More from the Knitting & Stitching Show in London

More from the Knitting & Stitching Show in London

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The last time I wrote I shared some of the artwork I loved at the Knitting & Stitching Show. This time I’m sharing a bit more, with a special focus on my favourite artist this year.

*** Please note: this post will have verbal references to eating disorders in the context of an art exhibit, which some might find triggering; none of the artwork has any explicit imagery related to this mental health issue. ***

Remember Libby Vale, the artist with the “Ironing Bored” in my last post? She also created a doll that reflected our modern human self-absorption. Note the bag full of Stuff You Don’t Really Need in the her hand. This doll was posable and each day would look different.

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I love seeing textile art in 3D so these textures drew me in. I forgot to record who made them.

The next artwork reminds me of Zed’s creations. Do you agree?

More 3D art. I’m always drawn to wire creations, they look so ethereal.

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Now comes the exhibit that touched me the most. As someone who has struggled with an eating disorder in her teens, this was very powerful to me. The work of Caren Garfen gives voice to her former self and to those who can see themselves reflected in her words and creation.

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This size 0 dress tells the story of Anna. It was painstakingly stitched with human hair.

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A reflection of mood.

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The angry voices of the loved ones who don’t know how to deal with an invisible illness

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Caren created a dollhouse reflecting the mood of an anorexic. Everything inside it has a relation to eating. In the middle sits the artist, underweight, with a food-related unfinished artwork, looking lost.

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Finally, a piece of her handmade patchwork blanket. Knowing when to ask for help is what people with a mental illness struggle the most.

I hope you enjoyed this post, even if the last theme was a little heavy. Art isn’t just about the positive side of life, and its role needs to also be one of awareness about what surrounds us. If sometimes you feel you’re struggling – you’re not alone.

Tubes and Mats

Tubes and Mats

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I enjoyed playing around with the tubes at the well being centre, so decided to make another piece last week. I think it’s because the tubes are already made, so there are less decisions/choices which makes it even more ‘mindless’ and relaxing! I didn’t even really think about background colours too much, I just knew I didn’t want blues, so grabbed a bag of pinks and oranges. I wasn’t aiming for another challenge piece, I just wanted something simple with a bit of contrast:

The tubes I used had quite a lot of fibres blended in, they’re a bit more obvious from this angle:

And, maybe it’s just me, but the whole piece looks very different depending which way around it is:

A close up I like:

Earlier this year, I made a mat with the intention of taking it out with me for when it’s cold, so I can sit on it at the bus stop! I got the idea when I needed to sit down, but the wall was freezing, so I took off my woollen gloves to sit on. I actually didn’t get a chance to try it, but here it is:

The temperature suddenly dropped here recently, and it reminded me of the mat, so I thought I’d make another:

If this weather continues, I might have to make a blanket for my knees too!

Happy Felt Hat Makers

Happy Felt Hat Makers

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Just after I took my Moy MacKay class I taught a felt hat class to 6 enthusiastic students. they wanted different styles but they all wanted folds in the top.

and decorating, I am sure I took more pictures at this point but something went wrong because they are not on my phone.

Then there was rubbing and rolling to do.

Here they are after some shrinking but not there yet.

The did shrink much to everyone’s amazement. I don’t think they really believed they would ever fit.

These brims on these 2 wide brimmed hats are to heavy to hold themselves up while wet. They will be fine once they are dry.

I didn’t get a picture of the last one but it turned out well too. It was a really fun day for everyone.

 

 

Fossil Piece Complete

Fossil Piece Complete

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I completed the hand stitching on my felt fossil piece that I created for the 4th Quarter Challenge.

I added scattered straight stitches in colors that were already present in the “fossils”. I felt like the grey background was a bit plain and I needed to move some of the colors to other areas in the piece.

Here is the piece completed. From a distance, the background just looks mottled but you can see the colors of the background stitches when you look up close. You can click on the photo to enlarge it and see the details better.

Here’s a photo so that you can see the texture a little better. It does have quite a bit of surface dimension. Now I have to decide how to finish and frame the piece. How do you finish your pieces? What would you suggest?

Felted Cuff (bracelet)

Felted Cuff (bracelet)

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I recently made myself a felted cuff from a failed project (got to use them up!), and wore it at one of my craft fairs.  Vivienne, one of the other stall holders took a shine to it and asked if I would make her one, so I did and here is the process.

