Are you subscribed to your nearest city’s event newsletter? If you’re not and crave more cultural things to do, it’s a must. I recently got on board with Forever Edinburgh to be in the know about interesting things happening, and was happy to know about a Turner exhibition going on at the Royal Scottish Academy.
Every month of January since 1901, the famous Turner watercolours bequeathed by Henry Vaughan are put on display to be admired by everyone for free, as per his request. The idea is for people to enjoy something beautiful in a month short in daylight – this also serving the purpose of protecting the light-sensitive artwork.
It always warms my heart to know these events are popular, especially when they’ve been happening for more than a century. The room had a constant flow of people coming to admire the artwork.
My favourite part was that wood cabinet in the middle of the room, where pigments and other accoutrements were shown.
Here is what the exhibit label says:
“Watercolour paint box, including Reeves point cakes and lumps of gum arabic [sic], late 19th century.
This box belonged to Elizabeth Jane Peckover (1859-1930), an amateur watercolour painter. It is part of the archive of her son, the Surrealist artist Roland Penrose (1900-1984).
Glass Muller
This tool was used to grind colour pigment down to a fine powder. This would then be combined with water-soluble gum to make paint.”
I’m such a sucker for this type of thing – I love the idea that someone actually used these objects to create art. I like the idea that objects retain the memory of whomever used them, and that through them you might sense their personality.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to photograph the watercolours, since they’re all protected behind reflective glass. Here are a couple of images nonetheless.
Detail
Before moving to the UK, I genuinely thought Turner’s impressive golden landscape hues were completely made up. You see, Mediterranean light is just so much whiter that it never occurred to me that these lovely colours actually existed in Nature. Now it’s one of my favourite things about British winters.
Lastly, did you know Turner learned watercolour by copying other artists? This was a most common way to improve back then, and this master was no exception. The watercolour below feels so different from what we’ve grown used to seeing from Turner that it still feels weird for me to consider it a genuine er, “Turner copy.”
I hope you enjoyed coming with me on this little watercolour tour and that it might have gotten your creative juices flowing! Let me know about recent artistic outings of yours in the comment section, or whether you have any recommendations for me in Edinburgh. Thanks for reading.
I wound up spending more time working on moose bag #3 over the last couple of weeks than I had anticipated. My hubby woke up not feeling right, and we quickly wound up in emergency. As I ran out the door I had grabbed the moose bag, and my audiobook player, (an emergency to us, can be subjective to the hospital staff who assess your emergency), but this time he was quickly seen. After a quick trip to the magic doughnut (Cat scan), they decided they wanted to keep him. Then the usual speed of emergency kicked in, as we waited through the day for a spot to open up in the ward he was being sent to. Good thing I had my moose bag project, which helped keep my worry down. Glenn slept and I worked on the moose, there is no photography in the emergency ward so no picture of either of them, moose or husband. The wait was worth it, as he was transferred to a private isolation room on the ICU floor, (it happened to be the one that became free not that he was in need of isolation) at the far end of the ward. It was quieter and the lights could be dim which helped him feel better.
While he slept, I got to work on moose. I had built up the underlayer mostly to my liking using the greyish-brown Maori short fibre batt. I had begun to add the lighter tones for the legs and upper lip. I was still not happy with the head and spent time working on the upper lip and face details.
1.1 The under-structures are mostly good, now adding the last details and starting the leg colour change.
1.2 The walker made a slightly low table.
By the 27th of January, the room was needed by another patient, so we were told we would be going to one of the ward rooms. That plan quickly changed and we were sent to a semi-private room, but not the bed by the window. As he got comfortable in the newer bed, I got back to work on moose. I had printed off reference photos from online and had been propping them up against my hubby (he was sleeping and didn’t notice). He was very helpful in holding them for me while he slept.
2) Consulting photo reference for the surface colour of a moose
I had rushed off to Dollerama to get word and number puzzles for him to work on. I also spotted little cat brushes (like hand carders, but really tiny) so got 2 to help with blending for the surface colours. You may be able to see part of them just to the left of the bag with the reference info. They were perfect for making tiny amounts of various colours. Carders are faster and more ergonomic than hand mixing if you are making many little amounts or a larger amount of a base colour.
3) Tiny carders (cat brushes), the reference photos, a pallet of small bits of wool, scissors and moose enjoying acupuncture
Like painting, it’s nice to have a pallet of colours to work from.
4) Working from the pallet of blended colours while moose hold bits of wool in his antlers
Since my husband was busy with napping or specialists, I decided to add an articulated jaw and brought in a wire to do so. I added the wire but I think that instead of a loop with a single wire, I should have used a “u” shaped wire, so the jaw would have two points of wire attachment to the skull. (That would make a better TMJ joint, temporomandibular joint.) I may have gone a bit overboard and added a pink tongue too. You may be able to see it when his mouth is open, (the moose, not my husband). You can also see he now has a felted eye, which has moved slightly higher, closer to the antler base.
