The nights are drawing in and heralding autumn. The leaves have started to fall and the plants are looking sad.
Gardeners will already be clearing away plant litter, but I urge them not to be too tidy – leave a little mess for our garden friends to shelter in or under.
We had a hedgehog hibernate under a mound of leaves in our garden and it inspired me write a ditty and felt a picture – it’s wet and needle felt with some hand stitching – 28x18cm (11”x7”).
DITTY FOR DORIS
I help you with your garden plants
I eat the slugs and snails and ants
So help me when it’s cold and bitter
Look closely when you rake the litter
Please check that I’m not in my bed
With fallen leaves around my head
Lyn
Annie
I wanted a small but interesting textiles project to help me get back into the swing of making things again after a busy year has kept me from my fibres, and since autumn is my favourite season it seemed like a good subject!
I decided on a small table mat with an autumn leaves design. I made a sample set of leaves but actually they might end up being the final ones. I chopped up and arranged some small squares of open weave fabrics
then flipped them over and laid corresponding colours of fibres over the fabrics so that I could felt it to prefelt and then cut my leaves from the prefelt.
Leaves cut from the prefelt.
Here’s a close up of three of the leaves.
Not sure what the next stage is but this is as far as I have got!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Part of my stash of “stormy” textiles
Some stormy fibres and some sequins to give light?
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
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.
Stained Glass at The Willow Restaurant
Rennie Mackintosh Roses
The terracotta tiles on the wall of Queens Cross Church
Stained glass window thought to be by Rennie Mackintosh – the whole window
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.
Stained glass window thought to be by Rennie Mackintosh – the whole window
Picking the reference section
Squaring the image (sort of)
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.
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!
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.
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.
Beginning the reversed layout of fibres
Just finished wet felting
Needle felting more features
With more features added with a sewing needle
The piece has been mounted on foam board for stability.
Hi all, although I haven’t been doing much felting myself I have been teaching others to do it. I ran my Nunofelt scarf class again this last weekend. I had five lovely ladies at the Ottawa Valley Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guild classroom.
The first part of the class is talking about all the fibres. Students are amazed at all the kinds of silk. I usually bring hankies, tops, throwsters waste and recycled sari silk along will wool BFL locks and sparkly nylon. They get to pick their hand dyed scarf blanks and then spend at least 15 min trying to decide what embellishments they want to use. It’s lots of fun watching and helping with colour and texture choices.
Silk hankies
Silk Tops
Dyed Silk Throwsster’s waste
sari waste
Sparkly nylon
It is so hard to pick.
Then it is on to lay out the wool. Once this starts I put the silk blanks away so no one is tempted to change their mind halfway through the layout. I keep all the wool and embellishments out until they wet everything.
Everyone enjoys using the ball browser sprayers to get everything wet.
In this group, they all stayed together during the different stages of felting. Often they become staggered; someone wants to be first done and another will be very relaxed and go slower. In the end, they always finish and it’s interesting to see the different styles of learning and doing the same thing.
rubbing
rubbing
rolling
rolling
I didn’t get any pictures of the gently squishing and tossing to full but here they are finished.
nuno scarf
nuo scarf
nuno scarf
nuno scarf
nuno scarf group
nuno scarf group
All in all a great class with happy students.
The only odd thing that happened was one lady had brought her own wool, marked merino and she was sure it wasn’t superwash. She added my embellishments. One of her colours did not stick to the scarf anywhere. My first thought was it was superwash. However, it did seem to felt and grab the silk embellishments on top of it. Nowhere she had used the copper coloured wool stuck to the silk backing. It was attached by other colours surrounding it so it’s all one piece but I have no idea what was/is going on with the wool, any ideas?
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?
I thought I would use this post to give you a flavour of the shows and exhibitions that have been happening in my area over the past couple of months.
Last year I was contacted by a guy called Chris who is the lead volunteer at Dogdyke Pumping Station near Tattershall. This is the site of an original, external condensing beam-engine built by Bradley and Craven of Wakefield. It is the only surviving engine by this builder and is possibly the oldest steam-driven scoop wheel land drainage pumping set in the country that is still in steam and in its original position.
