A few weeks ago I travelled down to Arnesby in Leicestershire to take part in the Feltmakers Region 8 annual Summer School. The name is a bit misleading as this isn’t a “tutored” gathering but more of a two day Play Day doing whatever takes your fancy. It’s just great to have the luxury of two whole days of uninterrupted felting and for me this would be my first felting project since March so I was particularly keen to make the most of it.
I knew I wanted to make something to display at a Coastal themed exhibition I’m taking part in September but hadn’t exactly planned what that was going to look like. So I dug out my tin of shells and chose a spiral one, covered in barnacles, to take with me as inspiration.
My initial thought was to create a vessel with a tiny opening in the base to remove the resist through. After working out the size I wanted my vessel to be I drew and cut out my resist, elongating the bottom section of the shell to give this more emphasis and more height.
By the time I’d finished my first coffee I’d changed my mind about what I was doing and decided the shape I’d drawn would lend itself nicely to being a lidded vessel. Its just as well I hadn’t got any fibre laid down yet!
The main body of the shell got laid out first and put to one side while I made the nuno prefelt to cut the craters from which would represent the barnacles.
I did wonder if that narrow base was going to prove a bad idea and whether I had the weight distribution right but by that point I was too invested so just had carry on and hope I could make it work!
This could have gone so wrong so it was a big relief to see it standing!
The finished vessel stands approx 45cm tall and is 25cm at its widest point.
After our first day of felting the friend I was staying with offered to drive three of us to Cosby, a village close by that stages an enormous themed yarn bomb. This years theme was “Round the World in 80 Displays”. The event happens every two years and the exhibits are in place for three weeks so we were lucky to catch the final evening before the displays were taken down. I can’t begin to describe the scale of this project! I’ve a friend who’s heavily involved so I’ve known of it for several years but it’s the first time I’ve visited and it surpassed all expectations!
The two leading lights behind this mega yarn bomb are Mel Charnock and Natalie Smith. These fun loving creatives have a passion for colour, textiles, jumble sales and people plus experience of TV & film costume styling, community events, visual merchandising, teaching better mental health & crafts for adults, not to mention a brief stint sewing gussets knickers! All of which led them to founding Gather Create Grow CIC, a local not for profit community group focused on connection and bringing people together, reducing isolation and improving wellbeing with creative community projects.
From very young school children to the very senior residents in the village everyone is encouraged to get involved. Each display area had its own information board telling the viewer a little about who had made what. The exhibits are spread far and wide around Cosby but there is a map available if you want to ensure you see the lot! There was lots we didn’t get to see but I hope you can get a feel for the event with these photos…..
The evening was topped off with a cuddle from this very friendly, and thoughtfully placed, Polar Bear before we headed off to the local chippy.
If you are wondering what happens to the exhibits at the end of the show they are taken down, dismantled, washed, repaired and packed away ready to be reborn again in two years time. Some will re-emerge looking much as they did this year, but in a different setting, while others will have a complete makeover and become something new. If you happen to be in the Leicestershire area when the next Yarn Bomb is on I can recommend you make a detour to Cosby and experience this wonderful event close up for yourself, you wont be disappointed!
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.
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:
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:
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):
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:
This is the most peaceful, maybe: just two little boats with shiny sails floating on a limitless sea..
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.
This was meant to be an abstract landscape at night, so I stitched a moon in shiny DMC Diamant thread.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
White pepper on background.
Pepper and the apple.
Pepper, apple and hint of second pepper in the background.
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.
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:
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.
I thought I’d show a few things I’ve been up to since my last post in December, starting with some pendants. A while ago I did an online workshop with feltmaker Aniko Boros to make her beautiful wet felted Fuchsia pendant. It wasn’t my intention to carry in making more fuchsias but rather to learn Anikos technique for making complex pendants so I could apply it to my own designs. And so the fuchsia led to this yellow/grey pendant which in turn has led to a recent request from Region 8 of the International Feltmakers Association to teach how to make it.
Yellow/grey necklace
I was concerned that some in the group I will be teaching may not be used to working with Superfine fibre on such a fiddly scale, so over the Christmas/New Year period I created three more sample pendants. Two of these involve some different techniques to Aniko’s, making them easier and quicker to create than my grey one, but they will produce a similar look. The third sample is made without resists and aimed more for absolute beginners, just in case we have any attend. The other obvious difference with these new samples is the addition of beading which can be optional. I’m looking forward to teaching this class on the 8th March.
Another project I’ve been working on recently is a planned IFA exhibition of Feltmaking titled Felt Connected: Bringing People and Fibre Together. It came about after we surveyed Region 8 members as to what they wanted from their Regional Coordinators and one of our members, Jo Cook, suggested we organise an exhibition of members work. Since then Jo and I have been working together to organise the event which will take place next month in Harding House Gallery in Lincoln. We have a total of 17 IFA members taking part with the aim of not only showcasing their talent but demonstrating the versatility of fibre and what can be done with it while at the same time promoting the IFA and hopefully attracting more members. If you are in the area we will be holding a Meet the Artists session from 1pm – 3pm on Saturday 14th March and it would be great to see you there.
Examples of our members work
Earlier this month I started work on The Passage of Time, my submission for the IFA 2026 online exhibition “Time” that launches during our AGM on March 28th. When I first read the theme title I have to admit that for a day or two I struggled to see anything other than clocks! Then I had a lightbulb moment, I’d make an Ouroboros, the mythical serpent that is often represented in Alchemy art depicted eating its own tail. It’s a symbol of the cyclical nature of time, the universe, and self-renewal and represents the concept of eternity and endless return. Image source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20171204-the-ancient-symbol-that-spanned-millennia
I created my 3D mobius wet felted version using Merino fibre but when it came to photographing it, no matter what angle I took it from, it looked really dull and boring. So I abandoned that idea and instead I’ve taken inspiration from the beautiful sandstone slabs on Seahouses beach in Northumberland. Coastal erosion and fossils are both dramatic indicators of the passage of time so seemed a fitting replacement for the failed Ouroboros!
My inspiration for The Passage of TimeExperimental piece depicting fossilsAnother fossil experimentWork in progressAdding free motion stitch
The base is a mix of Carded Corriedale and Bergschaf fibre with silk fabrics, wallpaper, Tyvek, free motion stitch and hand embroidery. I’ve included a piece of felt I made a few years ago which mimics fossils, it’s one of two experimental samples I made and didn’t get around to using until now. After auditioning both of them in the pre-made hole I went with the darker option, which doesn’t look as dark in the flesh as it does in the photo. I’ve submitted this piece for the online exhibition but I’ve since felted another slab to add to the first one. It will be embellished in a similar way, to create a larger piece of work for another exhibition that Jo and I are hoping to launch in July.
I’ll leave you with a piece of work that was created by a lovely lady called Avie, also known as The Curly Sheep. Avie came to spend a day with me last month to learn how to wet felt a picture and how to do free motion stitch. Turns out she’s a natural at both as I’m sure you will agree!
Back in March Mark announced that he fancied taking up a new hobby and was thinking of having a go at making automata or possibly creating “gravity art”. He’d been looking at examples online of incredible, complex rolling ball creations by a guy who goes by the name of Copper Gravity. I love anything like this so did a bit of my own googling and discovered there’s a place in Stratford on Avon called The MAD (Mechanical Art & Design) Museum that showcases this type of art. If you look at their website you might get the impression that it’s geared for children, and maybe it is, but on the day I visited there wasn’t a kiddie in sight…..it was all adults having a great time marvelling at the exhibits! Stratford isn’t exactly on the doorstep but I knew I would be down that way mid March to run a workshop so decided to plan my visit around that. On arriving in the town the first hurdle was to find the entrance which is very discreet. Even with Google maps telling me I was in the right place I walked past the museums narrow open door a couple of times before spotting it! On the positive side, having walked in the wrong direction to begin with, I did get to see Shakespeare’s birthplace.
The museum exhibits range from very simple to incredibly complex with everything in between and in front of each exhibit is a button which you wave your hand over to start the automata working. If I tell you the vibe is a mix of Wallis and Gromit, Heath Robinson and Scrapheap Challenge you’ll get the idea. Some of the pieces are behind glass, which made it difficult to video them, but hopefully you can get the gist of this one. Keep your eyes on the tank and the rabbit!
There were several clocks on display but I thought this one, Gold Clock by Gordon Bradt, was particularly beautiful…..
The majority of pieces were displayed on open shelving. This submarine and its wonderfully weird operatives has to be my favourite! There is so much going on here and it’s quite hypnotic the way those little characters move. I would love Mark to make something like this, but I’m not holding my breath!
The “Platform Lift” by Keith Newstead was amusing and this was very “Wallace and Gromit”…..
Some of the exhibits are wall hanging and I loved this one by Chris & Angela Margett. It has three cheeky gremlins defacing a portrait of Shakespeare, Stratford on Avons most recognised figure!
Although the museum is small it’s jam packed with exhibits as well as having a small cinematic area playing a fascinating video and there’s a small shop selling automata kits and souvenirs. I must have spent over two hours in there and absolutely loved it!
The following day I was at Stitching Kitchen in Brackley to teach my Wet Felted Chickens. This was my second visit to this venue run by a lovely lady called Hannah Thompson. I had six students which meant plenty of one to one time and they all worked really hard to get their birds finished in the time allowed. What was all the more impressive was that two of the ladies had never wet felted before!
I’ve done very little felting since my last post but I have been collecting images of shells and thinking about how I can interpret those as “Structures” for Waltham Textile Groups next exhibition. This image inspired my first wet felted Conch shell.
The Conch is a medium to large sea snail which inhabits the Indo-West Pacific. This is my wet felted version of the Conch made from Corriedale, Merino, sari silk and paint. It’s approximately 25cm x 12cm.
Hopefully I will have a few more shells to share next time…..or maybe I’ll have gone off at a tangent and be doing something completely different, who knows!
I know that some of our readers are members of the International Feltmakers Association and therefore know all about our upcoming exhibition “Connections”. For those of you who don’t, the Feltmakers organisation uses their AGM at the end of March as the launch for a themed annual online exhibition to showcase our members work. The wonderful thing about these events is that they are not juried, there is no right or wrong so no one is judged, it’s open to any ability and how you interpret each theme is entirely up to you. All of the online exhibitions can be viewed by anyone, not just members, simply visit Feltmakers.com and click on Our Feltmakers from the menu and then choose Online Exhibitions. Last year’s theme was Hats Off! Hats and fascinators are simply sculptures for the head so we could let our imaginations run riot and you can see the wide variety of headwear created for that event here.
For me this year’s brief took more thought as there are so many different ways it could be approached…..”you can find connections in the way you interact with other feltmakers, in the way you are inspired by nature, other mediums or other artists. You can also explore the literal: how can I connect one part of the felt to another?”
I finally whittled my thoughts down to two ideas. The first would take the form of another head piece, because I’m developing a bit of a thing for fascinators, and the second would be a 3D vessel.
I am a huge fan of the Dutch Feltmaker and Milliner Saar Snoek. Saar has a different approach to many other feltmakers I know and her imagination and creativity when it comes to felted headwear is phenomenal!
Some of Saar Snoek’s amazing wet felted headwear.
How I approached my Fascinator might sound like a cop out to some of you but remember the theme of the exhibition is Connections🤩 So rather than start from scratch I decided to “connect” three existing pieces of my own to create a Fascinator, these are pieces that were never intended to be worn on the head. One of these was originally designed as necklace which I’ve worn on several occasions along with the second piece which was a matching bracelet. They were both Nuno felted, stitched, embellished with beads and backed with fabric.
Next I looked around for something suitable to top off my head piece. I’d been working with organza earlier that day so auditioned a piece of that but decided against it. It needed something with much more impact!
The organza wasn’t doing it for meThe Splash would make more of a statement!
I’d previously made a blue version of the Splash, inspired by the wonderful Australian feltmaker Pam de Groot, and thought I’d try that out for size. Although it was far too floppy at this stage I could envisage it working as the third piece of the Fascinator. I used acrylic paint to colour it to complement the other two pieces and to give it enough rigidity to keep its shape.
Next I removed the necklace chain and invisibly stitched everything together.The final stage was to attach it to a gold metal headband repurposed from another project and then talk a friend into modelling it for me. Fortunately Maria was all for it and I think she really suits it too!
I called this piece Crowning Glory.
For my second piece I started by sketching a variety of shapes including cords, spikes and balls which could be used to join individual pieces of flat felt in a decorative way. While I was considering how this would look my design changed several times and ended up becoming a four sided hinged structure. At this point I realised it would be a good project for Waltham Windmills next challenge which is Structures. So having only made four connectors I decided to park that design for now and moved on to plan B.
The first four connectors are now being saved for another project
Plan B was based on a very rough sketch but became more of a “let’s make a start and see where it goes” sort of plan to avoid any more procrastination!!
I started with an egg shaped resist, covered it in green and grey Merino fibre and worked it to prefelt. Various thicknesses of hand made prefelt and fully felted offcuts were then arranged on one side and covered with a thin layer of white Corriedale fibre. At that point I decided to add the grey concertina protrusion before attaching the ropes, balls, cords and several other pieces of prefelt on the top side. In all I connected at least 60 separate pieces of felt as well as small pebbles, acrylic wallpaper and dried seaweed. It’s very tactile and I’ve left it hollow so it can be pushed and pulled and reshaped allowing the viewer to also connect with it.
I’ve called this one Biomorphia
I hope you’ll take the time to visit the Feltmakers website after the 29th March and see the exhibition for yourself.
Happy Christmas everyone! At the moment you are probably up to your eyes getting ready for the days of festivities which lie ahead. So, I will give you a few options here. Here is a slideshow of my blog which you can go through in a few minutes if you are stuck for time. Alternatively you can read my narrative or if you have a while to spare why not grab a cuppa, pull up a chair, watch the slideshow and read the narrative!
I covered the resist with orange viscose and two layers of red merino
Then I added silk paper I made. I didn’t like it so I pulled it off when it was at prefelt stage
This is the lid of the furniture polish I used to shape my bells
Here they are after drying. I cut them to size as they were rather long
Here is a view of the inside of one of the bells
I rolled the bottom edge to show the orange viscose
I pinned the soluble paper to the bell and drew my pattern
I cut back the excess paper ones I had stitched the pattern
Then I added the beads
Here they are ready for dunking
The paper dissolved once the water hit it!
Then I crocheted the ‘rope’ I painted the silver bells with some bronze nail varnish
Here they are, ready to go!
A detail of the free motion machine embroidery and beading on the tree
Disaster struck using masking tape on the inside of the card. