Detail of Young Fuchsia by Kiki Peruzzi. An abstract woman dressed in red is holding a green leaf, on grey background.
Felting books. The Gormenghast series.

Felting books. The Gormenghast series.

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Or maybe I should say “Felting something inspired by books“: that is what I would like to talk about with you today, although the other one also gives me a few ideas, now that I think about it. Maybe we could launch a year-long challenge on “Felting a book” or, better probably, “Textiling a book” to keep it completely inclusive, but then I guess Ruth would be already done with her Book of Edgar (here is a link where you can see it at the end of the post) and Ann with her Year Journal of felted pages (this is her last page).

Oh well, let’s go back to books as inspiration.

I usually do not get inspired by books for visual art, because, I don’t know, they often seem two different realms, unless the book is actually about embroidery or textile art or art in general. But I tend to read a lot. I mean a LOT, that is my main hobby and I manage to squeeze reading into most chores as well, to make the most of boring time such as washing up or ironing. I am a Humanities type through and through, and that is where I come from in terms of education as well. This whole part is to explain why I got to felt a whole series of textile works on a book that I was reading, as my experience of the book (or rather five books all linked together!) in question was so immersive, reading it by day and night for weeks.

First of all, the novels are massive and are called The Gormenghast series, by Mervyn Peake, or simply Gormenghast for its friends.  (Here is the link to the wikipedia link.) It is actually a long fantasy trilogy, to which a fourth book was added after the author’s death, and it is such a sprawling, flooding and never-ending series that one would not know where to start to talk about its plot and characters.

Great part of it is set in the place giving the name to the series, which is Castle Gormenghast, a maze of a place, more resembling an endless palace-city than a castle as its name states.

The series is a bewildering succession of unlovable characters, full of foibles and quirks, and quite often motivated by less-than-honourable drives, acting in loads of ways up to and including murder in some bizarre fashion (“eaten by owls” rather comes to mind as one of the most bizarre). I could not find a single character that was appealing to me, to tell you the truth, I just could not like any of them. I get it that it has its own fans and quite a following, but I am not one of them.

So, why did I start felting works on its characters or scenes from it? did I just waste my time reading it?

Well, it is maybe the first time that I find a novel that really I can’t stand at all, but that impresses such vivid imagines in my mind’s eye: Gormenghast is all about flamboyant and often weird visual descriptions, its author himself was a visual artist and illustrator, his work was all imbued with visual imagery that just pops out of the page in his writing. I could just see all of those in my head, and could not help feeling that I had to create something to get rid of them. Have you ever had the same feeling over an artwork, that it just needs to be done so you can go on to something else?

So, I got to work as soon as possible and with a vengeance (so to speak), trying to complete the first one, and then all the others that came after it while I was going on reading the rest of the series to the end. Don’t ask why I kept reading it, although I did not like it..I guess in part it was also because I kept thinking “Oh, this would make a good felt artwork, actually! And this one..I wonder how to create this visually in felt..”

My first one was about Barquentine, a priest-like figure, stomping around with his red official rags, wooden leg and a very bad character, imposing the never-ending rituals and rules of Gormenghast to everybody. He ends up dead, in a bad way, as a lot of the characters. Oh well, I did not like him anyway.

I started by preparing a grey base layer, lightly prefelted, on which to work, and a prefelt of reds for Barquentine’s dress and greys for the Castle background.

On a table covered in a white towel and bubblewrap, a grey prefelt already wetted and soaped and a small rectangular mound of red and grey fibers ready for pre-felting
The base for the background is lightly pre-felted, and the wool for the dress is ready for pre-felting.

I wanted the Castle to be a very present background in my work, as Barquentine is all about the Castle, its eternal presence defying time and rot, its inevitability in the lives of the Castle’s ruling family, the Groans, and their subjects. So, I decided to set a background that I imagined as the grim stony Castle’s Banquet Hall or any of the grim stony corridors around the Castle, of which there were kilometers I suppose, or some such.

I used a mix of merino dyed and undyed wool fiber and Corriedale, and rectangular or square shapes cut from the lightly prefelted merino wool made previously and other prefelt from my stash, all in tones of grey with a few accents of reddish-brown and pewter. Perspective did not interest me in this, as those bigger-than-life characters tend to pop out of the background anyway, if I am making sense. The central strip of reddish-brown prefelt could be the Banquet Hall table seen at a distance, maybe, or maybe something else, you choose.

Background in wool fiber and pre-felt for the artwork Barquentine by Kiki Peruzzi
The background for Barquentine laid out but not wetted yet.

Finally, I assembled Barquentine’s body shape and rags dress on the background. I choose to make Barquentine’s body in black, not because the character is actually described as so, but because he dies in a fire and I felt that a symbolic character such as him should have an abstract streamlined body. I wanted to have his claw-like hand kind of pointing at something wrong or other, and I wanted him to go away from us towards the Castle in his wobbling gait, underlining his wooden leg with a few strands of shiny red eri silk fiber (his wooden leg is very central to him).

I decided to partly shape and partly shred the red prefelt, adding touches of red and grey wool as needed for the rags, and I scattered some brilliant red napps on it as well.

On a table with a white towel and bubblewrap there is a felt artwork in progress at the assembling stage, with a grey background and a black abstract shape resembling a man with a red dress.
Assembling Barquentine’s body and dress on the background.

Some of the napps did not felt in properly in the end, but enough stayed put that it was fine by me.

