small section of a cityscape
Nuno Felt in Art Work

Nuno Felt in Art Work

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Nuno felt is often associated with wearables such as scarves, vests, hats etc., but if you like to make wet-felted pictures, then do consider what nuno can add – fabric can make detailing in a picture so much easier and can add interest and texture.

In a nutshell, nuno felting is the combination of fine wool fibres (we usually use merino as it seems to work well) gently felted together with open-weave fabric. Patience is necessary when felting to allow time for the wool fibres to migrate through the open weave fabric.  If you’ve never tried nuno felting before, it’s quite simple and there are many free tutorials on the internet.

Before you commit to using a fabric, it can save time and frustration by making a sample so that you can see if the fabric is suitable. Shown below is a sample layout, pre-felting, and underneath shows how the fabrics look post- felting.

squares of open weave fabric on merino wool fibres

samples post felting

In the pineapple picture below you can see how fabrics, cut into rough squares, were applied to a background of pink, mauve and yellow merino wool fibres.

The colourful effect would have been difficult to achieve with wool fibres alone especially where the thin fabrics overlap and show through.

Shown below is the layout, then underneath is the felted picture.

squares of open weave fabric to form the background and the pineapple

how the fabric looks post felting

The small section shown below is part of a large cityscape (currently unframed and pinned to a wall as the blue thumb-tack shows 😊).  All the buildings were formed from open-weave fabric. For added interest a little paint was applied to the fabric in places.

small section of a cityscape

In the next example, strings of bunting were needed to fly in the sky on the background of a wet-felted picture.

The shapes could have been cut from pre-felt, but using fabric was quicker and the effect of the multi-coloured fabric worked well.

Bunting shapes were cut from very loose-weave fabric then placed on top of merino wool fibres that had already been wetted and soaped down – in this case it was easier to accurately place the fabric on a wet rather than on a dry layout.

bunting shapes cut from open weave fabric

The wool fibres and fabric were very slowly felted together until they formed one piece.

bunting - open weave fabric felted into merino wool

This apple has ‘painterly marks’ formed by scraps of open-weave fabric.

apple from nuno felt

The jug in the picture of flowers below, was made with open-weave fabric for pattern, solidness / weight and texture.

vase made with nuno felt

This is a small section of a woodland picture. Open-weave fabric was used for tree trunks as the fabric adds texture and interest and the white adds light for dappled sunlight.

tree trunks using fabric

As well as using bits of fabric, a picture can be constructed using all nuno felt.  The final two examples show two different methods.

Full details of how ‘the pigeon and rubber duck in a birdbath’ picture was constructed are in this blog post:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2022/05/30/second-quarter-challenge-the-bird-bath/

pigeon and rubber duck in bird bath

Full details of how the ‘early bird’ picture was constructed are in this blog post:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2018/04/17/guest-blog-post-the-bird-and-his-breakfast/

the early bird catches the worm

We hope that this post will show how easy and how very effective the application of nuno felt can be in wet-felted art work!

Playing with prefelt

Playing with prefelt

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In May this year, I wrote about about a vessel I’d made for an exhibition called ‘Edge’.  Although this hadn’t been the intention, the vessel gave me a sort of Japanese minimalism vibe, which was something I wanted to revisit.

Edge Vessel

The vessel fit the Edge brief in that I’d used a circular resist to create the shape but rather than cut the hole in the centre of the circle, I’d stood it on one edge, with the hole on the opposite edge.  I like this shape and want to explore it further.

The fibre I’d used was something I also want to come back to.  A beautiful fine carded merino and silk mix from World of Wool, it was time-consuming to lay out because of the short staple-length, but produced a lovely, light and velvety soft felt.

Before leaping into making something with so many variables of shape, surface design and fibre, I knew I needed to make some samples and decided to think first about the surface design.

I have no real knowledge of Japanese minimalist art and am not trying to replicate it, just play around with some of the simplicity of design and colours as inspiration.  I love problem-solving (or perhaps that’s problem-investigating) so was setting myself a bit of a challenge.

I’ve seen various images of beautiful Japanese brush work using black ink brush strokes and red circles on a white background and I wondered if I could create something like that in felt. The biggest challenge seemed to be how to wet felt black, red and white together while keeping the colours separate. Prefelt seemed to be one way to go so I made three different black prefelts to see which might look like black ink brush strokes.

Using commercial black merino prefelt, I cut a strip and felted it a little. I didn’t think this would work well as it’s the cut ends that move most into the surrounding fibres and this strip is basically all cut edges. Next, I tried lightly prefelting two other types of black merino wool: carded and tops, as if I was starting to make felt rope.

commercial prefelt strip
carded batt layout
carded batt prefelt
top to bottom: merino strips from commercial prefelt, carded batt prefelt, tops prefelt
Prefelt for black lines

The tops and carded wool produced very similar-looking results and I confess, when I got to the making bit, I lost track of which was which. The advantage of these was that the fibres are mainly running along the length of the line rather than sticking out of the sides so there should be less migration into the white. I decided I’d use these rather than the commercial prefelt strip.

I then turned my attention to red circles.  I suspect carded wool might be best but I only have tops in red so that was what I used.  First, I just tried making a circle freehand.  I got about 2/3 of a circle and a raggedy bit.  On the plus side, there weren’t cut edges, so that should help minimise side-to-side fibre migration. On the minus side, the shape left a lot to be desired!  Needs further work.

Next, I made some red prefelt and cut a couple of circles out of it.  I thought this would work less well but I was interested to see how they compared with the freehand idea.

 

freehand shape
red prefelt with circle template
Making red circles

I was aiming for a very simple design, so played around arranging black strands and red circles in different combinations.

Testing out different layouts

Now to actually make a sample.

My chosen layout

I used a rectangle of white silk and merino commercial prefelt for speed, and felted it together with three black strips and a red circle to see what happened.

Sample 1 completed

As you can see, the black didn’t migrate much on the long sides, though it did where I’d cut the shorter pieces (on the ends on the left side).  The lines did, however, crimp and move a bit – maybe I need to prefelt these a bit less on the length and definitely more on any cut ends.  Also, I must keep a better check on any movement as I felt.

The red, on the other hand, probably needed prefelting more as there was quite a lot of migration there.  Basically, far too many loose cut ends, so either felt the edges harder or go back to a different layout.

At this point, I wonder why the heck I’m doing this: the layout looks so much better than the felted piece.  Nevertheless, I decide to make a quick second sample before I finish for the day.

This time I used the freehand red circle with the raggedy edge. Somewhere in the dusty corners of my brain, I’d started to think about using resists to reveal the colours rather than just laying them on the surface.  I hadn’t actually developed this thought but just plonked a resist on top of the red felt and laid a second layer of the white over the whole of the piece.  I had some vague thoughts about the red incomplete circle looking a bit like a setting sun so placed it near the bottom and thought I could perhaps print some flying bird silhouettes on the upper part afterwards.

OK, I’m sort of freewheeling by this stage.

Sample 2 layout
Sample 2 layout with extra layer
Sample 2 felted
Sample 2

 

The useful learning from my experiments thus far was that the freehand circle (which has fibres running around the circumference of the circle, therefore avoiding lots of ends sticking out) works much better.  You can see this very clearly from the under side.  The cut ends clearly also migrate much more up and down as well as side to side. The freehand shape was probably also felted a bit harder than the red prefelt sheet.

Sample 1 underside: lots of migration round the edges
Sample 2 underside: very little migration
Comparing undersides of samples 1 & 2

 

For my final two test pieces, I lightly needle-felted some red circles then wet-felted the edges to make them as neat as possible. I went back to using the original white carded 70:30 merino:silk mix and decided to concentrate on getting the red circle right.  I laid out two layers of fibre at right-angles to each other and put a needle felted circle top right.

Needle felted circle
Sample 3 layout
Sample 3 felted
Sample 3 finished with a printed tree
Sample 3 using needle felted circle

The needle-felted circle felted in well and when it was dry I printed a tree onto it.  It’s a bit big but I’m going to make this into a birthday card for my Mum.

For my final test piece I continued with the carded merino & silk batt.  I laid four layers of fibre round a circular resist and added one needle-felted red circle on each side.

As with my earlier Edge vessel, I cut it on one of the edges (rather than in the centre of the circle) and designed it to sit on the opposite edge.

Part-way through fulling, I worried that one of the red circles hadn’t felted in very well so did a little judicious needle felting around its edges before finishing the vessel.

layout for layers 1 & 3
layout for layers 2 & 4
Side 1 – still wet
Side 2 – still wet
Side 1 – nearly dry
Vessel with 2 circles: sample 4

This is a lot smaller than my original ‘edge’ vessel and much sturdier.

Conclusions?

The needle-felted and freehand wet-felted circles work better than cutting the circles from prefelt. I like the effect though could maybe make the need-felted circles a bit thinner: they do look as if they’re partially sitting on top of the surface.  I’m happy that I’ve more or less cracked that bit of my challenge.  As for the black lines, I’m leaving them for now but may come back to them at a later stage. The carded merino / silk batt was lovely to work with and I will definitely be making more things using this fibre. I might make a series of vessels using different colours and / or numbers of circles. I may also develop combining a circle and a printed tree. As usual, each experiment opens up lots of new possibilities. So much felt to make and too little time…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TWIST 2025, PART 2 NEW BOOTHS OF INTERESTS

TWIST 2025, PART 2 NEW BOOTHS OF INTERESTS

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PART 2 Twist 2025 new booths of interests

Today Lets head back to Twist

selfie takeing spot in front of sheep on a rocket9.1)  photo selfie setup just outside the arena with a sheep on a rocket and snowball bush.

This year there was more yarn for sale at boots, but I did find a few venders selling fiber, mostly combed top, and one selling felt (which you saw last time). There were a few more informational booths that I want to point out and we already saw some of the local guild /group demos.

OVWSG Demo at twist, spinner showing fiber to 3 wimon who are watching9.2) a quick peek at the ongoing Ottawa guild demo in hall between the arena and the gym.

Lets take a quick look in the arena, there were booths around the outside and a row placed back to back down the center. The isle were wide and there were a few benches to stop and rest. (as demonstrated by Glenn last post, but most other bench users were not a somnolent as he was).

vew of arina, and two shots of booths one with yarn and one with cones of weaving yarn10.1 3 shots, one of the arena at opening, woman looking at weaving yarn, mohair top

buttons, knitting yarn and knited samples10.2) buttons, knitting yarn and samples

Christine’s booth with bats of mixed fiber and art yarn. She is spinning on a magacraft wheel.10.3) Christine’s booth with bats of mixed fiber and art yarn. She is spinning on a Majacraft wheel.

This is a booth,  A Lair Artifacts, I kept going back to. I have shopped here over a number of years. The died top is available in a number of different fibers/breeds. There are some super wash merino, regular merino, and many other breeds with greater luster as well as a few fiber blends. (you can see a list of what fibers she is dyeing with here; https://www.alairartifacts.com/en/general-5 ).  I keep being drawn to Masham, it’s a long fiber but it has such a captivating luster and is much stronger than the soft limpy-ness of merino. I keep telling myself, I am going to felt with this so if the staple is too long for what I want to use it for I can use scissors to make it shorter (which will offend spinners!)

combed top of various breeds and needle felting with dried flowers.11.1) combed top of various breeds and needle felting with dried flowers.

I am sure you spotted examples of felting in this booth too. When you look closely at the ghosts, which are very small, you will notice they have fabulous drapieness to their sheets.

ghost with dry flowers in belljar. 11.2) ghost with dry flowers in belljar.

looking up breed information tag has breed and micron count11.3)  looking up breed information tag has breed and micron count and some times staple length.

one of the shoppers asked about one of the breeds she didn’t recognize  and the vendor was able to explain about the sheep and she showed her more information from the handy little book “The Field Guide to Fleece: 100 Sheep Breeds & How to Use Their Fibers” By Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius. (sometimes all the time i have spent in the local guild library comes in handy!)

There was a pebble mat of felted round rocks as well as an very well done mushroom!11.4) There was a pebble mat of felted round rocks as well as an very well done mushroom! (one in needle felt, one crochet and i think the last one is sewn)

I was impressed with the top but check out the filly side11.5) I was impressed with the top but check out the frilly side, very nice line work and lovely subtle blending on the stem

I got distracted and had a chat about the shallow working depth of crown needles. I hope I didn’t overwhelm or bore her too much!  The pebble rug, which was quite large, and covered the table, looked like the mushroom  was growing from between the pebbles.

Since we have had a quick look around at the vendors in the arena let’s go over to the gym and see one of the booths I wanted to show you over there. On our way there lets first take a quick look at some of the other vendors.

ecoprinting12.1) Eco printing

Cheviot combed Top hand died12.2) Cheviot Top hand died

a booth with brooms12.3) a booth with brooms

Linin tea towels12.4) Linin tea towels in basket

samples of knitting with yarn from this booth12.5) samples of knitting with yarn from this booth

now lets stop and take a look at the first of the booths in this hall i thought might catch your interest.

La laine : matériau d’avenir | The Future is Wool (Concordia University)

the Future of Wool booth, this is a group we saw  was it last year in the outside tent? This year they have moved inside and are creating a collaborative embroidery project.  Twist posted that this is a “new 3-year community stitch project, exploring cross-cultural histories and planet-healing futures of our favourite fibre, local/regional/Canadian wool! Together, we’ll create a multi-panel ‘Bayeux’-style tapestry about our wool”.

Their own description about themselves is :

“The Future is Wool uses wool and craft to propose the questions: of Does the pleasure of handwork and the chance to work in community with other makers bring us comfort in this time of [post?] pandemic anxiety? Does wool’s biodegradability ease our ecological grief as our planet faces what seems like catastrophic climate change? This project is ongoing”. https://re-imagine.ca/the-future-is-wool/

13.1-13.4 “the Future of Wool” booth close up of image they are making, pictures of people embroidering,

They had a range of ages helping with their embroidered tapestry and all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

13.5) a large age range participated in the embroidery.13.5) a large age range participated in the embroidery.

Each time a went past this booth, there were new people helping by work on part of it. the promotion of wool is always a good thing for felters and spinners!

Just around the corner was another booth that cot my attention (ok, so I may be easily distracted but did you see what was on the table?)

inuit mitts and hat14.1) hat and mitts on table

Since we are now on page 11 as I am typing this up, I should probably stop and show you the rest of this and the neighbouring booth, and a few of the outdoor vendors and the guest sheep next post, part 3. In the mean time I will let you drool at those mitts as I did. Do you think that is seal and fox fur? I would never have cold fingers again!!!

i hope you are enjoying the vicarious shopping and have room for a bit more next post. until then have fun and keep felting, or maybe washing he last couple fleeces before the snow arrives again!

Sven Came Home

Sven Came Home

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We got the call the other day that our new (baby) ram is ready to come home. We decided to call him Sven. He has grown since April. He now weighs 70 pounds(32 kg).

Here he is with his fellow lambs. He is the one in the back with the white on top of his head. He knows something is up.

HI is still a baby, so he was easily rounded up and carried to the dog crate in the back of the van. He was not impressed with his travel accommodation.

Here he is looking back as we drove away. It made me feel sad.

But that didn’t last long, and he was looking out the front window. He didn’t complain much at all.

And now he is in his new temporary home. He will stay here for a few weeks to settle in, and then we will put him next to the Storm, our current ram, and the ladies to get acquainted.

Here he is listening to Storm and the ladies yell greetings from the other side of the barn. This was a couple of weeks ago. He is settling in nicely and no longer thinks my son is going to kill him when he brings him his grain. He will even let him pat him if there is grain on the offering.

Lastly, a couple of close-ups of his wool. I hope to make something nice out of it next year. The sun shot shows you the lovely colour.

Exciting News – New Online Classes!

Exciting News – New Online Classes!

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We have two new online classes available, one for newer felt makers and one for more experienced felt makers.

The first online class, Wet Felting a Vessel Using a Simple Resist, is taught by Helene and will teach newer feltmakers how to use a resist. If you know how to wet felt a flat piece of felt but want to move on to making 3D felt objects, this class is for you. The class is online and can be started and accessed at any time. You will have continual access so that you can keep coming back to the class videos and PDF’s at any time as you progress in your felt making. Students will also have access to a private Facebook group to show their work and ask questions of Helene.

You will learn about making resists, what materials to use, how to layout your wool, prefelting and felting over the resist as well as fulling and shaping your vessel. Helene will also show you how to progress from a simple shape to other options only limited by your imagination. Click here for more information and to register now.

