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closeup of head and thorax of cat flea.
FLEA THE PANDEMIC

FLEA THE PANDEMIC

Comments 20 comments

Back in September 2020 I was asked if I would make a prop for a play which Taboo Theatre Company, a locally based actors’ collective, was to perform in November of that year, at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton, Dorset.  The play had been written especially for them by professional playwright Sue Ashby.  Sue has written, among other TV and theatre scripts,  episodes of Coronation Street (a very popular, long-running soap in the UK).  More details of Sue’s career can be found here  https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dorset-history-centre-blog/2023/07/24/historical-plays-set-in-north-dorset/

You will no doubt guess from the dates that we were out of the first Covid19 lockdown, but still under strict mask wearing, social distancing and other rules and regulations. The play, “Flea the Pandemic Dorset 1348”, tells the story of the first Bubonic Plague to hit the UK; so, given that it was rat fleas that carried the Black Death, the prop obviously had to be a flea.

Bearing in mind that the stage at The Exchange is 23 feet (7m) deep and its proscenium arch is 40 feet (12m) wide, and that the hall it serves is 118 feet (36m) deep and normally capable of seating 301 audience members, making a flea that a full audience could see was going to be a problem.  This was to be a play not a pantomime, so having an actor play the flea was not going to happen. (I don’t think that it had been decided, at this stage in the proceedings, that most of the action would take place on a much smaller podium constructed on the floor of the hall.)

After some (socially distanced) discussion with Craig White (director) and Robert Cowley (actor/producer), it was decided that the flea should be about the size of a cat, and be fixed on the end of a long enough pole to allow the cast member, who had to control its movements between the (socially distanced) actors, to do so without getting closer than 6 feet to any of them.

If I remember rightly, it was at this stage that my husband Graham became involved, not only to provide the pole, but also to work out how to enable the flea’s head to move and for its eyes to light up bright red.

With the help of Mr Google, I found some reference images of fleas (cat fleas in the end because the oriental rat flea which carried the bubonic plague was not that different in appearance but seemed not so photogenic).  I enlarged a side view of a flea to fit on A3 paper, and having found a “full face” view of the head, I also enlarged that to a similar size.  Quite fascinating really in a revolting way.

coloured drawing of flea with body parts named
Reference Image, drawing of flea with body parts named
flea's full face head
Reference image – Cat flea head. Not “just a pretty face”.

I had initially thought to make the whole flea from felt, but, because there had to be batteries, wires and an electrical switch concealed somewhere about its person, I had to change my ideas somewhat.  I’m afraid that I do not have any progress photos, nor do I have any notes of how we proceeded.  This was before I joined the Studio and it didn’t occur to me that anyone else might be interested in how we did it.  Luckily The Flea  was not disposed of after the performances so I have been able to examine it to jog my memory of the steps we took to produce it.

The body of the flea was made from three pieces of dyed and stiffened calico – two sides and a belly gusset – with its segments and spiracles painted on.  This was stretched over carved lumps of polystyrene.  The switch and wiring for the eyes and the battery pack were attached to a 6 foot long metal pipe, where it passed through the inside of the body from the neck to the “tail” end.

image of inside of flea's body with battery box, batteries and on/off switch
Flea “innards” showing the battery box, batteries and on/off switch.

The head, which was separate from the body so that it could be moved, was needle felted from brown wool (I can’t remember the breed) with mouthparts made from painted foam, plastic wire insulation coating and more painted and stiffened calico.

image of flea's face again with beside it a drawing of the face and mouth parts
That “pretty” face again and the drawing of face with mouth parts.
image of felted flea head, with mouth parts and glowing red eye
The Flea’s head – I’m really glad that fleas aren’t the size of this one.

Graham had to come up with a method of allowing the head to move and the eyes to keep glowing red, all without breaking the connection between the eyes and the wires running from the battery pack or those wires being tied in knots.

