The Mother of Invention

The Mother of Invention

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There’s a proverb I like: “necessity is the mother of invention”. Apparently it started with Plato. I’m going to test it today in two ways. Firstly, I’ve had a lot of sales and exhibitions recently and I haven’t made much new work. I’m writing this while stewarding an exhibition. So, as my blog is due and I’ve nothing new to show you (necessity), I’m drawing on some work I did earlier in the year and reflecting on that (invention). Secondly, it was actually the need to create a lot of pictures quickly (necessity) that led me down the different style of pictures (invention) that I’m going to talk about.

As I’ve covered in previous blogs, I had a large exhibition to fill in April/May this year so had a big push from January to March to make lots of new pictures. As all wet felters will know, wet felting is not a quick process and there’s no mileage in trying to hurry it. So, as well as making my usual style of pictures, I had a think about the quickest felt pictures I could make while not skimping on the quality of the felting. Quicker pictures would also allow me to offer them at a slightly lower price than my other work.

Nuno felting (which is including fabric in felt) with patterned fabric is a quick way of creating colour and pattern as it bypasses complicated and time-consuming wool layout. And now that I can print onto felt (again covered in a previous blog) that’s a comparatively quick way of introducing images. 

This was my first picture. 

Square wet felted picture with patterned grey fabric on the lower half, two blown trees towards the top left on a white background with wisps of grey cloud in the white sky
“Monochrome Tree #1”

The fabric was a lovely fine wool scarf that I had bought (as always) in a charity shop. I have the solid beech frames made for me in batches in advance so I knew what size I was aiming for. I used a commercial prefelt of merino wool and silk  – again trying to minimise the layout time and it’s also lovely to work with. There are plenty of legitimate, free-to-use images on the internet. Sourcing, scaling, printing and transferring them to felt is quite time consuming, especially as I only planned on using each tree once for this first set of pictures, but I’m sure I will come back to them.

Monochrome Tree #2
Two square wet felted pictures similar to the previous one but without the clouds and with a dark line at the top of the fabric
Monochrome Tree #3

For the next (and subsequent) ones I decided to make them slightly smaller than the frames, leaving a small border around the felt. I added a line of recycled tapestry wool at the top of the fabric, just because I liked the look of it, and decided against patterning the sky. 

I then fished out some black and white silk scarves from my charity shop finds and used those instead of the wool scarf. 

Square wet felted picture similar to the previous ones but with a crow shape in the top left hand side of the tree. Swirly grey and white fabric
Monochrome Tree #4 with crow
square wet felted picture similar to the previous ones but with patchy lined fabric
Monochrome Tree #5

I added a crow silhouette in the tree on the left picture. A bit fiddly but I liked it.

Square wet felted picture similar to the previous ones, using the same fabric as #4 but with two trees instead of one
Monochrome Tree #6 Two Trees
Square wet felted picture similar to the previous ones but with a flowery patterned black and white fabric
Monochrome Tree #7

My next experiment was to switch from black and white to coloured silk, tapestry wool and trees.  

Square wet felted picture similar to the previous ones but with yellow and green patterned fabric and a green tree.
Green Tree #1
square wet felted picture similar to the previous picture but with a different shape of tree
Green Tree #2

When I was printing on Green Tree #1 I accidentally pressed a fold in the corner. It came out with a hot iron but I didn’t remember to photograph it again afterwards.

After I’d made these two, it occurred to me that I could double the width of the wool and fabric to make two pictures at the same time, cutting them apart before printing on the trees.  Why hadn’t I thought of that sooner? Super-speedy. 

Continuing with the limited colour palate, I chose a silk scarf that was red / orange with some colour fade across the scarf. 

rectangular wet felted fabric with orange / red silk felted in, covering just over the bottom half of the fabric. There's a variegated line of red/orange wool yarn felted across the join between the silk and the white wool background.
After felting and before printing

When the felting was finished I wasn’t sure I liked how much the white fibres showed through the red / orange silk. The previous fabrics had either been partly white or were light coloured so the movement of the white wool and silk fibres through the fabric had been less visible. 

