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Tutorials and E-Books

Tutorials and E-Books

I was trying to think of a topic I hadn’t posted about lately, so had a quick look back at some of my old posts. I came across a couple talking about writing tutorials, but couldn’t decide which one to use as a “Throwback Post”, so thought I’d combine them for a bigger picture, and for those who missed them the first time round! I’ve altered the wording slightly here and there so they fit together better.

In June 2013, I was working on my Polymer Clay tutorial, so I thought I’d do a post about what goes into writing tutorials or e-books. Looking at a really good one, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s pretty much just getting someone to take photos while you go through the stages, or at the most, stopping to take photos if you’re doing it alone. Then just adding some text to the photos in Word. Ah, if only it was that simple  🙂  Sometimes the shorter ones can be straightforward if it all goes well, but even then there is usually lots of photo editing,  cropping, resizing, etc. and rewrites of the text.

So, what does happen? Well we probably all do it a little differently, but usually I start off with a rough idea, a few things jotted down, then write a brief outline of what I want to include.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ll type this out onto Wordpad, then start to give it more definition, separate it into sections then add info about the content I want in each section. I usually do a copy of this new outline with a list of all the photos I need to take for it or sets of photos, then print it out and start on the photos.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ll probably re-print the list quite a few times as I work through it and change my ideas. I like to keep a notebook close by when I take photos because I usually end up with ideas for something else I need to include or an idea that will help make another set work better. Also it’s good to take notes about what you’re doing in the photo and at certain stages because it will help to explain the process more clearly.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAEven when I’m not actually working on the tutorial, something will pop into my head, so I usually end up with lots of loose pieces of paper with little notes on. It’s like one idea inspires others and you can’t see how you can leave something out without it seeming incomplete. I thought from the original idea for my Polymer Clay tutorial it would be several pages long and just take a few days to do with careful planning, but by the time I wrote down my outline it was already turning into a mini e-book!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOnce all the photos have been taken, the most laborious part I find, is going through all the photos…deleting blurry ones first then going back and looking through the rest carefully to choose the final ones. And if you’ve ever taken photos of felt or fibre, you’ll know it usually takes a lot of photos to get the one good shot you need 🙂  I then usually make duplicate folders for resizing. It isn’t unusual for me to have 4 duplicate sets all at different sizes.

Photo foldersWhen it comes to the writing, I usually start by simply describing the process, trying not to overthink it, and use the photos to illustrate this. Then I pester anyone and everyone to read it through for me, it’s really good to get the opinion of someone who hasn’t tried what your tutorial is about, they can ask all the questions you need to answer but might have missed. Once the first draft is finished, I’ll probably ask Ann, Ruth and Marilyn from the studio site and Lyn from the forum to read through too, it’s good to make sure it’s understandable to people all over, and that there aren’t any words or phrases that are unfamiliar, even to English speakers. It’s strange the words we take for granted that are often questioned. Once I’m happy with all the words and pictures, I work on the layout. That’s where the duplicate sets of photos come in, if a photo used in the tutorial only needs to be small and doesn’t show any detail, using photos of smaller dimensions and file size can reduce the overall file size of the document and subsequent PDF. The finished ‘tutorial’, ended up as an e-book called ‘Polymer Clay Simply Made

It doesn’t matter how many times I write a tutorial, and many people will understand this, I always massively underestimate how long it will take. Actually, the underestimation probably increases each time as I think it should be easier/quicker having done it so many times! I started writing a new one in March 2017 on how to make one of those soft, wispy, scruffy, colourful pieces of felt everyone seems to love. We make them in about 45 minutes in classes, so I thought I’d just need one day to take all the photos, except my camera battery died after the layout photos. I probably won’t need all 120 photos, but I like to be thorough! This is the photo of the finished layout:

Luckily, it was bright enough the next day to finish off felting and get the rest of the photos done. This is just before it was rolled in a towel and left to dry:

