Felting and Fiber Studio

Sneaky Presents

January 28, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 9 comments

This is a repost of one of Jan’s earlier posts you may not have seen. Jan was unexpectedly unavailable to make her regular post.

This year one of my brothers-in-law decreed we should not give gifts at Xmas. Oh no! But I love Xmas. It’s so fun to see if I have guessed right what everyone will like.

So this year I did 5×7 Xmas cards for our Oakville Xmas. That technically isn’t a present it’s a card. I had a plan.

OOPS, I took Mom shopping 2 weeks before Xmas and had 3 bags of groceries; one was just a bit heavier than the others. Ok, as soon as I lugged it into the house I knew it was too heavy. I lasted long enough to get everything into the fridge and realized I wasn’t doing anything else. I was much better after spending most of a week in bed being very uncomfortable, frustrated and all caught up on Xmas movies. So I was a week behind on Xmas and sure I had a bit longer until it arrived. (Surprise! It’s still on the 25^th!) Drat!

My husband works for the post office so this year was going to be a very short visit. (The Post Office was open on Monday, Dec 24th.) The original plan was to drive for 5.5 hours arrive late on the 24^th or early on the 25^th drive back on the 26^th so he could work on the 27^th. He had requested to have Monday off so we could leave earlier but we had to wait to see who else requested because it would go by seniority and there are a lot of more senior people working at his station. Thursday night he found out that he could have Monday off and we had a mad scramble to drop off Ottawa presents (before the freezing rain arrived) and gather everything for the trip.

Friday started out with freezing rain changing to rain. I had collected my portfolio a bag of various coloured fibre and a strip of the felted duvet that had been donated to the guild felters. I think I told you about that a while ago. I finally got to use a bit of mine and it worked very well. So if you acquire a felted wool duvet do not despair take it apart and use it for a base to felt on!

The drive down started with light rain changing to vary heavy rain eventually stopping and changing to decorative wisps of snow north of Toronto but nothing stayed on the very green ground we found in Oakville. There was an amazing decorated Xmas tree and Glenn’s Parents to greet us. so Green Xmas isn’t all bad.

No Snow in Oakville but a spectacular tree!

So Saturday morning I pulled out my bag of fiber and sent Glenn to find a cereal box in the recycling bin in the basement. I cut out part of one side and made a 5 x 7 window and sent the rest back to recycling. Then took over a corner of the dining room table. (My back still wasn’t very happy and decided that living room furniture was not to be tolerated but dining room chairs were fine – stupid back)

Hum, what would my in-laws like on their card? Well, we were definitely having a green Xmas and we hadn’t brought any snow with us (what little we had after the rain and freezing rain in Ottawa) ok, a snow scene it would be.

2 xmass 2018 — swirly application of fibre

3 xmass 2018 — adding a tree and a snowy slope

4 xmass 2018 — another tree and more swirls to the sky and a winter sun

Again wisps of colour laid down this time in swirls of patterns to the sky, very van Gogh of me! I added bare trees (there is a golf course full of bare trees just across the street) then needed something to balance their weight. The nephews had created a grisly snowman murder seen the last time they had visited but unfortunately no snow so no snowmen. Hum ok, a less grisly snowman with a scarf to blow in the wind.

5 xmass 2018 — check with the cereal box frame for balance to the composition

Ooh, a frame makes everything look better! One down 2 more to go

Yes, l think that will work.

One down 2 to go!

Next Brian and Alex like birds and there are lots of birds usually here. But this visit seemed to be all about squirrel wars and retrieving the squirrel-proof feeder from where the Raccoons had taken it across the backyard. I hear there is an opossum visiting but I didn’t see it.

9 xmas 2018 — Squirrel wars, a momentary pause

Usually, there are lots of cardinals and blue jays, sparrows, chickadees, morning doves and never enough crows for me. Ok, cardinals it is.

A quick trip to the internet since my camera wasn’t as helpful as it usually is and I had chosen a bird.

Again background blended with wisps of colour then started adding the detail work. Checking the size with the 5×7 window and a lot of poking (but not my fingers!) and I had Xmas card number 2 done.

It was Xmas Eve afternoon by the time I started the last one. Bob and Judy were not expected until about 4 pm Xmas day. So I had to felt my fingers off since I knew we also had turkey dinner, Xmas breakfast and a lot of presents to open!

21 xmas 2018 — Christmas Morning! One more to finish!

13 xmas 2018 — Glenn’s Christmas morning Blacksmithing hat and lots of pyjamas

part of Jan’s Christmas tablet weaving books!

Hummm, now what might they like? I had rectified the lack of snow and did one of the birds that we enjoy here. Oh yes, the rabbits! We see them mostly in the spring and early summer but they’re very cute. Bob would like them and make him think of his parents’ home.

So bunny it was. I didn’t have the photos I had taken of this spring’s bunny visitor but remembered what it looked like so off to the internet for photo reference. Much poking later I had a very painterly interpretation of an Oakville bunny.

beginning of the bunny

adding more detail

18 xmas 2018 — Framing of Christmas card #3

You may have noticed I tried a different base to work on. It’s the foam from the dollar store that kids’ play mats are made of. Mine was about 7 inches square and had a puzzle piece in the centre of each square. The puzzle part in the middle tends to want to pull out but I would suggest not using tape to hold it together since the stickiness would transfer to the needle and make a mess. I found holding down the center worked fine and it wasn’t as annoying as it sounds to work on. When the bigger ones reappear I will get more. I did work 3 layers thick so had no poke through even with the top surface deterioration. If you haven’t tried this as a base you may want to experiment.