Chris and his team organise fund raising events for the site and had the idea of putting on a mini fibre festival. Having found me online and discovered I was only down the road he wondered if I would be interested in attending and asked if I knew of one or two others who might like to come along and, if so, what could they demonstrate? Knowing how enthusiastic the South Lincs Spinners and Weavers are to support this type of event I was confident I could get more than just one or two of our members to turn up! They didn’t let me down and neither did the weather. We had a lovely afternoon with a steady flow of visitors to chat to while we were nallbinding, knitting, spinning, wet felting, needle felting and weaving.
It’s such a nice venue and the volunteers are so friendly, everyone who demonstrated last year was keen to come back in 2024. So a year on, and plenty of plugging on social media, this August we managed to smash their visitor records!! I did feel for the ladies in the kitchen who were rushed off their feet, apparently it was the first time they’d run out of milk and cake on an open day and had to send out for more refreshments!
The Lincolnshire Textiles Exhibition “Water” was also in August, held in the Cathedral Chapter House. It’s a very difficult space for displaying textile work and personally not one I would choose to use. The lighting appears better in the photos than it actually was and hanging your work from ancient walls isn’t easy. Having said all that, the team involved with putting the work up did a very good job considering the limitations they were working with and we got a wonderful response from our visitors. I do feel we would have had more visitors if it hadn’t been for the fact that the public can’t access the exhibition without paying the £12 admission fee to the Cathedral. What a lot of folk don’t realise is that £12 allows you access to the Cathedral for a whole year, and includes the floor tours. Personally I think that’s really good value, and the money goes to conserving this fabulous building, so I will now buy my pass every year.
The main group piece was designed as a whirlpool consisting of about forty individual pieces of work. It was lit by revolving coloured bulbs making quite a dramatic sight as you entered the hall. These are just a few of the pieces on display…..
Last weekend the South Lincs Spinners, Weavers & Dyers held their biennial Fibre Festival in Osbournby Church. I think we have 70+ members with interests spanning all manner of fibre crafts. In the church we had demonstrations of a wide variety of looms (please don’t ask me to name them😱) as well as knitting, nalbinding, crochet, broomstick crochet, wet felting, needle felting, indigo dyeing and spinning, again using different styles of wheel. The main theme this year was scarves and shawls which were strung between the pillars, draped on pews and wrapped around mannequins.
The Felt area showcased work by five members, including wet felting and needle felting, some for sale, some for show.
There was work by three Wet Felters – Karen Stewart, Ann Strong and myselfThe four Needle Felters were Leah Laird, Sally Newman, Joan Maplethorpe and myself.Sally modelling the beret I made for the show.
I was busy chatting most of the time and didn’t think to take many photos. Thankfully we had a photographer called Dean who kept popping up around the Church so most of these are his images…..
Leah demonstrating needle feltingLiz demonstrating weaving with sari yarnScarves and shawls draped around the churchA stunning coat!Cal was weaving landscapes on to a hoopSpinning, knitting and weavingTamari Balls are a popular makeRoz was outside demonstrating indigo dyeingKay Abelard beautiful Dorset button broochesHunni’s statement necklacesFarmer Joe with his dad and younger brotherBett Gresham doing broomstick crochet
Our local TV celebrity, Farmer Joe, also joined us with his Dad, younger brother and some of his sheep. This young boy was diagnosed with autism, dyslexia, memory problems and severe anxiety at the age of seven. He has gone on to be one of the most driven characters, and one of the nicest young people you could wish to meet! Joe’s story is told in this article from LincolnshireLive and it is well worth a read!
Back in the Church many of the items exhibited were for sale although a few were so precious to their creator(s) that they were labelled NFS. Amongst these were my Leafy Seadragon and Octopuses which I couldn’t bring myself to part with, Sallys Owl and Duck which were very popular, and Leah’s wonderful needle felted characters. All of these are needle felted and I suppose it’s the amount of time we had to put in to make them that prohibits us from wanting to sell them!
My Leafy SeadragonSallys DuckSallys OwlLeah’s characters
On my way home from Osbournby on the Friday I called in to the Hub in Sleaford (also known as the national centre for craft and design) to see their latest exhibitions. As well as exhibitions the Hub offers a programme of workshops, talks, classes, competitions, special events and performances for all people, ages and abilities. They also deliver creative activities in schools, community & care settings and online.