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5.1-5.2) mouth opens tongue is slightly elevated, and the eye has been added, in felt not a bead this time.
In my quest across the internet looking at Moose(S) (why is Moose the plural of Moose?), I found an article on the wonders of the Moose’s nose. It included a fabulous series of diagrams of moose nose muscles. Did you know they have muscles that can close their nostrils so they can root around in the muddy bottoms of ponds for plants and not get mud in their nose? How Brilliant!! If you are curious about this interesting topic you may want to look here to see the myology of a moose nose;
6) Moose is almost done just waiting for my hubby’s paperwork so we can all go home.
By the following Saturday, he was feeling up to a trip out to the Chesterville spin-in (he snoozed in the corner for parts of it). Both Moose were much admired by the spinners, some of whom bought their own un-embellished moose bag. I hope they will add weaving, spinning or felting to theirs too!
7) moose bags, embellished and un-embellished, Ann is in the background on the Left and Wendo is on the Right.
8) Another shot of that nose it is truly an odd shape!
Hubby is much improved but has a lot of medical appointments over the next few weeks particularly. while we are waiting, I still want to do a tiny bit of firming up on Moose’s hooves, but otherwise, I think I am done. I may have to start another moose bag to keep me busy at doctor’s offices waiting for appointments. Good thing dry felting is an easy take-along project, easier than carrying a floor loom or a wheel to appointments!!
PS. While we were in the ward we had nurses and other patients drop by to see what I was doing. I explained about needle felting, and how the needles work and told them how much fun it is, (and that they should try it too). I heard that moose was very talked about by the nurses and I was referred to as the moose lady. I was very impressed with their work too, taking such good care of my husband and being supportive and positive about his progress. I am sure his recovery was greatly assisted by their attention.
I often work on the needle felting part of a project at home or at the guild. I end up with bags of possible fibres I might need and they usually hang around longer than the project. Every once and a while I have to gather them up and return all the wool to my studio. Then start again for the next thing I am working on. As you know I tend to work smaller, postcard and trading card sort of sizes. That means I don’t need a lot of any one colour. Somehow I always grab way more fiber than I need.
I keep looking at the little boxes of fibre that Ali Express and Amazon sell as part of felting kits. I don’t need the wool or the needles (I have my own local, very knowledgeable, needle dealer- Jan) So I went searching for the boxes. I found them on Ali Express. ali express box for sale I bought 2 Like this.
The boxes snap together so I took the lid of one and snapped them together.
Inside there are removable dividers.
I started adding small amounts of wool, a different colour group in each tray.
And this is what it looks like now. I do still need to add a few more colours but these are the ones I had handy in the house. I left the bottom one empty so I can add tools to it, needles, holders, and scissors to start. I need to sort my needles so I have a few of each in the tray and some of the handles.
Do you have a good portable storage system for your wool and supplies?
Finally, I hear you saying. I have finished the forest floor nuno felt landscape that I have been working on since October.
I pinned the leaves in place and hand stitched them down. I also did a bit of trimming on the leaves that were further back in the landscape to give a feeling of distance.
Here they are stitched in place. I also added a few bits of darkness to leaves that were partially in the shade. I used a green felt tip pen for this.
And next, I auditioned flowers. Those of you who are felt purists, look away. I cut the flowers out of sketchbook paper. I think the contrast between the smoothness of the flowers and the matte fuzziness of the felt leaves make the flowers stand out more. Then I needed to make sure the flowers on the left were in the shade so I used a bit of Payne’s Grey watercolor to create the “shade”.
The flowers were stitched down with French knots and wool thread. The flowers on the left have a bit darker yellow than the ones in the “sunshine”.
I even got the piece stitched down to the background matte fabric and laced around a piece of matte board. So it is ready for framing, Yay! I have decided to call this one “Sunlit Dance”. Not sure what is on the agenda next but perhaps I should think of something to cover for the first quarter challenge.
Recently, I responded to a Facebook request by a local alpaca farm owner, who was asking for felt and fibre artists to get in touch, as they would like to collaborate with local artists for the use of alpaca fibre from their flock. My friend and fellow fibre artist Debi and I agreed that we would visit Y Fferm Fach (which translates from Welsh to English as ‘The Mini Farm’) to have preliminary discussions with farm owner Amanda. We were going to also meet Amanda with a few other fibre artists, for a chat over a cup of coffee and some beautiful scones with jam and cream! (We were off to a good start already with treats like that!!) We were also offered the chance to meet the flock, and spend time getting to know them! What a lovely prospect to look forward to, combining my favourite subject of fibre crafts with a chance to meet my favourite camelid together with my favourite edible treat! I couldn’t wait for the date to arrive in December!!