Vivienne chose purples blues and pinks as the colour palette.

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I started with two layers of Aubergine Merino, one of my favourite colours I thinks, such a rich deep purple.

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I then added all the decoration, which was the above colours blended, and lots of silks and curly locks.

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It was then wet felted.

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Once dry it was then time to cut to size.

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I then interfaced the back because I wanted to free motion sew it to strengthen it a little for wearing.  Here is the back.

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Here is the front.

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I wanted to jazz it up even more by adding a few beads, so I pulled these out of my stash.

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Here it is after beading.

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I luckily had a piece of this lovely purple tweed fabric in my stash to use as a backing to cover up all the inside stitching.

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I then cut it to size, added an elasticated loop and pinned it all together to sew.

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Here is the back, quite neat eh??

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Here is the front along with a button sewn on for fastening.  I had previously asked Vivienne for her wrist measurement.

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She seemed very pleased with it and put it on straight away.

More Natural Wools and Fibres

More Natural Wools and Fibres

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I was looking through my flickr account recently for some photos to use on a flyer for the well being centre, and I came across some felt pieces I made with natural fibres and natural wool combinations. I haven’t done a post about ‘naturals’ for a while so I thought you might enjoy this old post from 2012:

Another couple of natural wool and natural fibre combinations I’ve used recently are Oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester with Ingeo top, and Humbug Jacob Tops with black and white Bamboo tops.

Humbug Jacob tops are a stripey blend of black and white Jacob wool tops. Just on its own it produces a nice result, but I thought I’d try using strips of black and white bamboo tops for effect. Both bamboos are really soft, white bamboo looks silky, but black bamboo is fluffy and more like fluffy cat fur. They felt quite differently too, the white keeps its silkiness and shines really nicely, and the black almost fades into the background, staying very matt.

Ingeo is made from corn, it is soft and shiny and smells faintly of caramel 🙂 I decided to cover the whole piece with Ingeo as it has such a lovely sheen. This was another fibre which shone even in dim light. The effect after drying is gorgeous, Ingeo is such a nice silky fibre and went really well with the Oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester. I think this combination would make a lovely soft and shiny scarf.

*The previous post I’d made was also about natural wools and fibres, if you’re interested, you can find it here

A class with Moy MacKay

A class with Moy MacKay

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Last week I had the opportunity to take a 2 day class with Moy MacKay. I went with a couple of friends and we had a great time.  We did the wet felting on day one. We had 2 pictures to choose from for the landscape.

I chose the one the left.

Moy demonstrated and explained to us how to work and what to do. We got to ask questions. She told us to take lots of pictures as we went because you see things in the picture that  you don’t see in just looking at it. Still I didn’t take enough.

First we laid out the background

Then we added the foreground and details. The house is prefelt and the flowers in the front are chopped up curls

We wet them down and gave them a 2 or 3 min rub and then rolled them for about 3 min one way and then the other for another few min and we were done. They are very lightly felted but that’s ok because they are pictures not hats.

That took the morning. After lunch we did another piece, a still life, flowers. We had a vase of red flowers and babies breath to use for inspiration. We were not to copy it but to use it to see how flowers look. You can see it in the group picture. Moy demonstrated again and explained again and then we only had about an hour to put the picture together and then a short time to get it felted before we had to be out of the room for another group.

We started with the table then the foliage and then the vase and then moves some leaves around. Then we added the flowers. The babies breath is nepps.

I quite like it at this stage. Not as much after it was felted.

On day 2 we started the embellishing. Moy talked about and demonstrated needle felting accents and refining the pictures. Also some machine embroidery and stitching.  we could try the machine stitching if we wanted but my picture wasn’t ready for that yet.   This is what they are like now. No where near done but works in progress.

This is after I straitened up the house and removed the mangled fence and added a new one.

This is where it is now.  I added windows and ivy to the house. I removed the cobwebs from the trees. I added some shading to the trees. I added in some stems for the flowers in front and another fence. I think the field behind the left fence needs to be darker because it’s farther away. It doesn’t show well in the picture but right now it is lighter and more yellow than the front field.  It needs a lot more work but I think I know what I want to do to it.

And the flowers. I forgot to take a picture of when it was wet felted but had no embellishments.  But here it is so far. I am not as keen on the flowers but they are alright. I may like them better after I work on them some more. The table needs straitening up and lots more texture. And notice the nepps have stuck. We had chopped up some green fibers as part of the foliage and I think the short fibers under them made them stick.