The other new online class which will start October 17, is 3D Multi-Part Resist by Ann M. This class is designed for intermediate felt makers who have made vessels or other items over a resist. If you have seen more complex vessels and wondered how they were made, this class will teach you how to create a “book” resist and create a multi-part vessel.  Ann will be posting more about her class soon. If you’re interested, you can fill out our contact us form to get on the email list to notify you when registration opens.

If you are just starting on your felting journey, our Wet Felting for Beginners online class is always available. If you take this class first, you will be ready for Helene’s vessel class and then move on to Ann’s more complex vessel class or Helene’s hanging spiral class.

Mitred squares detail view
Memories Sweater (Work in progress)

Memories Sweater (Work in progress)

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This blog talks about my attempts to knit the Memories Sweater pattern by Sally Melville.  I will start by sharing the project photos of Sally’s inspiring sweater.  As you can see, this is a neat pattern and a great way to use up random bits of sock yarn.

My first attempt with the pattern was in May 2022.  I dug out some sock yarn and started.  After 5 weeks, this is all the progress I managed.  I had a few hiccups… one was that the various sock yarns had slightly different gauges.  And the bigger problem was the square itself.  The mitred square in the pattern had a spine going down the middle of the square.  I found making squares in this style to be frustrating.  And so the project got put into a bag on a time out.  Three years later it has not been retrieved.

Modular knitting panel
First attempt (June 2022)

Now we advance to June 2025.  My husband I and were going on a long car trip to visit family.  I wanted to find a project that would be good trip knitting and also that would not take too much space.  I began to wonder if maybe I should attempt the Memories Sweater again.

To try and avoid the gauge problem, I decided to use a single brand of sock yarn.  I had this selection of Patons Stretch Socks, which is a fingering yarn with lots of cotton (41% Cotton, 39% Wool, 13% Nylon, 7% Other).  I thought it would be a good match for a summer top like this.

Patons Stretch Socks
Patons Stretch Socks

Next I decided to look around for another mitred square pattern to use as a substitute.  I found the Knitted Patchwork Recipe by Martine Ellis and gave it a try.  I was very happy with my first square.

Knitted patchwork recipe and first square
Knitted patchwork recipe and first square

And in late June I started knitting in earnest.  I knit steadily from June 30th to mid August.

Along the way I began to worry that I would run out of yarn.  I posted an ISO (In Search Of) post on Ravelry and a few people came to my aid and sold me spare balls from their stash.  These new colours got added into the panels.

 

Eventually I had 2 completed panels and then I began to add edging on 3 sides as the pattern instructed.

And here is a view of the panels with edging complete.

Completed panels (edging complete)
Completed panels (edging complete)

I then tried to figure out what to do next.  I read and re-read the pattern for the shoulder/sleeve section and was stumped.  In the original sweater the designer had more squares in her panels than I had in mine.  So after searching through pattern notes and looking online I resorted to emailing the designer for help.  Luckily Sally Melville kindly answered my questions and has provided some clarifications to help me move forward.  However, I have not yet had the time to devote to implementing her directions and starting the shoulder section of the sweater.  But I am hoping to get to that soon.  I look forward to sharing my finished sweater in a future blog post.

 

 

 

 

A Summer Round Up

A Summer Round Up

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As I sit down to begin this post the sky has darkened and the rain (fingers crossed) is about to fall, heaven knows we need it, but what a fabulous summer it’s been so far here in sunny Lincolnshire! I don’t know about you but I tend to not do too much in the way of creative stuff through July and August as there are too many distractions and this year the intense heat has made me feel very lazy so lots of time spent relaxing, reading and watching creative videos. Consequently I’ve now got a table of projects I want to finish and a head full of others I want to start!

A couple of projects I did do this summer are two wet felted vessels. The first one, inspired by a shrivelled seed pod, was made at the İFA Region 8’s Summer School in Arnesby near Leicester. Our region encompasses several counties and is so spread out we struggle to get our İFA members to attend. On the other hand we have a regular group of creative ‘non members’ in the locality who are more than welcome to come along to our events, and thankfully they do! It was a busy and fun two days…..

My seed pod began life as five leaf book resist measuring 27cm x 36cm and various colours of Merino and Corriedale fibres.

It’s final shape was formed after lots of pushing and pulling and using strong clips to get it to stay as I wanted it.I decided to keep the opening as tiny as possible and, as a consequence, the resist had to be ripped to shreds in order to remove it! I’m wondering about adding some hand embroidery here and there in the shape of circles using a dull gold thread, I think it’s lacking something but is that it?

Photo of a wet felted 3D multicoloured seed pod with a shrivelled appearance.
Photo of a wet felted 3D multicoloured seed pod with a shrivelled appearance.

The second vessel was started last Friday when I was working at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln. I’d seen a post somewhere mentioning they were having their second Artist Studio Day and inviting local artists to apply. If successful it meant I would get the use of a table in their ground floor workspace and get to spend the day with four other artists. It sounded like a great opportunity and I’m so glad I applied! Only four artists turned up on the day and unfortunately one of those had to leave early. My other two companions were both painters and it was nice to get to know a bit about them and watch them work. We had a few members of the public come in to see what we were doing but for most of the time it was very quiet which allowed us to focus on what we were doing.

Knowing I wouldn’t get finished, but would need to get my vessel to a stable state before leaving the gallery, meant I needed to do a bit of prep the day before. So I decided on a size, cut my circular resist and made this piece of prefelt combining threads, fabrics and fibres to cut up and use as surface decoration.