22 xmass 2018 — Dollar store foam pieces

All recipients seemed very pleased and surprised with their “Xmas cards” I had found frames at Dollarama with a white mat so they looked a lot more polished with the frame as presentation.

Now on to class notes for the 2 workshops I’m doing in January! I can see a lot more felting ahead in 2019! I hope you get a chance to try small format felting, it is relatively quick, doesn’t take much wool and it’s lots of fun!

Slow Stitch on Felt

January 26, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 27 comments

As January started I found I wanted something unimportant to fiddle with. You know something that didn’t have a deadline, had to be made for a class or show, or have any practical purpose. I had been sorting through all my bits and pieces of felt that accumulate, the ones that may be good for a picture or are just too good or interesting to get rid of. I was trying to sort them into possible uses and tidy up my area of the living room. I wasn’t very successful at either of those things but I did manage to get the felt into sizes.

I decided a slow stitch, random sampler sort of thing would be good. I had lots of small pieces to choose from. I chose a quite dark piece with some lumps on it. I have fiddled with the picture to show the colours properly. This is the best I can do. The dark green is darker or maybe deeper. The light areas are not as light as they show. The shine on the silk areas is causing a lot of bounce back and messing with the colours.

I think I used the rest of this strip of felt for a needle book. I marked out the year before I remembered to take a picture.

Next was picking out some threads. I wanted to stay with the same palette. They are different brands but all 6-strand floss

I started with the year. Strangely, the 4 was the hardest number.

I thought it might look interesting to make a flower on one of the bumps. I used lazy daisy stitch and colonial knots

I added some little leaves under the flower. I did them 4 ways but they are too small to see the stitches properly. They look like leaves so that’s good enough. I wanted to do something else with another bump and did this wheel sort of thing. I didn’t like it but I lived with it for a few days trying to think of a way to improve it.

In the end, I just decided it was just ugly and I cut the the stitches off. I added another lazy daisy with much looser petals and added a contrasting stitch to the middles and I used stem stitch and outline stitch to a…. swirl? ….curly queue? not sure what you call it but I like them.

Next was a bug for one of the bumps. It doesn’t look in but he is nice and round. I added a stem and leaf to the daisy and another swirl thing but in back stitch.

The swirl looks very white, even though it is cream. It stands out too much so I took it off and changed it to a darker colour. I also did stem or maybe its outline stitch. I can not remember, left stitches are one and right stitches are the other. Both give a much smoother line than back stitch.

I like the light streak of silk on the right and thought it looked like a tall flower so that was the next step. I used colonial knots and French knots for the flowers.

That’s as far as I am. I am going to add some more arms to the swirls but not sure what else. I was thinking I might stitch the month on it and start a new one on Feb 1 and see if I can keep it going all year. Then I will have to figure out how to make it into a book like Ruth does.

Nuno felted landscape laid on table in workspace/studio.

Forest Floor Continues

January 24, 2024 ruthlane Comments 30 comments

In my last post about my forest floor piece, I had gotten to the point of cast shadows from the rocks.

When you look at this, what is missing? More shadows. So I needed to add the cast shadows from the trees.

So I added more blue sheer fabric to cast the shadows from the trees. Suddenly, there’s another glaring ommission (Antje pointed this out in her comment on my last post). The rocks on the left need to have shadows cast on them by the trees. So more dark blue sheer fabric is needed.

Ah, that’s better. You can really see the sun shining through the trees now.

Next up is leaves. The leaves on the left need to be in the shade, thus darker and more grey blue. The pieces of felt scrap that I originally found was not going to be enough.

So I searched for more felt and found a neutralized green that should work. Here you can see my messy workspace while I’m working. Other projects that are in process are on the back of the work table.

Here’s as far as I have gotten. I need to change out the leaves on the upper right as those are too bright in the shade of the tree. I may use some ink or paint to tone them down or I may just cut out more leaves in the neutralized green I used on the left. Then on to the flowers. I will need to find some light grey for the flowers on the left and brighter white for the flowers in the sunshine. Getting close to the finish now!

And just for entertainment purposes, here’s my dog Edgar in the big snow we had last week. The snow is almost as tall as he is and he’s decided that he doesn’t need to go wading!

Kiki Peruzzi's hands manipulating wetfelt to full it, on a surface of bubble wrap and white towels

A secret family portrait or My failed Christmas card

January 22, 2024 kikistextileart Comments 18 comments

My first Christmas card exchange, the 2023 edition, for the Felting and Fiber Studio group has been quite a challenge, not only because I was paired with the exceptionally talented and much experienced Karen Lane (no pressure, eh), but also because I had NO IDEA at all of what to make! I had never ever given a thought at making a Christmas card myself, and I had never set myself a size so small for wetfelting.

I decided to start thinking and experimenting as soon as possible, and am I glad that I did! because my first try at it went in a completely different direction than intended! It is this first card that I am talking about in my blogpost today, and I am sharing its making that I kept secret up until now (apart from a hasty consultation with a friend).

I started by thinking about Christmas and what it meant to me. My line of reasoning was pretty muddled, but I grasped at something that might have been significant: family and family relationships, that is an aspect of Christmas to me. As no more brilliant ideas were forthcoming, I went for it and thought in terms of family ties, blood ties, and so on. Unfortunately, this is not a particularly jolly thought for me, but I decided to see where it could lead me.

I was thinking about embroidery on felt, as I had seen lovely embroidered portraits lately, and I just had an itch to scratch about embroidering portraits on felt myself, it seemed just colliding with the idea of family: family portraits, why not!

I hit on blood ties among women as the thing that I wanted to talk about, relationship among generations on the maternal line, difficult and complex and rewarding and aggravating…

I have this slight face blindness, so I decided to draw my design from manipulated photos of my family. I chose three photos that I liked, with smiles that I liked, representing also good times. Then I manipulated them to black and white and a bit of blurring: I wanted to be able to see the main lines of the shapes.