As you enter on the ground floor there is a cafe and a shop selling art materials as well as an area dedicated to unique hand made items. In one corner is a small gallery. The space is open plan so feels very light and airy with windows facing on to the river on one side and a grassy tree lined space on the other.
The small ground floor Gallery shines the spotlight on emerging and developing artists. All exhibiting makers are graduates or associate members of Design-Nation and have strong commitment to sustainable practice. Eighteen artists are featured so this is just a small representation of what caught my eye.
Joanne Lamb is an Irish artist based in London specialising in woven textiles, often incorporating basketry techniques to create her artworks.
Lindsay McDonagh works as a designer and maker based in Bristol, in the South West of England. She specialises in jewellery design, particularly necklaces, earrings and bracelets using a range of silversmithing and goldsmithing and techniques.
Kesinia Semirova is an embroidery artist based in Hove. She has “a particular interest in exploring heritage, aiming to preserve traditions while also seeking alternative contemporary interpretations of historical ideas.”
Suzy Agar’s delicate, embroidered textile work was my favourite of all the displays. She says she aims “to encourage an appreciation and a reconnection with our local environment and the creatures that inhabit it.” I loved the sense of movement she achieved with her pieces which appear to be stitched on to silk organza.
The staircase Window Collection currently displays “Feathered Friends” work by Paper artist Kaper (Kate Kelly) who creates sculptures from hand printed papers, depicting various species of birds among flowers and foliage. Kate has been sculpting with paper for 18 years and owls and songbirds remain her favourite subject, largely because of their expressive poses and delightful hairdos!
Feathered Friends by Kate Kelly
At the opposite end of the building, the River Stairwell features 3D paper sculpture by Kate Kato whose work documents different aspects of the natural world and explores how we connect with it. In “Outnumbered” Kate looks at the diversity of the insect kingdom. She uses discarded paper, wire and thread to recreate these creatures and their surroundings, celebrating the scale of their diversity and the vital role insects play in our ecosystem.
Outnumbered by Kate Kato
The main Gallery upstairs is currently showing “Paperwork” which brings together works from a group of craftspeople who also use paper as a primary medium or as an intrinsic part of their process. All of these artists have developed their practice through specialist craft training and education supported by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST). “The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) is a charity that transforms the careers of talented and aspiring makers by funding their training and education, creating pathways to excellence and strengthening the future of the UK’s craft sector.”
These were some of my favourite pieces but the stand out work for me was Momentous Insight. Based on tree rings it’s made up of concentric rings of crocheted paper thread (Shifu) and Japanese and Thai mulberry paper. I loved everything about this piece, its scale (very large!) the colour palette, the textures and the depth. The whole thing was mesmerising and really pulled you in.
Su Blackwell – The WaterfallSu Blackwell – UprootedFung & Bedford – Architectural ForestMandy Coppes-Martin – Momentous Insight
My next event will be the Big Textile Show at Leicester Racecourse at the end of October. This is my favourite show of the year so if you get the chance to visit I can highly recommend it. For those who can’t make it I’ll report back on that one next time.
As some of you know the farmers market I go to is at the Log Farm in Ottawa. https://thelogfarm.com/ Along with the farmers market on Saturdays, there is also a working small farm with the original log house and barns where you can visit and see some animals and enjoy a break from the city without leaving the city. Last weekend was shearing day for the sheep they have at the farm. They asked my guild to do a demonstration, and of course we said yes.
Here we are setting up under the tents. You can see in the first shot that the styrofoam head and hat had already taken the first of several tumbles with the wind. in the second shot, you can see the container of goodies I brought as a treat. A little bonus for coming out to demo on an iffy weather day.
This is Josee demoing on her table loom.
This is Paula spinning on her electric spinning wheel. She also has her incle loom set up and was demonstrating that too.
This is Maureen Spinning on her wheel, an Ashford Traveler. You can see it in Paula’s picture too. I think Maureen was chatting with someone when I took this.
And to be fair here is a picture of me teaching some girls how to make felted beads using some pencils. I know I am blurry but it was the best shot of the girl’s hands.