Prefelt for surface decoration
By the time we had to leave I had a stable prefelt that looked like a pizza and could be folded into my bag….it was too large to carry it flat!
The finished rock inspired vessel

One of the Summer pieces I’ve yet to finish is an Iris which I started at the end of July. This is going to be for the Lincolnshire Textile Groups Bountiful Botanicals competition taking place in October. I’m creating it from hand painted Tyvek fabric and wire and the flower will be approximately 30cm dia by 115cm tall. I’ve just got the leaves to do now and then I’ve got the perfect spot for it in my lounge when it’s finished. I don’t want to reveal too much before the competition so this is a sneak preview for now…..

 Finally I’ll leave you with some images from this year’s fabulous Asylum Steampunk Festival. As ever there were some outstanding costumes, some very strange costumes and some that looked like they’d missed the theme altogether but it really didn’t matter! There were steampunk enthusiasts represented from all over the UK and from various European countries. One lady said she had come over from Hong Kong especially to join in the festival! The atmosphere is the friendliest you could imagine and the whole Cathedral Quarter was buzzing!

True to form I didn’t make time to create a costume but this year I did dig out a long skirt and a waistcoat as a (very) token gesture in order to wear my oversized steampunk dragonfly brooch.

 

Snape Textile Group exhibition – prep

Snape Textile Group exhibition – prep

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This is just a very simple post as I frantically prepare for our Snape Textile Group’s exhibition of work, showcasing our work from a year’s worth of interesting monthly workshops. These are given mostly by external tutors, but we usually have two ‘in house’ lead activities and an annual challenge. I must admit I haven’t completed the latter….I simply can’t get my head around altered books, no matter how I try!

I have enjoyed many of the workshops with the keen intention of finishing them at home, but life has a habit of dictating otherwise and then suddenly I am up to my elbows in the next workshop. So, anyone remembering the subject of two previous posts relating to Decovil, one of this year’s workshops….NO, I haven’t finished it and….YES, I can hear you nattering at me from here! One day I will surprise you all 😁

Our hardworking group leader always plans our workshops 12+ months ahead and once booked, sends out our group programme complete with the websites for all our tutors. Over the last few years, I have taken this opportunity to see what our tutors are creating, what their tastes are and what we might be doing. The result of my homework and exploring ‘G’ online (thank you to all the authors of the info/pix I have used for inspiration) is that I usually go to the workshop armed with lots of inspiration photos….it helps me consolidate my thoughts.

Herewith the projects (in no particular order) I have finally managed to complete and will enter into our 2025 exhibition –

Paper Collage with Sharron Bates

From her work online I knew it was to be a ‘whimsical’ theme on houses, many of which were seaside based. Exploring, I found many other whimsical houses to whet my appetite.

That set me off thinking about my past and very happy times living by the sea (I now live smack bang in the middle between coasts!), resulting in a collection of photo views of my most memorable locations.

The bottom set are of Langstone Harbour (South England). The Royal Oak pub (extreme bottom right) was a favourite late teenage venue, sitting on the footpath dangling our legs over the edge with the tide coming in, particularly when cars parked on the sand were being slowly swallowed by the rising water. The publican would always be shouting for the owner/s to retrieve their car/s. It was extremely entertaining watching the shenanigans as ‘unfamiliar’ motorists tried to rescue their cars particularly those who didn’t want to get their shoes or trousers wet!!! It was hysterical at times and great entertainment. Sadly (er-hmm) they have now got barriers to stop folk parking on the sand – spoilsports! But I digress….

Top is a view across the water to Bosham, further east along the south coast (Bosham is pronounced Boz-am – we always took great delight in listening if folk were local as not far away there is a Cosham pronounced Cosh-um!). Please forgive another digression again related to water…. On the seaward side there is a lower tarmac road which you can access from either end of the village. However, when the tide is in, the road is totally covered. You are probably ahead of me here….we have seen many folk removing socks and shoes and rolling up their trousers to avoid the inevitable knee-deep soaking – sometimes folk just won’t listen to the locals 🤣

Back to the workshop….

Our tutor provided us with ample supplies and examples of how to achieve her houses which we would work onto a page/s of an old book.

There was an amazing collection of houses at the end of the day.

As always, I did follow all the instructions but with my twist on Bosham as my subject! I was lucky as my chosen book had fold out pages allowing me to create the wider landscape format. It does however remain the only picture in what should be another altered book!

 

Cyanotype explorations with Kim Tillyer

I have not experimented with cyanotype before, in fact very few of our group had, so for me this was to be quite an exciting day of exploration. Our tutor had certainly gone above and beyond in terms of preparation, having pre-painted about six A5 sheets of artist water colour paper of various thicknesses, plus some fabric for everyone, before we then painted our own remaining sheets of paper and fabric.

I was so wrapped up in the process I didn’t take any photos at all.

For those who are new to cyanotype – it is a light sensitive solution made by combining two chemicals (ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide) with water. From the moment it is mixed, and the yellow liquid is applied to the surface it is reacting, so it needs to be placed in total darkness to dry. Then the fun begins….

Objects – vegetation, hard objects (keys, stencils, plastic etc) – are placed on the dry painted surface and to assist holding the objects in position, a glass or Perspex sheet is placed over the top. More can be added on top of this sheet, but it won’t be quite so clearly defined. The whole package is taken into the sun and the magic happens….the yellow surface becomes blue with white impressions of the objects. Once this has happened the painted sheet must be washed thoroughly.

It is a quick reaction, only 2-4 mins, and a very addictive process!