Black and white blurred photo of a woman with dark hair sitting cross-legged — The manipulated photo that I used to draw the mother

Black and white blurred photo of a young girl smiling and showing a necklace. — The manipulated photo that I used to draw the daughter

A black and white blurred photo of a smiling woman — Manipulated photo that I used to draw grandmother.

I reduced their size and put the three images on the same page to print them on paper. Then I put a strong light underneath the print and traced the lines that I deemed more important onto a different paper. I used this last drawing to trace the lines on plasticky water-soluble fabric to use on the felt base.

A sheet of paper with a drawing is on a wooden table with pencils and pens and a transparent sheet of water-soluble fabric — My drawing ready for being traced onto the water-soluble fabric.

A drawing of three smiling women in a triangle on a sheet of paper covered by water-soluble transparent fabric — Here is the drawing covered by the transparent water-soluble fabric that seems just like a transparent plastic sheet.

A transparent water-soluble fabric piece is pinned with pins on a paper to trace a drawing, on a wooden table — Preparing to trace the drawing on the water-soluble fabric, I pinned it to the sheet of paper to avoid shifting.

A drawing of three smiling women on water-soluble fabric pinned to a sheet of paper — Here is the drawing traced onto water-soluble fabric with a permanent ink fine felt tip pen.

Drawing of a smiling girl with a necklace on transparent water-soluble fabric — I loved how my daughter’s drawing came out!

My next step was to prepare the felt on which to embroider, of course.

A rectangle of laid out dark grey wool on a background of bubble wrap and white towels — I wanted a dark grey base on which to lay out my red background. I used a real card for the size, augmented by the prospective shrinking.

I used two layers of dark grey merino, and then went on to add a layer of different reds mixed with some grey merino for the top. Red for blood, as in “blood ties” and “visceral relationships” , but also red as a Christmas colour: I was still thinking about the Christmas card exchange here.

I put some scraps of bubble wrap in between the dark grey base layers and the red layer, so that I could cut holes on the base: these represent the complexity of the family relationships.

A wetfelted piece in red and grey merino wool on a bubble wrap showing shrinkage, on white towels — You can see the size of the bubble wrap that I used to guide my lay-out and the size of the finished wetfelted background.

After finishing and drying the felt background I cut the holes that I had decided on, and worked a little bit on their edges. I did not want to work too much on them, to let them have a bit of a raw appearance.

A piece of red and grey wetfelt with holes cut in it, on a bubble wrap and white towels, with a soap bar. — Working on the holes, to seal the edges somewhat with rubbing, water and soap. It was kind of hard to decide on their positions and then cut them out, but I was very firm that this was only an experiment, so I could botch it.

After drying the felt again, I was ready for the hand stitching step.

Red and grey wetfelted background with water soluble fabric for hand stitching pinned on it — I pinned the water soluble fabric with the drawing on the felt background, to avoid it moving, careful to avoid tearing it.

The water soluble fabric is not the easiest background on which to hand stitch, I found out. It was only my second time using it, and my first of using it extensively and for precision work: well, I can’t say as I liked it, as it tends to tear easily close to fiddly bits, and its shiny surface makes it harder to see and follow the design. Anyway, I persevered and I was really happy with the results, as I could see that it was all coming out as I wanted with the hand stitching step.

A black hand stitched line on a water soluble fabric and wetfelted red wool. — I started from the right hand, careful not to tear the water soluble fabric.

Progress on hand stitching a girl's outline with black thread on water soluble fabric and a red wetfelt background — I used different types of stitches for the different parts, while managing to keep it simple without too many details.

Progress on a hand stitched outline of a smiling girl in black thread over water soluble fabric and red wetfelt. — And going on with the stitching..

Woman's outline hand stitched with black thread on water soluble fabric and red wetfelt — After completing the right hand figure, I went on hand stitching the left hand one.

Three partially completed outlines of women hand stitched with black thread on water soluble fabric and red wetfelt — Then up to the top character, dispensing from pins along the way: I pricked myself more than once on random pins, so was eager to see them gone..

Finished embroidery of three women's outlines with black thread on water soluble fabric and red wetfelt — And here they are all finished!

Then it was the time to dissolve the water soluble fabric and see if it all worked well! The fabric dissolved very easily, and leaving no residues on the felt.

Wet felted red and grey artwork with three women's outlines hand stitched in black thread — And here it is after having dissolved the water soluble fabric.

At this point, I had planned to have links coming out and going into the holes, although I had not decided on precisely what kind of ties or what colour.

At the beginning, I was thinking about a mix of different types of felt cords and threads, and about different colours to lighten the mood of the piece, but in the end I really did not like the effect of many colours on it.

I left it to simmer for a few days, then decided on crocheting links and ties with black cotton yarn.

A red and grey wetfelt piece in progress, with a crocheted black cord , on a wooden table with a metal crochet hook. — Starting on the crocheting step.

The crochet needed holes punctured into the felt to hook the thread into it, and I made those with difficulty because they kept closing up.

The interesting thing about crocheting the cords was that I was able to crochet free-form shapes and “objects” into them, and I could link the cords among themselves, to reflect complexity.

A black crocheted heart shape held in Kiki Peruzzi's hand — A heart shape crocheted in the cords. I also crocheted circular and spherical shapes and less recognisable ones.

Progress of the crocheting of cords with black yarn on a red and grey wetfelted piece — Work in progress.

A red and grey wetfelted piece with black thread hand stitched women's outlines and black crocheted cords — That’s the crocheting done.