As I said we were there for shearing day. here are the sheep staying dry while they wait for the shearer.
Here is one getting shorn. They had their own tent so the shearer could also stay dry. All the wool was donated to the guild and Jan and some others bagged it all to give to fellow members.
Here are some pictures of the surroundings. Some barns were renovated last year. after a few years, they will weather and not look so brand new.
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We had a great time despite the ominous clouds and several downpours. I was surprised at the number of people who attended with the forecast we had but they all seemed happy and I think we gained a couple of guild members.
In my previous blogs this year, I’ve charted my progress in preparing for a big exhibition of my work in a Michelin starred pub/restaurant (The Sportsman, Seasalter) along the coast from where I live. Making the work was a big undertaking. Since I last wrote, I’ve set up the six-week exhibition and as I press the button on this blog, it still has a few days left to run.
I confess I’ve done no felt-making since I set up this exhibition so I’m going to show you what I have of this event, plus a few photos of another exhibition I had at the same time.
I’m apologising in advance as these aren’t great photos. I took them more as a record for myself rather than trying to capture the feel. The light is very yellow and they don’t do the venue justice. Once I’d set up the pictures, I had a lovely private view with about 35 friends and family. Alas, I took no photos of that as I was thinking about being the host. I did, however, get a nice picture of my daughter and husband in that uncomfortable space when you’re waiting for things to start and worrying in case no one comes to your party
Waiting for the party to start
The Sportsman has 3 linked dining areas & a corridor
These are some images from room 1
Room 2 is the largest room
Room 3, which backs onto the kitchen garden
And finally the corridor
Looking at these, I haven’t included everything but I hope you get the idea.
I’m delighted to say that 6 pictures have sold.
While the Sportsman exhibition was in progress, I also had a week in the hut in Whitstable harbour. I was a bit short of felt pictures so I included some 3D work and some of my photographs.
I’ve been thinking about what to do next and pondering some more 3D work. For now, I’m really happy to have got these exhibitions done.
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.
Gormless Gomphidus Roseus mushrooms
Fly Agaric Mushroom family – Granddad, Mum and Dad with baby
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.
Buttons family
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.)
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.
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.
Overflowing Magic
I made a lot of bracket fungi, both representing individual singers (baritones and basses – big and bigger ones)
The basses and the baritones
Big Bass himself
And Tenors, since they were smaller, in groups of three.
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.
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.
September has been a busy and exciting month in contemporary textile art (specifically felting art) in Ireland so I thought I would feature what I got up to, I will call it my September Adventures.
Weather wise, the month started as we hoped it would continue (it didn’t by the way) with a return to fine warm weather – something we had not seen since last June. So I took the opportunity to visit our National Botanical Gardens (https://www.botanicgardens.ie/) which are situated on Dublin’s north side. The gardens (there’s free entry, if you ever visit Dublin, Ireland) opened in 1800 and are an oasis of calm with restored glass houses, magnificent specimens, bee hives and, of course, a tea room. There’s also a pedestrian access to the historical cemetery next door which I suspect is not seen too often. Glasnevin Cemetery also houses a genealogical archive for anyone wishing to trace their Irish ancestors (https://www.dctrust.ie/genealogy/home.html).
But, I digress. Let’s go back to the gardens. My visit coincided with their annual exhibition ‘Sculpture in Context’. The exhibits feature artworks in various media including ceramics, wood, metal. I decided to focus purely on the textile element of the exhibition and to photograph any pieces I came across as I wandered around. I was aware that some of the members of Feltmakers Ireland had pieces accepted for the exhibition; Clare Merry (http://www.merryland.ie/index.htm) an exceptional artist who quietly creates her pieces was featured. If you would like to see some of Clare’s work please check out her website, which, she tells me, is not really up to date, or Google her and feast over the images; Fiona Leech(https://www.instagram.com/feltathome/?hl=en) had three beautiful pots which were originally housed in the cactus house. Annoyingly two of the three pots were stolen within a matter of hours of their arrival and the remaining one was moved to a safer spot in the garden’s gallery. I thought I would show you the three pots as they were originally grouped together.