I later stitched into two of my watercolour paper pieces with white and copper threads and was honoured that one of them was used for the exhibition promotion poster.

I didn’t really know what to do with my lovely blue pieces but then had an idea – to use most of them (90%) in a collage, which then ended up as a machine stitched patchwork combined with other plain and eco-printed fabric pieces. When I say I used most….I included all the watercolour paper and even the under-paper (used to protect the table) which instead of throwing away I had washed! Everything was carefully machine stitched into and ironed!

The actual patchwork is A2 (420x594mm/16.5×23.4in) in size, so the framed piece is quite large!

 

Fabric boxes with Suzette Smart

We have had the pleasure of Suzette’s tutorage before, this time it was to be boxes. She has a lovely collage style of work often with birds, which, whilst I’m impressed by and admire, isn’t exactly my cup of tea so to speak.

However, I followed all the making instructions (almost) but did the collage as something I would happily have at home.

We were given two pieces of iron-on pelmet Vilene, kindly pre-marked, one slightly smaller than the other. The idea being that two half boxes would be created allowing one to be the base sliding into the other. We created collages of our fabric (brought from home) which we ironed onto the Vilene and then machine stitched over.

Having examined the tutor’s example completed boxes, I noticed that cutting the shape to her design, meant that the stitching would also be cut and the corners would have raw fraying edges….remember, I’m a neat-nic so, ‘fraying’ struggles to get a place in my vocabulary! Uh hmmm….my brain told me if I cut it differently, I would not cut my precious stitching, and the corners would be folded. I did say ‘almost’! I spoke with the tutor and having drawn and then cut my idea out of rough paper she gave her approval and even took a photo! I have placed both templates in my records file for future reference.

At home I completed both half boxes as fully decorated ‘tops’ having decided to make card/paper bottoms for each, using my fiddly template.

 

 

Sea and stones with Rachel Singleton  

I have followed Rachel for several years and was looking forward to meeting her in person. She came armed with so many examples, which I loved seeing in the flesh. I was not disappointed.

We had to bring fabric and potatoes….yes, we were going back to our childhood doing potato printing using just a limited palette of acrylic paints….woohoo! It was fun swapping cut potatoes too, which enabled many stacked stone images to be created that day.

I made mostly single prints rather than immediately printing stacked stones, as I had an idea in my head to create a stack out of more 3D stones. I even printed on some very textured fabric as an experiment….both the tutor and I were pleased that it worked. The texture gave me a good starting point for stitching into the stone which I then padded. Thus far I have two 3D stones….I need to make more….so this project remains a WIP.

 

From sketch to wall with Tansy Hargan

Tansy is another artist I have followed for many years and looked forward to her workshop. She had brought numerous examples of her vibrant collages.

It was a very different workshop in that we had to sketch from real life outside using a ‘viewfinder’ (for want of a description) and a combination of only 3 pens of different colours, types and thicknesses, onto pre-drawn small rectangles on our sheet of paper. We then had to translate our sketches into mini collages, with small scraps of paper.

Setting our mini paper collages aside, we randomly painted larger scraps of fabric with acrylic paint. Finally, using our, now dry, painted fabric and other fabric scraps, we had to produce a larger collage based on our original sketches/mini paper collages, into which we machine and hand stitched.

By the end, although not complete, I had laid out two collages, the smaller (15x15cm) came from one of my original sketches! The larger (23x23cm) was based on the lavender and its shadows. In hindsight, studying the now framed lavender collage against Tansy’s work, I think I could certainly have added even more vibrant coloured stitching….workshops are a learning curve!

 

Finally – Autumn trees with Fiona Robertson

As I have already written more than intended, I will leave you with my final submitted piece (with a hastily cut paper mount), which is still a WIP, and hope that you will follow its progress in another post!

 

 

I’m skidding in on the seat of my pants with this post and almost as a post script….I have just returned from seeing our group’s exhibition which is always very popular and well attended by visitors. We have so many talented members….I will always be in awe and learning all the way.

 

For those familiar with my posts, you’ll know I often think at a tangent, but I was beaten hands down with this one. One of our members completed the altered book challenge by altering hers into a ‘FULL-size’ Kimono. It is stunning. She has backed the pages with iron-on Vilene and even stitched a long plant design onto it. The handbag is made from the original book’s hardcover.

Now why didn’t I think that an altered book could also be altered into 3 dimensions? As I said above, I’m always learning 😁

I hope you’ve learnt something new lately!

Twist 2025, Part 1 new booths of interests

Twist 2025, Part 1 new booths of interests

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Twist 2025 new booths of interest

Some of you have joined me in previous years on the trip to Twist Fibre Festival in Saint-André-Avellin, QC. It’s about an hour and 15 minutes from home, a bit longer with construction detours this year. It is worth the drive in shopping opportunities and usually has lovely scenery. (We had some of the smoke from fires much further west so it was too hazy for the views overlooking the river). Twist is also the largest of the close fiber events to Ottawa.  Please join me as we take a peek, first at the demos and a new booth that I hope will catch your interest too. We will take a look at more of the event in the next post. Don’t forget to meet me at La Toquade restaurant for after shopping Dinner of comfy duck sandwiches.

photo montoge of line up getting into Twist on friday morning (it was very hot) and close ups of the decorations by the sign which is a sheep on a rocket1)Lining up to get into Twist 2025

Demo Hall way,

There are two halls (Gym and Arena), one on either side of a main hall, which also leads to the back of the building, where more vendors in a large tent were located. The hallway is where the demos from various fiber arts groups are located, including the local weaving guild and our neighbour guild across the river. Let’s take a quick peek before heading into the main hall. I was sure I had taken pictures of the knitting guild, and author and one other group at the end of the hall by the tent but I don’t seem to see them. This year we had examples of weaving, spinning, and a bit of felting at the guild table.