I wasn’t perfectly happy with the outcome, though: I decided to add some grey shadowing around the figures with needlefelting.

Wet felted piece with a red and grey background, hand stitched women's outlines and crocheted cords — I quite liked the new shadows, they gave more depth to the whole piece.

After seeing the finished piece, I could not in all honesty call it particularly jolly or Christmassy. It was also highly personal and not very suitable to make a card to someone outside my own family: once the creative rush of finishing the piece was ended, I realised I could not use it for the Christmas exchange!

I had basically used the excuse of the exchange to go on a creative rampage in the direction that I already secretly wanted to pursue, ahem. Well, what was done was done, and, lucky me, I had started very early so had still plenty of time to make something else!

The family related piece gained a grey backing and was sent as a secret little present to my mum, who was moved by it.

I got back to square one, put on my thinking cap, and decided on a much lighter mood for my real Christmas exchange card: a friendship present of flowers and abstract landscape that I hope Karen liked.

And worry not, I managed to cram as many techniques as I could in it, from fabric collage to mark making on fabric to nuno felting and embroidery. So, in the end, I had days and days of wonderful experiments just from the one challenge :)) I will definitely go for it next Christmas as well!

A small abstract nuno felted landscape in tones of white blue and grey, with a red detail, on a wooden table — First page of my REAL Christmas card.

Kiki Peruzzi's fabric collage with mark making and embroidery of abstract flowers in the tones of white blue and grey, with red details. — Second page of my REAL Christmas card.

Sorry for the rushed photos of my real card, as I was eager to send it before getting caught in the Festive Weeks of Madness at my kids’ school.

Repairing my fingerless gloves

January 20, 2024 carleneruns Comments 16 comments

After having a green Christmas, winter has arrived in Canada at last. In the past week Ottawa has received a few dumps of snow. There is definitely an Arctic chill in the air. As a result I have been firing up the wood stove and layering up to try and keep warm. One of my favourite winter indoor accessories are these Possum Merino fingerless gloves. I have a couple pairs of these and sadly at some point some hungry moths have eaten some holes into this pair.

Pair of fingerless mitts with holes in them from moth damage

Fingerless mitt with moth hole — Moth hole in cuff of the mitt

A few years ago I repaired my husband’s fingerless gloves by darning them with embroidery thread. The repairs were functional but overall I was unhappy with the results. This time around I wanted to try a felted repair. Unfortunately I could not find my felting needles. I am sure they are safely stored somewhere in my house.

Luckily I was able to purchase a few needles from Jan.

Next I needed to find some wool. I picked out this lovely Gotland fleece from Dover Farm Canada.

Grey gotland locks from Dover Farm Canada.

Using my hand carders to card some grey gotland wool

I quickly carded up a few locks using my hand cards.

I now had a mass of loose wool to use for my felt repairs.

With my tools gathered it was time to start work. I placed the glove onto a piece of foam (pool noodle). Then added some wool and started poking away with the felting needle.

And here is the first hole after repairing it with wool. The felting needle shows where the hole was. Now I have a nice solid glove again.

Patch 1 after fixing. No more hole. The felting needle shows where the patch is.

Here I have turned the glove inside out and I’m showing you the back of the repair. You can see the grey fuzz of the new patch of wool.

After I completed the first hole, the new few were quite easy to do. I will include a few more before and after photos below.

Patch 2 being started. The hand shows the small amount of wool used for the repair.

Starting patch 2. In my hand is the small bit of wool I will use for the repair.

Patch #2 after fixing. No more hole. Yeah!

Patch 2 after fixing. No more hole. The felting needle shows where the patch is.

Hole#3 before fixing.

Patch #3 repair in progress.

Patch 3 after fixing. No more hole. The felting needle shows where the patch is.

Patch #3 after a bit of poking.

Patch #3 on the inside of the glove.

Patch 3 after fixing showing the inside of the mitt.

Patch3 after fixing. This shows the inside of the mitt and how fluffy the new wool patch is.

Patch #3 from the side. This shows how fuzzy the inside of the mitt after adding the felted repair.

It only took me a couple of minutes to repair my gloves. Gathering the supplies (felting needles, wool and foam) took more work than the actual repair.

Fingerless gloves after repair. No more holes!

My fingerless gloves after being repaired. I fixed three moth holes and one thin spot that I found when checking over the mitts.

After the repair the gloves look a bit shabby.

But they feel comfortable.

I am delighted that my fingerless gloves are fixed and hope they give me many more years of service. I also hope the hungry moths stay far away. But if they don’t, at least I know I can fix any damage they do.

end of cardbord box saying Hey Truool and a cute sheep who looks like he is squeezing his eyes closed for some unfathomable reason

Ooops! i got another felting tool. It’s A “Hey Truool”

January 18, 2024 Jan Comments 15 comments

Oops, I did it again. I was browsing for something else and accidentally saw something that caught my eye. Even worse, it was on sale for New Year’s!!!! Oddly, the same item had four different listings priced from $117.00 (Canadian) with only Chinese instruction in photos to $137.00 (Canadian) the only 1 of 4 that had some English instructions in the associated photos. Since all listings were from the same seller, I started a long….. series of questions both technical and why the variation in prices. Was there a difference in motor strength? I was assured that all were the same and that it was just that there was a sale for New Year’s.

After looking carefully at all the pictures, with lovely but unreadable text, I had figured out some of my questions, then being pointed to the 4^th listing with the English diagrams I was able to figure out most of the rest.

I showed Glenn what I had found and decided to order one. I suppose I should not hold you in suspense and show you this interesting addition to my collection.