The method he came up with sounded extremely complicated to me, but then I’ve never had to put lights in a miniature building or lamp post.  A circular piece of PCB (Printed Circuit Board) with a hole cut into the centre was attached to the flea’s “neck” at the top of the body, where the pipe was also firmly fixed.  The PCB had the ends of the battery pack wires, through which the current would pass, soldered to it.

The wires from the red LED eyes in the head were soldered to another circular piece of PCB  and the head was sewn to this (Graham having pierced suitable holes in it for the purpose).

The head was attached to a piece of wooden dowelling long enough to pass right through the neck piece of PCB and on through the pipe inside the body and protrude from the pipe’s “handle” end.  This ensured that, so long as the two pieces of PCB were in contact, once the eyes were “switched on” they stayed on until switched off again, even when the flea was “looking around for it’s next meal” as the actor twisted the end of the dowel.

image showing PCB pieces, with soldered wires on neck end of head and neck end of body with dowel protruding from it.
Graham’s solution to the problem of the glowing eyes.
image of dowel protruding from handle end of pipe
This is the handle end of the pipe with the dowel protruding from it with the “bits” stopping it pushing through and decapitating The Flea.

The belly gusset on the underside of the body, which allowed the switch to be reached and the batteries changed as necessary, was closed with extra large snap fasteners for convenience (in case the manipulating actor was male!)

image of snap fasteners used to close the belly gusset
The “man-sized” snap fasteners used to close the belly gusset.

The Flea’s leg segments were needle felted in the same wool as the head and wired, with the claw ends just being fabric covered and painted for colour and stiffness.  These were affixed to the flea’s thorax with wire and thread.

image of underside of the flea with closed belly placket and legs.
Closed belly placket and The Flea’s legs.
image showing front view of the completed Flea
The completed Flea – in mid jump?
side view of completed flea
Side view of The Flea – definitely in mid jump.

After we had handed The Flea over to Taboo, but before the play could be performed in November 2020, Covid raised it’s ugly head again and we went into the second lockdown.  As a result the performances were re-scheduled to the end of January 2021.  Unfortunately because of the post-lockdown rules and regulations, which effectively prevented The Exchange from re-opening in time, the play had to be postponed – again.

It was eventually performed on the 19th & 20th June 2021.

If you would like to see a critique of the play, try this link: https://www.theftr.co.uk/flea-the-pandemic-taboo-theatre-the-exchange-sturminster-newton/ It will tell you more about the plot, as well as the action.  Unfortunately the images which were originally posted with the review have had to be removed, but the reviewer, Gay Pirrie-Weir very kindly provided the four images of “The Flea Acting” which you see below.  I must say that it appears that the lighting techie has turned the actors and The Flea, as well as the set, purple.  I’m forever having this problem with costumes and props changing colour on stage – grrrr!

image of two actors one with The Flea landing on his shoulder
The Flea Acting – just coming into land.
image of two actors, one manipulating the flea and the other shaking hands with an unseen actor
The Flea still acting – hanging on to it’s victim’s shoulder – just!
Image of 3 actors, 1 manipulating the flea, 1 "driving a cart" and the narrator reading from a book
The Flea being “carted” inland, while the narrator continues the story.
Image of 2 actors - the narrator and the carter with the flea at one side
The Flea “resting” while the story continues.

Oh, and we mustn’t forget The Mayor – you will need to read the Gay’s review mentioned above to learn about him.

an actor wearing a brimmed hat and standing at a lectern
The Mayor (Boris?)
Naturals For A Nature Lover

Naturals For A Nature Lover

Comments 14 comments

I wanted to make a piece of felt for one of my friends as a thank you for helping us out recently, he’s into the environment and nature, so I thought a piece using all natural wools and undyed fibres would be something he’d like. I really enjoyed not having to put too much thought into it apart from trying to use as many different fibres as possible. I can’t remember all the wools and fibres, but I definitely used: English 56s; Gotland tops, scoured fleece and raw locks (from Zara-thank you, again!); Brown Finnish, Grey, Brown and White Merino; scoured Shetland; Bluefaced Leicester locks; hemp; flax; soy tops; cotton nepps; silk noil; silk coccon strippings; Tencel; viscose fibre; bamboo fibre and ramie. Here’s the finished piece:

Close up of the top:

Close up of the bottom:

It’s not as textured as some pieces I make, but you can see how it is looking at it from an angle:

This is a close up of some of the flax:

A really nice, shiny Gotland lock with a gingery tip:

Another Gotland lock with some Soy top above and BFL locks at the bottom.

This is the BFL, I bought a bag of washed locks ages ago and forgot all about them until I went looking for something else!

The Tencel looked really shiny against the darker wools:

This is one of my favourite parts, because it has lots of texture, there are Gotland and Bluefaced Leicester locks, flax and hemp, Tencel, and cotton nepps:

Do you  have a favourite combination of wools and fibres? I didn’t get a photo from this piece, but I really like the silk noils and cocoon stripings on the dark brown wools, you often get little holes which look like a tiny bug made them, and the brown shows through the thin parts giving a ‘rusty’ look to it!

Recent Pieces:

Recent Pieces:

Comments 9 comments

I finally got photos of the piece I showed being laid out a couple of weeks ago. It was dark purple in the middle with black at each end, and I used lots of different natural fibres on it:

I like these photos on an angle:

I think this was tussah silk:

And this is soy fibre:

My friend had some hair ‘decoration’ things that she was throwing away after using, so I thought I would see how they felted 🙂 She had plaited (braided) them into her hair, I forgot to ask if they came wavy or not. I used some wool tops I got in a bag of Botany Lap waste. It’s a natural grey colour, but has the odd bit of Angelina fibre blended in. I couldn’t see any, though:

You can see better from this angle how they attached:

Where it was thinner/spread out it really blended in:

I liked how it looked where it was thicker:

I don’t know what the wool is, it’s really soft, and the colours look like a blend of grey and oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester. This is the back:

But the edges are like a breed with curlier locks:

Have you tried any new or unusual fibres or embellishments lately?

Well Being Centre

Well Being Centre

Comments 13 comments

I think I’ve posted a couple of photos from the Well-Being centre once or twice before, but definitely not for a while, so I thought I’d take some to share today. There were only two of us in the class, so it’s easy to see the room better. This is from the window end looking towards the door, a massive sink is on the right:

I took these photos on my phone so they’re not the best quality, but the colours are a lot better. This is from the window end again, we usually have the equipment on the side table and if we get a lot of supplies out, we put them on the grey benches under the window.

Since there was just the two of us, we put it all on the side table:

The room is used by lots of different craft groups, there are supplies and examples of work all around:

Cath was making a coaster with lots of natural wools:

She’s trying to sneak some Gotland locks while I’m taking the photo!

Action shot:

I was working on a black and purple piece with lots of undyed fibres:

As usual we ended up chatting loads and I didn’t get any more photos, but I’ll try to remember to show the finished pieces next time 🙂

Natural Wools and First Quarter Challenge

Natural Wools and First Quarter Challenge

Comments 21 comments

We made thick mats/placemats/coasters at the well being group last week. I took in some natural wools, partly to keep costs down, but also because I really like the combination of colours and textures they create when used together. I made my base out of some Portuguese Merino batts I’d put through the drumcarder. The fibre was really short and had tiny nepps in. This is how the back looked:

The edges were a lot thinner, I didn’t add the top ‘decorative’ layer of wools as thickly there, so I got what I can’t help thinking of as a ‘pie crust’ effect:

Some of the wools I used were raw so kept their character:

Close up:

The ‘pie crust’ edges reminded me of when I made another natural piece years ago. I used lots of different wools, with different shrinkage rates, which created a similar effect on the edge. I used my steam iron to firm up and shrink the edges before cutting it into pices for small placemats and coasters. It was alsmost 8 years ago, and the mat has sat on my computer desk ever since. I do use it as a placemat, so don’t look too closely because I noticed it needs a wipe! This is how it looks today:

I found an original photos of it, it was a bit dark so I brightened it, and the colours look a bit different on the white background, but here it is 8 years ago:

Those of you who read my last post will know I was asking about print-on-demand sites for t-shirts. I don’t have an update on that yet, but while I was asking around at local printing shops, one of them mentioned transfers, which reminded me that years ago (probably about 11 or 12) I bought a pack of transfer papers to make t-shirts at home. I found the pack, but had lost the instructions (typical!). I also found some prints I made and never used because of a tiny ink splash. I thought I’d combine experimenting with how long I need to iron the prints with trying them on different surfaces for the First Quarter Challenge. The first thing I tried a print on was a felt sample. I can’t remember what wool I used, but judging by the tiny crimp/texture, I’d guess it’s either 18.5 mic Merino, or one of the fine Swedish wools Zara sent me. This is how it turned out:

It felt crispy! I did get a nice imprint from the hem of the tea towel I used to protect the wool, though:

The next thing I tried was a transfer print onto Muslin. I used a print I’d just made which had turned out wrong. It looked ok in parts:

But in other parts I didn’t iron it long enough and part of the transfer paper came off, but some didn’t … still won’t even after soaking:

The last attempt on muslin was a bit better. I probably should have ironed the muslin first, so I could line the print up with the weave:

If I hold it up to let the light through you can see the weave still:

And here’s a close up of the edge, it doesn’t feel quite as ‘crispy’ as the wool, but is definitely stiff with texture:

Now, I just have to try the samples and see how they felt 🙂

Natural Wools For a Pod and Weaving

Natural Wools For a Pod and Weaving

Comments 11 comments

I made another bird pod last week, this time using various natural grey wools. The pictures aren’t the best because when I went to take photos yesterday afternoon, it suddenly went really dark, then we had the most epic hour long storm with non-stop thunder, lightning, wind and torrential rain (basically the whole  city shut down for hours because of it). So, I had to redo the photos this morning, and they’re a bit flat.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI mentioned in my last post I was getting a spinning wheel, and it came last week (yay!) but I’ve not been upto having a go yet, so I did a bit of spindle spinning and then weaving. I thought it’d be nice for fairs or the well being classes to show how hand woven yarn can be used. This first one was made with fairly neat (by my standards, anyway) yarn, just single ply, and I didn’t wet and set the twist or anything, just wound it onto an old broom handle from the spindle. I wove it on a little kids loom I bought:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA closer look:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI was doing some of the weaving at night watching Parks and Recreation and thought I was using all naturals, but it was obvious in daylight I’d used some yarn I made ages ago from hand dyed Merino (green over orange, I think), but I think it matches alright.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASince not everyone has a loom handy, I thought I’d make a few pieces with cardboard looms, so I cut some rectangles and then marked out sections and cut notches in the bottom. I also used some yarn I’d made from my carding scraps – the really wiry, scruffy, short and matted bits – and some coarser wools like Herdick (the bits I used looked like unpicked Brillo pads) and a couple I got from Wollknoll which look like shredded wheat, to show that yarn, and weaving, can still look good even if you don’t make smooth, even yarn. This is a tall one I made:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThat’s a dried pepper keeping it flat, I’ll probably have to wet and block some of these becasue they want to curl! Close up:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERACloser:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a really small one I made:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA close up:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the larger of the cardboard looms I made:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this is a photo of the loom above with a smaller cardboard loom (it already has the warp thread wound on it) and how they compare to the kids’ loom I have. That is probably smaller than A4/printer paper:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADo you remember the inside of my bag from last time? Well, I was watching Neighbours last week (an Aussie soap, for those who don’t know) and a character was wearing a jacket, just like my bag flap!

jacket-2jacket-3

Texture With Natural Wools

Texture With Natural Wools

Comments 8 comments

It was interesting to see Marilyn’s 3rd Quarter Challenge last week about creating/adding dimension to our felt projects, we’d just started exploring dimension and texture at the well being centre’s wet felting and fibre group. The piece I made last week doesn’t really qualify as it’s something I’ve done before, but I thought I’d show it in case it gives a bit of inspiration for someone else.

We started with a couple of ‘regular’ thickness layers of medium coarse wools, like English 56 or Texel. I used a blend I’d made from some Botany lap waste and donated wools. We then added some ‘filling’ to help bulk our pieces out, mostly some scoured Norwegian lambswool and some unravelled aran knitting yarn (80% wool, I think). Then we added a couple of thinner layers of Merino, roughly the equivalent thickness of one coarse layer, we did two finer ones to keep even shrinkage. We topped them off with different silk embellishments like hankies, silk noil, cocoon strippings and ‘schappe silk‘ which I got from wollknoll. We started felting as usual, and once it was felted, we sewed running stitch across in different places, then pushed the felt together to ‘ruche’ it and form ridges. Then we finished felting a bit more and fulled it until it was as firm as we liked. Then we removed the sewing thread. This is how the back of mine looked:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the front:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is it the other way around:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI had to take some photos along the surface of course, this is from one end:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this is from the other end, it’s funny how it looks different rotated:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYesterday we had a bit of a play-day using the different natural wools and fibres. It’s not the best place for photos, in the basement with unusual lights, and these are all still wet. This is Louise’s piece:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is Ruth’s, she was pointing out the cotton nepps while we were talking about them:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALyn has made a design on her piece so was still working on it, but it’s rude to leave her out!:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd mine, I used some Ryeland which I think Leonor sent, so it’ll be interesting to see how that dries:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOne of the other art/craft groups at the centre is doing something about nature with a local school, and we might join in with that, so our dimension and texture exploration might have a bit of a nature theme over the next few weeks.

Year End Round Up

Year End Round Up

Comments 26 comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAngora goat with black and white viscose:

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

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

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

Suffolk, Banana, Masham and Bamboo

Suffolk, Banana, Masham and Bamboo

Comments 18 comments

I’ve used banana fibre tops with Suffolk wool tops before, so I know they look really interesting together. I fluffed up some of the banana fibre, and added it to the top of the Suffolk. Though I used lessl of the banana fibre than I have previously, I wasn’t disappointed by the results.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis angled picture shows the texture more:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the centre part

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this is a supermacro of the wool and fibre texture

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIn the middle along the right edge is an area where the fibres are a little thicker. In the top photos it looks quite dense, but a supermacro close up shows the tangle of wool and banana fibres.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd from this angle you can see the pattern even better

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnother combination of wool and fibres I found really interesting is Grey Masham and Bamboo top. I’m not sure if Masham is classed as a coarse breed, I think its Micron count is between 29 and 34. It’s certainly more ‘wiry’ than fine wools, but is still quite soft to the touch. The contrast of the wool and sheen of the bamboo was quite striking, yet at the same time, the wool seemed to ‘absorb’ the fibre. This is the whole piece from an angle.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is slightly closer and from above, there’s an area in the centre with barely any fibre on it:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the dense patch just to the right, it’s interesting to see how the fibres are still affected by the characteristics of the wool even when they are thicker.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the area just left of centre at the top of the piece, showing dense and sparse patches.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI hope you’re not getting bored of these because I have about 30 other breeds of wool and about 15 natural fibres, I’m not going to do the maths, but that’s quite a variety of combinations I can come up with!

Natural Wools and Embellishment Fibre Panels

Natural Wools and Embellishment Fibre Panels

Comments 21 comments

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up:

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAClose up:

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is more of a straight on shot:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAClose up:

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

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

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