OVWSG Demo table table loom on table OVWSG Demo table Suport spindle spinning2.1-2.2) OVWSG Demo table

Gatineau Guild of weavers banner and table display2.3) Guilde des tisserandes de Gatineau; our neighbour guild on the other side of the Ottawa River

lace makeing pillow with hands moving bobins2.4) The Lace makers guild

Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere banner Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere table of finger woven bands2.5-2.6) Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere

While at Twist fiber festival, I spotted a few new booths which caught my attention and I thought you would also find interesting. So I am going to focus on one of the booths today but we will look at the rest of the event hopefully in the next post.

New Vendor has felt

At this point, we had arrived, said hi to the morning demo team, and started looking for booths selling fiber or (Needle) felting supplies.  It was close to opening time, and was still quite busy with a rush of shoppers.  I had to wait to get into the booth. The little I could see from outside had me curious as to what else might be in there. I was sure it would be worth the wait.

glimps of wool felt between people stopping and walking in front of where i was trying to see in3.1)I see wool! Yes, that definitely looks like wool. I wonder which booth this is?

As the crowd parted, I could see the signage “Field & Fleece” and “WoolGrown”.  Behind the sign was a 3 foot tall roll of felt!! As well as bags of fiber (I think I overheard the bags of fleece were mixed rideau-arcott sheep fleeces?)

montage of photos, signage and bags of wool, lamb covers, wool pellets for gardening3.2) When the crowd parted and I could see part of the booth!

rolls of various lenths and widths of horticultural felt.3.3) Precut lengths of felt, some have holes cut out for planting plants, others are solid.

samples in booth of poducts made from this felt, jacket bag, art, and small bags of fiber 3.4) There were examples of wool Felt use; Jacket, purses, art, small batts in bags

There were also small strips of wool rolled up on the table. They were selling them to start seeds in. I looked at them and saw name tags!!!

3" and 4" widths of felt in long strips, they are to plant seeds but i am going to make name tages 3.5) wool strips  for sale in the booth

The strips were being sold as “Seed starting wool strips the eco-friendly evolution of the innovative seed-starting method known as the “Seed Snail.”” The concept seems to be to un-roll the wool strip about 4” x 4’ long, add moistened potting soil mix, roll up the dirt with wool, making something that looks like a less tasty cinnamon roll. Plant the seeds at the top of the roll, so the roots will grow down between the circles of wool. That sounds like an interesting concept but I still see name tags when I look at these rolls. There were a few different widths so I selected a few of the wider (about 4”) and a couple of the cheaper 3-ish” ones.

If you noticed the little square about an inch thick by about 4 inches, I picked up one of those too. I will try it out as a felting surface later.

Since I had finally got to the front of the booth and had already found a small selection of items, I kept looking.

ceramic sheep bole with blacksmith made masonre nails. (to use for mordenting dies)3.6) OH my! What is that?

Not the prins, look in the cup! I was just apologising to Glenn, as we drove here, that I suspected the booths selling blacksmithing items or supplies would again be rather thin.(ok, None. I am sure it’s just an unintentional oversight that will be fixed at some point in the future.) Those rusty items are square-headed nails, and look like blacksmith-made objects! I asked about them and was enlightened that they were the “nails” from a brick wall that had been taken down and she didn’t have the heart to toss them. She was selling them for dyers to mordant their dye baths. I bought a little bundle for Glenn so his day was not just carrying my packages and taking naps on a bench while I shopped or photographed.

Since you have seen the extreme relaxation (napping) demonstrated at various fiber festivals I should not deprive you of another sighting.

Husband sitting on bench sleeping peicefuly while shopping happens behind him4.1) Fibre festivals are a good spot for extreme relaxation.

Mer-Boyfrend self-feling his own abbs Mer-Boyfrend self-feling his own abbs another vew4.2-4.3) The Mer-boyfriend got impatient and started to work on his own abbs. I spent too much time explaining why I was making another mer-person to people stopping to ask what I was doing and how did it work? (Yes, I got another voodoo comment too!)

I filled in at the OVWSG Demo Friday afternoon, as the demo started to pack up, I “rushed” back to buy the roll of felt but they were unfortunately closed…. Drat. Ok almost everyone is faster than I am at the moment.

While we are still in town, we can go enjoy the comfy duck sandwiches at the La Toquade Restaurant. It’s part of the enjoyment of going to twist, and I think about this sandwich for a year between twists, so let’s go see it they are still as memorably delicious as it was last year. (Oh yes it was!!)

on a long rectangle plate, good fries, a small salid with rasbary balsamic vinagret, frenchfrie dipp and the amazing sandwich ingredients listed below photo5)“Club sandwich au confit de canard- Servi dans un pain abricot-raisin-tournesol garni de bacons, oignons, pommes vertes, céleris et mayonnaise maison et un choix de frites ou de salade mesclun” / (Google helped and translated the above to English for me: “Duck Confit Club Sandwich – Served in an apricot-raisin-sunflower bun topped with bacon, onions, green apples, celery and homemade mayonnaise and a choice of fries or mesclun salad”.  the dip for the very tasty french fries was “choix de mayonnaise maison” and the small salid had a fabulouse rasbary baslamic vinigret. Desert was Mousse au chocolat (I think that has to be one of the best types of Moose). If you make it to twist, this may tempt you to stay in town for dinner or a late lunch.