As I contemplated this, I decided that I liked the long rectangular shape for a change.  I happened to have some frames that were more or less the same shape and proportions….and so “Red Trees” became a double-width landscape with two trees. 

Rectangular wet felted picture as in the previous image but with two orange/red trees printed in the top left of the felt with the bottom of each trunk touching the yarn line as if growing from there
“Red Trees”

That wasn’t where I thought I was heading but it’s fun to take an unexpected turn,

I have now sold more than half of these pictures, and I’d say they’ve sold slightly better than other work. I’m a little ambivalent about this. I like the new pictures but I don’t feel as much for them as my usual bird, beach and/or water pictures. I suppose that shouldn’t matter. They have definitely attracted a slightly different audience. When I get back into the studio I will be making some more. Not because of their speed as I’m not now under the same pressure, but because people seem to like them and I’ve enjoyed trying something new.  I think I will stick to the monochrome fabrics but try out some different colours. Having a group of different strong colours like the red and green might make a good display. 

And so, it seems, on this occasion, that necessity was indeed the mother of invention. I made a new line of work and I have a blog to post! 

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

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One of my best customers for my 3D-printed felting tools, a fellow felt teacher in the US, asked if I could make a smaller version of the wand tool for making jewellery. I had previously investigated making the wand longer and narrower towards the tip but the tips kept breaking, I don’t make a lot of jewellery or small items so the idea was abandoned.

I mentioned the request to Mr TB who suggested a couple of possible solutions for the fragile tips. He printed 2 of them for me and I have been testing them this week. I may be biased but think they are pretty good, I have been using them quite aggressively and they are still in tact and working as I had hoped.

For the tests I decided to make set of felted rings. Normally I use a bundle of pencils held together with an elastic band but this maker pen with a tapered barrel came to hand first. Pencils / pens are ideal because you can alter the size of your ring by adding more pencils to the bundle, then remove them one by one as the felt fulls and the ring shrinks down.

Wrapping wool around the pen before adding soapy water and gently rubbing
Once the felt was starting to shrink I transferred the ring to the tool and fulled the inside of the ring
This is how much the ring shrank, the inside of the ring was wide enough to stretch around the widest part of the pen at the start
Looking for more pens to make a larger ring I came across this beaker instead…

I made a small felted ball to finish the set and make a pendant, which layout do you like best?

The fulling tool just needs a couple of minor tweaks and a name (any ideas?), another round of testing and it will be ready to join the others.

Apologies for the poor quality of these photos, they were taken in my current studio (the garage) and the light in there is awful. The new studio is coming along well though. Another month and the floor will be tiled, the kitchenette and shelving installed and all my fluff moved from the garage to its new home 🙂

The rest of the reno is progressing too, our new kitchen is half installed, the bathrooms and deck are nearly finished and this week the builders are putting in a retaining wall.

The house and garden 2 years ago
The house and garden this week – spot the difference?
The studio with new deck

In between painting and moving garden plants I have not had much time for felting so have been getting my “fix” through teaching…

A private, beginners bag class…

These ladies know how to felt in style – home made G&Ts! 🙂

Mosaic felting at the Auckland Creative Fibre retreat…

I also had the pleasure of teaching a felted pod class in collaboration with Deaf Aotearoa last month but I’m afraid I forgot to take any photos. This was a wonderful experience and I have no hesitation in recommending teaching this way if you get the opportunity, most of the participants could lip read but we also had a sign language interpreter with us. The hardest part for me, was trying not to talk while demonstrating, I am so used to explaining what I am doing with my hands I had to keep checking myself to explain first, so everyone could watch the interpreter and then demonstrate with the wool.

I’d better get back to painting…. happy felting!

Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!

Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!

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HAPPY HOLIDAY MONDAY to those who are enjoying the long weekend!

Last post we drove out to Twist Fibre Festival, in the heavy rain, and checked out some of the booths. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/08/23/twist-2024-part-1-shopping/

As you saw, this year there was a reasonable distribution of different vendors for weavers, spinners, sewers/Quilters and yarn for knitting and crochet. for felters I only found one that had felt things (boots and slippers) and two that had tools and one had needles.