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I take photos for tutorials, I jabber on to myself in my head, giving a running commentary on what I’m doing. I suppose I’m talking to ‘the reader’, so I can make sure all the steps are covered and I don’t miss anything out. This was going really well while I was doing the layout, I’m usually over-cautious (as the 120 photos would suggest) and end up with loads of photos unused. Let’s face it, even a complete beginner doesn’t need to see every step of the wool tops being laid out 🙂 But when I downloaded the photos and looked through, all the photos of adding the embellishments were missing! Where were they? Did I forget to download them and then delete them off the camera? No, because I didn’t download/delete anything until the 2nd day. So where were they? I must have zoned out as some point, wandered off to get a drink or put music on, then got too engrossed in adding all the yarns and shiny fibres because there were no photos between finishing the top layer of wool, and that finished top photo above. Luckily that was all I’d forgotten. Or so I thought! I wanted to show the versatility of the felt pieces and how they can be made into other things, such as the concertina pieces I’ve made into danglie decorative pieces:

So, while I was ‘on a roll’ with the felting, I took photos of the process of how to do that. Here it is all bundled up:

And then how it doesn’t have to become a concertina piece, but a more 3D ‘sculpural’ piece:

But that meant, not only did I not have any photos of adding embellishments, I also didn’t have photos of the finished dried piece! Luckily, I’m used to myself and how gormless and forgetful I am 🙂 And when you don’t have to take 120 photos of the process, doing a layout is really quick and easy, so it wasn’t too time consuming to re-create the piece and take photos of the missing stages.

If you’re interested in any of the tutorials I’ve written, including the ones mentioned here, please have a look at my etsy shop. I also have some larger, more in-depth e-books, Beyond Nuno, and The Right Fibre, which you can find out about by clicking the titles. And just in case there’s anyone who hadn’t noticed, we also have a ‘shop’ section here, and some of my e-books and tutes are listed there too 🙂

Felting With Nylon and Soy Fibres

Felting With Nylon and Soy Fibres

I made a few more fibre samples this week. I thought I’d use the same template for all of them to do comparisons. In the end, I only did a ‘normal’ sample and a ‘fulled hard’ sample of Trilobal Nylon for a direct comparison. Though thinking about it, for a ‘proper’ comparison, I should really have used the same colours! Each sample has two layers of the fibre, and 4 thin layers of 23 mic Merino. This is the Trilobal Nylon sample which I felted and fulled in the way I usually do:

Here’s a close up of the ripples/texture:

This is the Trilobal nylon sample I made and fulled hard:

The texture was interesting, especially where I used different colours for each fibre layer:

This next one is Soy top which I dyed, the tops all look nice, shiny, metallic shades, but for some reason, they now look a bit like wet tissue. Maybe two layers dulls the sheen?

The silver end looked quite nice:

My favourite piece was the Nylon Staple sample. It had a really nice, thick texture:

You can see it a bit more on an angle:

At first I was a bit disappointed with all the migration, because it covered some areas:

But, then I noticed there was something quite regular, almost geometric about the migration:

It can always be disguised by using a matching colour, or made a feature of by using a complementary colour. Here is a photo of all the pieces next to each other:

And, for reference, the bigger Trilobal Nylon sample on the template I used:

e-book Giveaway

e-book Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago I showed a photo of a fibre sampler I made at the well being centre, made with all staple fibres. Last week we made ones using lots of embellishment fibre tops, from Left to Right: Ingeo, Hemp, Viscose, Ramie, Soy, Flax, Bamboo, Banana

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHere’s a closer look:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAUsing lots of fibres gave me the idea to do a Giveaway of my e-book, The Right Fibre.

The Right Fibre smallIt isn’t a project based book- I don’t tell you how I think you should use fibres, it’s an objective look at them.  I profile 20 different embellishment fibres, and show lots of photos of how they look after felting in various ways, so it’s easy to compare them with each other and see similarities and differences.

compilation 1There is also a section detailing various things which affect the way a fibre will felt and look after felting, so by the end you have the information you need to choose the right fibre and give you more control over the outcome.

compilation 2For more information, have a look at the full blurb on my blog. To win a free copy of The Right Fibre, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. If you’d like to spread the word through your blog or facebook etc, it would be very much appreciated but it isn’t a requirement. I will randomly draw the winner 8 days from now on Saturday 3rd Dec 2016, so please check back to see if you’ve won. Good Luck!

compilation 3The Giveaway is now closed. Thanks for entering!