After a delicious dinner, we headed for the highway, through rolling hills and past a very picturesque stream, which I keep meaning to stop and take pictures. Unfortunately, shortly after getting on the highway, we found the highway was closed, so wound up enjoying rock cuttings and farm land while following a very round about detour. (We eventually found out the road was closed for paving.)

pick up truck (licence plate obsured) has bound (tied up) small couch in back.6) I suspect I have been watching/listening to too much US political news on you tube. We saw this in front of us on the detour. Can you guess my first thought as to who must be having a quick getaway visit to Canada?

We did make it home after enjoying parts of Quebec we had not seen before. I spent the rest of the evening reviewing Fridays photos and posting some on the OVWSG Group FB page, I did a bit of investigating on the internet since I regretted not buying one of the rolls of felt.

WoolGrown Company web site: www.woolgrowncompany.com

WoolGrown Company on Face book: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568471715075

This is a Canadian company, based in southern Ontario. It is a lot closer to drive to Twist (Just over 1 hour east), than to drive west, well past Toronto (Over 6 hours south-west of Ottawa). (Which is why I was trying to get back to twist on Sunday.)

As I heard at twist and saw on their web site, they were looking at ways to diversify their farm production (sheep farming).  On their web site i found links for Wool pellets for mulch, Garden & Horticulture Felt (which was the felt I purchased on Friday, but not the option with holes precut in it for plants) and Sheep Tea Pouches. In their booth, were also examples of; felt art, Felt Jackets, Felt Bags and felt Pots as well as the felt itself.

I tried messaging the company on their Facebook page (but they were likely very busy recovering from day 1 of twist) since I knew going back on Saturday was not an option. I would have to hope to be up and running… er, walking… ok rolling on Sunday.  Glenn said he was up to joining me again, (he was hoping for more Comfy duck), so off we went back to Twist early Sunday morning.

large roll of felt (hordicultural) 3' tall and very long. sitting partly behind sign saying Feild and Fleece7.1) 3 foot tall roll of wool felt!

Ah good they have not sold out, but as I got closer, there was a lot of stock missing. The 10 foot by 1 foot rolls were gone and so were the other sizes I had seen on Friday (Drat). Luckily, Sunday morning at opening was not as busy as Friday, or I heard Saturday had been, so they said they could cut me a piece from the big roll.

mesureing out 4 feet of the lenght from the roll mesureing out 4 feet of the lenght from the roll7.2-7.3) I got 4 feet of the big roll.

I am hopeful I will be able to use this with my picture felting students. I need cut pieces that are a bit bigger than 5”x7” finished picture size.  I want my students to feel the difference 100% wool felt feels, when compared to the cheap part wool, to full acrylic non-woven options for picture felting bases.

close up of some of the pices i purched from this vendor. 8.1) “Horticultural”, as you can see there is some kemp and a bit of VM. Even so, it looks like it will make a good base for picture Needle felting.

Let me show you some of what I wound up with from this vendor, I will show you the rest later. I am looking forward to investigating this wool felt, hopefully soon.

Today (which will be yesterday as you read this) we headed south of Ottawa to Kemptville for a much more intimate fiber festival. I had wonderful chats about felting and fiber and thoroughly enjoyed myself. (Glenn read a book and had another nap, I told you fiber events were extremely relaxing, soon all husbands will want to attend with us, just for the quality napping!!) I would like to show you a couple of interesting displays and booths there too, but let’s finish off visiting Twist next. Don’t forget to save a bit of virtual or actual money for shopping at Almonte Fiberfest on Sept 6th 2025 if you are in the area!!

Silk Hanky Dyeing

Silk Hanky Dyeing

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I have a Flower Workshop coming up in September at a local museum. Just outside Ottawa, at Pinheys Point. If you’re interested, sign up here.

One of the flowers we make uses a silk hanky. I was running low on most of my colours, so it was time for a dye day.

New undyed silk hankies are hard to get wet. There is still a lot of sericin in the hankies. Particularly in the thicker edges. For those who don’t know, silk hankies are usually made from the cocoons of silk moths that hatch. The cocoons are stretched out into rectangles or caps. The cocoons are held together with sericin, it is like a glue that doesn’t easily dissolve in water.

In order to get them properly wet, I use a little soap in the water and let them soak overnight.

 

 

Here is what I had in my box of hankies

I had quite a few of the pink and grey. It’s not a popular pick for anyone in classes. I don’t know why I think it’s really pretty.  There is quite a bit of magenta the purple, and pink. I will over-dye some of those.

For silk dying, you can use either acid dye, like you use for wool or other animal fibres, or MX dye (fibre reactive dye), like you use for cotton or other plant fibres. I use a variation of low water immersion dying with MX dyes.  The site I like for dye information is Paula Burches’ All about Hand Dying

Then I added colour to the new ones.

This one, I added the kelly green first in a few spots, and then a mix of the amethyst and navy to get a blue-purple.

This one folded the hanky by pinching the middle and folding the edges down. I added the yellow where the point is.  and a little at the bottom. I mixed some red to the peach to get a more burnt orange colour and poured it over the rest. I elevated the pointy end a bit so the red-orange wouldn’t flow over it.

For this one again, an orangy red and ice blue.

And lastly, seafoam and plum blossom. I don’t use seafoam often; I always think it will be an icky pale green colour, but as you see, it is not. I need to find my dye chart and hang it up somewhere. I almost forgot to take a picture of this one.

 

I didn’t take pictures of rinsing.  So you don’t get to see where I forgot to put my gloves on and turned my hands blue. The one thing to note with MX dye is that the colours do not exhaust.

Then it was onto the drying racks.

Have you been dying lately?