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Clicking ‘Buy’ was so darn easy, now what to do?

Clicking ‘Buy’ was so darn easy, now what to do?

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Years ago, when the kids were small, I became a collector of recipe books. I didn’t particularly want to cook out of any of these, I simply loved reading the books and marvelling at the beauty of the process and the presentation of the meals.

More recently I have found that I have started collecting felting courses. I have been rather busy over the past few years – not sure where the time has gone – but last May, I decided that I had best do a stock take of the courses I have signed up for and not done. I discovered that I have at least 20 in my list. These courses either have indefinite access or I have been able to purchase and download the videos so there has never been an urgency in completing them. That said, I don’t want these to fall into the same category as the cookery books – lovely to look at but I wouldn’t like to do them.

Over the years, I have signed up for different Felting Camps offered by Corinna Nitschmann. Each year around April, Corinna invites a number of felting tutors to join her in her studio. The tutors record their respective workshops and then deliver the workshops on a specified date during the camp. Students can opt to work ‘live’ on the day, working with the pre-recorded videos with the tutor available to answer any questions they might have; they have access to these videos for a number of months, if they prefer to work at their own pace. Alternatively a student can pay a little extra and download the videos so that they are there indefinitely. This is the option I choose but I still enjoy being present during the live sessions as the sessions are always upbeat and great fun. Corinna herself is an amazing tutor and has a great sense of humour. There are lots of other activities taking place (besides the workshops) during the felting camp. Here is the link, if you would like to find out more about these https://cornitfelt.com/. I have 3 years of felting camp courses downloaded, that accounts for 15 courses. Then I purchased some courses that I found attractive from individual tutors and need to take. But for the summer months, I decided to focus on some of the felting camp courses. I thought I might share some of the results with you.

My first venture was called “Wet Felting Jewellery Basics” by Judit Haulik. It was part of the 2025 felting camp. This is a well paced course and the videos are divided nicely into sections so that it is possible to complete a task and walk away from it for a while. Students work with very small pieces of felt and Judit herself acknowledges that it can be a bit fiddly but, to be honest, I found that once I got into the groove, going small was not a challenge. I loved the repetitive nature of the design too and I can see possibilities for upsizing the process which Judit is teaching. My main learning on the course was how to integrate very fine chain into the overall design. I chose a very light chain for this process and I reckon that I will use a more robust one next time. That said I am very pleased that I rose to the challenge of the very fine chain as, after this, I feel the bigger size will be a dawdle. Here is the piece I made. I didn’t investigate further as I wanted to move on to another course. That said, I have ideas on where I can take my learning. I have done some quick sketches before they go out of my mind!

  • Full view of the necklace. Holes felted with sequinned material
  • Top section of the necklace with sequinned fabric in the centre
  • Base of the necklace with sequinned fabric showing in the hole

My next workshop came from the 2026 Felting Camp. It was one of the courses that originally attracted me to this year’s camp. The introduction to “Stool Covers” by Bea Nemeth was very joyous and depicted a variety of different shapes and sizes of stools which could be worked on. Bea also presented different possibilities for fibres which could be used in the design. We worked our design on prefelt and then if we wished we could adorn the stool cover with locks. Bea was fun and a little mischievous and at one stage headed to a dye pot with one of her samples. It was fun to see all this in real time at the session. As for the result ….. beautiful! I didn’t have a stool to work off so I headed out to our local Ikea. I made a variegated colour strong merino prefelt and I used my own geometric pattern for my design. I had some Bergschaf left over from making boots a number of years ago so I used this for the background. The resist was huge and I don’t know if you ever have that moment when you feel that a piece will never shrink down sufficiently (I had that on the stool) but it didn’t disappoint and, finally, with lots of patience, shaping and using tools it fit perfectly. I love the result and it acts as a reminder that patience works wonders when I am trying to fit to size.

  • full view of the stool – blue base is bergschaff
  • pattern on stool made with merino prefelt

Next up, it was a bit of a return to a comfort zone for me, fine art felt. I checked out Jorie Johnson’s ‘Fine Art “Small Works”’ Jorie studied textile design both in the USA,where she is originally from, and in Finland. She moved to Japan in 1987 and has been based there ever since. If you would like to find out more about Jorie you can visit her website at https://joirae.com/biography/. There was something very special about Jorie’s approach to the workshop – it kind of gave me permission to play with my design while being mindful of her teaching. While students had the freedom to use any style resist of their choosing, I decided to use the one Jorie presented, principally because it had some really challenging angles and shapes included. I also favoured roving over prefelt when I was laying out my background. I got a bit carried away with the design (Jorie recommended leaving more space between each element), but this was playtime and experimentation was the key for me here. Here is the result. Again, there was lots of learning on what can work and it is a great reference for future pieces.

  • sculpture with resist to show shrinkage (resist design by tutor)
  • front view of the sculpture
  • Nuno felted ‘window’
  • closeup of raised area and nuno felted pattern
  • closeup of textures and nuno
  • detail of some of the locks and textures
  • closeup of the linen section
  • Second side of the sculpture featuring a variety of textures

That’s all I have for now. I know there are 17 more courses to go, but at least I have made a start. If you like, I can keep you updated on my progress, but the danger is that I am likely to disappear down the odd rabbit hole (I can already see two opening up). Like Alice in Wonderland, there is a possibility that I might meet (or transform into) the Mad Hatter although I wouldn’t mind having some of White Rabbit’s energy (perhaps it would help me get through the classes quicker) because at the moment in this (what appears to be at time of writing) never ending heat wave, my character is more akin to the Dormouse, constantly ready to roll over for another sleep!

Is there anyone out there in the same boat with lots of outstanding courses? Please tell me so that I know I am not alone.

Happy felting!

Hugs

Helene

a green felted/tapestry of the word Exchange
A Few More Oddments

A Few More Oddments

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I’m afraid that the series of heatwaves we’ve been (and still are) experiencing have had much the same effect on me as the Covid Lock Downs. I have pretty much lost my mojo again though not quite in the same way.  Every time the weather cools down a bit I have managed to think about and sometimes even start a project, only for it to be abandoned as soon as the next heatwave starts.  I now cannot see my work table for various piles of project “stuff” in various stages of progress.

Also I haven’t managed to do much about preparing for this post, so I’ve once again picked some topics from my list of things to write about which are in fact mainly “historic”.

Many moons ago back, in the 70s, when macramé was first in vogue and long before I became interested in spinning let alone before I found felting, I was obsessed with string and knots.

Amongst the patterns I came across was one for a lampshade. Do any of you remember the Marshall Cavendish series of monthly craft magazines “Golden Hands” covering several different crafts, which could be collected into 4 (I think – possibly 6) annual volumes?   I loved them and made lots of things from their patterns.

I did think that I found the macramé pattern I had followed for the lampshade in one of the Golden Hands Magazines, but Mr Google has been unable to find it, so it may have been in some other magazine – possibly “Women”, “Women’s Own” or “Women’s Realm” (that was in the days before they started emulating “Hello Magazine” and the like🤢).

As it was so long ago that I made the lampshade I can only show you what it looks like now.  It was made from dishcloth cotton and made directly on a lampshade frame.  I lined the shade with red satin type fabric and gave it to my mother for one of her birthdays.

During my “macramé period” I started to make small free standing sculptures using just clove hitches, rather than mixing knots like flat or square knots.  Then my niece became pregnant with her first child so I thought I’d have a go at making a macramé rattle for the baby.  As it would need to be washable, I chose to use nylon curtain/blind cord and one of the indoor balls (the plastic lightweight sort with lots of holes in) with a couple of brass bells inside for the inner body.  I did not have a pattern to follow (by then I preferred to make my own designs rather than copy someone else’s).

By changing the direction of some of the clove hitches I was able to give the rattle a face.  Here is the only picture I have of the rattle, which my husband took for me before I sent it off to my niece.

 

a black and white image of a baby's white macrame rattle showing the "face" worked into it. There is also a small bunch of daffodils and a cube box of tissues with some pulled out to frame the rattle
Unacknowledged macramé rattle

My niece had another child a few years later, but I’m afraid that, as I have had no confirmation of receipt of the rattle (even now, although I know it was received) let alone any thanks, I stopped sending even cards to her!

Around the same time as I made these pieces, I made a crochet cotton macramé Dorothy bag, using a stuffed oval ball shaped thingy as the base to work on.  I added pearl beads and lined the bag with pink fabric and used it as a sample for a wedding accessory (back in the days when a couple of friends and I were making crocheted wedding “favours” and sold quite a lot of them – that must have been getting on for 50 years ago), but I wasn’t asked to make another one and I didn’t sell the original.  I still have it somewhere.

a white macrame drawstring dorothy bag with pink satin inner bag on a dark red background
Dorothy Bag – big enough for a bride’s handkerchief

Back in 2012 I was doing bits of tapestry weaving and to be honest I was getting bored with it – it was taking too long and I wanted to get on to something more interesting.  I had decided to weave the word “Exchange” but I can’t remember why now.  It may be because I liked the monogram EX that I was using.  The “e” was in black and the “x” was in bright red.  The background was to be a strong green.  The rest of the word was to be in black, but in outline only.  I managed to complete the monogram before I decided to do something different, which was to felt the rest.  I felted green merino fibres over both sides of the cotton warps with the work still on the loom.  This made the “fabric” quite tough so that it kept its shape.  I then needle felted the “change” in lower case.  I did actually exhibit it at The Exchange when we had one of our several exhibitions in their Café/Gallery.  The bear with the felted tapestry in the featured image was made by a friend, who makes bears for adults, and bought for my birthday by my husband.

a green felted/tapestry of the word Exchange
My felted tapestry woven Exchange

I did think that I might get some people commenting on the coincidence with The Exchange’s name but no-one seemed to notice, or couldn’t be bothered!

Back in early 2022  I told you about a couple of door stops which I had made, one of which was named Yoda by my husband.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2022/04/18/we-need-a-new-door-stop/

During the making of Yoda I made what I now know to have been a construction error.  Because I was concerned that if he had been picked up by his head it might come off, I placed a strong loop made from the hem of a towel behind his head to be used as a handle.  This resulted in him becoming very tatty around the head.  Every time he was picked up by the handle it rubbed the back of his head and his ears and the fibres began to come away.  In addition his head was beginning to get droopy, as you can see from the way he is peering around the bathroom door.

felted doorstop cat peering around a door
Peeping Yoda looking the worse for wear

Thus he needed what my late brother in law used to call a “Warranty Job” (he used to make all sorts of parts for traction and railway engines for others as well as himself and now and then someone would ask him if he could effect some repairs).

As is my wont it was some time before I finally got round to doing Yoda’s warranty job.

I hadn’t been happy with the shape of his head, it was a bit flat at the back.  For this reason as well as his tatty appearance I removed his head as well as the handle.  I moved the handle to the middle of his back so that it would balance him when he was picked up and it didn’t rub against any part of his head or body.

Next I moved on to his head.  I didn’t have any more fibres of the right colour to match his body so had to blend some to match.  Then I started to cut away the rubbed fibres from his head and add more of the new.  I rounded out the back of his head a bit more and thickened up his ears.  I still had some of the correct pinky-grey fibres which I had used for his face so I tidied up his face too.

I decided to add yellow slightly opened eyes just to show that he was really awake.  This is him now.

felted doorstop smiling with slit eyes sitting beside the door
Finished Warranty Job – Yoda back at his post

That’s the lot for this post, hopefully by the time my next one is due I will have got my mojo back again and have something new to show you.  In the mean time here’s a real smiley cat.  I do wonder what’s going through his mind – any ideas?

head and torso of dark grey and white cat with closed eyes and smiley mouth
This is my Boy (originally named Radius by his previous owners). He really is a smiley cat.

There is a wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi. It is an abstract landscape in blues and lilacs, with two plum boats with shiny white stitched sails at the center and right of the bottom part.
Preparing for an Art Trail: earrings, bookmarks and other fast projects

Preparing for an Art Trail: earrings, bookmarks and other fast projects

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Hello!

This post will be about a few different projects that I am into: as they are all small and easy projects, maybe you will get inspired to try out your own version of them as well.

I am participating to an Art Trail in my area, it is a big event in our neck of woods: it is my second time and I think that I have a better feel for what I need to prepare for it. That is, small usable felt things, that can be added to what I have left from last year, that I can easily bring to our venue by public transport (I do not have a car, I live in Greater London, UK and using public transport is a sensible choice to avoid traffic and steep charges) and that I can sell for a reasonable price. As it is not a Fine Art Only event, but more of a festival celebrating the creativity of all the people living in our Borough, any craft is encouraged and stalls can also sport a mixture of fine art and craft as mine will be.

Last year I sold a few of my wet felted earrings, so this year I spent a bit of time in making a few more but with needle felting: it was very quick, I enjoyed the needle felting practice, and I feel that I can keep to a low price for them.

Here are the pairs that I have made so far (the flowers on the top rows and the blue hearts) with the ones that I have left from last year:

Eight pairs of colorful felted earrings are displayed on a black board that is held up by a hand
They were really a breeze to make, while I was stewarding for my last group exhibition.

I also wanted to bring the blue loop scarf and the yellow lightweight scarf that were shown in previous posts, as loop scarves were admired last year (though I did not sell them very well, but who knows, maybe this year I will) and I will add to them this new lightweight scarf that I made with the recycled banana yarn used as yarn for decoration:

Part of a salmon light scarf with wavy colored yarn, wet felted by Kiki Peruzzi, is visible on a clothes rack.
I loved the salmon colour and itched to use it.

It was pretty awkward to pair a very small amount of wool with the chunky yarn, it was really an experiment. I thought that maybe the yarn could give the wool a little bit more structure, but I am wary that the yarn will actually be a weak point of stress for the wool, and pull the wool apart quicker. Anyway, it was more work than I expected, as the wool was so thin that the yarn was not well felt in in places, so I had to needle felt the yarn in after drying it, and then cut all the hairy wool sticking out from the places that I had needle felted. I will maybe not do it in the same way another time: I could either go for a thicker wool layout or maybe sandwich the yarn in between two lightweight layers of wool.

I also am trying out an idea that I have seen from a British artist and crafter on Instagram, Maxine Smith  @tillyteadance. She makes those lovely bookmarks in her very colourful style with a mix of wetfelting and machine stitching, with hand embroidered or needle felted details. You can have a glimpse at the process in her posts: she seems to make a full rectangle of wet felted and machine stitched background, then cuts all the bookmarks from that single rectangles with a rotary cutter, adds some details and finishes each bookmark by stitching all the edges.

I thought that I could try my hand at it, and see if it makes the bookmark making more time effective for commercial purposes. And, to be honest, it seemed like fun. My brother had this game when we were little: a lot of scenes on paper strips that you could combine to make an always different composition that told an always changing story. Here, I was picturing something like that, but made of felt.

Of course, I do not have a sewing machine, so my stitching was going to be very limited. I am also much less of a figurative artist than Maxine Smith is, and much less of a cheerful disposition. Here is what I made, with merino wool and a few scraps of a pale blue scarf (possibly silk, I do not know, it was a charity shop find):

Four small rectangles of wet felt that will be background for bookmarks are on a light blue surface. the pieces are in light and darker blues and lilac, with accents of plum here and there to suggest details on a landscape.
Here are my background rectangles cut from the original sheet.

Then I had to make each one meaningful with some stitching (as less as possible) and have them tell a different story each. I also was keen on keeping them as abstract as possible, because I love that opening up of possible meanings.

Here are the stitched bookmarks as of now:

There is a wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi. It is an abstract landscape in blues and lilacs, with two plum boats with shiny white stitched sails at the center and right of the bottom part.
This is the most peaceful, maybe: just two little boats with shiny sails floating on a limitless sea..

This is a wet felted bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi. On the left bottom corner there is a light blue and plum shape resembling a bird, and on the left upper side there is a plum stitched sun.
This is the most disquieting of the four, but it just came out this way, and who knows, maybe someone out there would like a bird (pigeon? bird of prey?no idea) for their bookmark. My husband says that the bird shape is an alien life form under an alien sun: well, who knows, it could be.

There is a wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi showing an abstract landscape in different blues and lilac with a lone bush or tree shape in plum at the center left and a small house shape on its right, on what look like gentle hills. A moon stitched in shiny white thread is on the upper right.
This was meant to be an abstract landscape at night, so I stitched a moon in shiny DMC Diamant thread.

A wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi featuring an abstract landscape in blue and lilac, with a sun in plum on the upper right side, and shape resembling a solitary person on a path on the right side at the bottom.
This is lonesome or purposeful and dreamy, depending on what you feel it represents.

I have to hand stitch all the edges now, but I need to go and buy some good thread in the right colour at my local shop. I would like it to be pale blue or something like that, and I do not have embroidery thread in that colour.

An issue that I have with them is that they are not stiff. The ones that Maxine Smith shows are properly stiff: I think that part of it is due to the extensive machine stitching, part to the fact that, on second watching, I noticed that she made thicker felt to begin with. I have no idea if she puts some stiff backing or if she uses a PVA glue bath to increase stiffness. Now, I am thinking about what I can do to increase my bookmark stiffness without spending too much time on them. My friends say that they are fine as thickness goes, and I believe a bulkier bookmark is not super easy to use inside a book, so I am not inclined to add felt to them on their back. I maybe will try with the PVA glue bath. Some of my friends also do not see why they should be stiffer, so there you go, I could leave them as they are, and simply display them on a paper backing with a couple of temporary stitches to keep them upright. What do you think?

I have made a couple more small abstract landscapes in unusual colours, similar to those that I have shown in my last post, and I have not added stitched details to them, yet:

A small wet felted abstract landscape with a light green sky with accents of turquoise and white and a white sun, and a reddish ground.
This one has more sky and less ground, and I placed a round piece of silk rods up there on the right to make the sun.

A small wet felted abstract landscape with a reddish ground and turquoise and light green sky.
This one is slightly more square and has more ground/sea/whatever than sky. Or I can always turn it upside down.

Which details would you think for them? I am very undecided.

Another thing that I am preparing is my contribution to the fundraiser for the charity Ealing Food Bank in this edition of the Art Trail. Last year, the artists from the Art Trail were encouraged to donate a small piece on the theme “Home” to be exhibited at a special venue and sold for a homeless charity: it went very well, so this year we are doing it again, for a different charity. The theme this year is “Food for Thought”, of course, but the requirements for entry are the same: it must be a square piece 20cm by 20 cm (about 7.8 inches), and they are going to give us the canvas, if needed.

They are going to provide us the canvas later on, but I have the advantage that I can complete my piece with no canvas at all, and then just stitch my work on the canvas when I will have it.

I started with the idea of a still life with fruits and vegetables on it: I do not know, I think about still lifes a lot these days (see my last post). I was not feeling like making it in wet felt, I do not know, it did not feel like the right thing, I wanted more of a sculptural piece and I went for needle felting.

Firstly, I prepared a wet felted background with some “wool for felting” that I had as a gift from a friend: I have no idea which kind of wool that is, so I seldom use it, but for this it seemed perfect, as it is very natural (I do not think that it is dyed) and in different gradation of natural whites and browns.

A wet felted small square background is on a pale blue surface. The square is in shades of natural white and brown, darker on the right side.
This is the background that I felted.

Then, I decided that I needed a real life reference, so I got out some peppers, an apple and a small bowl. I experimented with adding some green vegetables like cucumber or lettuce, but it was not working well, too big maybe. I wanted some green grapes to drape over the peppers and apple, but I had none in the fridge, so I just simulated it with a small vessel that has long curly locks hanging from it.

There is a small black and white bowl on a light blue sofa. In it there are a yellow and orange pepper, a red apple, and barely visible a green pepper, and there are fuchsia wool locks over all of the vegetables. In the background there are cushions in a chaos.
Yes, I know, it is nothing like green grapes. And sorry about the background chaos of cushions.

Well, then I started making the shapes in core wool, thinking that I was going to cover them with dyed Merino afterwards.

There is a shape in white core wool that is being needle felted on a felting pad while a hand is keeping it steady.
Let’s start from the pepper, as I like the pepper.

Going on with the shapes, I wanted to better visualise how they were going to fit with each other, so I placed them on the background and then loosely needle felted them one to the other.

A white pepper shape made with needle felt out of wool is on a wet felted background in tones of natural white and brown.
White pepper on background.

A white pepper shape and half an apple shape made by needle felting wool are on a wet felted background in natural whites and browns
Pepper and the apple.

Three white shapes of vegetables needle felted in white wool are on a wet felted background in natural whites and browns.
Pepper, apple and hint of second pepper in the background.

There is a light green felting pad in the center, with grapes being needle felted in white wool on it. A hand holding a small tub of needles is on the left side. A bowl with brightly colored peppers and apple is on the upper left side, and shapes os peppers and apple in white wool are on the right upper side over a wet felted background in browns and natural whites.
Making grapes while thinking “What a brilliant idea, so fast to make!” or something like, if you get my irony and already know the nice words.

The grapes were a bit more time consuming, but when I saw the whole together I started thinking that I liked the whole as it was, white and almost ghostly. I feel that it is clear what the shapes are, even without colour, when seen in person. The photos get a bit confusing, to be honest.

A felted piece by Kiki Peruzzi is held up by a hand. It features white organic needle felted shapes of fruits and vegetables on a natural white and brown wet felted background.
I admit that it is unusual, as still life, a bit ghostly maybe, but that was the point of still lifes, to play with the concept of life and death by hinting at them. It is better in person than in photos, though, as the sculptural quality of the piece does not show well on camera.

So, in the end, I needle felted it all to the background and I will call it something like “I miss you”, because it made me think about a friend who recently passed away: she was a keen grower of vegetables in her allotment, and also still lifes are supposed to hint about life and death, and she passed away way too young, way too early, a typical theme for still lifes.

Another friend gave me the idea of felting coasters: it is maybe weird, but I am not one of the tons of people using coasters, so I had never really thought about making some, but it is actually quite fast and fun to make them, and it probably makes a lot of commercial sense (we will see if they sell well..).

Here are two sets of four coasters that I made recently:

On a marble-like top table there are two sets of four coasters in felt, they both have a white background and brushes of bright colors: pink and teal, and yellow or lilac depending on the set.
I went for bright cheerful colours this time.

I will go on making a few more pieces for the Art Trail event, there is still time until September, and I hope to finish the ones that need a bit of working on, but this is it for now: I hope that you like what I have made so far.

Kiki

@kiki.textile.art

http://www.kikistextileart.com

Metal bead shaft for decorated key ring, with a small ring on one end and a small globe screwed onto the other
A Few Oddments

A Few Oddments

Comments 15 comments

On looking through my file of possible posts I have found that there are several subjects on the list about which I don’t have a lot to say, so I thought I’d put them all together.

First, my work basket.  You may recall that I told you about the craft basket makeovers that I had done some years ago https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/06/12/craft-basket-makeovers-part-1/  After we moved to Dorset I acquired a marketing basket, can’t remember where from now but at the time it was “in” to be seen wandering around the shops with a basket on your arm.  I didn’t use it for that for long though as I was worried about my purse sitting on top of shopping and being a bit of a temptation.  So I decided that I’d turn the shopping basket into a work basket.  At that time I hadn’t been introduced to felt, I was still spinning, crocheting, tatting, sewing and embroidering so a market basket would be ideal for that.

I used some more of the fabric remnants which I had bought from the same shop in Maidstone where I’d got those which I’d used for the spinning baskets.  I lined the basket, having attached some internal pockets to the lining and made a padded/quilted lid.  That was fixed at one end of the lining and a covered button and loop held it closed at the other end.  I had found a miniature washing basket at a charity shop and I turned that into a pin cushion and I made a small pouch to hold small accessories like cotton reels.  That was fixed to the side of the basket lining with a snap fastener.

The basket got quite a bit of use, as you can probably see from the state of the lining.  One drawback I’ve found to sewing the lining to the basket is that it makes laundering it a bit difficult!

One of the first projects I undertook once I had learned to needle felt was a challenge from a company which used to supply packs of mixed yarns – at least I think it was from them though it might have been a Guild challenge.  It was back in 2002 and as I did not make any notes that I can find, I’m not entirely sure.  I seem to have taken some progress images as I have found lots of these though unfortunately they are not of particularly good quality.

What I do remember is that I had decided that I would make a miniature of a herb knot garden but |’m afraid that my memory of how I found/chose the design is now so hazy that I can’t be precise. I do remember that when I learned to needle felt our teacher gave us pieces of old woollen blanket on which to draw a design that we could fill in with needle felted fibres.  The idea was that we could then wash the work and it would become permanent.  I have amongst the progress pictures images of the design as drawn on a piece of blanket and of the lines becoming “box hedges” and the spaces being filled with “flowers”.  I can also see from the last couple of pictures that I added a “topiary tree” in each corner.

A couple of years later, I acquired a quantity of (I think) Jacob fleece which had been carded all together so that what I had was a sort of grey mixture.  I didn’t really want to spin it as I think I had been duped into buying a bag of really rough fibres.  At about that time I had become interested in stone carvings – gargoyles (water spouts), grotesques, and  heraldic beasts – particularly the Queen’s Beasts which are statues on display at Kew Gardens.  Anyway, I decided that I’d have a go at needle felting some gargoyles using the grotty grey Jacob.  No progress pictures I’m afraid, just finished pieces mounted on fabric covered card or canvas blocks.

Finally  you may remember that Ann M told us about some sheepy key rings that she had made.  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/06/13/sheep-key-chain/ These looked so good that I’m afraid I stole her idea.  I told you back in December 2024 about the Norwegian Gnomes that I made at our local Museum Shop, for sale there. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/?s=The+Museum+at+Christmas

Ann’s idea made me think that some miniature gnomes impaled on the metal “spike” could look good as bag charm gnomes to sell in the Museum shop.  I had to change the description from key chains to bag charms because the gnomes were a bit too fragile to sit inside someone’s bag/purse, but should look good dangling on the outside.  Here are photos of the “shaft” on which the gnomes are made, and a few of the gnomes.

 

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

skeleton of a hare standing on hind legs
Hare Today !!!

Hare Today !!!

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I had been wanting to go back to needle felting sculptures for some time, so when I came across a tiny picture of a hare in our local free newspaper New Blackmore Vale Magazine,  I knew I’d found what I wanted to do.  Rather than the usual boxing hares, which I may well have a go at sometime in the future, I felt called to this solitary speeding hare.  He only had one fore foot on the ground and was obviously in a great hurry.

Brown Hare running on snowy ground
Original Inspiration

On getting my necessary supplies together, it was clear that I would obviously need a good strong armature for him and a solid base to hold it steady.  Trawling through my drawer of wires, I found what looked like an unused coil of old, cotton covered, bonnet wire (probably pre-WW2).  I’ve no idea what gauge it was but it was obviously strong enough to hold up an old fashioned bonnet brim, so I was sure it would keep the hare upright.  Having  resorted to Google for images of hare skeletons (naturally I wasn’t able to find one in the actual pose I needed, but I did find a couple of useful references) I looked out some other wires which would probably do for the pelvis and rib cage.  I fiddled with the images and printed off one enlarged to the size I wanted to make the hare and then made a tracing/drawing to use as a working pattern.

My idea was to have a base made from two pieces of wood, with  extended leg wire from the only leg actually touching the ground passing though a hole drilled in one piece of wood, and then bent at an angle of 90º. The wire would then be pressed into a slot cut into the underside to stop the hare swinging around when mounted.

image of wire protruding from bottom of piece of wood
Showing the extension of the armature from the grounded foot protruding from the bottom of the base

The second piece of wood would be fixed under the first piece to keep the wire in place and also to add extra weight to avoid the whole thing being top (or hare) heavy.

I would use the bonnet wire for the spine and head, and pipe cleaners for the pelvis and ear armatures, then go back to bonnet wire for the limbs.

While I was working up the armature I first had the leg wire stuck in a heavy reel of wire.

Subsequently, when I was needle felting, the leg wire was passed through a newly made slot in my felt needle felting cushion.

Using more of my scoured merino, which I had bought quite some years ago now from Wingham Woolwork, I started to fill in the inner body.  The wool is scoured but not otherwise prepared, so it required quite some carding to get it into a state where I could use it to wrap the armatures and to fill in the muscles to give some substance to the animal.  Here are some views of that work in progress.

I had of course gone to Google Images for reference pictures of hares from an all round perspective, both for body shape and for colour, from which I blended various colours for my palette.  Here are a few of those.

Then I started adding the “top coat”.  Working on a sculpture rather than on a “painting” was a bit complicated (and painful at times) until I found myself a small piece of polystyrene packing foam to use when I couldn’t rest the part of the hare I was needling onto my felt cushion.

Another complication was transporting the hare from home to the various venues where I was working on him.  In the end I used an empty plastic box and turned him upside down into it.  It was a bit of a squeeze but he just about got in safely.

Bit by bit, over several months, he began to emerge from the fibres.

I had originally thought to use a pair of glass eyes which I had in stock as they were the right colour and had the black surround which can be seen on a real hare.  Unfortunately they were too big so I fell back on giving the hare orange woollen eyeballs and working them up from there.

When he was substantially finished, I added some “grass” and “rough undergrowth” to the “soil” on top of the wooden base.  This consisted of all sorts of odd bits of fluff, fibre, yarn and fabric selvedges, plus some suitable acrylic paint.

4 different images of waste fibres and yarns in greens, creams and browns
Some of the bits and pieces of scrub and grass

The footwire was poked into the hole in the ground and bent under so that he was running across the scrub land. Then, using his carry box as a stand, I added and secured the second piece of wood.

showing clear plastic box topped with 2 blocks of wood on top with needle felted hare attached upside down inside the box. The two pieces of wood are stuck together with masking tape and partly screwed together
showing his carry box and adding the 2nd part of the base

Although the 2 pieces of wood were from the same larger piece they did not look good when screwed together so I painted them green, obscuring the fact that they were not one large piece.  I thought I was done then, but unfortunately one of the pieces of wood started to warp and spoiled the illusion.  Eventually, after some thought, I removed the bottom piece of wood and glued some non-slip matting over the base (having first taped the footwire into its slot in the bottom of the base) and painted the underside the same green as the sides.

Whilst working and looking at the reference pictures of the whole animal, I realised that he probably had had lots of whiskers.  So I looked for more reference pictures of hare(y) faces and saw that indeed he did.  So how to add these essential appendages?

4 images of close up pictures of whiskery hares' faces
harey faces

I have for some years now been collecting cats’ whiskers.  (They make great fishing rods for fishermen living in the countryside of 00 gauge model railway layouts!)

Black paper with many white cats' whiskers
It’s the cat’s whiskers

I would use some of these for the hare.  Initially I was adding a dot of glue to the end of the whisker, poking a hole in the hare’s muzzle and pushing in the whisker.  The problem was that the whiskers were life-size for a cat, but too big for my hare.  The whiskers were actually strong enough to be poked into the hare’s muzzle without first making a hole, (provided there wasn’t a bit of armature in the way), so in the end I just poked them in and through and out the other side, chopping off the protruding bit and leaving the right length behind.  In fact, unless someone tries to pull them out, the whiskers will stay where they are.

needle felted hare's head with whiskers poked through muzzle and protruding ends being cut off with scissors
cutting the poked through whisker ends

I am hoping to find some form of clear box to cover the hare and stand, if only so I don’t have to keep dusting him.

Here he is.

completed and mounted needle felted hare placed on juniper branches to resemble running free
Out enjoying his run, whiskers and all

Since making him, I have inherited a book all about gnomes.

front cover of book "Gnomes" showing front and back images of gnome with pointed red hat, leather belted blue coat, brown trousers and "deer skin" boots. Gnome has brown face and white hair, eyebrows, moustache and beard
Cover of Gnome book

One of the fascinating things I have learned about them is that they can run as fast as a hare and are small enough to take a ride.  So you never know my hare may gain some friends some day.

Final thought – what should I name him, any ideas?  (Don’t say Harry, I don’t think the Prince would be amused.)  I understand that Hares were introduced to the UK, probably by the Romans, so perhaps he might be named after a Caeser!

 

A Few Felt Samples

A Few Felt Samples

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I am out of time to do an original post today.  So it’s a throwback post. This one is from the early days of 2012.

Doing samples is fun and I still have the last two. They are just fun to have.

I haven’t been doing much that is interesting to look at lately. Everything is white and is waiting for the dye pot.  I thought I would show you some samples I made a little while ago. The first 2  are purple merino with some silk strips on them. I thought they came out nicely with lots of texture.

Purple wool with strips of silk before felting

Purple samples after felting

The second is orange merino with some silk and curls on it, here I wanted to felt the curls right into the background. I also wanted to see how it would stick if I put it over the silk. I really like the way the little blob of curls all became one with nice texture. The curls going across the silk stuck down very well. Enough wool migrated through the silk to grab the courser wool of the curls.

Orange wool with silk and curls before felting

Orange sample after felting

This last set I wanted the curls to be attached at the base and left loose and hanging for the rest of their length. I use a small piece of scrap floor underlay with a hole in it so the wouldn’t stick down. It worked very well. I am not sure how I ended up with one really long curl.

Small samples with curls with their resists on before felting

Small samples with curls after felting.

I am not sure what I am gong to do with these. I might make some buttons or hair clips. Do you have any ideas?

Theatre Textiles – Act 2 Scene 2

Theatre Textiles – Act 2 Scene 2

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This is a further Scene from my theme of costume and prop making for my local Amdram group, SNADS. The first one can be found here https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2021/08/23/theatre-textiles-part-1/  followed by https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/04/17/theatre-textiles-act-2-scene-1/

The next production for which I can remember making a costume was Sleeping Beauty in 2015.  I was asked to make the costume and do the makeup for Baskerville, the blood hound.  (You didn’t know that there was a dog in Sleeping Beauty did you? – How else did anyone find her inside all those brambles?)

After looking up some reference pictures (including one of Sir Clement Freud and his pet) I decided that the face would be part mask and part makeup.

Man - Sir Clement Freud and 2 bloodhounds
Sir Clement Freud and his look alike pet and another bloodhound – my reference images for Baskerville

The costume was in the main made from an old poly-cotton sheet which was a sort of mid brown colour with the odd dark brown markings in acrylic paint, and included a hood from which the long ears hung either side of the face. The mask was wet and needle felt, which covered the actor’s forehead, cheeks and nose, leaving large eyeholes.  This so that there was room for the eye makeup which revealed dropped lower eyelids.  The forehead had bloodhound-like skin folds, and the muzzle had my usual needle felted nose painted with Artist’s Gesso and then with black enamel.  The actor’s chin was visible beneath the mask so was made up to match it.

Boy on hands and knees dressed and made up to look like a bloodhound
Baskerville the Bloodhound

The next panto we did was Alice in Wonderland and I got roped into making bits for various animal costumes.  Unfortunately I don’t have any progress pictures and most of  the pictures I do have have been extracted from the DVD we had made of the show, so they are not of the best.  Hopefully they will give you a flavour of the costumes.

First there was the Cheshire Cat.  As with Baskerville, the cat’s body was made from an old cotton sheet, this time “dyed” ginger-ish with acrylic paint and with stripes added roughly following tabby cat images from Mr. Google (what would we do without him).

image of grey tabby cat face and brown tabby cat back
Reference images for tabby cat markings

The head and mask were also made from the same fabric and from felt.  The only photos I have of the Cat are of it inside a “tree”.  They aren’t very clear because the hole in the tree is faced with gauze so that you could only see through it when what was behind it was lit from that side.  This was so that the cat could slowly disappear as the light faded, leaving only a grin visible.

actor dressed and made up as Cheshire Cat and seen inside tree set.
Cheshire Cat inside it’s tree

actor dressed and made up to look like a grinning cat inside a tree set
more grins

Cheshire cat grin inside the tree set with 2 actors, (Dame and Joker) on stage
And just the grin, with Alice, the Dame (Alice’s nurse) and Joker (Queen of Hearts’ Jester)

Next there was the March Hare whose ears I had made from felt and attached to a felted hood; and the actor also used the muzzle with two front teeth that I made for her, also in felt.  Unfortunately it looks as if whoever did her makeup didn’t match the face colour to the mask so the Hare looks a bit odd.  This could be because the actor had a couple of other, bigger, parts in the panto, so her makeup needed to fit all three parts as far as possible.  I had made the mask so that it could be removed with the hood and that adds to the odd look I think.

Head and shoulders of actor playing Mad March Hare with felt ears and muzzle with 2 front teeth
March Hare with ears and teeth

actors dressed as Mad Hatter, Dormouse and Mad March Hare
The Mad Hatter, Dormouse (without his teapot) and March Hare in the final walk down.

The next and most testing task was the Hookah-smoking caterpillar and the subsequent butterfly which emerged from it. The script called for the actual metamorphosis to happen on stage, which was really going to pose a bit of a problem.  If this was going to work it would be necessary for the caterpillar costume to be worn over that of the butterfly.

In the story, the caterpillar sits on top of a large toadstool.   Usually depicted as a fly agaric mushroom – the one having a red cap with white spots.  This in fact is my scenery-making friend’s signature image and there are always some of these mushrooms somewhere about the stage in all our pantos (did you spot them at the bottom of the Cheshire Cat’s tree?)  Before the mushroom was made I asked that the back be cut away to enable the actor to be able to stand up against and behind its (chunky) stem.   I had decided that the caterpillar costume would be mainly affixed to the top of the mushroom and the head and “torso” would fit over that part of the actor which appeared above the mushroom.  The costume would have to be open down the back so that the butterfly could immerge from the caterpillar by stepping down and backwards.  I would need to make the butterfly costume first so that I would be able to fit the head and torso of the caterpillar costume over it with sufficient “ease” to enable her to get out of the caterpillar without assistance.

Again Mr Google helped me with reference pictures of a swallowtail butterfly, which I had chosen because of the lovely shape of its wings, and it’s caterpillar.

2 images - a green and black caterpillar and a swallowtail butterfly displaying its wings
Reference images for the caterpillar and it’s butterfly

I wanted the costumes to be as naturalistic as possible, which meant finding a way of making enormous butterfly eyes, remembering that the actor would need to be able to see through them.  I was sure that I had seen some half globes in clear plastic covering a large sweet, and after lots of buying and tasting (!) I found some, though I cannot now remember what the sweets were.  I made a mask which held these over the actor’s eyes and side of her head and which also covered the top and back of her head but left her nose and mouth free.  From the images on the DVD, it seems that I covered the globes in some way since it is not possible to see the actor’s eyes through them.  I can’t now remember what it was I used, but it must have been transparent at close quarters because the actor was able to dance around the stage without falling over the “little butterflies” which were dancing with her.

I made up the lower part of the face and I seem to remember making “mouth parts” and a version of the curled tube the butterfly uses to suck up nectar. These were attached to the mask between the bottom of the eyes.

head and shoulders of actor dressed as butterfly to give more detail of the head.
A very hazy image of the butterfly’s head (it looks as if she’s managed to dent one of the eyes, but I doubt that would have been visible from the auditorium.)

The butterfly’s wings, were painted white organza which had wire along the top edge.  I couldn’t add wire in the usual way the whole way round the edge of the wings because they would have to be squashed and held behind the actor’s back whilst she was still a caterpillar.  So we clad the actor’s arms and hands in black and she used her hands and arms to open and “flap” the wings.  This meant that the verisimilitude of the butterfly costume ended there – only one pair of legs instead of three.  I could have made some “pretend” legs to attach to the actor’s chest, but they would be likely to get hooked up inside the caterpillar costume and make metamorphosis difficult!

I made the caterpillar costume out of various bits of cotton fabric which I painted, and because the butterfly mask was quite large, the caterpillar had to be very large too.  The head of the real caterpillar is as wide as it’s body, which made that a bit easier.   I made it to fit right over the butterfly head and shoulders, with the actor’s black covered arms poking through as the first of the caterpillar’s six legs.  This was so that she could use the mouthpiece to smoke from the hookah which was sitting on a little green hump beside the mushroom.

Actor dressed as caterpillar with it's tail on top of fly agaric mushroom
Hookah-smoking caterpillar. You can possibly just see that the mouthpiece of the hookah is clutched in one tiny “hand”.

image of back of actor dressed as butterfly showing spread wings with empty caterpillar costume on top of mushroom and with Dame and Joker in background
The emerged butterfly showing off her wings. The empty caterpillar on the fly agaric mushroom is no longer smoking its Hookah and Nursie and Joker are seeing the little butterflies off stage.

Our next panto was Ali Baba.  I didn’t have to make any of the costumes for this.  I played the front half of Kamil, the clever camel, and when I wasn’t doing that, made up one of a trio of revolting looking gossipy women.

This was followed by “A Right Pantomime”, written by two of our members – “a comic conflation of almost every pantomime story you can think of.…”  I played one of Snow White’s dwarves (I can’t remember how many we were, but I don’t think there were seven of us) but wasn’t involved with more than helping with scenery.

I will end this Scene here, and yes I know that we still haven’t reached the Panto in which the Wicked Queen in the title image appears, but maybe next time.

 

The 30+ Day Folding Challenge

The 30+ Day Folding Challenge

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If you follow my personal blog you probably already know that I set myself a challenge at the end of December:

To explore a different folded / pleated shape every day

In common with a lot of creatives, I tend to flit from one project to the next, not always finishing the first project before the next exciting, “new shiny thing” catches my attention. By setting myself this challenge I hoped to focus on one topic for a while and really push the boundaries to develop some new ideas, shapes and designs in felt-making.

This post is my edited highlights from the first 30 days of this challenge, if you would like to see the whole journey, all of the different shapes and more of the thought processes involved behind each piece please start here:

I have long been inspired by Andrea Noeske-Porada, a felt artist best known for her origami pieces. For years I had believed her to be the designer of the kaleidocyle:

This is my attempt to make one

But after my first post in this series, Henny van Tussenbroek got in touch, it turns out Andrea was just the first person to make one in felt, the original designer was in fact a Dutch mathematician-artist, (MC Escher) and author of this book:

Thank you Henny for sharing this information and correcting my assumption!

This book is a quite a slim volume but it is a fascinating read. I was lucky enough to find a second hand copy here in New Zealand and it is one of best creative books I own. If you would like some help to figure out the pattern for a kaleidocyle, I highly recommend getting a copy.

I have made a few items based on the designs in this book, some have turned out better than others!

Using various books on origami for inspiration and templates, I have made dozens of different shapes form paper and card, these are just a few:

And recreated a few of my favourites in felt:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is IMG_9398-1024x745.jpg

Let me know if you have been playing along too, these journeys are so much more fun when taken with others! 🙂

a sales table showing groups of felted mushrooms.
FANTASTIC FUNGI

FANTASTIC FUNGI

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I don’t know if any of you are fantasy fiction fiends.  Some years ago now I read the first of a trilogy by Alan Dean Foster, called Spell Singer.  It was about a man in the 1960/70s who managed to slip through time/space to a different dimension of our world in which animals wore clothes and talked (including Mudge, the man-sized otter with a foul mouth!)  So why am I mentioning this?  Well part of the story took place in a marshy area inhabited by a lot of very depressed mushrooms and toadstools with faces, which moaned and groaned and exuded misery, which was catching!

My mind immediately trotted down the rabbit hole of needle felting mushrooms – with faces.  Mushrooms and toadstools of different varieties would have different temperaments and expressions.  I thought of the white spotted red capped Fly Agaric; plain red capped Gomphidus Roseus (with a name like that they would definitely look odd); white button mushrooms; brown chestnut mushrooms; large flat horse mushrooms; fairy ring toadstools and, eventually, bracket fungi.

So I was off.

I decided that the bases of the fungi with stalks would represent a piece of turf, probably woodland or scrub.  I had purchased, a few years earlier, some fibres sold for lining hanging flower baskets.  It never got used for that because the bulk of it consisted of sheep’s wool, and I considered that it would be wasted if used for it’s original purpose.  From the look of it, and of the quantity of “foreign matter” caught up in it, it was the sweepings from a mill floor or even a shearing shed.  (I think that this was a good way of using up what would otherwise be wasted.  Unfortunately I don’t think it’s available now.)

All the material was roughly dyed green but luckily so patchy was the dyeing that it was not a flat uniform colour.  The different thicknesses of the fibres, the kemp  and the vegetable matter all seem to have picked up different shades and tints of green.  Just what I needed.

To save on this precious material, I used some scrappy scoured merino bits as a base for the underside of the grassy humps I was making, and then topped them with the basket fibres, and needled the lot together.  I was delighted to find that, even close up, the result did look like a bit of scrubland grass.

In each case my fungi were to have faces and, hopefully, characters.  I thought that as they were all wearing hats/caps, I’d place the faces at the join of the gills and the top of the stalk.  I also decided that, rather than just a single lonely fungus,  I’d make families.

4 felted Gomphidus Roseus mushrooms with bright red caps and daft faces
Gormless Gomphidus Roseus mushrooms

3 Fly Agaric mushrooms. Red caps with white spots and faces with blue eyes
Fly Agaric Mushroom family – Granddad, Mum and Dad with baby

4 felted large flat mushrooms with hairy brown caps and black gills, with faces
Hairy Horse Mushrooms

The horse mushrooms are hairy, not because they were horse mushrooms but because I used some Herdwick fleece for the caps and didn’t know about shaving in those days.

In the end, the button mushrooms and the chestnut mushrooms not actually having any gills on view, I placed their faces on the top of their caps.  I also gave the chestnut mushrooms Fymo eyes – little painted and varnished balls on each end of a piece of wire.

3 large button mushrooms and one small mushroom with bright blue eyes
Buttons family

3 Chestnut Button Mushrooms with surprised blue eyes in the top of their caps with 2 baby buttons
Chestnuts. Looks like the Dad on the left has 2 wives and children – naughty!

The fragile, skinny fairy ring toadstools were to sit together in a circle, as they do, on a larger piece of grass with so much magic erupting from it that it became visible.  This was represented by whisps of iridescent trilobal fibre (of which I have lots.)  There was also magic appearing on the tops of their caps.  These were made from scraps left over from a large piece of white merino felt in which a large quantity of the iridescent trilobal was embedded.  (More about this felt at some time in a future post.)

Ring of tall thin white and iridescent toadstools facing inwards, with iridescent fibres in the centre of the ring
Magic Fairy Ring Toadstools – chatting. What about I wonder?

These were the main families I made, but in the end I did make quite a few solitary mushrooms and toadstools (perhaps that’s why they were so melancholy?)

It was while I was making the Horse Mushrooms, which have black gills and therefore black faces, that I started to think about bracket fungi and Welsh male voice choirs.  I can hear you saying “why?”  It was the black faces.  I am half Welsh. My mother’s family come from a South Wales mining valley, Ogmore Vale, and all my Welsh uncles were miners (hence the black faces), and they were all singers.  (I even got to go down a pit on a rare holiday to stay with the family when I was about 7 or 8 – and I cried for the poor ponies down there even though they were well looked after).  Anyway Welsh miners were magic to me, and having been thinking about magic since I made the fairy ring toadstools, I wanted to create a magical tree stump on which to grow a male voice choir of bracket fungi.

The inside of the tree stump was made up of part of a Jacob fleece which had absolutely refused to felt, and subsequently ended up in the cats’ bed – disappearing over time bit by bit into the middle of other needle felted items.  I covered the stump in more of the basket fibres to represent a rotting, moss covered piece of wood. Thanks to the unevenness of the core Jacob I was able to easily create a surface with the ridges and dips usually found on oak trunks.  There were also what looked like various entrances to the hollow centre of the stump.  I lined these with black or dark grey fibres to give them depth and added some mixed brown and iridescent fibres to represent magic escaping from the stump.  In two of these I also added a pair of (Fymo) eyes peering out at the world.

close up of tree trunk showing bracket fungi on left and 2 holes with eyes peering out
All that can be seen of the internal inhabitants

I added a sort of representation of tree age rings on the top of the stump, but also allowed the hole in the middle of it to remain and added a lot more escaping magic fibres.

Close up of felted tree stump showing top - tree rings and "overflowing magic".
Overflowing Magic

I made a lot of bracket fungi, both representing individual singers (baritones and basses – big and bigger ones)

close up of several bracket fungi with faces, large ones to the front, smaller towards the back
The basses and the baritones

close up of one large bracket fungus with face, blue eyes, large nose and open mouth showing toungue
Big Bass himself

And Tenors, since they were smaller, in groups of three.

close up of tree trunk showing 4 bracket fungi each with 3 faces
Some of the tenors

I know I researched a type of bracket fungus and was able to give them black “faces” on the undersides and brown tops with pale margins.  However I cannot remember what they were, nor can I find my reference pictures.  They may have been polypores of some sort.

Having made a batch of the “choir members” I needled them on to the stump, adding faces  with  singing mouths.  I attached the stump to an artist’s canvas board, 20” x 16”, which I had covered with a piece of cotton patchwork fabric, coloured in various greens, to represent the surrounding trees.  Originally I wanted to add a “dead man’s fingers” fungus, which could be conducting the choir, but at that time I had not heard of using an armature and it wouldn’t stand up on its own, so I gave up that idea.

A felted tree stump with bracket fungi with faces on a green background
The finished Tree Stump

My husband thought that the mushrooms would sell like hot cakes, but unfortunately I think I only sold one family.  I ended up giving the rest away, apart from the tree stump which I have retrieved from the attic.  I’d like to hang it on a wall in my workshop – if I can ever find a space large enough for it – if I can I might have another go at the dead man’s fingers.