Fiona Leech’s three pots (source: Fiona’s Instagram page)
I searched but could not find Leiko Uchiyama’s beautiful work but here is a link to her website if you would like to check her out: https://www.leikofelt.com/my-felt-work/ I found two other exhibits from members of the guild. Their featured work while not through the medium of felt were equally stunning. Congratulations Mel Bradley (https://melbradleysilks.ie/) and Mette Sophie Roche (https://metteroche.com/)
I put together a slideshow of my textile finds in the gardens which I hope you enjoy.
Mette Sophie Roche; The vital matter of Fungi
Mette Sophie Roche; The vital matter of Fungi (detail)
Mette Sophie Roche; The vital matter of Fungi (detail)
Fiona Leech; Drought
Fiona Leech; Drought (detail)
Frances Crowe; Terrain
Frances Crowe; Terrain (detail)
Frances Crowe; Terrain (detail)
Claire Merry; Floral Path
Claire Merry; Floral Path
Ella Quinn; It’s nothing but a dead fish
Niamh O’Connell; Cocoon
Mel Bradley; Grasses
Mel Bradley; Grasses
We had our first meeting after summer in Feltmakers Ireland and as usual the committee put an incredible amount of preparatory work into making it successful. It was a busy morning as everyone beavered away felting flowers to create a tapestry as part of the 20th anniversary celebration for the guild. Much to everyone’s delight, the guild’s founder Elizabeth Bonnar joined us. I thought I would feature Elizabeth here as without her it is doubtful that there would be such a vibrant community of feltmakers today. Here she is with her granddaughter and with the committee.
Feltmakers Ireland founder Elizabeth Bonnar and her granddaughter
Feltmakers Ireland committee with founder Elizabeth Bonnar (3rd from left)
Here are some photos taken on the day.
Feltmakers hard at work
Breda and Elizabeth hard at work!
Lots of flowers were made that morning by members
Suzanne, Breda, Deirdre and Elizabeth catching up
The finished tapestry was revealed at Feltmakers Ireland ‘Bountiful’ juried exhibition which opened on 30th September.
Feltmakers Ireland members: The Floral Tapestry to celebrate 20 years.
The exhibition also saw the launch of the new book “Exploring Irish Wool for Feltmaking” The book is the product of a collaboration between many members of Feltmakers Ireland guild, sheep farmers, shepherds, shearers and suppliers and not forgetting the various washers and carders who took the raw fleeces, converting them into usable fibres for testing. I think this approach was quite unique and it will certainly be a worthwhile and useable addition to any textile maker’s reference library. Understandably it was a huge project so congratulations are due to all, especially Annika (Berglund), Breda (Fay) and Sinead (Doyle) who collated all of the findings into an invaluable resource on Irish wool. It’s so full of well written practical advice and it was made extra special by the presence of one of our Government Ministers, Pippa Hackett an ardent supporter of the project, who officially launched the book and the exhibition . Here is a quick look at the contents page to give you an idea of the scope of the book:
Exploring Irish Wool Contents page
An added bonus is that feltmakers/wool artists can now make direct contact with numerous artisanal suppliers so there is no excuse for any of us not buying closer to source and of course for anyone overseas who wishes to use Irish wool fibre in their work purchasing from source.
I hope you have enjoyed my September adventures. It has been an exciting month. Once again I would like to thank Feltmakers Ireland and their hard working committee who work tirelessly to maintain this vibrant community – it makes such a difference that, as textile artists, we can gather together and create regularly. I take my hat off to Elizabeth Bonnar and her decision to found Feltmakers Ireland twenty years ago; the catalyst for lifelong friendships, masterclasses, collaborations, exhibitions, networks and travel.
To complete September’s birthday celebrations, I thought I would produce a slideshow of the Bountiful exhibition which is running for the month of October in Phoenix Park, Dublin Ireland. I took photos on the day so I apologise where the light may be shining on the artwork. There are over 30 pieces of art and it will give you an indication of where Ireland’s vibrant felting community is at in its journey. I hope you enjoy it!
Annika Berglund: Variations on a Green Theme II
Astrid Tomrop-Hofman: Positive Vibes
Deirdre Crofts: A good Day’s Catch
Clare Brophy: Share the Bounty!
Helene Dooley: Visualizing the beauty of the Sunflower Field