Detail of Barquentine's red dress with red napps on red and grey wool
Barquentine’s dress with the remaining napps: they were enough to make the rags more brilliantly red.

 

A brick wall with grey and reddish bricks.
Some kind of colour reference for the background of Barquentine.
A detail of background with grey and reddish shapes in the felted artwork Barquentine by Kiki Peruzzi
Background detail for “Barquentine”.

I quite liked how this came out after wetting, soaping, rubbing and lightly rolling:

Wet Felted artwork Barquentine by Kiki Peruzzi. There is an abstract shape of a man in the foreground on grey background.
My finished “Barquentine”.

 

Detail of Barquentine's black claw-like hand in artwork by Kiki Peruzzi
Detail of Barquentine’s hand in black wool.

 

Detail of Barquentine's wooden leg in black wool and red eri silk.
Barquentine’s wooden leg tumping tumping tumping around, looking for faults.

I eventually went on to wet felt six other Gormenghast themed abstract artworks, all of them quite small: they are 7 in all, of which 5 are on characters and 2 are about meaningful scenes of the series.

Wet felted abstract artwork Young Fuchsia by Kiki Peruzzi. There is a human shape in the foreground resembling a woman with black hair and a red dress, on a grey background.
“Young Fuchsia” was one of the best characters in the series, especially when young, interested in nature and imaginative, impulsive as her red dress.
Wet felted artwork Countess Gertrude by Kiki Peruzzi. There is a black dressed woman shape, with long red hair piled up on her head, filling up most of the space, on a grey and green background.
Bigger than life “Countess Gertrude” with her towering hair hiding birds (yes) and her enormous black dress (I used a scrap of silk scarf).
Wet felted artwork Steerpike by Kiki Peruzzi. An abstract human shape with very white face, big eyes and red hands, in grey clothes, on a grey background.
Hateful and hating “Steerpike” a murderous fellow who comes to a bad end, but not before having killed a few and taken horrible injuries to his hands.
Wet felted artwork Nanni Slagg by Kiki Peruzzi. There is the shape of the head of a person on the bottom half and a big hat shape in the center of the artwork on a grey and brown background.
“Nannie Slagg” , overfond of her enormous hat with the green glass grapes (I used green sari silk for them, and a mix of Alpaca Camel Merino and Mulberry silk for the hat), and useless otherwise. She is likely going to fetch a wet nurse for the newborn Groan heir.
Wet felted artwork In the Oak Forest by Kiki Peruzzi. A white human shape is on the right in front of a green and brown background resembling a thick forest.
“In the Oak Forest” the young protagonist glimpses The Thing in a faithful occasion: this meeting will drive him to leave Gormenghast, eventually. The oppressive closeness of the ancient oaks and the ethereal ghostly appearance of The Thing (in undyed rose fiber) are what this episode is all about.
Wet felted artwork Tenth Birthday by Kiki Peruzzi. It is a nocturnal scene with a white moon on a very dark background. There are four shapes, a sheep a lion a wolf and a horse with a pink hat.
“Tenth Birthday” is about a momentous occasion in the protagonist’s life, when an elaborate ritual is carried out at Gormenghast to mark his coming into his full powers as Count of Gormenghast. It involved a weird theatrical performance by animal shapes on stilts over a lake in the night. Eri silk for the moon, and tussah silk for the lion’s purple mane (don’t ask, it was never explained).

I could not wait to finish them and go on to other things, although at the same time I would not want to not have made them at all, I felt that I needed to create them and I hope that anyone who has read Gormenghast will understand and see something true in them.

Has it ever happened to you something similar, not liking a book but being driven to creating artwork on it? Please, share your experiences in the comments, and thanks for reading!

Three balls of Lion Brand Rapido Yarn in purple/blue
Rapido Yarn and a Bird Fibre Update

Rapido Yarn and a Bird Fibre Update

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Recently I was at Value Village and I spotted this super bulky yarn.  I didn’t have a use for it as yarn, but thought it would be nice to spin.  I have a fondness for blues and purples.

Lion Brand Rapido is a Super Bulky yarn.  This colour is called Tangy and it is 74% acrylic, 22% wool and 4% other fibres.

Three balls of Lion Brand Rapido Yarn in purple/blue
Three balls of Lion Brand Rapido Yarn

The yarn has a thin black binder or ply thread.  That black thread needed to be removed before I could spin it.  So I sat down and slowly pulled and then cut the black thread away.  I was left with three balls of roving.  I then started spinning.  After a few days work I had two bobbins of singles.  As you can see, one bobbin is much fuller than the other.

Next I started plying.  Initially I did a simple 2 ply yarn, using both bobbins.  When the smaller bobbin of singles ran out I was finished with the  2 ply.  With the remaining singles I made a 3 ply yarn by chain plying the singles.

The completed yarns look nice and I love both the 2 ply and 3 ply yarns.

In other news…. I have been continuing to monitor the Bird Nesting Balls (see Bird Nesting Balls 2024 for more info).  We have many American Goldfinches in the yard.  The Goldfinches diet is 100% seeds.  As a result, they time their nesting to coincide with seed availability which means they nest later than most of the other birds.  Recently I have seen the Goldfinches collecting wool, alpaca, bear and dog fur from my nesting balls.  Yeah!  (Getting photos of them collecting the fibre is much harder.)