DEMOS At TWIST

At 1:45 pm, I arranged with the workshop people to get a table and a couple of chairs for our demo space. it was the best spot for demoing, right outside the main arena, where everyone would pass. Since there was no demo box, which had tablecloths and other demo supplies, I was left with whatever I had in the car and the felt pieces I had brought to choose from, as a display. I went back out to the car, to drop off shopping (we will look at that later) and see what I had to work with.  I found an old sign I had made for the carp fair in 2017. (No idea why it was still in the car)  It was in a plastic sleeve, on card stock. It had our web address, a bit of info about workshops and our name. OK, signage covered? I have a number of lightweight black car blankets to cover stuff in the back of the car, which will work to cover the table.  I also grabbed the bag of felt pictures, the bag of wool I had brought to work from, and 2 of the braids I just purchased. With the walker loaded, I rolled back through the rain, off to set up a demo.

As I was setting up I had people dropping their stuff on the table, to get organized before going out in the rain. So I only used 2 of the black blankets to allow space at the end of the table, in case more people needed to prep for the weather. I set up all the felting I had brought and pulled out the Dragon hand (more about that even later too!) to add the first colour layer. I didn’t actually get much done on that, but I had a steady stream of questions about felt pictures, sculptures, armatures, needles and wool.

French was my favourite class up to grade 7 when our new teacher decided to teach us to read and write in French. I was very optimistic and had a working hypothesis, that I was enthusiastically testing; maybe I am not dyslexic in French! That did not work out as well as I had hoped and was proven to be a false hypothesis. While I was enjoying French, my English teacher was not. It seems my English spelling worsened and I was kicked out of French, by my English teacher….. I have since lost most of the vocabulary I had acquired before my ignominious removal.

So I was very pleased when another guild member dropped by at the end of her shopping as she waited for a friend to finish a workshop she was in. She had a sweet little support spindle and fibre to demonstrate spinning and spoke French! She was able to chat with many more of the people who stopped and was able to answer their questions or translate what I said. I was so happy that she was there to help!  By the time she left, the crowd had decreased and I was able to chat with most of the remaining people.

This was a great spot and I hope they will ask us back next year.

demoing of felting, pictures, and a few sculptures with armatures
It was very busy, and these pictures, as I set up, were the only ones I got during the demo.

Friday demo space, the table was beside the the door going into the area of the Arena.
The demo spaces at the end of Friday are all ready for the Saturday demo teams.

Sunday Demo teams Spinning, Weaving, Fiber prep with a swing picker10.1- 10.3) Demoing Friday afternoon, demo space at 6 pm, and Sunday demo teams

Now should we check and see if we bought the same things during shopping?  What did you select?

braids of fiber, spindles, silk, a small bat of green, a breed study kit from World of wool, 2 bags of locks, a small bag of cashmear, battery pack for EEW6. Book The Techniques of Tablet Weaving.
Friday’s Shopping

close up of braids most are combed top, 2 plastic spindles,
Close-up of Friday’s Shopping

Sunday's Shopping, 2 more braids of top, 2 twist angle guides,2 more of those spindles i got on friday, a pen holder for a note book, extra parts for the EEW6.
Sunday’s Shopping

10.4, 10.5, 10.6)Shopping!! braids, wheel parts, spindles, fibre, Book, Silk, Cashmere and twist guides!

On to The Shopping!!

On Friday: I found 7 Braids of combed top, most were BFL, Targi and a Romni cross in deep tones. Many were dyed over grey wool. 2 large top whirl 3-D printed drop spindles, I was crossing my fingers there would be a few remaining on Sunday since they spun like a dream, holding their spin for an extended period of time.  In the top picture (10.4) you will notice I found the Collingwood tablet weaving book I was about to order, and beside it is a mysterious cardboard box!  That is holding my new battery, it will make my EEW6 spinning wheel free of electric plugs!!  I had purchased a bag of these locks before and liked them enough to get 2 more bags this year! I was intrigued by a breed discovery pack from World of Wool (I was inspired by the upcoming workshop on Sunday), a green batt, a small bag of cashmere from the Black Lamb, and a small bag of grey/silver silk that may wind up on the dragon hand.

