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.
Seaweed that looks like a small tree with rootsA pile of seaweed
And I found the usual bits of shell, pebble & sea creatures. Plus a nice view of a little egret
A piece of a shellfish or crab
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.
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.
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.
Felting tools
Here’s the wool laid out and wetted down ready for felting.
TopBottom
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!
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:
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.
1) 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.
2.1) 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.
2.2) 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.
2.3) 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.
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!
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.
8.01) a mysterious item is draped with a handwoven coverlet waiting for its time to be unveiled.
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.
11) 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.
12) 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.
14.1-14.3) Tours of the Studio, 100 inch loom room and the Classroom.
Excellent! We made it back in time to see the unveiling!
15.1) Quick speeches then it was time to find out what was under the coverlet
15.2) we had a surprise guest, Michael is the curator of the Almonte Textile Museum. He and Carl Stuart do the Unveiling
15.3) Close-up of the tapestry
15.4) names of who did which square
15.5) 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.
16) The last of the Door Prizes is drawn
Before you head out, let’s take one last look at the tapestry project.
17.1) 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
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!
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;
to feel the sand between your toes;
to walk in the shade of trees in full leaf;
to dine al fresco on a warm evening;
to eat home grown fruit
and to bring summer indoors with garden flowers picked in July.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I added the wool to the yarn on my spindle, then I plyed it and wound it off to be washed.
A nice close-up so you can see how dirty it is.
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
and the second wash
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.
Here is the result, with a small amount of unwashed yarn I kept for comparison.
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.
I decided that I would do a combination of paper and stitch for my entries. The entries can be paper, or fabric, or felt or stitching but need to be 5″ x 7″. The theme is “The Enticing World of Plants”.
I already had a large piece of watercolor paper that was painted with a very light value of blue green and blue violet. I thought this would be great for my backgrounds. I had been thinking about trying some leaf printing and thought that would work with the theme.
So I went outside and found some leaves first. This works best with thinner leaves that will stick down to wet paper. Heavy, waxy leaves do not work as well. I got my watercolor paper wet and laid the leaves out. Then I mixed up some stronger paint in the blue green and blue violets and dropped the paint around the leaves. This can be done with watercolor paint (needs to be watery) but I used high flow acrylics for mine. Then the hard part, letting it dry. Once dry, I removed the leaves and cut the paper up into 5″x 7″ sections. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo before I cut it up.
The next step was to find some plant related designs. I have a stash of designs on tracing paper that I have used in Gail’s classes for years. I don’t throw them away since I can always use them for a project such as this. I transferred the pomegranate design on to the paper with pencil and punched holes about 1/8″ apart for my stitching. I don’t measure the distance between holes but just punch them with an awl or a needle by eye.
Next up is the stitching. I used hand dyed perle cotton and a tapestry needle to work through the paper. The outlines are done with back stitch and the insides are filled with needle lace. I usually use single Brussels stitch for this as it goes quickly and is easy to fill the small shapes. This design is a water lily stencil that I cut ages ago.
This one I followed the shape of the leaf prints for the maple leaf design.
This is a design of a glacier lily that I created in Level 3 Art & Design. If you’re interested in submitting a piece, please read all about it here.
There is also a free open house coming up with stitch demonstrations and plant related artwork by Gail’s students. If you’re in the La Conner, WA area, I hope you can stop by.
In my previous post I had completed two nature inspired collages https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/03/28/inspired-by-nature-part-1/ and had then decided (in my infinite wisdom!) to create a third and form a set. Collages one and two were partners, now I was heading for a family!
1 My original completed piece
2 My second piece
As I was now creating a ‘triptych’ – meaning the two different nature inspired collages needed to be tied together – I had to concentrate on colour and texture, because I didn’t have enough snippets of all the various fabrics previously used. At the same time, I needed to think about the design direction.
One of the hardest decisions was deciding which way up, I finally wanted to present collages one and two, as this would have a bearing on three. When doing abstract work, I usually work from different directions so that, to me, it is balanced from all sides. This enables me, or a client, to decide which way to hang the piece, or simply present the opportunity to ring the changes!
3 Thinking about the design
4 Auditioning the fabrics
Once I’d decided on the final hanging direction of collages one and two, the next hurdle was the actual design layout. Again, the priority for me, was to unify and compliment the previous finished pieces, for which my various sketches proved very useful.
I’ve been asked many times ‘where do you get your layout ideas from?’ Zimples…I look through my vast collection of images that I find interesting (landscape, architectural, food etc), then finding one I like, I either trace or freehand copy the main shapes. These then become the kicking off point. I’m repeating myself I know, as I’ve mentioned all this before….I just want to get the message over that this method is available to everyone – whether they are ‘arty’ or say they can’t draw for toffee!
5 Layout of fabrics finalised – including some paper birch bark (the yellow underside was more interesting than the white top).
With my final decisions made on the design layout and the fabrics to use, it was time to start adding some embellishing stitches.
Although not immediately obvious each work also has some golden elements (paper or foil) included with the dried peeled cherry & birch bark (from felled trees), twigs, or dried bark chips (these were a beach combing find!). All from my ‘that’s too good to throw away/it might come in useful’ stash!
Then it was back to the entire same auditioning process re the placement of Mother Nature’s treasures with the added complication of now having to balance these elements with those of the other two completed works, which in turn, might decide in which order the three collages should be displayed (1,2,3 or 1,3,2 or, 3,1,2 etc).
In terms of design, balance, or colour – if I saw a glaring ‘gap’, yet more embellishing stitches were added, particularly to subtly enhance the circles.
5a Just to show the gold elements. Notice the copper thread too on the bark
These collages are all about being nature inspired, so the following photographs show some close-up details which I have paired with various of my (oh so many!!!) images of Mother Nature’s spontaneous creations that surround us, even in the tiniest of corners.
6 Detail 1 – A variety of stitches on the original collage
7 Detail 2 – Stitched cherry bark overlaid with a sheer with crocheted lichen and copper wrapped twig
9 Detail 4 – Embroidery stitches to evoke lichen and moss
10 Detail 5 – Reminiscent of cracks in rocks and aged cut tree trunks
11 Detail 6 – Copper wrapped bark, ‘cracks’ or maybe twigs and yarn moss
Framing the three collages….
I used my favourite method – by stitching each to card cut to fit the frame. I was so lucky that on one car boot sojourn, I found 3 IKEA frames, just perfect for my wall space. Each collage is 22 x 22cm (8½x 8½ins). At some point, I might present them in larger square frames with a wide 10cm (4in) mount (mat) to provide a counterfoil….before that….I’ll need to move house to have more wall space!!!
And herewith the final pieces, enough collage work for now I think….
12 The original work – I blame this one for setting me off down this path….I enjoyed it so much!
13 Collage 2
14 Collage 3 – Giving birth to this baby was not quite so easy as it had to share it’s parents’ features!
But maybe something beckons….
15 Mother Nature’s circles – Mmmm food for thought perhaps!
Did I forget to mention that I also love the rocks and stones on which the lichen grow!!!
We’d love to hear about any dip or triptychs you’ve created.
Several of my recent posts have been about the work that was being created by members of the Waltham Textile group for our Making Waves Exhibition. It’s been about six weeks now since that took place so many of our readers will have already seen images, and possibly the video, but if you haven’t, and you’re interested, you can view them on Facebook or Instagram.
Something else I had wanted to make for the show, but didn’t make time for, was a felted Leafy Seadragon. I discovered so many weird and wonderful sea creatures while researching for the exhibition but this species is in a category of its own!!
Image source: Treehugger.com
Leafy seadragons inhabit rocky reefs, seaweed beds, and seagrass meadows in waters off the coast of South Australia, where they have been adopted as the state’s marine emblem.
These timid creatures grow to between 20 and 30cm in length. They use their ornate leaf-like appendages as very effective camouflage to blend in with their surroundings, becoming almost invisible to the untrained eye.
Belonging to the same family as seahorses and pipefish, Australian leafy seadragons are generally brown to yellow in body colour, while their spectacular appendages are typically olive-tinted and provide near-perfect camouflage in seaweed. Depending on the age and health of the individual some Leafies can also change their colouration if they need to.
The leaf-like structures are not used for swimming. They move very slowly using their pectoral and dorsal fins which are so delicate they are almost transparent.
Image source: @animalfactfiles
So I thought I’d have a go at making a Leafie this month and I’m hoping there will be space for me to display her as part of my submission to “Water“ – the 2024 Lincs Textiles Exhibition in Lincoln Cathedral at the end of August. Our work will be on show in the Chapter House at the Cathedral so if you are in the vicinity it would be lovely to see you there!
I know these creatures are normally pictured horizontally but for aesthetic purposes I’m using artistic lisence and hanging mine vertically! So, would it be wet felted and stuffed or needle felted? I liked the idea of wet felting the body but decided against it as I didn’t think it would provide enough support for the appendages.
Best to start with a 1.2mm galvanised wire armature and needle felt the body…..but what was I thinking when I switched to 0.5mm aluminium wire for the appendages? I was thinking I could form the leaf shapes using that wire and fill them in with painted lutradur……what I wasn’t thinking was that they would twist and bend and drive me nuts all the time I was needle felting the body! That wire was making the whole thing too fragile and too difficult to work with so it had to go!
It was replaced with 0.6mmgalvanised wire which, being retro fitted, would now require careful poking and anchoring to ensure they all stayed put! This also meant the leaf/seaweed shapes would need a rethink. They wouldn’t be outlined with wire, as I’d originally intended, because the replacement wire was far too stiff for that. But at least it was easier to work on now!
I began adding detail and colour to the head. When I was happy with that I moved on to wet felting several boney spikes to attach in rows along the back, front and sides and then needle felted colour to the body.
Next the new wires that will hold the foliage were wrapped with fibre and I made flat felt to cut up for the leaves.
This is where I’m at right now. There’s more foliage to add and the de-fuzzing to do so I’ll include a photo of the finished dragon in my next post. In the meantime I just have to share some inspiring Leafie sculptures I came across online.
I was blown away by the beautiful design and detail in these first two which are the work of artist Ellen Jewett Ellen says “Each sculpture is constructed using an additive technique, layered from inside to out by an accumulation of innumerable tiny components. Many of these components are microcosmic representations of plants, animals and objects. Some are beautiful, some are grotesque and some are fantastical. The singularity of each sculpture is the sum total of its small narrative structures.”
In addition to her life as a professional artist Ellen operates a small scale animal refuge with the help of her partner on their Vancouver Island farm.
I also like this one made by Australian artist Dean Fox using recycled copper and brass on natural rock…… “I am much inspired by the beautiful environment of Kangaroo Island in South Australia where I live. The beaches and bush alike are a constant source of ideas and materials. During my working life in the building and metalwork industry I learnt the many skills I now employ in my creative work. I work in metal, copper and brass and may incorporate found objects and natural timber into my work.”
Image source: deanfoxsculptor.com
Mine is still very much a WIP but in my head I’m already working on a more abstract version for Leafie number two which may or may not involve fibre.
Quite a few months ago, the Program Chair for my local quilt guild (Camano Island Quilters) asked me if I would be willing to do a trunk show of my quilts. I had never done anything like that before so I said “Yes, of course!” I was nervous about doing it for the first time, but quilter’s are my people!
As the day drew nearer, I thought I’d better start looking for all the quilts I still had in my possession after beginning quilt making in the late 1980’s and started piling them up on my studio floor. I was quite surprised to see how many traditional quilts were added to the pile. I had totally forgotten I had made some of them.
I had to figure out how I wanted to give my little “talk” and decided that I would look at my quilting as a journey and start with my traditional quilts and end with my art quilts.
I first began quilting because I was attracted to Amish quilts. I found 3 small Amish wall hangings that I had finished and hand quilted. When I began quilting, there was still a lot of controversy over hand versus machine quilting. Thankfully, machine quilting is widely accepted today!
Over the next few years, I took many classes from a wide variety of teachers mostly at quilt shops near my home. I learned that I wasn’t very good at fabric color choices and that sewing ¼” seams and matching points correctly was challenging for me. I have great respect for traditional quilters and their skills!
At one point I got into making foundation paper pieced miniature quilts, thinking that would be a faster, more efficient way to complete a quilt. This piece was probably made in the late 1990’s. The foundation paper was still in it and when I went to remove it, sadly many of the seams started coming apart. I did finish quilting it and put a facing on it (versus a binding) and it hangs on my wall. It is flawed but still precious to me.
12” x 12” (late 1990’s maybe?)
One lament I have after going through my pile of quilts was that I had no information about them. There was no label on them about when they were made, no notes about what class or book or pattern they referred to, no name of who quilted them. It was hard to do a timeline without that information.
(Another lament is that I didn’t take a photo of each one before I packed them away after the trunk show).
As I went through my quilt pile, I found several tops that had been pieced but not quilted. I even found a couple of pieced backs already made for them. I decided I had to get them finished so I could hang them around the house. I even found one that had been machine quilted but just needed a binding sewn onto it.
I texted my long arm quilter and prewarned her that I’d have at least 4 quilts that I wanted her to quilt after the trunk show was over. I spent several days piecing quilt backs and finally dropped them off to her. It’s amazing how much fabric is needed for the backs. You can buy fabric that is 108” wide but I try to use up what fabric I have on hand which results in lots of seams and math calculations to make sure the back is big enough.
She finished quilting them in less than 2 weeks’ time! She’s FAST!
Then I needed to get busy and focus on getting the labels, bindings and hanging sleeves sewn on.
Two of the 4 quilts have been entered into my upcoming local quilt guilds’ first quilt show since the 2020 Pandemic – the Black and White Sampler and the Hunter’s Moon. It’ll be fun to see them hanging in a show.
62” x 62” Black and White Sampler (early 2000’s maybe)
68” X 68” Stars (late 90’s maybe)
44” x 60” Wonky log cabin (made within the last 10 years)
92” x 92” Hunter’s Star (finished 2024 but took about 4 years to get there)
Back in Sept of 2023, I wrote about this Hunter’s Star quilt on my blog post asking what color other people preferred and most people preferred the mid-range blue for the border. I finally went with the light blue border. It was my favorite but I will have to make a new bed skirt to go with it.
I also entered my latest Full Moon art quilt into the show.
32” x 37” Snow Moon (2022)
It was fun to do the trunk show for my guild and to have the opportunity to revisit my quilt journey. Now all my traditional quilts are stored together in one location and my art quilts are in another. I can hopefully continue being organized going forward so I can find them easily when I look for them.
And lesson learned about labeling finished projects and putting crucial information in with the unfinished projects!
First let me wish all of you Happy Solstice, with the excessive heat today I can tell the sun is working extra hard to celebrate! I hope you can take advantage of the extra Daylight to get in a bit more felting or fleece washing!
Today I want to take you back to last weekend (Father’s Day) and invite you to join me as we visit the Glengarry Pioneer Museum. I know the sign looks a bit less fibre-ry than you had hoped but just think about those muscular arms and have hope that I will eventually get to something relevant. It has been mentioned, I can be a bit verbose and have an obscure vocabulary to make up for the lack of spelling.
1) Sign for the smith in with a muscle-y drawing of a blacksmith, there is something odd about the shoulder rotation, and thumb and wrist rotation but it does get the idea across. (Although this depiction will have you disappointed when you get there by the lack of shirtless working smiths.)
Glengarry Pioneer Museum is having their annual Father’s Day blacksmithing Smith-in or Hammer-in (like a spin-in except differently aromatic and louder) on Saturday there are vendors, including one that had alpaca roving and one that had a support spindle and a couple of hand beaters. There will be just the blacksmiths on Sunday.
2) stages of this year’s project, a spontoon. Parts and various stages of the project are displayed on a wooden pick-nick table, there are two spring swages just out of the picture (you can see the handles).
This year the Workshop was to make a type of spear used for military parades (spacing people in columns and rows), but it can also be used as a spear. This is based on a historical piece and figuring out how it was constructed. It requires forge welding of very thin pieces of mettle. I don’t want to overwhelm you with all the steps and the use of Borax to assist in the forge welding. Let me show you a few shots and then we will move on to a more on-topic, topic.
3.1) montage of making the collar for the Spontoon, Borax is used to forge weld, since the area being welded is so thin we don’t want to see the magic Cross shaped sparks. The last image is one of the spring swages that will be used in this project.
3.2 These are two of the samples being admired by other museum visitors
I wandered over to the main office building, they have a washroom that fits a walker. While there I discovered they have a new to them CPW (Canadian Production Wheel. This is a fast-spinning wheel, popular in Quebec,) it is waiting for the local Twistle guild to assess its spin-ability. A new great wheel is also waiting to see Gord, who is an expert on one of the local great wheel manufacturers. I unfortunately did not get a peek at the great wheel. This CPW has a Tilt Tension, it is missing its Footman and needs to have its treadle attached. It also is missing its drive band but that is an easy fix!
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4.1 –4.4)CPW new to the Museum it needs a new footman and to have the treadle attached
As I wandered back to the open sided area the blacksmiths were set up in, I spotted some of the local wildlife (yes I did see the deer running in the field across the road but this time I was looking up. the field behind the museum had been mowed recently and the turkey vultures kept circling the field eventually coming in to land in a little group. I am not sure what their impromptu meeting was about. Maybe who was going to order dinner? and did they want Chinese or pizza tonight?
These are truly odd birds, you can see them wheeling around enjoying the thermals. When they get closer you will recognise them by their red heads.
5) turkey Vultures circling, coming in for a landing and then in conference, possibly discussing dinner?
I had brought my latest moose with me. But I could not find my reference photos when I got there. Oh, they must have been in the other moose bag…. So I focused on the lower jaw and inner mouth since I can work on both without checking the photos. (I had spent quite a while looking at Moose’s tongues when I was collecting reference photos. Google image search can be very helpful.)
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6.1-6.3) I was distracted by photographing the blacksmiths and forgot to photograph the moose tongue!!
I spend most of the day working on the mouth and taking (217 –day 1) photos of the blacksmithing workshop. Then it was time to drive about an hour to get home.
Sunday!!! 6 am wake up to get ready to get on the road for day 2 at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum. Today I had my felting but also brought my Lendrum Rook spinning wheel. She is such a sweet wheel but still needs a bit of repair. One of the blacksmiths made some suggestions. I will investigate that after the guild anniversary is done.
first a few shots of the Smith-in and then on to fibre.
7.1-7.2) Glenn getting answers to some of his questions
I took a stroll to the red building, with the textile and fibre display. There is equipment for weaving spinning and flax production. The great wheel on the floor has an interesting tensioning system with a garden tap-like nob. It also has a miner’s head or accelerator that increases the speed at which the spindle turns.
8) great wheel with interesting tilt tension.
The flax tools are in a glass cabinet. The glass seems particularly thick and is very light reflective so hard to get a good shot.
9) Flax Tools, Hackles, Scutching knife, Flax and teasles
10.1) Small Saxony style flax wheel with distaff. Note the coverlet in red black and white behind the wheel.
10.2) Close-up of the coverlet
There are also gardens, the roses, and peonies were particularly photogenic. I hope they will inspire you.
11)Roses on top, unknown Purple flowers and Pink Peony
12) My Lendrum Rook spinning wheel from the mid-1980s. there is Cashmere on the bobbin, I will have to ply it to empty the bobbin
I had oddly only one bobbin with me, I wonder where I put the other 2, I will have to search later. Since I had brought a braid of Bluefaced Lester (BFL) with me I had to remove the cashmere blend I had on the bobbin and ply it. I could not find Glenn’s book so tried my phone as something to wind a double ended ball around. It worked but was a bit larger than I would have liked. (it gave the yarn the opportunity to tangle if I wasn’t paying attention.) I took the inside and outside strands and spun them the opposite direction to ply a nice relaxed skein of yarn. It was a bit fussy but it did eventually work out.
Now I can start the BFL braid, I split it into a thin section so it would be easy to draft. I quite enjoyed spinning this braid and wish I had bought a second!
13) Starting to spin the BFL
Through the plying and spinning my wheel had been unusually quiet…. Then the Blacksmiths started to pack up and stopped hitting mettle….. my wheel is a lot noisier than I remember the last time I spun with her. I think it may be coming from the footman. I guess I should start to pack up too.
Oh before you head out I just wanted to show you a display in the main building. You probably want to use the washroom before driving home (some of you will have a very long drive!) there was a display of figures of rural life that I thot you might like to see. They are quite cute.
14.1 14.2) A display of figures, I have taken pictures of the fibre-related people
At the end of day 2 the blacksmith students brought their vehicles to load up their equipment. Now I am sure this will make you feel that your wool horde is so much lighter than you did a few minutes ago. You can have a lot of wool for just the weight of the anvil! Think how much more fibre you could get to equal a leg vice and forge!!!!
15.1-15.2) Students packing up their equipment. There were pickups, transit vans, a trailer, a cube van and a little hatchback car.
At the end of day 2, I had taken 148 more blacksmithing photos (365 total)! As I mentioned that sign was very misleading, after watching, all weekend, none of the blacksmiths were shirtless. I hope you enjoyed the weekend and will have a lovely Solstice today!
16) Oh I almost forgot to show you my perches from Saturday! a support spindle and a small beater for weaving
1) 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.
2.1) 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.
2.2) close up of felt with original image checking size it’s close
2.3) the back of the felt image showing the amount of wool push through has occurred.
3) Moose looking a bit scruffy from all his hard work carrying fibre, reference and the felting for the tapestry square project
8.01) a mysterious item is draped with a handwoven coverlet waiting for its time to be unveiled.
8.02) watching the slide show which was running on a loop throughout the party.
11) Some of the Samples from workshops given by the OVWSG.
12) Cake and punch at the party
14.1-14.3) Tours of the Studio, 100 inch loom room and the Classroom.
15.1) Quick speeches then it was time to find out what was under the coverlet
15.2) we had a surprise guest, Michael is the curator of the Almonte Textile Museum. He and Carl Stuart do the Unveiling
15.3) Close-up of the tapestry
15.4) names of who did which square
15.5) Admiring the tapestry
16) The last of the Door Prizes is drawn
17.1) a closer view of the squares
17.2) this is the image Ann selected so you can see what we were working towards.
1) Sign for the smith in with a muscle-y drawing of a blacksmith, there is something odd about the shoulder rotation, and thumb and wrist rotation but it does get the idea across. (Although this depiction will have you disappointed when you get there by the lack of shirtless working smiths.)
2) stages of this year’s project, a spontoon. Parts and various stages of the project are displayed on a wooden pick-nick table, there are two spring swages just out of the picture (you can see the handles).
3.1) montage of making the collar for the Spontoon, Borax is used to forge weld, since the area being welded is so thin we don’t want to see the magic Cross shaped sparks. The last image is one of the spring swages that will be used in this project.
3.2 These are two of the samples being admired by other museum visitors
5) turkey Vultures circling, coming in for a landing and then in conference, possibly discussing dinner?
7.1-7.2) Glenn getting answers to some of his questions 
8) great wheel with interesting tilt tension.
9) Flax Tools, Hackles, Scutching knife, Flax and teasles
10.1) Small Saxony style flax wheel with distaff. Note the coverlet in red black and white behind the wheel.
10.2) Close-up of the coverlet 
11)Roses on top, unknown Purple flowers and Pink Peony
12) My Lendrum Rook spinning wheel from the mid-1980s. there is Cashmere on the bobbin, I will have to ply it to empty the bobbin
13) Starting to spin the BFL
14.1 14.2) A display of figures, I have taken pictures of the fibre-related people
15.1-15.2) Students packing up their equipment. There were pickups, transit vans, a trailer, a cube van and a little hatchback car.
16) Oh I almost forgot to show you my perches from Saturday! a support spindle and a small beater for weaving