Our yard has also seen a number of other visitors.  In addition to the steady stream of birds and Raccoons, we have had a fox visiting us quite regularly and last week this bear popped in looking for food.  I was sitting at my desk about 3 m from the bird feeder and their appearance was quite the surprise.  Luckily we were able to convince it move along by making a bit of noise and the feeders were undamaged.  I am waiting a while before putting out more attractive smelling suet or peanuts though.

 

 

Nametags: Glenn

Nametags: Glenn

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Nametag for Glenn

As I mentioned previously,  this is the local Weavers and Spinners Guild’s 75th anniversary. One of my jobs to get ready for the party was to find and print out the nametags I had made for Demoing, quite a while ago, when I was demo coordinator.  This aligns perfectly with one of my goals for this year; to learn the names of more of the guild members.

One of the ways I am trying to do this is by suggesting using nametags. For the party, we seemed to run out of time to get everyone to make their own name tag, but I did have the old weird sheep name tags I had made when I was the guild’s demo coordinator. We used some of them last year for the Sale and Exhibition for vendors and demo people.

I dug through the computer and found an old file with some of the pictures.  After a quick perusal of Google image search, I added to the weird sheep pictures, then added them to the formatted guild name tag file. After a couple of days of work, I had the updated sheep-related nametags printed, cut, and ready to go into lanyards or pin-on tags for the party. This would also allow non-guild members to know who were guild members at the party.

a pile of nametags with odd or funny sheep photos and cartoons. printed on cardstock, cut out, and ready to use.1) Silly sheep Name tags for the Party Sale and Demos

As cute or silly as the sheep theme is, it does not fully represent all guild members as well as making their own personal name tag would. So for the long weekend, Monday social, I suggested we start the personal nametags-making project.

Name Tag Supplies: plastic bag with a bit of wool in a few colours. Bag of green wool felt underneath it. dollar store “embroidery” thread, little balls of acrylic yarn, bag of safety pins, Reece’s peanut butter cups and KitKat mini chocolate bars, plastic bin with sewing stuff, and bag with the last of the coridale bump In white and top black possibly merino wool.2) Name Tag Supplies: plastic bag with a bit of wool in a few colours. A bag of green wool felt underneath it. dollar store “embroidery” thread, little balls of acrylic yarn, a bag of safety pins, Reece’s peanut butter cups and KitKat mini chocolate bars, a plastic bin with sewing stuff, and a bag with the last of the corriedale bump In white and top black possibly merino wool.

I already have a nametag on my apron (one of the sheep ones and a magnetic needle felted sheep head), but Glenn is unidentified.  Glenn has been attending socials with me since he was released from the hospital in January. This might be his last for a while as he is finally starting a graduated return to work.  I had brought some over-washed green wool felt.  It looks like a pool or billiard table green, that’s been washed. Why someone would want to wash it, I have no idea but I found it second hand and it would either work for miniature war gaming or name tags.  It will make an excellent base to build up colour to make the nametags.

I suggested a landscape.  Glenn said he also wanted to have a train. (He likes those long, math-involved, 18XX train games. The trains are not X-rated!  it’s just that all the various versions of the game are covering the 1800’s involving trains laying track and the stock market. Board Game Geek describes them as: “18xx is the collective term used to describe a set of railroad-themed stock market and tile laying games. The 18xx set has two main branches: the 1829 branch (1829, 1825, 1853, and 1829 Mainline) and the 1830 branch (1830, 1856, 1870, etc).”)  it still doesn’t sound fun to me but OK, landscape with train. Ann kindly gave me about 6 inches of light blue combed top, for the sky, I had white, black and some weird bright green with flecks of orange and blue. I also had a bit of heathered purple with me. I overlaid the white first, it would tone down the billiard table green. Then added the green ground blended with a bit of the purple to tone down the green. As well as a blue sky with a few clouds.

covered green felt with white to make a slightly thicker baseand hide the intesity of green . starting to add sky and ground, using Clover tool and small pet brush for blending sky with clowds and grass with small flecks of colour suggesting posibly flowers3.1-3.2 ) Covering the billiard table green wool with white then adding the ground and sky. I used the Clover tool to block in the basic colours.

showing the back of the felt and how much wool has been pushed through4) The back of the wool base

Off to Google to find historical train silhouettes.

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5.1 a selection of train silhouettes

5.2) the train silhouettes under consideration in various sizes, then cut out to get approval.

-5.3) I thought he would choose this one

I had thought, “smaller train pulling the name “Glenn” behind it”.

Train selected, I printed out a range of sizes and cut a couple out to show him.  Glenn chose the largest one that obscured most of the landscape. I cut out the train and traced around it with a permanent marker. I should have cut out the train to make a stencil but oh well. I placed the train on the background and realized that a black train would overpower the tag.  so suggested a compromise, how about an outline of a train?  With the “Glenn” inside? That was agreeable to him and off I went outlining the silhouette.  I scaled up the train a bit further, so the name would be easily read inside the train.

outlineing train sillowet in wool outlineing train sillowet in wool6.1-6.2) Glenn chose the largest train which I traced with permanent marker, then started to outline in black wool

Next, what font to use? I went through the list available in Microsoft Word (2010 edition, yes I am retro but it still works just fine.) I found four options I liked and thought would work with the train, and then narrowed it down to Lucida.