On Sunday after the workshop, I finished my shopping. First I was off to find 2 more of the spindles I had liked so much, then off to look at a couple more braids of combed top. (Batts are easier to needle felt but the colours!!! I could not help myself!!!)  Yes, I did cave and get a braid with Merino, bamboo and silk, it was the colour! and it will likely hang out with one of the spinning wheels. I found 2 twist angle guilds for the spinning wheels to share. I went back to get info on how to hook the battery up to the electric spinning wheel and also got an extra parts bag, just because I had not seen them available anywhere and it’s good to have spare parts when you need them. Lastly, I also found something for Ann, she has been looking for one for a while but she will tell you about the item in the paper bag (no it isn’t a knotty nostepinne!!)

Although my shopping skills are not up to Carlene’s ability, I did try my best! I hope your vicarious shopping has inspired your next felting, spinning or weaving project!

Thanks to Glenn for carrying loot and wheels on Sunday (he did not shop, since there was a serious lack of blacksmithing related items at the fibre festival, maybe he will have more luck next year? He did enjoy a nice day of reading a book.)

Still to come: Twist 2024; Part 3 – Breed Study Workshop, but first a quick trip to an impressive tapestry exhibit! that will be for next week! Have a wonderful long weekend for those who are partaking!!

Progress Made

Progress Made

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I am making some progress. I refelted the cut diamonds

 

They are now in a bag waiting for me to work on the diamond project.

I did more work on sheep and shepherdess.

Jan made me a wire shape or the shepherdess for me.  Then I wrapped it in some waste wool and used a felt ball for the head. than wrapped that in Corriedale.

Once I added wool it was not stable enough to stand. So I asked Jan about adding a piece of wire front and back to stabilizers. so she took it and started working on it. We added a ball in the bottom but then I decided she was too tall for the sheep I was making, and she cut the ball in half and squashed her down. Jan added a snail tail that stabilises her well. It will be covered by her cloak.

I have been putting sheep together. I make the parts separately. Long snake to cut into leggings and ovals for heads. I made some flat pieces in the 3 colours for the ears. I cut them out but I want to felt them some more.

After I add the ears to the sheep I will add the curls like the orange sheep on the right. I also need to make some clothes for the shepherdess. I think she will be a brunette but I don’t think she will get a face.

Lastly for today, is why felting small things and holding them with your fingers and talking to people is not a good combination.

 

 

Detail of ice dyed silk scarf in blues and violets.
Ice Dyed Scarves

Ice Dyed Scarves

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My dyed scarves have been selling at Northwest Handmade in Sandpoint, ID. So I needed some more since we are heading over that direction next week.

Aluminum pan filled with silk scarves, ice and powdered dye in blues and violets.

I only had 8 scarf blanks available and I knew I still had green scarves at the gallery so I decided to do four in blue/violets, 2 in orange and 2 in deep red. Since this method has an unpredictable outcome, I went with what I had. I put a wire rack in the bottom of the aluminum pan, place the soda ash soaked silk scarves on the rack and cover with ice. Then the dye powder is sprinkled on top. I was doing this outdoors as it can get messy but didn’t take the wind into account.

Aluminum pan filled with silk scarves, ice and powdered dye in reds and oranges.

Thus I ended up with some blue/violet on the right end of the red/orange pan. Oh well, we’ll see what happens. I left the pans out in the sun and the ice melted pretty quickly.

Here is one of the scarves from the blue/violet pan. I decided to call this set Perseid Meteor Shower. This is what the scarves look like after rinsing out, washing and ironing. It’s always such fun to see the patterns appear when you iron. I really don’t care for ironing but I enjoy this process much more than ironing a shirt.

This scarf is from the more orange side of the orange red pan. I decided to call these two scarves Campfire Memories.

Ice dyed silk scarf in reds and maroon.

And the last scarves were on the red + drifting blue/violet side of the pan. I decided these looked like the red rocks in Glacier National Park so that’s what those two scarves are called. I found that naming the scarves helps to sell them as it gives them a bit of a story.  Now to stock up the gallery!

 

‘Reflections of Summer’

‘Reflections of Summer’

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Here’s my attempt at capturing the essence of summer in a textile piece for the third quarter challenge.

‘Reflections of Summer’ is a needle-felted sunhat brooch (pin).

needle felted brooch of sunglasses for sunhat

I took a scrap piece of felt then drew a life-size pair of sunglasses outline on it, also marking out the division between sand, sea and sky.

outline of sunglasses on a piece of scrap white felt

I filled in the frame with loose fibres then outlined it with wool yarn.

needle felting the frame of the sunglasses

Using loose fibres, I needle-felted yellow, turquoise and blue to represent sand, sea and sky then white fibres for the sun.

sand, sea, sky needle felted design

I formed birds and a boat using a thick white thread.  I had planned to stitch some sparkly beads to the frame but it looked naff so I just added a few white stitches instead.

boat and birds stitching in white

Then came the tricky job of cutting the white backing felt away as close to the needle felting as I could.  One slip of the scissors and it would be goodnight Vienna.

My sunhats have had some whacky additions over the years. For a bit of fun, I made a Carmen Miranda hat for Annie …

Carmen Miranda hat

… Annie got her own back by persuading me to balance the sunhat brooch on my nose 😊

Lyn wearing the faux sunglasses

 

My Crochet Hexagon Blanket – Worth the Wait

My Crochet Hexagon Blanket – Worth the Wait

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One of my first blog articles for our Felting and Fiber Studio Color Touches My Soul was about my love of color.  I showed my crocheted hexagons, and discussed how I went about choosing colors. Your acceptance of me, and my post, meant a lot to me, and I have felt rather embarrassed since. Many of you asked how I planned to join the hexagons together? Seemed like a reasonable question…how hard could it be? More difficult than I expected is my response!

I knew exactly, how I wanted my blanket to look. I wanted them joined together, with a nice size (maybe 1 inch) border between each, and a braided look would be perfect. In my mind, I was thinking of a Fisherman’s Knit cable. I started my search on Pinterest, and discovered the most of their recommendations were for sewing or crocheting hexagons together. If there was any discussion of a border, it quickly morphed into a post about joining Granny Squares. Not the same at all! I persisted again, and again…, AND am I the only one that gets sucked into their web of madness? What starts as a few minutes, ends up being 3-4 hours, and still no information about joining my hexagons together. I also have an account with Ravelry. I searched there for “crochet join hexagon,” in fact I checked again just now, and still nothing that looks like my join. If there is a border, it is actually the final row of the hexagons…and then they crochet or slip-stitch them together. I actually paid for a couple of those worthless patterns. Then, I would end up giving up for a while. I had a black IKEA zippered bin under the bed style bin, where my hexagons waited, for me to get my (you know what) together. Every time I uncovered that bin, in a fit of organization, I would start my search again.

I am a knitter first and foremost: I crochet on the side.

I may have mentioned, in my original article, I am self taught in crochet; one of many things I’ve figured out over the years. I can read basic, well written patterns, but once they start going “into the weeds” as I call it, I am in trouble. (For a long time, it was end of the end of row turns, that got me. I couldn’t keep the edges neat, to save my life.). But, after a few videos I understood the concept – it’s like us trying to verbally explain left or right leaning, add on stitches, to a beginning knitter. A video is so much better!

Fast forward to about 4 months ago. I occasionally watch a podcast with Norwegian knitwear designers Arne & Carlos. Arne was showing how to repair a granny square blanket…and I spotted the border. 

 

 

It was closer to what I wanted, than all my other failed attempts. So again, I purchased their $7.00 pattern. Maybe I could use it, to figure out how to make it work for my hexagons. It was close…but not going to work as their pattern stood. However, I studied the general idea they used to make their “braid” between the squares. They started by crocheting a picot edging, around each square, in their border color. Then in that same border color, they crocheted 2 sides of 2 different squares, together. It was the crocheting together that added the braid look. Hmmm (my wheels were starting to spin…) I wonder if I could do something similar? So I grabbed 2 hexagons, and decided the only place a picot was possible, was in the blank spaces, between my double crochet clusters. 

 

1/2 of Crochet hexagon, stitches added on edge
In this photo you can see the single picot between the clusters. (Don’t focus on the corner just yet) Now, notice a single chain stitch, before and after the picot.

 

If you are not a crocheter, this may be a difficult concept to grasp. But in the simplest terms; I crocheted a picot into the empty space, and chained one above each cluster. The corner is the starting place, and it’s basically just a loop. I took a picture, and tried to insert words, to tell you what I did. If you are a crocheter it should make sense. I joined my yarn with a slip stitch, chained 3 stitches, then made a slip stitch in the same corner space. That made a loop [you will make a loop at every corner of the hexagon]. Next you chain 1 (Ch 1). I zoomed in real close, so you could see my exact stitches.

 

Zoom in view of crochet work, pattern words super imposed on photo
In this zoomed in photo, I superimposed my “pattern words” directly above my stitches.

 

 

 

After the chain 1, slip stitch into the space, chain 2, slip stitch into the space. In crochet terms that would be shown as sl st, ch 2, sl st. That grouping of words, makes the picot, then you follow with a chain 1. 

Join with a sl st in corner, ch 3, sl st, * ch1, [sl st, ch2, sl st, in the empty space] to the next corner. Into the corner, [sl st, ch 3, sl st] and repeat.

As I said, I am not a pattern writer, but I’m thinking that should be pretty close if someone wants to try it. If anyone reads this post, that is an actual crocheter, please let me know if I am close. I am really thinking about creating my own “paid for” pattern…even if I only sell a couple, it would cover my expenses getting here. lol!

So, after you’ve crocheted this pattern around each hexagon, the assembly is quite simple. Now, if you are thinking “easy for her to say…that’s a lot of hexagons!” I get your point. But, watching TV, I was able to get about 10 done each evening. And they are very small, so I threw them in my purse; did them in the car, at doctor appointments, and visiting my mom. I got really quick at edging them.

3 crochet hexagons clipped together.
I used clear clips I had in my shop, from Cocoknits, to test out hexagon placement. (They are basically hair clips, and they worked perfectly.)

So in the above photo, you will notice the yarn I chose to edge them is very neutral. That’s because I wanted all my colors “that give me such joy, and healing” to emerge prominently. And…I am a yarn dyer, for goodness sake…I have enough yarn to fill a small shop: I should be able to find something! I am so excited to tell you, this is my bare Donegal DK weight yarn. It is perfect, and I have no worries about running out, matching dye lots or anything else. I have enough crocheted hexagons for another blanket, so I’m all set for that one too.

I know assembly is your next question – it’s a piece of cake! If you’ll notice my clips are holding matched up sides…like quilt pieces. Think of the picots as notches, that fit together. I lined the edges back to back (picot to picot) and chain crocheted them together. That’s what makes my Fisherman Knit looking ridge. OMG, It’s a Miracle!! 

Chain Stitches close up.
Zoomed out a little bit.
A whole crocheted afghan
This is my blanket folded, as my umbrella wouldn’t allow me to spread it fully

It makes me want to cry, it’s so beautiful! Many of the yarns are my own hand-dyeds, but several are from friends I met at Fiber Shows. I can look at my -FRIENDSHIP BLANKET- and tell you who dyed the different yarns, and stories of our times together.

If you want to make a blanket of your own, using all your beautiful scrap yarns, or…if you want to purchase my already curated packages of 5 or 6 gorgeous DK mini 20g skeins…in colors that will make you feel so very happy, please reach out to me or check out our Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/theyarnandus.

Please note: if you are from anywhere, in the world, I can ship to you. If you purchase from me directly, without Etsy surcharges, I can offer an immediate 25% off of your purchase, and that could cover a good bit of shipping. If you want enough yarn to make an entire blanket, I would be ever so grateful, and do my best to cover your shipping. 

Thank you for being so patient. Some things take time, to get them done right. This is the best thing I’ve accomplished for Felting and Fiber Studios, and it’s the highlight of my creative life…because, like my article said, it Touches My Soul.

With much love and gratitude,  Capi

Twist 2024; Part 1 – Shopping!