When we arrived, it was clear that the herd were very intrigued to know who was visiting. I saw quite a number of heads pop up, and some started to make their way up the field for a better nose! It was a fairly soggy day when we visited and we had had quite a lot of wet weather in the weeks before.
As you can see from this photo, the alpacas were very soggy from all the rain we had!
So on our arrival it was lovely to be shown straight into Amanda’s beautiful wooden chalet, which was warm and welcoming, decked out with Christmas tree and lights, together with a lovely log burner crackling away. It was clear that a lot of thought had gone into the chalet, and it provided a lovely light space in which the five of us could chat with Amanda over our coffee and scones.
Amanda took time to explain how she and her husband Nick had taken the life-changing decision to get out of the city rat race, and make the move into alpaca farming. They had previously worked in the entertainment industry, as well as working in the Welsh Government. But they took the decision to follow their lifelong dream of running a small farm and bought 8 acres of land in the countryside, which consisted of areas of pasture land, woodland and the most beautiful views of the Welsh countryside. However, the land had no property in which to live, so Amanda and Nick are currently residing in a static caravan. Amanda explained that their farm is completely ‘off grid’, using solar panels for electricity, a composting toilet, and they discovered they also have their very own spring for water! Being very eco-conscious, it was a natural step forward for Amanda to explore her local community’s skillset, when considering options for the use of her fibre.
Before getting onto the topic in question, Amanda explained about the husbandry of keeping alpacas, including the regular weekly ‘poo’ testing to check the health status of the flock and ensure they remain in optimum condition. Nick has even completed specialist training in order to be able to undertake these weekly tests independently. Speaking with Amanda, it was clear that she and Nick have worked hard to ensure they have really done their homework!
We went on to chat about ways in which alpaca fibre can be used, having lots to talk about, sharing our combined knowledge, and listening to Amanda’s aspirations for the use of her fibre, exploring ways in which the fibre could be best utilised. We explored options for processing the fibre, spinning the fibre, felting and also weaving with the fibre. But with a current heard of 16 alpacas, some of whom are pregnant, together with the arranged purchase of further alpacas to join the existing herd; it was clear that there would be a huge amount of fibre involved! Therefore, we needed to be realistic about each individual’s capacity to dedicate the time needed for such an undertaking and it was clear that this quantity of fibre was going to be considerably more than our little group could process. So it was important for Amanda to consider a two-fold approach, with some processing and spinning being undertaken in a commercial setting, with local crafters contributing bespoke elements. Amanda has started a small shop in her chalet, so we agreed it would be a nice idea to have some needle-felted alpacas, that look like some of the herd! How lovely would it be for a child to feed their favourite alpaca, only to be able to take a mini needle-felted alpaca home with them? One thing that was clear, was that there are endless possibilities for utilising the alpaca fibre, from hand spun yarn, to woven garments made with the alpaca fibre. The option to utilise the best fibre to spin, crochet, weave or wet felt for example, beautiful cobweb felted scarves, hats and endless other garments, and to utilise the less premium fibre for needle felted items for the gift shop. The fact that Amanda has a beautify chalet available with space to run courses and workshops, is another wonderful opportunity for collaboration. But we also discussed how Amanda wants to link in with local schools and groups, to promote opportunities for local children to experience the joy of interacting with alpacas in close proximity. Amanda was keen that her alpaca experience should not be feeding them over a fence (as many other venues do), but should be a totally immersive experience, where you get to move freely within the flock and be able to feed them and pet them without any barriers.
Having experienced first hand how wonderful it was to spend this quality time with the alpacas, I decided to book for my family to visit. My youngest son Tom was visiting from America with his family, and I very much wanted my little granddaughter to have fun on her first trip to the UK. Amanda was happy to accommodate and we very much enjoyed a family trip to meet the alpacas. Thankfully it was a glorious day, with blue skies and sunshine, which was lovely! Both Alex and my granddaughter absolutely loved it, and so did everyone else!
As you can see by his face, Alex loved feeding them!
Kendal……………and……….. my youngest son Tom enjoying the experience!
Pip sporting a funky topmop!
As for me, I look like I belong on a farm! Ha! Ha!
Lizzy’s face is beaming!!!!
My granddaughter absolutely loved her adventure, and I have to say, Amanda was brilliant with her.
