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FELT SWAPPING

FELT SWAPPING

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The International Feltmakers Association has been running an annual Felt Swap – setting a theme and linking members who’ve elected to join the challenge with a “swap partner” from somewhere in the world – since 2020.  I spotted the invitation to join in the 2025 swap on one of the regular emailed Newsletters and decided to have a go.  I started to write this post about the entry and remembered that I’d entered the first Swap and had posted about it.  However, when I trawled back through my posts to find the link for you, I found that I hadn’t actually written the post, let alone published it.  So we’d better start there.

The subject of that challenge was “Light”.  I thought a lot about this as it seemed such a wide subject and I didn’t know where to go with it.

To begin with I listed as many things as I could think of that could have anything at all to do with light and came up with: Light bulbs;   Bright light – dazzling – blurred;   Rainbow;   Prisms and light splitting;   Dark area with light coming in from one side;  Sun beams from behind clouds;   Fire light;   Moon light;   Lighthouse;   Northern Lights.

Clouds and especially stormy skies fascinate me and I thought that I could do something with this idea.  Initially I went for a sun low on the horizon just showing through some dark clouds but with rays going upwards behind the clouds.  For some reason this was not a success so was abandoned.

Then we had a thunderstorm and I had a lightbulb moment!  So I looked through some of Mr Google’s images just to remind myself what forked lightning looked like and then went for a storm over the sea, and used this image for reference.

dark sea, dark stormy clouds with forked lightning running from clouds to sea
Lightning at Sea

I have a collection of fibres, yarns and fabrics in my “stormy” project sack – too big to call a bag – and my first thought was to use some of those in the picture I had in mind.  I had already made a mixed media image of a storm at sea using various textiles and fibres and thought of doing something similar.

Mixed media picture of stormy clouds, rough sea, rocks, spray and wind tossed seagulls
Storm at the Coast

So I looked out some of the fabrics and yarns and other bits and pieces to see what I might use.

But in the end I decided that I wouldn’t use these for a couple of reasons: 1. this was supposed to be a “felt” swap; and 2. using the mixed media would possibly need a larger picture than I was making – we were limited to A5 size – 5.8 x 8.3 inches (sorry I don’t work in “the foreign” if I can help it).  I did use my stormy fibres though.

I was reasonably happy with the picture after it had dried, but decided to do a bit of tidying up and embellishing with some needle felting.

This is the final result

completed felt picture of storm at sea with dark clouds and forked lightning running down into the sea
The swap picture of LIGHTning

 

My swap partner, from Denmark,  sent me a felt bag, which was really good.  I didn’t want it to get dirty or damaged before I was able to use it and show it off so I wrapped it up and put it in a safe place.  So safe that …..!

Anyway, back to this year’s swap.  The theme for this one is “Inspired by an Artist”.

Again this was a very wide subject, first choose your favourite artist then find a piece of their work that sparks an idea.  I don’t actually have a “favourite” artist, I love the work of many: Constable; Canaletto; Turner; Rowland Hilder; William Morris and most of the Arts and Crafts artists and architects; Rennie Mackintosh….  I could fill up the page with names.  I trawled through works by most of these, bearing in mind the maximum size of the piece I was to make (8″ x 8″) the while.  In the end I decided that I would go with Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

I searched google and found several stained glass windows, one wall carving and a draft fabric design that I liked.

In the end though, I decided to go with a section of the last one, which I squared up and manipulated to make it the right shape and size.  The window is typical of the Art Nouveau period and “attributed to Mackintosh”.  I could not find out if it is actually his design but it is certainly very like his work.

I picked the centre of the window to work on and the enlarged and reshaped (slightly) design was printed off in greyscale and laminated.  I would be able to use the laminated design as a base on which to lay out the fibres.

a monochrome image of the window section covered in polythene sheet and the original image in colour
All ready to lay out the fibres

While I was looking through my stash for suitable fibres and pre-felts for the project I  happened to glance at the design which was inverted.  I immediately saw a face with an extremely runny nose!

the monochrome image rotated 15 80 degrees
This was when I spotted the runny nose!

Nevertheless I thought it would be fun to use the design of the face, since we were to produce something “inspired by” a favourite artist, rather than copy what s/he had produced.  This would allow me to get rid of the runny nose and I also wanted to change the colour scheme.

I had decided to use a piece of pre-felt which I had bought from Wingham Woolwork some years ago, especially as it was slightly moth eaten and I could use what I might otherwise have to throw away.  This was a lovely strong purple colour so I decided that my colour palette should be purple, turquoise and orange.

various fibres, yarns in purple, orange and turquoise, and an orange chiffon scarf
Picking colours and materials

The basic design was laid out in reverse, that is with turquoise knitting/felting yarn “face down” on  the design, with some fillings-in of orange fibres on top and two squares of turquoise where the “eyes” would be.  The purple pre-felt backing was placed on top of that and the whole wet felted.  Unfortunately this resulted in the straight lines becoming distinctly wavy – a good job this wasn’t a straight copy of the original!

After the piece was rinsed, dried and ironed, the remainder of the design was added by needle felting (which, together with the shrinkage during wet felting, had effectively removed the moth holes) and finally some simple embroidery stitches.

The piece has been mounted on foam board for stability.

finished face - orange eyebrows, nose and eyes with turquoise moustache, and facial features on a purple background
Finally – the Swap piece

This is the piece I received from my Canadian (Calgary) swap mate.  It is inspired by “Violet Poppies” by Emile Nolde https://arthur.io/art/emil-nolde/violet-poppy

Isn’t it gorgeous?

3 felted poppies with dark leaves on a yellow felted background, displayed in a circular embroidery frame
Swap piece received from Canada
top of landscape sowing sky sea and rocks with cut outs from the oican
Maureen Shared her vacation, which became A Little Needle Felted Landscape

Maureen Shared her vacation, which became A Little Needle Felted Landscape

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I know some of us are very lucky to live near an active guild.  Many fibre arts people don’t have that source of fibre friends and inspiration. One of our guild members was on a road trip. She kindly brought us along vicariously through her posted shots.  Some were of the spots where she had stopped and spun yarn. One of the shots she shared with the guild particularly caught my eye.  It was a good composition, but the tilt of the horizon bothered me.  I could fix that…..

the original photo of Maureen’s Vacation spinning picture “spinning in front to the Arches at Arches Provincial Park”. not the odd tilt of the horizen. 1) Maureen’s Vacation spinning picture “spinning in front to the Arches at Arches Provincial Park”

Tuesday, July 09th: I was at the Kanata Games Club on Tuesday night, Glenn was busy and I had wool, a nametag size piece of green wool, needles, and scissors, now where is my felting mat and the fine Sharpie I thought I had?  Ok give me a minute, I know where the dollar store is, just down the hill from the gaming. It’s a bit too far to go with the walker, but really close by car. I was back with a garden foam kneeling pad and 3 fine sharps (and snacks) by 6:30 pm.

one print out of the photo to use as a template and another few to use as reference. i have croped the picknick table and some of the width mostly trees2) 6:30-ish pm at the Kanata Games Club.

The piece of green I had grabbed was a bit shorter in length than I wanted. It was also not as rectangular as I would have liked. It’s wool, So not a problem!!! I just added more wool fibre to make it the size I needed.  A bit of work with the Clover multie-needle tool and I had a solid felt base the size I wanted.

I am again using the template method of image transfer and a bit of divine editing of the angle of the horizon.

template method; cutting out the sky then using the remaining image to mark the sky, i have flatened the horizen so the picture is now on a slight angle. i did not add reference marks since the image fit over the felt i was working on. that will come back to hont me later.3) Cutting off the sky and then straightening the Horizon.

sky and horizen in, fixing not squaire felt base 4) Straitened the horizon, and squared up the short corner of felt.

cutting the next section of the photo out and then adding the sea5) cutting the next section out and then adding the sea

Cutting out the rock and the next section of ocean.6) Cutting out the rock and the next section of the ocean.

Continuing to cut away a section of the photo, draw in the new edge then felt in the open area7) Continuing to cut away a section of the photo, draw in the new edge then felt in the open area

I am not the fastest of feltres, this is about 3.5 hours.  Glenn has just finished his gaming and it is time for me to pack up and head home. I am pleased with the progress so far.

 

Wednesday, July 10th:

Resumed felting, ……time for a break, I got over-focused on felting.  Where did I put the camera? On drat, I missed a big chunk of time,  I had better stop for a photo break.

Continuing to cut out a section, then use sharpie to denote the edge, then add wool. replacing the remaining picture to check angles.8.1-8.2) Continuing to cut out a section, then use a sharpie to denote the edge, then add wool.

Laying over the un-felted space with the remains of the reference photo, to see how the image is coming along. You can also see that I have stuck the wool mat in a heavy freezer zip-lock bag. It has not entirely kept the fiber from transferring but the migration has been reduced drastically. This is the third name tag/ picture I have been working with the green base wool on this wool pad. I have been using the same side of the pad but now have rotated the plastic bag. I should last till the end of this picture then I will likely change it for another freezer bag. If you are curious let me know and we can investigate this further, looking into ways to reduce wool transfer to your work surface.

9) My Reference image is now on the computer, note zip lock baggie with all pieces that have been cut out so far.9) My Reference image is now on the computer, note the zip lock baggie with all the pieces that have been cut out so far. it’s above the Right corner of the felting.

I now have my reference image up on the computer, as I am working while waiting for Marie, from Texas, to start Wooly Wednesday on YouTube. You can see the parts of the image I have already cut off in a zip lock baggie so I can refer to them if I need to. (such as the area at the top left where I still need to add a tree in front of the water I have already felted.

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 10.1-10.2) This felting experience was enhanced by the nibbling of blackberries,  just make sure your fingers are clean before getting back to the wool. note the Sharpie it’s double ended (Fine and Extra fine tip)

I am now adding the outline for the right arm. In addition, note the double-ended sharpie (Fine/Extra Fine), and the heavy zip lock bag over my wool felting mat is reducing the amount of wool wanting to transfer into the pad. Blackberries are also very inspirational but don’t let them change the colour of your fingers and then your wool.

the arm is in11) Arm is in

adding shorts12) adding shorts

this is about at 10.5 hours13) This is about 10.5 hours

I still have a lot of detail work to do adding all the flowers a bit more edge defining and tree extensions. But I am quite pleased so far. Time for bed.

 

Thursday;  Finished writing my blog post for the 14th and started writing this one. Ok, I am as slow at writing, as I am at felting. (I did wind up writing about Ann’s Name tag before getting back to finish this one.)

 

Monday, July 15h: I brought the little landscape in to get Ann’s opinion. She said it looked like Maureen’s hair was curly I will try to fix that. I also consulted on the sheep name tag I was making for her.

picture in zip lock bagie, held on to shelf by a magnaet.14) Waiting for a consultation with Ann and I was working on her sheep name tag

I worked a little bit on Wednesday and got the tree in the top left corner blocked in. as you will see when I got back to work at the social. I like to be able to put a piece down and think about what I want to do next, decide on my options and then look at it again with fresh eyes and Reassess.

 

Monday, July 22nd:

By this point, it’s getting down to details and finishing touches. You can’t tell but in person, the straw yellow is not as embedded and solid as it looks in the photo.

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15.1-15.2) Assessing the progress I have made so far.

I have added a bit of a suggestion of wildflowers and fussed with the green undertones but something is not yet right.

Helping your brain to not just look, but see what it’s looking at can be challenging.

When you are working and get to the point you are unsure, it may be that your eye and your brain are arguing.

The eye says “this is what I am looking at” and the brain says “I know what a tree looks like! I don’t have to look at another tree” There are a few ways to help the brain pay attention and actually see what it is looking at. Here are a few I learned while painting but can be applied to felting too (which is painting with wool).

  • Use a mirror to look at your felt image. By reversing the image, it gives a fresh perspective and often you can see a proportion or angle that is not quite right.
  • Photography (camera, cell phone, iPad); look at the felt image as a digital image. You often will spot something off in the photo you did not notice in the work. You can also digitize the image you are working from. It lets you scroll in close to part of the painting to see details,
    • see the image in black and white or
    • oversaturate the image with colour to see hidden colours.
  • rotate your image and reference until it’s upside down (inverted). It becomes easier to see negative space and spatial relationships when the image is not looked at in the usual way.
  • Set your work and image look at it sitting vertically (on an easel or propped up against something so you are not looking down at it) Step back and look at the work.
  • Take a break, go do something else. Come back with “Fresh eyes”.

16) ways to help your brain see what you are looking at 16) ways to help your brain see what you are looking at

Remember that it’s your image, it doesn’t have to be exactly the same unless you want it to be. You can be the god of your landscape and move a tree, make a shrub shorter or fuller or remove it. Do you feel the image needs more sky? Then add it. As long as the image makes sense  (no double points of light sources unless you are on an alien planet with 2 suns) it will be believable. You are unlikely to hang the photo reference beside your finished piece, so move a tree if it offends you. If you are working on a portrait, you have to be a bit more accurate. Then use the above suggestions to help get as close as you can to the original.

I have put my piece aside, so I can think about it and see the image with fresh eyes before I finish the fine details. So I have switched to work on another little project for Ann. (which you  have seen; https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/07/24/name-tag-sneaky/ .) Next time i will show you what i find and how i fix it. Have fun and keep felting!!

 

Title of piece plus images of items made from Bags of Inspiration
Bags of Inspiration

Bags of Inspiration

Comments 21 comments

Having just read Kiki’s tutorial  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/11/19/left-overs-yessss/ on using up prefelt scraps, it occurs to me that I may not have mentioned something we used to do at our Guild (Dorset Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers) mainly to raise funds for the Guild but also for fun.

When I attended the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show at the Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet (Somerset, UK) back in 2010  – I saw a stand selling (for £8.00 each) bags containing 35gr of silk fibres, yarns, fabrics scraps, carrier rods and cocoons in various colours, left over from old projects which, when put together, made a fascinating collection for future projects.  So fascinating that I bought three of them.

They must have made quite a bit of profit on them because they appeared mainly to be the “waste” from artwork.

At that time (when I was part of the sub-committee organising the Guild’s Exhibition and Sale of Work) we were looking for a Guild Project which could be part of the exhibition or something hopefully to help raise some funds.  Well, I thought, our weavers must have lots of off-cuts of hand woven fabric, not to mention warp ends.  Then there were the spinners who would have odd bits of spun and unspun fibres of all types and colours.  We also had members who were dressmakers, beaders and embroiderers, and a soft furnisher, who were bound to have the odd bits and pieces that they didn’t really need.  So, with the blessing of the committee,  I put it to the members in the next newsletter that if they would donate to the Guild any odd bits of fibres, yarns, threads, warp ends, bits of fabric, beads, button, feathers, felt, cords, braids, tassels, sequins, sequin waste, ribbons, silk flowers and any other bits and pieces they could think of, we could make up some “Bags of Inspiration” and sell them to members of the public at our open days and outside demonstrations.  (I don’t know about in the rest of the world, but in the UK the word “bags” means “lots of” as well as “containers”, so the punning name “Bags of Inspiration” seemed apt.)

We used A4 sized polythene bags (which I was able to buy quite cheaply from our local green grocer) with an A4 sheet of card inside for stiffening, and I made up some stickers with the Guild’s logo on and a brief description of the contents, and posters also giving details of the contents.

Image of a poster detailing contents of a Bag of Inspiration
Bag of Inspiration Poster

We arranged a few bag making days at a pub in the village where our then President lived.  She had persuaded them to let us use their skittle alley at no charge, and we had a great deal of fun making up the bags and tucking in to “refreshments” from the bar and kitchen.

The members who came to these, brought with them all sorts of goodies which we spread out on tables, so that we could make collections of pieces which seemed to go with each other.  Those who didn’t think that their colour theory was good enough, could pick out a picture from a selection of magazines and have a go at matching colours from this  It was amazing how compulsive making the bags became.  You could pick up a piece of fabric that looked so dull and dreary and be amazed how it perked up and positively shone with life when paired with different fabrics, yarns, trimmings etc.  You just couldn’t stop picking up likely bits.  The difficulty was keeping the weight of each bag between 80gr and 100gr, so we quite often ended up making up at least 2 bags with similar contents.

image of tools and accessories for making up Bags
Equipment & Extra “Bits” for making up Bags
Prospective contents of a Bag of Inspiration - fabrics, yarns, fibres etc.
Prospective contents of at least one Bag of Inspiration

We put a price of £3.50 on each bag and they went like hot cakes – we sold out on their first appearance at our exhibition and sale of work.  Embroiderers and mixed media artists in particular liked them.

After a couple of years, we didn’t get so many volunteers to make up bags but we still had mountains of “stuff”.  So we added another string for our open days – Pick and Mix Your Own.  I had remembered that Woolworths (now there’s a blast from the past) used to have a counter full of different sweets and you could take a bowl and pick and mix what you wanted, and in the process buying a lot more than you would have if just buying a ready filled bag.

Boxes of different sweets to be picked and mixed
Pick and Mix Sweets.

It worked with our stuff too.  We gave the visitors the polythene bags and they could wade through all the bits and pieces picking what they needed, and we weighed them when they’d finished, charging £3.50 for 100gr.

We had had a lot of fibres donated so we started making up what are now called Art Batts and selling them as “Batts of Inspirations”, but because we were mainly selling these to Guild spinners and felt makers, they didn’t do quite so well as they were mainly able to make their own.

In all we made around £1000.00 for the Guild in the four years we were doing this.  Eventually though the members got fed up with spending time on making up the bags and the whole thing was shelved, as the Guild seemed to be relatively well off at the time.

Some time after that I took the idea back to myself and I was making up Batts to sell at Guild meetings, using luxury fibres as well as merino and synthetic fibres.  I made up some bands to fix around the Batts detailing the various fibres included in each.

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I was also making up and selling Bags, mainly at a Needlework Festival in Dorset where most of the vendors were selling materials and equipment for crafters, as well as various craft fairs and so on.

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I was getting the odd question like “they’re lovely but what do you do with them?” and  “can you make a bag out of what’s in here?”  So I made a sign from images of items that I’d made myself over the years and that helped.

Image of items made with contents of Bags of Inspiration
Some of the things I’ve made with the contents of BoI over the years

However, once Covid started causing problems, my selling opportunities dried up.  I had been intending to try selling Bags and Batts via my website, but it was very difficult and too time consuming to photograph the Bags so that the contents were visible, because of reflections on the polythene bags.  So that sort of died a death too and I’ve now shelved that project, and am using the bits and pieces I’ve collected over the years on theatrical costumes and props.

Perhaps some of our readers’ organisations, like Ann & Jan’s OVWSG, might use this idea to raise funds?

Summer tree Finished.

Summer tree Finished.

Comments 12 comments

Thankfully I have friends with grey wool. Jan and Bernadette found me some grey in many shades so I could complete my picture. I explained to both that I only needed a little bit, a handful would be more than was needed. I just needed it for a few rocks on my picture

Picture of wool

picture of me taking a picture
I didn’t take any progress pictures of the rocks. I was busy poking and talking.

And finally the finished picture, or so I thought. when you take a picture, you can see so much more sometimes. I really don’t like the roots over the rock. I had tried putting a rock in front of the tree but that looked worse. So, I will take the roots off and continue from there.

I managed to take the roots off and played with the rock some more and now I think it really is done.

Small picture finished up

Small picture finished up

Comments 16 comments

This week  I managed to finish the small picture I started in the last post,  ……well……last night, actually. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving. here’s the other post if you’re interested:  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2022/05/24/another-small-picture/

If you remember, I was debating removing the trees and last week, I was going to rip them off.  This week, looking at it again, I decided to leave them.  The foreground is going to be flowers. I started with some green Bluefaced Leicester curls. I love Bluefaced Leicester curls, they are small tight curls with lots of shine.  I stretched them out so they would look more grass-like.

 

After adding a few of these, I started using pink, blue, and purple curls to make flowers. I just needled a blob down and cut it off.

 

I wasn’t very happy at this point. It was ok but not great.

 

I decided to follow the advice Ruth gave me when stitching my mixed media experimental piece a while back; add more, just keep going. So I did more leaves and more flowers.  Now it’s a pretty little picture( 3.5 x2.5 inches or 9×6.5 cm). And the trees look good in the far distance I think.

 

I like it much more now. I think I will like it more later. I always seem to lake them more in a week or so. How about you? Do you like your work better when it’s first done or a little( or a lot ) later?

Happy Mother’s Day 2021

Happy Mother’s Day 2021

Comments 8 comments

Last year I made Mom a felted picture of tulips for Mother’s Day. She is very fond of tulips but not so much taking care of plants. Thus, the felted tulips seemed the best option. I told you about them last year (https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2020/05/10/a-bouquet-for-mothers-day/) so I hoped you might be curious if I gave her another tulip.

This year we have been having a long slow spring. Spring flowers started early and have lasted for weeks! It is a big improvement over some springs. We occasionally go from snowbanks and snow mould to crocuses to 20c+ weather in the space of a couple of days to a week (there is a lot of flooding those years). Ottawa is a wonderful place to experience weather in one year you can live through +40c to -40c. (I am glad there is a lot less of the -40c than when I was a kid)

this year with such a slow spring we got to enjoy the flowers for much longer! While we were working on the sinking garage sort and clear, I snuck out to the front garden to take a few pictures to see what would inspire me for this year’s Mother’s Day Felt picture.

The violets are out as well as the lungwort but mom really does like tulips

1-3 Harratige Violets and Lungwort

It’s still a bit early and there are more daffodils out than tulips in full bloom so let’s see what we have for inspiration options.

 

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4-11 2021 Early Spring Garden

After much deliberation, I chose the lighter of the peachy pink and orange tulips.

 12  The photo was taken May 2nd, 2021. The needle felted picture is based on this tulip and was started the evening of May 6th and then worked on over the next 2 days while Glenn still puttered on the garage clearing.

The base layer is an inexpensive commercial felt in antique white. I have shifted the grey background to a more blue tone. The wool is a combination of superwash merino, Corriedale and a small amount of BFL.  The background was worked with both a single T36 as well as the fake clover tool with T40’s.

13    I used the template method of transfer, although the felt was thin and light so if we had a sunny day I could have done the window or lightbox method. I did not want to use the black permanent black markers and could not remember where I had put the coloured permanent markers so I used coloured pens instead. (the lost markers could have been replaced at Dollerama but are not considered essential!!!)  I measured out the 5×7 box and since my cardboard mat has also disappeared after I cleaned my desk I just kept checking with the ruler to make sure I was staying in the correct size for framing. (It is a lot cheaper to work in a standard size so you don’t need to cut a custom mat later.)

Looking at the picture, I have the Red Maple tree out of focus as the background. This is very gray/brown out of focus bark and is not really as appealing in the felt version. Well, we can fix that, if you need to move a tree, go ahead and move the tree! If the sun is not shining, just turn on the sun In your painting if you would like it to be there! you are God in your creative world! So I used the Magic of Tree-be-gone and switched it out for the amorphous sky and nondescript foliage.

 14-15 I laid in the background first and used both the single needle and fake clover multi-tool to get the background blocked in.

Yes, that is more what I was wanting.

16 Messy desk yet again

Next, let’s look at the colours. I ransacked my wool to find Pinks, purple, navy, greens, yellow, white and a scarlet red I could blend with the pink. The red was from a bit of superwash merino I had bought from the Black lamb and used on last years’ tulips. Unfortunately, I got quite absorbed in the colour blending and layering before I remembered to take another picture.

17-19 thin wisps building up the colour

I had started with the yellows and peach colours at the back part of the flower and worked forward. I found the tulip needed more contrast at the intersection between the edge of the leaf and the background. So working with the fibres generally parallel to the base of the picture  I added wisps of a slightly darker blue to the edge, then folded the fibre back into the blue. In a few spots, I used my fingernail to pull back the tulip so I could work in the blue(if you don’t have scary talons an awl would have worked too).

20-22 getting a stronger contrast along the edge of the tulip

 

I decided after adding the contrast I needed to add bits of lighter wisps to keep the sky from looking too grey. I cut up and blended bits of white and blue. If you are doing a lot of cutting little bits of wool you may want to wear a mask (I know we are still doing a lot of that, but in this case, we are avoiding wool lung, not covid)

 23

I was finally pleased and decided it was time to see what it looked like framed. I had bot extra frames from Dollerama for my felted picture workshop. I use to have Ikea picture frames but they now are using Plexiglass which isn’t as nice with wool pictures. (plexi is not as clear as glass and can get quite a static build-up, not the best if it’s only lightly felted). So I went with the Dollerama black wooden frame, I may get a precut mat upgrade later since the frames now come with a thin paper mat. Unfortunately, we are still in lockdown so no upgraded mat is possible at this time.

24-26

Yes, I think Mom will like that!

When I was done I printed out the info (Happy Mother’s Day 2021 and the photo that inspired the picture.)

 

I also collected the pieces I had used for the template, the reference picture and a bit of the wool I had used. I put them in an extra-large sandwich bag to keep as a reference. I will eventually get around to organizing my work into a binder showing photos and references used on each project.

 27-28

 

I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day and Maybe even received a mother’s day present. (Possibly tulips or some very nice wool? Or the whole sheep?) Even many years after having expired from old age, my furry kids sent me a spectacular felting book; “Landscapes in Wool, the art of needle felting” by Jaana Mattson. I am looking forward to reading more of it. The back part of the book has paintings in felt she has made while the front half has step-by-step instructions on how she has made some of her pieces. I’m always intrigued to see how other felters work and see if there is something they are doing that I could incorporate to improve how I work.

 

It’s going to be 23c today so I guess spring is over and it’s time to get the 2 pails with dahlias out to their planters. After a call to Canadian Tier, I found out the garden center is open and the lines were much shorter in the evening (do not tell anyone, I still have a couple more plants to find).  Glenn came with me. he pushed the cart I pushed the walker and selected plants. I was successful and got most of the herbs and vegetables as well as a purple Raspberry and an exotic-looking honeysuckle! We put all the pots tucked between the planter boxes in the driveway.

29-30 No felting for me until I get most of this planted.

I also checked out the front garden the tulips are trying their best but are not going to like this weather.

  31-33 The later spring garden

 

 34  This is the same tulip I was felting. Now it is almost finished blooming and will soon drop its petals. What an amazing colour change!

I hope you have been inspired by spring. If your own garden has not inspired you this year then I hope you will find inspiration here and borrow mine! (Maybe just ignore the construction sign, though it is colourful!)

 

 

 

Alisa’s First Quarter Challenge

Alisa’s First Quarter Challenge

Comments 16 comments

I have a guest post for you today. Alisa McClain is a pretty new felter, she is in my local Facebook group. When she posted her piece for the first quarter challenge I asked her to do a post about it and she stepped right up. Thank You, Alisa

 

Hello!  I started felting in the early pandemic, and I’ve fallen hardcore in love.  It’s blooming and it keeps me grounded and joyous, and I am slowly developing more skills that allow me greater control, too.  I’m an experiential learner, for the most part, so I just keep doing and figuring things out.  I make art playfully, usually without a plan.

When I first saw these blogs about a first-quarter challenge, I didn’t intend to participate.  You see, my brain is pretty much an open browser with 1,000 tabs open at all times, and I always have a plethora of ideas vying for my attention and screaming, “Pick me!  Pick me!”

And, then one day I took a look at all the photos suggested in the original challenge blog from the decade.  The suffragette posters caught my eye.  Maybe I should make something feminist in petticoats?  That old Disney song starts up in my head:  We’re clearly soldiers in petticoats and dauntless crusaders for women’s votes.  But, I haven’t done human forms and probably can’t pull that off.  That skill is in the not yet pile.

The next time I looked through the photos, I thought about finding an aerial view of the area I live in and got lost in the history of my little corner of suburbia.  No aerial view though from 1900ish though.

And, then the third time I looked through the photos, I thought about nature through a microscope.  In the lounge of the ski hill I frequented in the before-pandemic times, there was an entire heavy book full of breathtaking pictures in a microscope.  Sometimes the wonder of nature just awes me anew.  While I was still thinking of those micro photos, I walked by this piece of art in my home by Wendy Feldberg that I had purchased the previous summer.

https://www.wendyfeldberg.ca/galleries.html

 

Wendy told me that she’d been quite intrigued by the history of the Ottawa River and that many of the labourers had died of malaria versus physical accidents that occurred on the river.  She had done a series of fibre arts featuring the cells of malaria; this one was malaria cells in a placenta.

Overall, I give the pandemic a solid thumbs down, but there has been beauty within it.  The blooming of my felt, yes, but also there has been a cementing of several of my friendships into a deeper, lifelong kind of bond.  I’ve had more time with my children.  I have had a chance (and been forced to, at times) to slow down and think through things.  There is a kind of beauty in this moment, in the midst of the horrors.  I thought about people that I’ve loved that have developed serious medical issues and how, sometimes, those issues forced them to consider what mattered in life, to prioritize, and also to notice a community of love and support around them.

So maybe that’s my theme:  disease and the beauty within it.  I wondered what was happening in the 1900s in the way of endemics or pandemics, and Google brought me to microscopic pictures of typhoid fever (apparently on the rise in Texas, an antibiotic resistant strain?  Enough already this weird time!)

So here are a few pics of the jellyfish-like bacteria responsible for typhoid fever.  I’ve made a jellyfish before that I like and feel proud of so I was pretty confident I could do it.

 

Of course, along with having a thousand tabs open at all times, I also sometimes fall down rabbit holes in which I refuse to sleep and, instead, decide to read extensively about subjects that will be pretty much superfluous to any conversational moment.  Did you know that Typhoid Mary was pretty much the original superspreader and that she was quarantined for over two decades after she ignored public health advice?  I mean, they did tell her not to cook but failed to provide any kind of alternative income stream for her, a woman in a time where women weren’t supposed to financially support themselves so maybe there is a structural issue with the collective safety net there.   I digress.  Moral of the story:  I guess wearing my mask really isn’t so bad.

I also got lost in the world of microphotography.  See, I already had ideas in my head, but now I feel like I need to felt a few of these, too.  There will be more noisy arguments between ideas about whose turn it is.  But, also, what a great problem to have!

https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2020-photomicrography-competition (the above and below from those galleries)

 

But what did I make?

Oh yes, my typhus.  It hits the decade both on the microphotography front as well as a time when typhus was raging.  When it was almost done, I posted a picture for my friends and said that if they could guess what it was, I’d send it to them.  They guessed (before the legs) that it was a paddleboard, a kayak, a UFO and a comet.  Someone guessed it was a jellyfish, and that was the closest someone came.

 

And, now, I pretty much HAVE to felt covid, don’t I?  As I said, there is a certain kind of beauty in this moment…  if we can’t escape this pandemic or fast forward through to the end of it, we might as well look hard for the beauty that is blooming here.  Neighbours helping neighbours.  Pods looking out for each other.  The recognition that working from home can be a good option for many workers.  I know it’s not universal and I don’t mean to silver line the devastation that is occurring.  If I focus on the kindness, I get through this moment just a bit easier.  That said, you best believe I will be hugging the crap out of my friends just as soon as this over…  the kind of hug you just melt into.  I look forward to locking arms together instead of fibres on a way more regular basis, but for now…  I guess it’s time to pick the next loud-mouth idea.

https://www.news18.com/photogallery/world/covid-19-photos-up-close-with-the-deadly-coronavirus-2532875-2.html

Thanks, Alicia, microphotography is a really great place to be inspired. Has anyone else been working on the first quarter challenge? you can share it on the forum or if you would like to be a guest blogger just contact us.  we love guests.

 

A picture with some metal in it.

A picture with some metal in it.

Comments 18 comments

It’s after the Christmas crazy and I feel all out of sorts. There is nothing I need to be doing.  Nothing to shop for, nothing to bake for. I do have some nice new teas to try but although they are delicious, that is not really doing anything. I want to yell I’m bored, but my mom wouldn’t hear me at her house and what’s the point of that. So, like many of you, I must kick my own butt and just get on with something. Start with housework, if that doesn’t start you thinking of things to do in the studio, nothing will. After several loads of laundry and digging out the corner of the bedroom where we toss things to deal with later, I had had enough and I grabbed a tea and my sketchbook and headed for the studio.

I know you are thinking but what about your hat aren’t you supposed to be sewing the flower into place and making leaves. Yes, I am but I don’t feel like it. I had a poke through some recent sketches I did. I can’t really draw but I can get the idea down and use it to work from.

 

I dug out some felt pieces I did as starter pieces. Picked one and started.

First I defined the house. It was just a roof and walls when I picked it. I forgot to take a picture, sorry. I added some windows and the roofline and the corner of the house.  Then, strangely I started at the front of the picture with some fence posts. Usually, you start in the back and layer to the front.

 

With the magic of felt, I just took a picture and then pulled them off and put them aside.

 

I added some sheep, I bet you didn’t see that coming…..LOL. You can see I decided the house looked more like a barn and changed the windows into a large door. I also by this time decided the blue was water and added a path along the cliff edge.

I defined the sticky out piece of coastline to help with the water effect and check the placement of the fence posts. I decided to keep them straight because the right-hand one is going to be short anyway. I added some different blue to define the sky and some white with a bit of sparkle for waves. There was lots of wool sticking out past the picture edge so I just folded it around the back.

Then it was what to do to finish the fence. This is where the metal comes in.  Originally I was going to use thread to be the wire but then I was chatting with Jan about wire and remembered I had this spool of wire.  It is a very old spool and I don’t know what kind of wire it is or what it was meant for. It is thin but strong and flexible. It is old, as you can see from the wooden spool but there is no rust. It has a 58 stamped into the top but it’s not the gauge.

 

I decided to make a real wire fence. I twisted two lengths together and cut 4 of them to stick out past the ends of the picture.  I folded them around the edges to hold them in place. I then couched them down with 6 strands of grey embroidery floss to be the fence staples.  I think it really works. The whole picture is only 5.5inches (14cm)by 4 inches(10cm).

 

I did think about making at least one strand of my fence barbed wire. I made one barb, to try it but you couldn’t really see it against the wool so wasn’t worth the fiddling.

My New Years’ Resolution is to do more felt pictures and to try to do them a little bigger. Do you have a Fibery New Years’ Resolution?

Needle Felted Flat Landscape Workshop 2019

Needle Felted Flat Landscape Workshop 2019

Comments 8 comments

Ann told you about the workshop she gave on felted Flowers. So I thot you might like to hear about the last workshop I was teaching. This was the first time I had taught it and I was a bit nervous and excited (inner voice to self, take a deep breath, relax). In December you heard about the panic of making the Catalogue sample for this workshop. (https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2018/12/01/this-is-the-story-of-a-felting-emergency/)

As you may remember I have a background in both commercial and fine art.  Add to that the sivear dislexia which tends to change my way of approaching a subject or at least the way I tend to interpret it.

Last August the guild started to set up the list and order workshops that would run in 2019. There were a number of felting workshops but we had requests for felted landscapes in 2D. I had signed up to teach Inkle weaving as usual but Our Workshop coordinator was sure I could do the landscape and re-run a felted sheep class I had done over 10 years ago. I said sure and between working on the Catalogue for the workshops, restructuring the Guild library and a few Exhibition and Sale chores I started writing my notes.

I am pretty big on notes.  I want a student to be able to look back on them and remember what to do even if it’s been a year since they took the workshop.  For this one I felt I needed to include a bit on composition, perspective, aspects of different mediums of painting and finally how to deal with the felting itself.  So think small book rather than regular notes.

1

(picture 1 Name tags and a bit of back ground information )

I was going to teach them a different way to look at felt; treating it more like a water colour than an acrylic and using some of the work principles used in pastels and oil paintings.  Because of the time restraints of only 5 hours to felt I went for a smaller size, working in a 5×7 inch format.

 

2 (picture 2 the supply,  a stack of notes, a picture chosen and all ready to start )

I prefer workshops where you don’t have to go searching for a long list of supplies to bring.  So I try to have everything that will be needed to start your adventure included in the materials fee. The Introduction to inkle weaving workshop is the same, students even get the integrally important box of smarties. For this workshop smarties were not as important but they did get a 5×7 frame with white mat, a selection of needles, a mat to work on (I took a workshop from Megan Cleland who had used Dollarama Garden kneeling pads as work surfaces which were light and worked very well. The handle even held fibre I was working on!)

I had found some mid-weight felt at Michaels that was longer then needed for the project so we had enough to do  a name tag too. I started everyone off by making a name tag. Firstly, so I would remember their names.  Secondly, it would give them a chance to try the eye-hand coordination required to needle felt. It also let them get a feel for the differences between needles at moving fibre.  They had 2 each of the fine, medium and coarser needles and one spiral in a fine gage.  I had ordered a Multi-needle tool (it’s the flake clover needle holder from china) but it was not expected to arrive in time. it arrived Friday afternoon just before the Saturday workshop.

3(picture 3 transferring image )

We started by discussing different ways to transfer an image to the felt. Megan was teaching a variation on the light box using a window. This will only work well on thin felt. So if you want to work on a heavier ground or a dark colour choosing another method would be preferable. I mentioned the most common methods for scaling and transferring images including using a Lucy or projector, the grid method and the template method. (I also mentioned pouncing as an option, it is used with frescoes) Since I haven’t seen anyone teaching template transfer we went with that.  Its low tech and requires only scissors, permanent marker and an image.

I had selected a number of images ranging from quite simple to more complex since the class was to accommodate beginner and intermediate students. I had a couple students bring their own images too. With a bit of discussion they all chose there images. As they prepped and transferred there images to the felt I did a vary brief overview of perspective, how overlapping objects give the illusion of distance, how colour fades out as it recedes, detail in the foreground and less detail in the background and sky is lighter at the horizon and darkens as you go up. We discussed light and shadows and keeping your light source consistent if you are using more than one photo reference.

I also explained about thinking about using wool as paint.  Using properties from water colour , acrylic and oil techniques.

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(picture 4- 14 Slideshow Work in progress )

By that time they were ready to begin.  There was much poking but I don’t think anyone stabbed themselves. (I did have 3 boxes of bandages just in case) Most of the students had never felted before so were quite amazed as the wool started to turn into a picture. There was some reworking of areas to get the shadows they wanted but it started to come together.

15 (picture 15 Framing there work)

As you have probably found out yourselves if you put a frame on even a simple sketch it gives it importance, focuses the viewer and gives it the feeling of Art. As the students put there finished pieces into their frames it was fun to see them so pleased with their results. Two of the students had to leave early due to impending bad weather and lengthy drives home.I realized afterwords i missed getting a picture of there finished piece.

 

(picture 16- 19 Finished and Framed )

 

Ruth’s Holiday Card

Ruth’s Holiday Card

Comments 21 comments

It’s holiday time again and we ran a holiday card exchange with members from the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum again this year. People signed up a little over a month ago. I ran the names through a random name generator gave everyone their partners name and by now all the card should be mailed. I got Ruth this year.   I usually just do one card but I hedged my bets and made 2 this year.

Here is how I made it. I started with 2 layers of white prefelt. I added the sky and then the snow.

Then I used some darkish green prefelt to cut out triangles for the background trees. And some light gray to add some shading so the snow wasn’t flat.

Then I added the foreground trees using some blue faced Lester curls fluffed out. The one on the left is the one that ended up as  Ruth’s.

And some silk for the clouds.

This is what they looked like felted but still wet. They are very lightly felted. I had planned on felting them more but I liked them as they were and didn’t want to distort them.

Then I added more curls to fill out the trees and to make them stand out from the background. I tried to make them all a little darker on the right side. Then some snow. The snow did 2 things: first, it added some nice high lights but it also made the branches look like the go side to side and not up and down. I added the locks up and down and it was noticeable.

I decided the silk was too shiny for clouds and covered them in a very thin layer of the light gray wool.

I liked the picture but it was lacking something so I added some French knot sheep. They were tricky to do because the felt was not firm at all. The thread didn’t want to stay where I wanted it but pull over or sink in. If I had been thinking I would have put some stabilizer behind it.

I needed to make it into a card. I chose to do a postcard. I made one up to the right size on my computer following the basic template. I used iron-on facing to glue the card to the back of the felt.

I trimmed it and popped it in an envelope and sent it on its way to Montana. I crossed my fingers it would get there in time. We were having rotating postal strikes in here in Canada. Fortunately, the postal gods were smiling on it and it did make it there in about 2 weeks. I still need to add some sheep or something to the other picture. I do not know what I will do with it. I may just frame it.