And lastly a picture of everyone’s works at the end of the second day. the flowers we used are beside Moy.

It was a great class. I think it’s given me confidence to try some more. Jan will be doing more posts for us and I hope she will do one about this class too. She will have taken at least a hundred more pictures than me and be able to show you her works in progress too.

Don’t forget to sign up for the holiday card exchange on the forum. Read all about it here: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2018/10/10/time-for-the-holiday-card-exchange-again/

 

Stitching Fossils Piece

Stitching Fossils Piece

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The last time I posted, I showed you my piece that I started for the 4th Quarter Challenge that included twists, tubes and hand spun yarn.

Here’s what it looked like after felting. I started hand stitching and used some very simple stitches including stem stitch and straight stitches.

Here’s the piece after adding the dark stem stitch around the tubes. I also added some “white” marks across the “fossils”. The white is really a light almost peach color that is on the bottom right side of the photo. These are the various wool threads that I am using to embellish the piece.

Here’s a few more views, you click on the photos to see a larger version. I decided that the yellow-orange seemed a bit too much so I wanted to tone it down just a bit. I added blue-green stitching over the yellow-orange and added some of the yellow-orange to the background to move the color around in other places.

So here it is again after adding the yellow-orange and blue-green. I am now adding more colors into the background to give a mixture of the colors into the background. I enjoy hand stitching into felt and this has been a relaxing project. Do you like to hand stitch on felt? If so, what are your favorite stitches to add?

A brief glimpse into the Knitting & Stitching Show in London

A brief glimpse into the Knitting & Stitching Show in London

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This weekend the biggest fibre and fabric-related event in Europe happened right here in London. Every year I volunteer for my spinning guild and, in return, I get a free pass for all days.

Although the Knitting & Stitching Show is mostly about the sales, there’s always a section dedicated to textile arts. Established artists as well as art school finalists exhibit their work every year, so that’s what I’m sharing with you today.

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Let’s admire this larger-than-life crocheted cow by TOFT. They also had a giant lobster and other animals. How many hours went into each?

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The artist Jenni Dutton had an exhibit about her Mother, called Dementia Darnings. You can imagine by the title how poignant each portrait was – we see this woman depicted from a young age to her final, frail days. I was very moved by it.
Look closely – can you tell how each work was created?

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It’s yarn. You can see it hanging down on the portrait above. Isn’t it wonderful? All this hard work, you can tell the artist loved her mother very much. I felt like hugging her for this dedication.

Next, quilts. I’m not a particular fan of the “traditional” ones but when this technique is applied to create something unusual, you have my full attention.

I’m afraid the pictures don’t do these works justice. Both artists are American I think you can feel a lovely sort of vintage US vibe to these images.

Finally, something that made me smile, by Libby Vale.

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Ironing is definitely not on my list of priorities, so I connected perfectly with the sentiments depicted in this board!

There was a lot more to show, but I’ll leave that to my next blog post. I hope you enjoyed my choice of art. Have you ever been to the Knitting & Stitching Show, or a similar event where textile art is shown? Let me know all about it in the comments section.

4th Quarter Challenge Sample

4th Quarter Challenge Sample

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I thought I’d try an idea out for the 4th Quarter Challenge. The basic idea was to use wool tubes with fabric, some under, and some over. Because they are quite thin and hollow, I thought they probably wouldn’t have much effect on the fabric, other than visual. I did use a couple of wool twists too. This is the finished piece:

When I’d rinsed it and squeezed the water out, I didn’t roll it in a towel or try to flatten/smooth it, like I usually do, I wanted to keep the texture. You can see it from this angle:

And this one:

This is a strip of cotton gauze:

This is some synthetic chiffon. I’m guessing I used twists under this piece because there seems to be more of an effect:

The close up photos of the silk strip didn’t turn out, but here’s where silk, cotton gauze and silk taffeta all meet:

This is a close up of the Silk Taffeta, I used twists over and under this:

I used some heavier synthetic chiffon. I know this fabric doesn’t attach very firmly, but I like to use it because it does ripple nicely and looks good:

I love my camera! I can see inside the ripple here:

It’s given me a better idea of what I might do on a bigger piece. How are your ideas coming?