4 text fonts “Glenn” in Freestyle Script, Gulim, Pristina, and Lucida Handwriting7) “Glenn” in Freestyle Script, Gulim, Pristina, and Lucida Handwriting

I drew a picture of the name on a card that would fit in the train. Going with Lucida as I like the letter spacing and the curves juxtaposed with the angles. Which I felt mimicked the feeling of the old train. Text isn’t just letters, it’s shapes, spacing and negative spaces and it’s filled with emotional content. Ok, that is likely just the dyslexia compensating for the rest of you telling me that b-d-p-q is not the same letter just seen from different viewpoints. Don’t get me started on the untrustworthiness of u-n-c, w-m-3-E or even t-f depending on the font.

glenn drawn onto a scap of file card to get spacing8) Drawing out the letters to make sure they will fit in the space available

Font decided, I worked from the guide and added the name to the tag, by this point it was after 11 pm but I was still inspired so kept going. The N’s wound up to be a bit off, so I blame the lateness and they are a tricky shape.

Well, it has all the letters, they seem to be in the right order, and I didn’t miss any of them (Glenn got both his N’s even if I think the second one is just there for decoration. Look how silly Jann would be with 2 n’s! well, actually, it gives it a bit more gravitas and does balance the weight of the J ……. Maybe I do need a second N too? No that’s just one more letter that could go horribly wrong!!!!)

text added into the train9) All letters are there and in the correct order! G L E N N

Now I am at the last step, how to attach it to the Glenn. I could add magnets, a broach pin or I could add a lanyard. I think the lanyard would be most practical for Glenn. So where did I put my kumohimo discs and fake embroidery thread (it’s braided so doesn’t actually come apart, so it’s not embroidery thread) from Dollerama.  No clue where the box with disks went. Glenn has been working through stuff in the living room and has moved everything… but I know where some of the dollar store embroidery thread is!! (Bedroom, wicker basket, little plastic bin with sewing stuff.)

I had the remains of a box of crackers so used a glass to make the circle and then messed up the bisecting of the segments. I need to divide the circle into 8 sections. Then cut a ¼ inch in at each section for the yarn to fit in. I have 7 embroidery thread bobbins (in plastic) to wind and I will find one of the big bulldog clips for a weight.

Cracker box cardboard with hole in the center divided into 8 sections. Plastic embroidery floss holders are my bobbins10) Cracker box cardboard with a hole in the centre divided into 8 sections. Plastic embroidery floss holders are my bobbins.

I want the cord to be reasonably thick so it will be comfortable on the neck so I divided the scenes in half. The tags say they are 7.3m or 23.9 feet. That should give me about 8 feet of braid. I will need enough to go around the nametag then up and around his neck. Not more than 4 feet. Just keep braiding until it’s long enough! You would need less if you did not want to outline the tag too. I got comfortable with making the cordage,  watching YouTube then listening to my book and realized I had enough cord and still quite a lot on the bobbins. I guess I can finish it while I listen to another book later.

Before I cut it off I sewed around the tag and got Glenn to try it on. There is enough! So did a bit more tied off and cut the braid. The last bit of sewing is to join the braid to the name tag and then assess it. Hmm, it needs a bit more wool to hide the stitches at the back and a quick touch-up of the front and it will be all ready for next Monday’s social.

Kumihimo cordage sewn to the name tag11) Border on and length of lanyard adjusted

testing the nametag at a guild social. yes it works12) Name tag working correctly at the guild social.

Ok, the tag works at socials, one last test will it work with the Kanata Board Game Group?

the Name tag works on gamers as well as it works on spinners and weavers!13) The name tag works on gamers as well as it works on spinners and weavers!

While Glenn was busy,  I started another little landscape on one of the name tag bases. I was inspired by a friend’s vacation photo and wanted to try it as a landscape, but I will show you how that turns out later.

June’s page is finished

June’s page is finished

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My June page is done.  I started late but once the mood hit, it didn’t take long to do. It’s not a very complicated one but June is a busy month. I work best against a deadline.

a pink piece of felt with stitching and needle felt

There is a birthday cake for my birthday. I hear I share June with several other blog members. It looks like grey icing and a grey candle but they are purple in person.  DAD is for Father’s Day.  It is International UFO Month so I had to have a cute little alien. International Bicycle Day is this month and it is International Blood Donor Month.

I drew out the different pictures on some washaway stabiliser. It worked well, except for the blood drop as you can see it looks fine here

water soluble stabilizer with pictures over felt

But when I washed away the stabiliser it looked like this.

The first thing I tried was needling the felt to move it back into place. it works well a lot of the time when things need realigning.  but that didn’t work.  So, I used more of the red thread to fill in.  I thought it might make the shape funny but it worked great.

I picked some grey for July. It’s neutral so it can take anything. I may just do abstract stitching but I haven’t decided yet. grey felt

Mark Making on Felt – Online Class Registration Is Now Open

Mark Making on Felt – Online Class Registration Is Now Open

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Would you like to learn new methods of “mark making” on your felt? Are you looking for ways to create work that is uniquely your own? Are you wondering about surface design on felt? If you are looking for a new learning experience, please join me. Registration is now open for my online classes! The classes are listed below with a link to each class page.  You don’t need to be present at any certain time to participate in a class and you will receive PDF’s to keep with all the relevant information learned in the class.

Screen Printed Felt Journals by Ruth Lane

All four modules of my class, EMBELLISHING FELT WITH SURFACE DESIGN TECHNIQUES – A MIXED MEDIA APPROACH, will begin on July 19th  and end on August 30th. Registration is now open for these online classes. Click on the class link below to register for that particular class.

Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination

Experimental Screen Printing on Felt

Free Motion Machine Stitching on Felt

Printing, Stenciling, and Playing with Thickened Dye on Felt

Click on any of the links above to find out more about the class and to register and join in the fun.

Also, don’t forget about Teri’s concertina hat class or her felt bag class. Registration is open but closes soon on July 16th. So don’t miss out, click on the links above for more information and to register.

 

Our Wet Felting for Beginners class is always available. You can start any time and follow along at your own pace. Register here.

 

Travel Inspiration (& a little bit of felting)

Travel Inspiration (& a little bit of felting)

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For various reasons, I’ve not done much felt-making recently and I’m now in the very fortunate position of finding myself on holiday / vacation in California when this post is due. So, I’m going to talk about some of the creatively-inspiring things I’ve seen while I’ve been here, and then show you a little felting I’ve done as a result.

As I’ve been on holiday I’ve been looking at and mulling over some of the things around me that I find inspiring when I’m deciding what to felt. Visiting California, these have fallen broadly into three categories: coastal, botanical & textile.

COASTAL

For the first week, I was staying in Redono Beach, just south of Los Angeles, so there was an obvious coastal connection. As I walked along the beach each morning I looked at the ocean and things that were washed up at the water’s edge.

I found two “sand dollars” (actually skeletons of flat, burrowing sea urchins) which were beautifully patterned so popped them in my pocket for further consideration.

Left & bottom the 2 sand dollars I found

There was lots of interesting sea weed – I quite fancy wet felting some sea weed – though you’ll be glad to hear I didn’t pocket that.

Branched seaweed on a sandy beach
Seaweed that looks like a small tree with roots
A big pile of ribbon-like seaweed
A pile of seaweed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


And I found the usual bits of shell, pebble & sea creatures. Plus a nice view of a little egret

An empty piece of shellfish shell on a sandy beach
A piece of a shellfish or crab
A little egret walking along the shoreline with waves and surfers in the background
A little egret at Redondo beach

BOTANICALS

Around LA there were some lovely plants & trees. I found the bark of some trees and stems of cacti or succulents in Huntington Botanical Gardens especially intriguing. 

Close up of a cactus or succulent stem, bright green with lots of fin-shaped bumps

These could inspire some really interesting 3D felt pieces.

I also loved these bougainvillea at the Getty Center.  Metal rods support or encourage the plant to grow up inside their structure, then the stems, with their bright pink bracts & tiny white flowers, cascade out of the top looking like giant bunches of flowers. I think there’s a felted vase idea in there somewhere.

Bougainvillea at the Getty Center, LA

I gathered these in the garden of the next house we rented in the country near Solvang. I’ve wet felted seed pods, including eucalyptus, before. It was interesting to see the remains of the flowers on the tree on little green pods, then (I assume) the dried version, followed by the matured pods.

  • Close up of Eucalyptus flowers & seed heads on a tree
    Flowers & seed pods, eucalyptus

Maybe I’ll do some more eucalyptus pods some time.

TEXTILES

Also at the Getty Centre was this bust of a Sudanese man by Charles Cordier. This is a bit of a cheat in that it’s a representation of textiles but I marvelled at the way the artist had managed to make the hard marble-onyx look so much like softly draping fabric.

At The Broad modern art museum I found this enormous draped piece, “Red Block”, both extremely beautiful and very poignant. Created by Ghanaian-born, Nigeria-based artist El Anatsui, you can read the gallery’s text (below). Made primarily from reused gin bottle caps it is lovely in itself. As the text describes it, it also references traditional kente cloth, cultural appropriation and the damage caused by alcohol, colonialism & global markets, among other things. I also liked that the decision on exactly how to hang it is up to the exhibition’s curators. Presumably it would be different in every place it’s shown, reflecting the curators’ interpretation.


By artist El Anatsui

The Broad also had two textile pieces I found interesting. A large fibre-based work by Channing Hansen…..

Photos

8-Manifold, 2017, by Channing Hansen

….and a huge felt piece by Robert Morris

On to the Museum of Contemporary Art, I found this work, “African-American Flag” thought-provoking.

African American Flag, 1990 by David Hammons

As was this huge wool tapestry by Goshka Macuga.

Goshka Macuga
Death of Marxism, Women of All Lands Unite, 2013

Visitors to The Broad were encouraged to stand quite close to these giant canvases by Rothko, which positively vibrated with colour.

I thought these could provide a good stepping-off point for wet felting, given how layered the colours are. Though it would take a lot of wool, space and elbow grease to achieve anything like the experience of standing in front of the Rothkos.

I had hoped to find some unspun wool while I was out and about and maybe get in a little recreational felt-making but it wasn’t easy to find.  Lots of yarn but no unspun wool.  Then, visiting La Purisima Mission in Lompoc, I found some small samples of Navajo Churro wool available in their gift shop, taken from their own flock. There wasn’t much of it & the colours were limited (3 shades of grey) but I bought a little, thinking back to those grey sand dollars.

Navajo Churro wool, carded slivers


I gathered together some very basic equipment and cut out a sand dollar shape from scrap bubble wrap to act as a resist.

I’m always happy to remember that you really don’t need any fancy equipment to make wet felt. Just these bits & pieces, some dish soap, warm water & my beach towel.

A reused drinks bottle with holes in the lid, a pit holder, a plastic garbage bag and a piece of bubble wrap
Felting tools

Here’s the wool laid out and wetted down ready for felting.

Top
Bottom

And here is the result.