Giveaway Winner and a Quick Question

Giveaway Winner and a Quick Question

The Right Fibre smallGIVEAWAY WINNER: The Winner for The Right Fibre giveaway is… nanacathy! Well done, Cathy, I’ll email you a link to download the e-book 🙂

Did I say winner? I meant winnerS, I can’t have so many entries and just pick one, can I?! So, Meriel Kosakar, I’ll also be emailing a link to you too to download the book 🙂

Well done, and thank you so much to everyone who entered and for all the really nice comments. We do appreciate all our blog readers and it’s nice to get such positive feedback. I was hoping to have a bigger post and news about doing some fibre variety packs for sale on etsy or Facebook, but the battery died in my scales and I had to order new ones. So, I thought I might get chance to do some felting, but had the toothache from hell all week and couldn’t even look down without the whole right side of my face throbbing and feeling like my jaw was falling off. But if you do have time, I’d love to know if there’s much interest for a multi-pack of fibres? I don’t just mean a few of the usual ones, it’d have to be something a lot better to make it economical, somewhere in the 150-200g/4.5-7 0z range, maybe even samples of the whole 20 from The Right Fibre. Or even a few more! What do you think?

Year End Round Up

Year End Round Up

Every year I think I never had much time to do everything I wanted, but at least I did get to do some things which I enjoyed. I always enjoy the challenges we do on the Studio site and seeing everyone’s entries. I think this was my favourite piece from all the challenges, from Ann’s Stewart Stephenson challenge:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI tried a few new things this year, one of them was making a hat for the first time:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI also tried commercial prefelt pieces kindly donated by Heidi Feathers.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI also tried a new embellishment fibre, Kapok:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd some new animal fibres. This is yak, it was the softest fibre I’d ever felt (or felted!):

??????????????????????Until I got some camel fibre, even softer!:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI know a lot of people prefer to make felt with a ‘purpose’, but I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of experimenting and trying combinations of different wool breeds or animal fibres with various embellishment fibres, just for the fun of it. A few of my favourite pieces: Dark Brown Corriedale with Ingeo:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAngora goat with black and white viscose:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnother things I love is texture, surface design and sculptural felt, I did a bit of that this year too:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI do like colour too, so had fun dyeing a lot of wools and embellishment fibres recently. The milk protein was especially gorgeous:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThanks a lot for all the support this past year and all the nice comments an helpful advice, I hope you’ve enjoyed your past year too 🙂

Norwegian, Devon, Cotton and Bamboo

Norwegian, Devon, Cotton and Bamboo

I was going to do a post about Yak fibre and Bluefaced Leicester today, but I messed up the photos, so I’ll do that next time. This first piece is grey Norwegian wool tops with Egyptian Cotton. For the top two thirds, I used Egyptian cotton tops. The staple length is very short, so I started pulling off short wispy bits from the end as you would wool tops, and laid those on the right hand side. I also pulled off a longer length, then carefully teased it out and laid parts of it down the left. The bottom is Egyptian cotton fibre, it comes as thicker, shorter lengths. I teased some out, fluffed some up a little, then laid them on the wool.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of some of the wispy parts:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is an area of denser wispy cotton:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the longer lengths of cotton:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAClose up of the cotton fibre:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve probably mentioned more than once or twice how much I love curly wools 🙂  For this next piece I used Devon Wool tops and Black Bamboo tops. The top part has the bamboo laid on the surface, the bottom is a blend of Devon and Bamboo.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe black bamboo is more of a matte charcoal grey than black, and seems to be ‘fluffier’ than white bamboo tops:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAClose up:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt looks a lot paler when blended with the wool tops:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt doesn’t completely disappear when blended in, though:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd just because I love curly wools, the back:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Natural Wools and Embellishment Fibre Panels