1) Mysterious Cardboard box arrived in the mail

I am sure this helps a lot and you know exactly what I got! No?

Ok, how about a peek at the end of the box that has some letter shapes that look more familiar?

2) the end of the same box says Hey Truool which is not too illuminating as to what is inside

Yes, it’s a “Hey Truool”!!! (something to do with a sheep with eyes closed tight?) no? ok, let’s cut the tape very carefully, not to frighten the concentrating ram and look inside the box….

3) the box inside the outer box,

Well, that looks intriguing, don’t you think? (Nice technical illustration line drawing but maybe you would like a bit more information?)

4) the inner box has iridescent ink for the diagram. It has a very cool graphic design and technical illustration.

OOOH love the interesting colour shift in the printing! Very nice graphics. Ok, I like the outside of the inside box but maybe I should stop admiring it and look further inside.

5) inside the inside box showing instructions and the end of the machine

ah yes, I see the problem…. I am likely just as dyslexic in Chinese as I am in English because this is as understandable as grade 1 English was when I was in grade 1. Maybe I will be lucky and there will be subtitles further in?

6) a close-up of the open instructions, there is a lot of fine print so I’m sure it would have been helpful if I could read it.

No,….. this Chinese is all Greek to me. Well, let’s not get held back by a lack of reading skills, and continue on to looking at the implement!

7) the tool held gently in a protective surround of black foam.

Oh My, the excellent graphics and very nice packaging continue (sorry I really, really like technical illustration and when I bump into good graphic design and packaging I am very happy)

ok, what I am impressed with is the slightly translucent paper-like cover protecting the tool. It has helpful graphics and labels. Unfortunately not in English, but still what a nice placement and it would have worked fabulously if I could have read it. Maybe the most expensive version has English graphics?

8) the back of the tool showing the other side of the protective paper sleeve

There is a handy tear strip on the back, which I have refrained from tearing. (Instead, I have been slipping it off and on between uses.)

Now what is the little box to the side of the foam packing?

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9.1-9.2) the little box at the side of the black foam packing holds the Accessories

Ahhh, Accessories!!! 2 large enough to fit my finger’s leather finger cotts! (some of the ones from China have some very odd notions as to the size of my fingers…. They think I am some delicate thing with tiny elegant skinny fingers….. Nope, that is not me.) The USB charging cord (a bit short but it works!) and the vile of needles. ok, the last isn’t as important for me since I still have the remains of 7 different boxes originally holding 500 needles each.

At this point, I admitted I needed a bit more info. So, I messaged Ann about translation Apps for phones. I remember her saying something about, “Just take a picture of it, and the phone will translate it into English”. She thought my phone probably came with one installed. After much rummaging into corners of my phone I had not visited, I decided it was still not as smart as it said it was… I told it to go online and find an app which it eventually did, then after more rude words I convinced it that yes, I did want to download it and use it. Unfortunately, my phone proved it was not as smart as the average camera and refused to copy or save the text. So I used my real camera and took bad pictures of the sections of translated text!! I may be a Luddite but I am a sneaky Luddite that knows how to use a camera.

10) translated text photographed from my not so smart phone.

I painfully read the text, which mostly made reasonable sense. The first part being generic, power tool safety instructions, and then we got to the part I wanted to know about.

11) more text from my not-too-bright phone, translated from Chinese to English

First-time use: Do not charge more than 4 hours. It is charged when all the lights are on. If the lights by the power switch dwindle it’s time to recharge. Recharge every 2-3 months if not in use. I also translated the other long instruction card which was quite helpful and checked back to the online info and compared it to the translations. (From previous experience with Microsoft’s spellchecking inability to handle something as simple as my spelling, I may be unfairly leery of Google’s ability with others’ spelling)

I read about the on / off button, and extended hold to power it off and on, while a light tap will pause and start it once it is powered on. It has 5 speeds of operation, (one of the online info photos had the motor speeds for each).

I checked the stats for the machine and found more interesting info

12) last phone shot I promise!

One of my original questions was about run time and rest time. The Orange Fly from Ukraine and the Silver Mettle felting machine from China both had run and rest times suggested so you didn’t offend your motor and have it die on you out of spite.

The person I was typing with suggested;

“20 minutes use, 10 minutes rest is suggested” Alibaba Translation

“the machine can run 1 hour after fully charged” Alibaba Translation

“it can be used during charging as well” Alibaba Translation”

The technical details say full battery time is 30 to 50 minutes, with a bit more reading I found it was due to which speed you are running it at. I suspect also, how many needles you are running since more needles will give more resistance to the motor.

Now, let’s move on to the part of the machine that had originally intrigued me. I am sure you remember the mechanics of the clover tool (Green) and the fake clover tool (Blue) with its protective sleeve, which retracts when used. The new felting machine also has a sleeve guard. This one retracts and can be set at different levels, which sets the depth of the needle penetrations. (This gives you the ability to set a constant working depth.) if you are wanting to work at a shallow depth make sure you are engaging at least the barb closest to the tip of the needle, without barb engagement you are not going to get very far with your felting.

This diagram is from the English sale posting;

13) Manufacturers diagram showing adjusting depth gauge of machine

That is not the only interesting feature of this machine. Let’s look at how each machine deals with needle exchanges. With the other two, the orange fly is a bit tricky to change needles (it gets better with practice but it is not “Easy”) and the other mettle one from China requires the needles to have the top crank removed (cut or sawed off). This new one (also from China) has an easy needle-changing setup, no cutting or fighting with needles required). You can choose to run it with 1 to 5 needles, depending on what you are doing. I have tried it with three T-38 333 needles.

14.1-14.2)

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14.1-14.2) Manufacturers diagram

The one warning I would suggest is carefully looking at image 2 above. I opened the needle holder while the machine was in a horizontal position. Oops, I almost lost the little mettle square you can see in image 3 above. Not to worry I found it and got everything back together.

Once I had it charged, (USB cord charging off my computer) I tried on the butt of Moose #3. It did felt a bit but Moose’s gluteals are extremely firm already so it was unfair to ask it to compact an already well-compacted surface.

I brought it with me to the social on Monday and got a few minutes after guild stuff, library and photography to try it out with a felt picture on my soft 1.5-inch thick wool mat. As we found with the other electric felting machines, the faster speeds were more effective. The tool is lighter and has less kick-back, than the mettle one from China, I was showing you last year. (Oh! Time is doing that spontaneous jump forward again…was that a year ago?) I had hoped to bring the 3 machines to the social and have Ann help me show you the features and go over how they compare. Unfortunately, she had been feeling ill on the weekend and although better was not feeling up to drive into the guild.

15) Hey Truool felting machine sitting on just started the chickadee picture

I will add this one to the chart I had with the others and will give you more info when Ann and I can get together and compare them. In case you were making a chart for yourself, I can give you this data to add to it. The “Hey Truool” is winning on ease of needle change and the ability to set the working depth is very appreciated. The Orang Fly with only one needle seems to run faster and is of a similar weight. The Mettle one from China has the most kick back but I will admit it is working a bit better on a brush work surface.

So far, I am very pleased with this addition to my collection of felting tools. I am looking forward to showing Ann and getting her opinion too. It can be used with both 2D and 3D projects. For 3-D, I am still likely to work with single or double, hand-held needles, but it is always good to have options. I can see using this to build up and sculpt the underlayers (I may have to hand felt the layers closest to the armature but if it can speed up the understructure it will allow me to tackle more projects since I keep coming up with more things I want to felt!)

16) Hey Truool felting machine sitting on the counter as it attends the local Guild Social

If you would like to read the info from the manufacturer, the more expensive English instructions are with this machine’s listing. Scroll down to see them;

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006303168768.html?spm=a2g0s.imconversation.0.0.25b43e5fsgJIEw&gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm

The cheaper but less textually illuminating version is here, again click on “View More” to see all the pictures:

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006117756592.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.11.793f1802E6SDAR&gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm

For both listings, you can ask questions in the “Message” button. (I am sure your questions will not be as difficult as mine were!! Their representative was very helpful and did try their best to help with my inability to read Chinese.)

I am not suggesting rushing over and buying one instantly, but if you are investigating an electric needle felting tool then this one should definitely be added to your list of considerations. (I would give it bonus points for ease of needle changing and work depth adjustability. oh, and you can run it without the safety covers if you really want to. Good hunting for felting tools and Keep Felting!!

PS, there is a new version from the manufacturers of other felting machines from China. for the new version they are selling a replacement motor and an adapter that allows you to use regular needles. Unfortunately, from chatting with there contact person, the old version that i have will not work with the new adapter (DRAT!).

PSS, I have now seen a Moose project bag with a woven scarf and red yarn in his antlers! Once there are a few more augmented Moose project bags, I will do a post to show you them.

Samples for my Valentines class.

January 16, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

I was asked to give a Valentine-themed workshop, specifically hearts. No surprise there. This is a short evening class. I am teaching in person in Ottawa at my guild on Feb 7, 2024. https://www.ovwsg.com/events/event/2407-felted-hearts/I had no pictures to put with the workshop so I had to create something. I decided on heart-shaped baskets with rope handles.

I started by finding a heart shape on the internet and sizing it up to about 6 inches across. I decided to do one this size and one bigger to end up at 6 inches.

they will fit nicely onto my rolling mat. I need to keep an eye out for a bigger one of these. This one is supposed to be for drying dishes. It might do for one person for their lunch dishes.

I decided on one in red and one in this year’s Pantone colour of the year coral pink. The colour doesn’t show well wet but you will see it when it’s dry

Next was adding embellishments. Coral pink is one of my least favourite colours so I added some sari silk in the colour Salsa. It is primarily red with bits of other colour in it.

The red looked pretty plain so I added a pale pink heart

Next of course was all the rubbing and rolling and cutting it out and rubbing and rolling and fulling. The red one is now 6 inches across and the pink one is 4 inches across.

I rolled a couple of snakes for handles. The idea was to poke holes in the hearts to poke the snake ends through and tie a knot. the pink one was okay, but the red one wasn’t long enough so I just felted the ends in. Jan thinks they should have a bell on the tip but I am not sure. I think I will offer them to the student but I don’t think I will add them.

And here they are on Jan’s new photography backdrop which I am sure she will be telling you all about in a later post.

Tada!

I like the picture of the pink one best. The angle is good. The red one is more from over the top of the heart. The chocolate hugs are some Jan gave me as a librarian present. Perfect for a Valentine’s photo shoot.

Nuno Felt Background with appliqued felt rocks and sheer fabric cast shadows stitched in place.

Forest Floor Update

January 14, 2024 ruthlane Comments 33 comments

I have continued to make slow progress on my forest floor piece. Since I showed you last, I have stitched down the rocks and added some shadows.

I decided on the final rock placement and then stitched them in place. I moved the rock that is now on the top right over from the left since it was much lighter. This reinforces the feeling of the light shining from behind the trees. Once the rocks were stitched in place, I decided they needed a bit more definition as they kind of looked like potatoes to me.

I remembered a book about nature journaling that I had checked out from the library by John Muir Laws. I decided to look him up online to see if he had some information about drawing rocks. I found a wealth of information on his site about drawing in nature. If you would like to improve your drawing skills, this is an excellent resource.