Twist 2024; Part 1 – Shopping!

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Today Please join me for another road trip, this time we will be heading East into Quebec!!! let’s have a quick look at a map, to give you an idea of where we’re heading. (It’s 95km’s from my home in Ottawa).

mapt showing root from ottawa to twist in Quebeck its over an hour drive awaythe site where Twist festival is held

 1.1-1.2) Map showing the Drive from Ottawa to Complexe Whissell, 530 Rue Charles Auguste Montreuil, Saint-André-Avellin, view showing Complex Whissell where Twist will occur.

Friday, August 9th 2024 finally arrived and yet again, it was raining, quite heavily…. Something about the remnants of a storm called Debby…. This is the first day of shopping for the Twist Fiber Festival it’s not too bad so far. Grab your raincoat and rubber boots, I have an audiobook ready (Wen Spencer’s “Harbinger”) and meet me in the driveway at about 8 am.

It’s about an hour and a bit east of Ottawa in Quebec but today Google Maps says it will, like, take at least 1 hour and 40 minutes. We will take Highway 50, enjoying the fabulous scenery, tall rock cuttings and usually at least 1 dead skunk. Until we reach the sign for the town that makes me think of pineapples, head north from that exit to Saint-André-Avellin. This year the drive was not as picturesque as it usually is, being somewhat obscured by waves of heavy rain…… it did decrease to drizzle for a bit so I got a glimpse of the Ottawa Valley with the river, then back to rain… traffic was slow and we all stayed on the road (no hydroplaning).

Dashboard of car with handy cap sticker with brick wall with handy cap parking sign beside door for workshop enterence2) best parking spot ever!! and the heavy rain backed off to a heavy drizzle as I pulled into the parking spot!

The construction detours and weather contributed to arriving a bit later than I expected. There was another blast of rain so no one was out to direct parking, but I did find the last handicapped parking spot (right beside the back door!!)  there was a drop in the rain intensity as I unloaded the demo display bag. The plan was shopping and photos Friday morning, then a demo for the Ottawa guild from 2-6 pm.  I checked in about my pre-booked workshop on Sunday (I will show you that later) and found out where the guild would be demoing (an amazing spot). Unfortunately, no one was there from the morning team (Due to the bad weather reports), so I put the bag of felting I had brought for display options, back in the car and was ready for shopping.

the first few people entering the arena area of Twist people walking between the booths 3.1- 3.2 ) The first few people going into the arena shopping area. (Arena entrance with booths in the background with people walking in.)

The crowds were quite damp and a bit lighter in number, but those who made it seemed enthusiastic in their shopping. There are 3 areas for shopping; the tent outside (which I understand had a small river running through a few of the booths on Friday. I did not check it out until Sunday.) There was also the Arena and the gym for shopping and classrooms down the other side of the building for workshops that started on Wednesday and ran through to Sunday afternoon.

I had a short list of things I was looking for, and a few things I hoped I might find.  If you want a full list of all the vendors, check out the Twist website with PDFs with vendor locations and names. https://festivaltwist.org/pages/program-and-site-maps

the map showing where the extra tents, halls and workshops are.4.1) Sight maps of complex and vendors

I headed for the main arena first. It has the largest number of booths. there was a good variety of things to buy; Knitting yarn, sewing and quilting, spinning, weaving and occasionally bits of felting. then on to the Gym. It’s too wet to get to the tent outside so I will leave that till Sunday and hope the weather is better. Then it will be time to demo. We have a plan so let’s have a look around before it gets too busy.

( I know it’s a bit out of order but I am going to show you both Friday and Sunday shots then we can check out the demoing in the next post.)

Booths in the Arena , 2 general shots of the arena with booths and shoppers

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5-5.91) Some of the booths in the Arena

The gym and 2 general booth shots

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6-6.3) Some of the booths in the Gym

Rare breeds tent with a Ewe and lambs7.1- ) Rare breeds tent

Display of mettle sheep, and catching the part of the organizers getting there group photo taken8) part of the Twist team about to get photographed (I snuck in behind their photographer, I had camera envy!! Look at that lens!!!!)

booth map of the shopping tent, photo of the front entrance with a big grey arrow showing the location of the tent in the background.