Top

The wool is fairly course and felted well though the floor looked like I owned a very shaggy dog afterwards. There was quite a lot of shedding. The patterns aren’t as distinct as I’d have liked because I couldn’t get quite enough colour differentiation but that’s OK. I might do a little needle felting on it when I get home, or I might just leave it as it is.

I hope you enjoy my trip around California.  I certainly am!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy my trip around California.  I certainly am!

Auckland Felters Inaugural Exhibtion

Auckland Felters Inaugural Exhibtion

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I was surprised to discover this was the first group exhibition for Auckland Felters, this is such and active group full of very talented people it never occurred to me that I would be the first one crazy enough to suggest it.

For anyone thinking about getting a group of likeminded friends together and hiring a gallery space… Do it! This has been such a fun ride with the most wonderful group of people 🙂 It is quite a significant amount of work but with an enthusiastic group to spread the load it is perfectly achievable, even while working (more than) full time.

The first stage was to find out who might be interested and then get them together to decide on a title / theme for the exhibition. This we did over Zoom in July 2023. Armed with that information and some example photos of our work I set about applying to a gallery I know quite well from teaching in their workshop space. I am sure it also helped that the manager is a felt-maker too so was immediately supportive.

The title we settled on was – Resilience, the fibre that connects us. There was lots of brainstorming and different suggestions (I love working with creative people!) but in the end we agreed the title should be very flexible and open to interpretation in lots of different ways.

The next few months were pretty chilled as everyone worked on their pieces, just touching base at our Auckland Felters meetings on topics like different methods to hang or frame felt.

As the installation date approached, everyone became so quiet I started to worry only a couple of us would have something to hang and I would end up scratching around under the bed to find old pieces of work I could make fit the theme.

One month out from the installation and people started delivering their pieces and we began working on the advertising. Sarah Ritchie was incredible, preparing eye-catching posts for social media, a printed catalogue and posters for the gallery:

Advertising sorted, we turned our attention to making the opening event as enticing as we could, I’m sure we have all been to exhibition openings where there are drinks and nibbles, everyone wanders around chatting about the exhibits. All nice enough but I thought we could do better…

The gallery is conveniently located in a community centre, with the gallery, workshop area and a cafe on one side of a large atrium and the library on the other side. This is a great space for holding small indoor markets and attracts quite a lot of foot traffic, even before we turned up….

We had a selection of stalls selling felted goods, fibre and felting tools and equipment:

We offered four, have-a-go felting classes in the gallery’s workshop area, this is Lynn preparing for her felt beads class with me interrupting:

We had an amazing felting demo table, with members from Auckland Felters providing entertainment throughout our 4 hour event:

Daniel, Angela’s son, and honorary Auckland Felter, blessed us with live music, accompanied by his friend and teacher, Trish.

And of course there was the exhibition. We created an online catalogue with a description of each piece and the inspirations behind them, you can read it here.

If you are quick, you can still see all the wonderful pieces in person until 4pm on Monday 8th July. For everyone from further afield I videoed a short tour of the exhibition so you would not miss out. Enjoy!

 

One last thing…

My online classes are now open and accepting students until July 16th (if you are thinking about joining the concertina hat class I recommend registering ASAP if you need to buy / make a hat block so you are ready for the first felting tutorial on the 18th). Please click on each class for more information:

Concertina Hat Class

Felted Bags and Cases

Anniversary Cake in English and French with the invitation in between (there was a French version of the invitation too)
OVWSG 75th Anniversary Party and Tapestry Project

OVWSG 75th Anniversary Party and Tapestry Project

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Happy July 4th to those to the south of us.

I apologize, I have been a bit busy lately with Guild work.  Our 75th anniversary party was on June 22nd. My main job was to add 10 years of Photos to the slideshow, which I originally made for our 65th anniversary.  I also volunteered to felt one of the squares in the tapestry project which I had started to tell you about in a previous blog. (https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/02/17/square-16-ovwsg-tapestry-project-and-template-transfer-method/)   Another job was Name tags, but I will tell you more about those later.

For the tapestry project idea, I spotted another group online, that had broken an image of Starry Night by Van Gogh into sections, and then each person recreated their square in their own medium. Ann and I searched for an image. Our criteria was:

  • a recognizable image of Canada. (not a new work that is not recognizable when broken up into pieces and then reformed in representational sections.)
  • an image that breaks up into interesting sections. (all or mostly sky, water or a monotone homogeneous colour image will not produce interesting pieces to work on for the participants.)
  • not too cluttered an image that would make it hard to recognize when separated into parts
  • an image available in a high enough resolution we can work with.
  • if a square is not completed we would have to have a backup image to replace the missing spot.

After looking at many images, Ann chose a view of the parliament building, from the back of the building, in the fall.  She cropped and blurred the photo and divided it into 24 squares, with each ending up 6 inches by about 6.25 inches. Ann Printed out each square to the exact size needed and gave each participant their project. Our goal was to make a representation of our square in whatever medium we favoured. A few of us chose felt, but we also had various types of weaving, spinning and knitting. I was hoping for basketry too.

You may remember that Ann gave me the bottom of the Parliamentary Library, well that makes sense, I have been the guild librarian for a long time (I joined at the AGM in 1988 or 1989, where I volunteered to help with the library and was elected librarian. I did warn them about that little spelling problem, but they were unconcerned until I made them a subject catalogue. It was not in English or French but in my native dyslexic. We used it until I finally put the whole collection into a database.) But, back to the square.

I went back and looked at a less blurred image so I could see the buttresses more clearly. As you saw before I chose needle felting, and used the template method to transfer the image to a good felt base. I worked between the two images (Blurry and Less Blurry) to create my Squair.  It looked very messy as I worked on it.

pictuer in felt with reference pictures of bottom of Canadian parlemtal library1) Images I am working from bulldog clipped to coroplast in the background with the image I am felting in the foreground on a thick wool pad.

It got a bit better. I hope you can start to see the architectural buttresses a bit more clearly now.

pictuer in felt with reference pictures of bottom of Canadian parlemtal library2.1) ready to hand in my image. On the Left, the image Ann gave me, in the centre the felted representation, and on the Right the de-blurred and pixelated image.

close up of felt with original image checking size its close2.2) close up of felt with original image checking size it’s close

If you were curious, Here is a shot of the back. I was working on my 1.5” thick wool pad, I think it was the 8”x10” size.

back of the felt image showing the amount of wool push through has occurred2.3) the back of the felt image showing the amount of wool push through has occurred.

I was well-supervised by moose, as I worked on this. He was very supportive and carried the picture, wool pad, references and the fibre for me.

partaly 3D moose is getting a bit scruffy from ware.3) Moose looking a bit scruffy from all his hard work carrying fibre, reference and the felting for the tapestry square project

Ok, we are now caught up to where I handed in the Square.  The next we will see it will be after they have all been assembled and unveiled at the 75th anniversary party.

So let’s go to the party!! Don’t worry I have your invitation and just to tempt you further here is a preview of the 2 of cakes!

Anniversary Cake in English and French with the invitation in between (there was a French version of the invitation too)4) Anniversary Cake in English and French with the invitation in between (there was a French version of the invitation too)

Come in and don’t forget to sign the guest book! If you are a member of the guild, select an odd sheep name tag in the studio and then meet us in the Unitarian’s room.  There are a number of displays, a make-and-take table, demonstrations of weaving, spinning and felting as well as the Cake and punch we should check out! OH and you can buy your own Moose bag, there on the table beside the great wheel, you can’t miss them!

Since we are just inside the door let’s take a quick peek at the make-and-take table, Liane was organizing this. There was; a tapestry loom set up to try, mayonnaise lids drop spindles, small popsicle stick looms to needle weave with, CD weaving looms to make coasters and wet felted acorns to make.

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5.1– 5.3)  Make and take table

This spot was quite busy most of the party and seemed quite enjoyed.

The next table over was a display of work by Grade 10 students (from Lecole Secondarie Catholique Beatrice-Desloges in Orleans) in the School Outreach Program, run by Carmen Deschenes, one of our guild members and Daniel Cote, the school’s art teacher. The guild provided a floor loom and guidance on how to use it. This looks like it may be an ongoing project. The students were interested and each designed a woven project. One wanted to weave a representation of water so wove in wire to allow the wave to hold its shape. These are a few of the pieces that were in their art show on display today.

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 6.1- 6.4)

If we move a bit further around the room Ann Sunahara put together a display of the Bertha Grey Haze workshop on miniature overshot patterns. The 100-inch loom team wove coverlets showing some of the patterns from the workshop, one of which was on display. Alison brought her 4 harness Saori loom and wove one of the patterns. There were also samples from the workshop and the book the workshop was based on, which is in the OVWSG  library.

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7.1-7.4) Miniature Overshot Display from the Bertha Grey Haze Workshop

Next was a mysterious covered item, we will come back to that when it’s time for the unveiling, and then the slide show that I had been working on for months. There are now 921 slides! I promise I will not show you all of them!! I tried to select a few I thought you might enjoy.

covered tapestry and slide show8.01) a mysterious item is draped with a handwoven coverlet waiting for its time to be unveiled.

watching the slide show which was running on a loop throughout the party.8.02) watching the slide show which was running on a loop throughout the party.

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 8.03-8.13) a few of the slides from the slide show

If I can pull you away from the slide show now, I was felting in the corner but didn’t get a picture of myself (I have not figured out selfies on my getting ancient Lumix camera). On the other side of me, there was a Great Wheel demo. It was a bit crowded so let’s see if we can sneak in for a peek.

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9.1-9.2) great wheel demo

The Guild was selling moose project bags and showing off some of the door prizes, many from Louet Canada (it’s their 50th anniversary this year!).

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10.1-10.2) moose bags and prizes

If you have your moose bag now, let’s go look at the samples from various workshops the guild has given.

samples from workshops of teh OVWSG11) Some of the Samples from workshops given by the OVWSG.

There are samples of weaving, felting, basketry and Spinning workshops given by the guild on this table. After you have checked them out there are two cakes sitting on the next table.  Jean will do the cutting in a moment, then we can try a piece.

Cake, Cake sliceing and Punch12) Cake and punch at the party

Lets take a look at the demos, there were floor and table looms, fibre prep, spinning and Felting.

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13.1-13.2) lots of interest in the Demos

Ok, we still have a few minutes before the unveiling, so let’s follow one of the tours up to the 100-inch loom room and the classroom! We can also take a quick peek in the studio too.

Studio tour and Name draft of OVWSG name 100 inch tour Classroom tour14.1-14.3) Tours of the Studio, 100 inch loom room and the Classroom.

