves were placed with the veins facing the fabric to be printed, in theory the stomata (the holes that the leaf “breathes” through) on the leaf underside should give a better print as there is more opportunity for the tannins to be released, but the prints on the iron blanket (they are printed from the top of the leaf) were equally stunning, I will leave it to you to experiment with that and see which works best.

In most cases (not when the iron blanket was used) we dipped the leaves in iron water before laying on the fabric.

All fabrics were gently washed after printing to remove the iron and organic material.