Having spent time in Amanda’s company, it was clear that she is someone who has a clear vision for her farm, and that very much includes working with local people, to deliver opportunities to and for her local community. The farm itself is idyllic in location, and offers a wonderful setting to enjoy both the alpaca experience but also the crafting experience. I am very much looking forward to this collaboration journey and will enjoy sharing this journey with you as we progress. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy some of the photos I took on my two visits to Y Fferm Fach.
Saying goodbye to the alpacas….until the next time they visit the UK – it’s definitely going to be an annual event, they have all decided! My granddaughter can’t wait to see her new friends (Pip, Daisy, Dotty (who’s the baby of the herd for now), Honey, mischievous Brooke who likes to get herself in a pickle and all the other friendly alpacas.
Just before Christmas, there was a discussion about all sorts of ways to modify colour on felted pieces. The topic of Inktense pencils and paint blocks came up and they fascinated me. So I decided to give myself a gift of experimentation for Christmas.
The basic box has twelve colours. I didn’t get the box with white. This might have been a mistake, but the block is available as a single unit so if the need is evident I’ll see about ordering one.
The blocks are water soluble and can be used the same as any watercolour. They do not re-wet once dry do can be painted over after set. This is the intriguing bit for me. I cracked out all the old equipment and some new to test the flexibility of these blocks.
Watercolour mixing bowl, watercolour brushes,
And some fabric that I knew would come in handy for something someday. This was unbleached cotton, a very fine weave and perfect for experimenting. I have no idea what its original purpose might have been, but I have loads of the stuff.
The first experiments were just smearing water onto the bars, and then painting the wash onto the fabric. The wash was thicker and thicker with each brush stroke. Then I tried stamping with some tiny stamps, to see if thick paint worked better than thin.
I had hoped to use the stamping method to mimic the aurora borealis to use on my 75th Anniversary bag as background for the moose, but getting the aurora right is very, very tricky. This is the best I could do on the first try.
It needs much more work before I could ever be satisfied with this. So the next few experiments involved painting on wet fabric, painting with a dry brush, etc, etc. and waiting for the material to dry. Then washing the goods in scalding hot water to see if everything was colour fast.
If you look very, very carefully, you might see a tiny little bit of blue in the middle. That’s how much the tiny blue stamp transferred to the paper towel I used to blot the test fabric when drying.
The uses for these paints/inks still have me curious. I want to do a warp with multiple layers of colours. I just need to work out the logistics of the method. I can see using them in combination with stitchery and felting to really embellish fine art. On a practical side, they can repair dye loss in all areas of fiber design from the finest to the most prosaic. I will be using the hot pink to repair a dye loss on one of my favourite sweaters. The match isn’t perfect, but close enough
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 25th!) 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 24th or early on the 25th drive back on the 26th so he could work on the 27th. 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.
swirly application of fibre
adding a tree and a snowy slopeanother 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.
check with the cereal box frame for balance to the compositionOoh, 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.
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.
cardinal underway
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!
Christmas Morning! One more to finish!Glenn’s Christmas morning Blacksmithing hat and lots of pyjamaspart 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
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.
Dollar store foam pieces3 layers worked well
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!
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.
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!
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.
The manipulated photo that I used to draw the motherThe manipulated photo that I used to draw the daughterManipulated 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.
My drawing ready for being traced onto the water-soluble fabric.Here is the drawing covered by the transparent water-soluble fabric that seems just like a transparent plastic sheet.Preparing to trace the drawing on the water-soluble fabric, I pinned it to the sheet of paper to avoid shifting.Here is the drawing traced onto water-soluble fabric with a permanent ink fine felt tip pen.I loved how my daughter’s drawing came out!
My next step was to prepare the felt on which to embroider, of course.
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.
Working on the shrinking quite a bit.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.
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.
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.
I started from the right hand, careful not to tear the water soluble fabric.I used different types of stitches for the different parts, while managing to keep it simple without too many details.And going on with the stitching..After completing the right hand figure, I went on hand stitching the left hand one.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..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.
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.
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 heart shape crocheted in the cords. I also crocheted circular and spherical shapes and less recognisable ones.Work in progress.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.
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!
First page of my REAL Christmas card.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.
1.1 The under-structures are mostly good, now adding the last details and starting the leg colour change.
1.2 The walker made a slightly low table.
2) Consulting photo reference for the surface colour of a moose
3) Tiny carders (cat brushes), the reference photos, a pallet of small bits of wool, scissors and moose enjoying acupuncture
4) Working from the pallet of blended colours while moose hold bits of wool in his antlers
6) Moose is almost done just waiting for my hubby’s paperwork so we can all go home.
7) moose bags, embellished and un-embellished, Ann is in the background on the Left and Wendo is on the Right.
8) Another shot of that nose it is truly an odd shape!
Watercolour mixing bowl, watercolour brushes,