Excellent! We made it back in time to see the unveiling!

speaches before unvailing tapestry15.1) Quick speeches  then it was time to find out what was under the coverlet

we had a surprise guest, Michael is the curator of the Almonte Textile Museum. He and Carl Stuart do the Unveiling15.2) we had a surprise guest, Michael is the curator of the Almonte Textile Museum. He and Carl Stuart do the Unveiling

close up of tapestry15.3) Close-up of the tapestry

names of who did which square (Text over transparency of tapestry image)15.4) names of who did which square

admiing the tapestry15.5) Admiring the tapestry

There were 24 members, who each made a square, using a technique of their choice. There is; Weaving, Tapestry weaving, Hand spinning, Hand Dyed, Felted and Knit Squares.  The team who did the mounting of the blocks were; Liane Thiry-Smith, Moira White, Paula Smith, Wendy Birkette Willbond, Annie Jackson, and Carlene Paquette. I hope Carlene will be able to tell us more about this part of the project. (ok, I may be the only one who gets excited about mounting and framing.)

The last of the door prizes were drawn and then it was time to wind down the party and put everything away.

drawing the last door prize16) The last of the Door Prizes is drawn

Before you head out, let’s take one last look at the tapestry project.

a closer view of the squares17.1)  a closer view of the squares

I wonder if I can find the image Ann had us working from. Yes! (Thanks Ann) so you can see what we were working towards for each square

this is the image Ann selected so you can see what we were working towards. a blurry vertion of athe back of the Canadian Parlement building in awtum 17.2) this is the image Ann selected so you can see what we were working towards.

 Thank you for joining us for our 75th Anniversary Party, it was a lot of fun and a lot of work. I am looking forward to celebrating the 80th but luckily we have years to recover before we start planning again! If you are in the Ottawa area, in the Fall of 2024, check out the Almonte Textile Museum where the tapestry will be on display. The Anniversary Comity has more planned for this year, I am looking forward to seeing what project we are working on next!

2 wooden chairs looking out over flowers with sea in the distance
2024 THIRD QUARTER CHALLENGE

2024 THIRD QUARTER CHALLENGE

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Lyn and Annie wearing straw hats in garden

Hello Summer!  Hello to wearing silly hats and enjoying Annie’s garden!

This quarter’s challenge is to capture the essence of summer in a textile representation.  Realistic or abstract, large or small, practical or not, it’s a free choice.

Summer is a time to sit and enjoy the view;

2 wooden chairs looking out over flowers with sea in the distance

to feel the sand between your toes;

sandy beach, sea, blue sky with wispy white cloud

to walk in the shade of trees in full leaf;

canopy of trees in full leaf

to dine al fresco on a warm evening;

eating al fresco on a warm summer evening

to eat home grown fruit

raspberries and blackberries grown in the garden

and to bring summer indoors with garden flowers picked in July.

Flowers from garden in July arranged for indoor display

This little summer study, in felt and machine stitching with a little bit of acrylic paint, was done by Annie back in 2016 and was inspired by the bees buzzing around the chive plants on her patio.

felt with machine stitching bees and chives

To recap – the challenge is to make a textile piece that says ‘Summer’.  Realistic or abstract, large or small, practical or not, it’s a free choice.

Please post your entries in the Studio Challenges section on the The Felting and Fiber Forum

If you have difficulty posting a photo, please use this form

Spinning some very dirty wool

Spinning some very dirty wool

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Last time I told you about our demo at the Log Farm shearing day. When they seared the first sheep they brought over the fleece and laid it out under the tent so people could see it. I used some dog brushes to make small rolags from the fleece and then used my drop spindle to spin some yarn.

Being me, I didn’t take any pictures of the carding or rolags so when I went to the guild I took a bit from one of the fleeces still waiting for a new owner and made some more and both Jan and I took pictures.

 

a drop spindle and some small carders and some dirty wool

You can see all the debris from carding, so much falls out. Then my sort of rolags. The dog brushes are small so it’s hard to make a real roll.

a drop spindle and small carders and wool rollags for spinning. and a lot os little bits of dirt that fell out of the wool while carding

 

I added the wool to the yarn on my spindle, then I plyed it and wound it off to be washed.

 

a drop spindle with dirty wool spun on it

A nice close-up so you can see how dirty it is.

close up of dirty wool on a spindle drop spindle and dirty skein of wool.

At the demo, people had lots of questions about how to wash it, when to wash it and did we have to wash it. The answer to when is at any stage along the way or not at all. I don’t suppose a fisherman in the North Atlantic is too fussed about his waterproof sweater smelling sheepy.

About how to get it clean.  These fleeces are dirty and full of hay bits and other dirt. Carding them takes out some, spinning it takes out some and washing it takes out more.

I wash in a dishpan with Dawn dish soap. It is a good degreaser and most of the dirt is stuck in the grease ( lanolin).

Here is the water after the first wash

a tub of dirty water will wool soaking in it.

and the second wash

second wash of the wool , less dirty water

Then I rinsed it and let it dry. Once it was dry I shook the skein over the dish pan to see how much more would come out. I was surprised by the amount that just shook out.  There is hardly any debris left in the yarn and what there is would pick out easily as you were knitting or weaving.

Little bits of debis shaken out of the clean dry skein

 

Here is the result, with a small amount of unwashed yarn I kept for comparison.

clean skein of wool with some dirty wool for comparison. close up of some clean and dirty wool.

 

Spinning in the grease is enjoyable on a warm day. The lanolin helps it slide. It’s not so fun on a cold day when the lanolin gets sticky and doesn’t like to slide. Washing fleeces is not one of my favourite things but a little yarn is fun.