I took the photo from above and printed it out. Then I used a piece of tracing paper to sketch the rock placement. Then I used hatching techniques to give some shape to the rocks. These aren’t specific rocks. I find it much easier to draw/sketch when I have a photo of what I am trying to draw or I can look at a specific rock or landscape. But they look more like rocks than potatoes now.

Nuno Felt Background with appliqued felt rocks and stitched shadows completed.

Nuno Felt Background with appliqued felt rocks and stitched shadows close up.

I decided to use the same blue that is already in the nuno background for the shadows. That would tie all the blue bits in as shadows and move the blue over on to the right side of the composition too. I used a straight stitch to do the “hatching” on the rocks using #12 Sulky cotton thread. Once those shadows were in, I knew I needed to add cast shadows from the rock on to the ground. So I brought out my navy blue sheer fabric to create some cast shadows.

Here’s the piece after adding the sheer fabric around the rocks. I stitched the sheer fabric down with #40 machine thread with tiny stitches. Now guess what? I need more shadows in front of the trees. It’s always funny to me that I am working along and when some shadows are added, I can immediately see that I need more. So the next step is more sheer blue fabric to add the cast shadows from the trees. Then I will begin adding more leaves and the white flowers so that it will resemble my original collage below.

Pictures and Plant Pots

January 12, 2024 Lindsay Wilkinson Artwork Comments 31 comments

In December I was trying to supply lots of different places with felt things. In truth, I was a bit over-stretched. I decided to focus on making plant holders, with a few tea light holders and a couple of vases. Oh, and some cards. Here’s an overview of the things I made.

PLANT POTS AND VASES

First I made four plant pot covers from merino wool and silk pre-felt and incorporating different pieces of vintage lace

Next a couple of vases, also with a pre-felt base

On to some plant pot holders. When cutting the resist out of the vessel, I use the smallest hole I can that will allow me to fit the plant and its pot inside. All of these have a water proof plant pot holder inside, plus the plastic pot with drainage holes that the plants are supplied in. I like to start by looking at a plant and ‘asking’ it what sort of pot cover it might like.

A festive plant pot holder with green merino and red locks reflecting the leaf colours

These nesting bowls were made using a carded merino and silk batt and are very lightweight

A display of my work in Creek Creative gallery, Faversham

One of the galleries where my work was part of a month-long Christmas local makers market

PICTURES

Now we’re into the new year and I really have to focus on making some pictures. I mentioned at the end of my last blog that I’m delighted to have the opportunity to fill the walls of a lovely local Michelin starred pub / restaurant (The Sportsman in Seasalter) with felt pictures for 6 weeks in April / May this year. The ‘fill’ bit is something of a challenge. I tend to make enough work as I go along for my normal sales and exhibitions. Making an extra 35 to 40 wet felted pictures for this exhibition will take a lot of work. I’m finding the prospect of making all those pictures both exciting and rather daunting.

In preparation for the picture making, in November I ordered 2 batches of solid beach handmade frames from my lovely local frame maker: 10 at 63 x 63cm (approximately 25 x 25 inches) and 10 at 35 x 35 cm (approximately 14 x 14 ins). I will have to order more soon but I thought this would give me a good start. I had some serious studio-tidying to do last week before I set about the pictures… and finally I was ready to start. Where to begin?

First I made a ‘big wave’ picture for one of the larger frames. I say ‘big wave’ in inverted commas as the waves round where I live are generally very small so we’re not talking surfing potential. I’m endlessly intrigued by wave and sea patterns and have made this type of picture several times before. They always end up looking very different. I’ve taken lots of reference photos such as this one……

…..that I use as a starting point.

Here’s the layout using lots of colours of (mostly) merino wool for the water; merino and kid mohair top, silk hankies, mohair and sheep locks and some vintage lace scraps for the wave; and hand-made pre-felt cut into pebble shapes for the beach. These were laid on 4 layers of merino for the base. I’m not really sure why I did 4 layers – it makes a lovely firm base but it’s a lot harder work to felt than 2 layers and as this is going behind glass, it was a bit over-kill. I’ll try not to do that again.

Once it was felted and dry, I used a small metal tool to pick up some sections of wave, to make it more 3D. Here’s the final picture and the picture sitting on top of its frame, waiting for me to get round to framing it.

I’ve worked on this for more than 12 hours spread over 4 days, not including making and cutting the pre-felt pebbles, which must have taken another couple of hours, and I’ve still got the framing to do. I’m very conscious of how many pictures I’ve got to make, so I decided to go smaller and quicker for the next 3.

One of the ways I can speed things up is to use recycled silk fabric to provide the pattern (and texture) for the water and the beach. As an avid buyer of silk scarves from charity shops, I have 2 huge bins of material to rummage through and upcycle.

Picture two – which I’ll call leopard print – I chose a sheer leopard print scarf for the beach and a small blue striped one for the water. Because the blue scarf is not very wide, I have to join two pieces of fabric. To reduce the visibility of the join, I first cut into one of the pieces so that the join would be staggered. You can see it in the layout but hardly at all by the time it’s fully felted.

I’m reasonably happy with this, though I think the wave is a bit too solid-looking.

Picture three – ‘dark blue sea’ – I go with a rather lovely dark blue patterned scarf for the water and a pale patterned beige one for the beach.

Again, reasonably happy with this. I like the sea effect and the less solid wave but the blue cobweb felt strip I put in front of the wave to look like the remains of a previous wave is a bit dense and straight.

Picture four – ‘reversible silk’ – I’m rummaging around for a different piece of silk to use for the water. I find one I like but I’m not sure quite how it will felt. It’s also reversible and I’m not sure which side to use. I decided to make a very small sample to see how it felts and it occurs to me also to see what happens if I cut strips to alternate the two sides of the fabric.

Here’s the sample layout. I’ve run out of merino wool in this pewter colour but fortunately have some Corriedale. I felted it very quickly and forgot to take a picture of the finished sample but it was enough for me to conclude it felted well and it was worth trying the reversed strips thing.

Quick sample layout to test the silk and laying out in strips

The beach fabric is also a little different – with a bigger and higher contrast pattern.

Here’s the layout and near-final picture. I say near-final as I only finished fulling it yesterday afternoon. It’s still damp (I think the silk will become a little lighter and shinier when fully dry) and I haven’t yet picked up any of the fibres in the wave.

This is my favourite actual wave so far – I definitely like the variation in colour and greater impression of transparency. I’m pleased with the way the cut up silk worked for the water too. I’m not yet decided about the beach pattern – interesting or too much?

And finally, a photo of the large and a small picture side-by-side, so you can get some idea of scale

I’m framing the three small ones without glass and the large one with. People react differently to this. Some like to see (and feel) the texture and not have the reflections you get with glass. Others worry about dust. A few (me included) worry about moths. Most of the pictures will be behind glass but a few won’t. I’ll review this as I go along

By the time I write again in March, I should have lots more pictures made. Wish me luck! I will be making some large ones with sea birds but these take so long, I’ve decided to make some less complex ones first to see how long I’ve got to spend on the most time-consuming ones. I’m having to step-up my levels of planning and organising to try to make sure I have enough work to fill the venue.

Happy new year everyone. I hope it’s full of joy, peace and creativity.

Wearable Arts In Auckland

January 10, 2024 teriberry Comments 20 comments

Just before Christmas, I was incredibly fortunate to visit the Guo Pei exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery with two friends from Auckland Felters. I’m ashamed to admit, that up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of her, the social media frenzy that surrounded Rihanna’s appearance in the “Imperial Yellow” gown completely bypassed my feeds.

Despite the media hype around it, this dress didn’t even make my favourite top ten from this exhibition. Don’t get me wrong, the Imperial Yellow dress was beautiful and very intricately embroidered but the standard of all the dresses / gowns in this exhibition was genuinely mind-blowing, it was like being able to walk amongst a World of Wearable Arts show. A week later and my head is still buzzing with inspiration….

This photo doesn’t do the colour justice, it was a much brighter golden yellow with gold embroidery

Guo Pei’s story is as fascinating as the engineering behind her dresses. Growing up in communist China, fashion did not exist, so when she announced that she wanted to be a fashion designer everyone thought she wanted to be a seamstress, the concept that the shape and silhouette of clothing could be altered was not commonplace in China in the 1970’s and 80’s.

Added to that, China in the 70’s and 80’s was a very patriarchal society, women were not expected to be entrepreneurs, if they worked outside the home / domestic setting it was as an employee not an employer, making Guo Pei’s journey to owning her own fashion house all the more remarkable.

Sadly, it appears the hundreds of artisans who worked on bringing her designs to life, were not well paid, especially in the early days. Hopefully, the notoriety Guo Pei is receiving now will be reflected in the wages paid to her extremely talented embroiderers and seamstresses.

The attention to detail in each ensemble was impressive. Each gown had its own accessories and shoes which were works of art in their own right. However, I imagine some of the shoes would be like walking on stilts 🙂

I wouldn’t normally advocate taking photos up someone’s skirt but at this exhibition it is a must. I think the organisers missed a trick not putting mirrors on the floor under some of the dresses as the workmanship inside the skirts is amazing. The detailed beading and embroidery we see on the outside doesn’t stop at the hem.

View from the ground looking up a model’s leg

This dress was intriguing, viewed from the side the model appears to be very pregnant but from the front you are presented with a hollow but inflated skirt….

That is filled on the inside with hundreds of golden flowers…

I’m not sure if Guo Pei was trying to make a statement (I see soft, opulent petals in a voided pregnancy) with this dress but this idea of presenting two very different faces on the same garment fascinates me.

Some of the gowns were definitely more Art than Wearable…

The V at the front and silhouette created by the wide skirts of this dress kept luring me back to look at it. I feel the need to use this as inspiration for something but I’m not quite sure what yet….

I was equally fascinated by the engineering behind some of the dresses as I was by the beautiful designs and forms created. This voluminous skirt appears to be constructed from threading a flexible rod through a channel sewn into the fabric, creating a continuous coil that was attached at the waist.

Sadly we were not allowed to touch the dresses (there were attendants in every room making sure we did not get too close) but oh how I wanted to feel the fabrics and look more closely at how each dress was constructed!

If you get the opportunity, this really is a MUST SEE exhibition, I know a few people who have been to see it several times already!

Felting and Fiber Studio

An International Collective of Felt and Fiber Artists

Sneaky Presents

January 28, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 9 comments

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Slow Stitch on Felt

January 26, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 27 comments

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Forest Floor Continues

January 24, 2024 ruthlane Comments 30 comments

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A secret family portrait or My failed Christmas card

January 22, 2024 kikistextileart Comments 18 comments

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Repairing my fingerless gloves

January 20, 2024 carleneruns Comments 16 comments

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Ooops! i got another felting tool. It’s A “Hey Truool”

January 18, 2024 Jan Comments 15 comments

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Samples for my Valentines class.

January 16, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

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Forest Floor Update

January 14, 2024 ruthlane Comments 33 comments

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Pictures and Plant Pots

January 12, 2024 Lindsay Wilkinson Artwork Comments 31 comments

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Wearable Arts In Auckland

January 10, 2024 teriberry Comments 20 comments

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