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9.1- )Some of the Booths in the Tent

I hope you enjoyed poking around some of the booths at this year’s Twist Festival. It’s been a lot of walking and shopping so let’s take a rest before we go check out the demos. We can also check out what I found!

Next: Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!

later: Twist 2024; Part 3 – Workshop

The Quest Continues

The Quest Continues

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I left you last time as I was about to felt my sequins. I put the fabric on both sides of some felt and felted them most of the way. They felt quickly. The fabric they are attached to has a very open weave.

After they were dry I cut out diamonds.

sequined fabric cut into diamonds

I now have a great admiration for everyone who sews costumes or anything with sequins. What a mess they make. Sequins have ambitions of being glitter and being everywhere. I am sure I will be finding them in odd places they flew for quite a while.

cut sequin mess on a towel

 

I felted then again to seal up the edges

diamond shaped sequined fabric

A quick trip in a side direction. Jan did some shopping for me at Twist. I didn’t ask for anything but she knows I would have bought it if I had been there.

A New Brunswick woold worker who specialises in fibre arts accessories, had made a palm felter.  It looks really beautiful, it feels really nice in your hand, and it works great. It has a shorter profile and shallower indentations and is lighter than the other similar ones we all know. I found that one quite heavy when I had a look at it at a fibre show.

Back to sparkle. I made 4 colours using super bright trilobal nylon to make some squares. The nylon is on both sides. Again I felted them most of the way and they will need to be felted a bit more to seal up the edges.

after cutting them out I had little shards of sparkly nylon all over. I guess sparkle just likes to spread.

 

I think I have way more than 75 diamonds already. Jan has been working on her dragon hand for this project. I am sure you will hear about it from her.  I have had to pause this project to get on with my sheep and shepherdess for the Guilds retrospective at the Museum. They need to be ready much sooner. I need to make more legs. but that’s another blog post.  As always seems to be the way, you curse along ( lol, that was supposed to be cruse along but curse seems to fit too) with no deadlines or pressing projects then, all of a sudden you have too many.

 

 

 

Green nuno felted background with foreground center Indian Paintbrush flowers stitching completed.
Indian Paintbrush Applique on Nuno Felt

Indian Paintbrush Applique on Nuno Felt

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Slow progress is being acheived on my Indian Paintbrush landscape that I have been working on. With my other classwork and out of town visitors, it’s not as far along as I had hoped it would be, but it will get there eventually.

Green nuno felted background with foreground center Indian Paintbrush flowers stitching in progress.

I started on the foreground, larger flowers. The center one needed to be completed first as it had overlaps from the flower on the right. The furthest away petal is stitched down first and then other petals are added over top, working forward as I go.

Here’s the progress of the center flower. I am using a very small needle to avoid fraying the cotton organdy fabric. I also push the needle up along side the petal and then back down into the petal. Hopefully, the fabric doesn’t fray as much this way.

Green nuno felted background with foreground Indian Paintbrush flowers stitched in place.

Here’s the piece after all three foreground flowers were stitched down. I’m still thinking about whether the background flowers need any suggestion of stems. If I do add any, it will be thin thread in a running stitch.

 

Green nuno felted background with foreground Indian Paintbrush flowers painted in centers to achieve deeper values (close up).

After looking at the foreground flowers and comparing them to my original photo, I realized that I needed some darker values in the centers and by the stems to create more depth. I decided to use acrylic paint to achieve this. I dry brushed the paint on carefully in very small amounts at a time as I didn’t want to get too much on. It would be very difficult to remove or cover excess paint.

Green nuno felted background with foreground Indian Paintbrush flowers painted in centers to achieve deeper values.

And here it is so far. I will probably add some other shades of orange into the foreground flowers so they look a bit more realistic. I am also going to add some yellow green to the leaves. Then I think that I might add some suggestions of blue flowers where there are blue blotches in the foreground. Perhaps the common camas? How would you add suggestions of blue flowers? Stitching? Painting? More applique? Something else? I’d love to hear your thoughts.