Natural Wools and Embellishment Fibre Panels

I was thinking recently that I might have to change my plans a little bit, and make some different sized templates for my felt panels. Quite a few of the wools I’ve got have a very long staple length, much bigger than my current template. And the varying shrinkage rates makes a lot of the panels similar but not quite the same; so I think a variety of squares and rectangles might work out better to piece together in the end. I haven’t really thought too much about how I would actually ‘construct’ the hanging, one idea was the sew the edges of the panels together, kind of like seams on clothes, but visible so they formed little ridges, but I don’t want to lose the cool wavy edges some of the wool breeds like Lincoln create.
This is Brown Finnish wool with a covering of flax:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is another Finn piece, with a diagonal band of hemp, which is quite similar to flax.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAClose up:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a felt panel made with  ‘Humbug’ (stripes of black and white) Jacob, I used black and white viscose tops for this:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is more of a straight on shot:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAClose up:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis last panel is Black Jacob wool tops and Soy bean staple fibre.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love the effects you can get with the staple fibres.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADo you like to try different breeds of wool for felting? Do you have a favourite or ones you think are better suited to particular projects? How about embellishment fibres, do you have any favourites?

Giveaway Winner and Natural Wools and Fibres

Giveaway Winner and Natural Wools and Fibres

GIVEAWAY WINNER:
The winner of the Complete Wet Felting Kit from Heidi Feathers is … Kirsty Lowde. Congratulations, Kirsty , please can you leave a comment on this post so I can pass your contact info on to Zoe so she can arrange to post it to you (you don’t need to post your email address, I can get that from the Admin panel!)

kirsty Lowde
NATURAL WOOLS AND FIBRES
You might have seen my post on the forum last week about a wall hanging I made using natural coloured wool tops from many different wool breeds and some different embellishment fibres. Someone usually asks, so this time I’ve measured 🙂 It’s 30 inches long and 10 inches wide.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the bottom end, some of the wools and fibres are: Bluefaced Leicester tops and noil, Humbug Jacob, Black Jacob tops and noil, Lincoln, Gotland, flax, hemp, soy top, milk top and viscose:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the soy top and Lincoln tops.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this is viscose tops on Zwartble with some Ingeo to the side.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAs much as I love colours of dyed Merino or the textures of a nuno felted silk or shiny organza, I really love the variation of colours and textures you get with different combinations of natural wools and embellishment fibres. For as long as I’ve had natural wool tops and embellishment fibres I’ve been making various experimental pieces of felt with them, some just flat wet-felted, some combined with other techniques for a variety of surface designs or sculptural effects. When I got my recent World of Wool order and a few more breeds to try, I thought I’d also start to make a variety of small panels with the intention of maybe combining them into one large wall hanging some day. This is a panel I made using Manx Loaghtan wool tops and Bamboo staple fibre:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is an angled photo of the panel I made with Grey Herdick wool tops and Hemp fibre:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this last piece is something I made alongside the top stripey piece:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThanks again to Heidi Feathers for the generous giveaway prize and prefelt pieces to try out.

 

Very Pink

Very Pink

My sister got me some wool tops for Christmas. Even before I’d seen the colours, I’d decided I’d make her a book cover from whatever she chose, thinking she’d probably choose her favourites. She chose a selection of pinks, not the colours I would have chosen for her, but pinks it is 🙂  I Picked out some shades I already had that I thought would work, I already had a salmon pink, some cerisey purple, reds, maroons and a nice lemon. Then I started to make some batts with my carder.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAt first I made up some batts without any other fibres blended in, I’ll use these for the bottom layer which will be inside the book cover. I split them in half lengthways after I’d made them, then rolled them up.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is one of the lighter batts before I split it and rolled it.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI used some soy top, viscose, a small amount of banana fibre, black bamboo and dyed silk tops to blend in to make the batts for the top.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI rolled these ones a bit differently

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI picked some fabrics to embellish the surface with, some silk strips, organza, dyed cotton gauze and some synthetic lacey stuff I bought years ago which looks like it might be meant for tying back net curtains. In the 70’s 🙂

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI picked a few more embellishments too. Some silk throwster’s waste, dyed bamboo fibre, commercial art yarns and fibres taken from unpicked yarns.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ll show you more pictures when I’ve started to make it 🙂

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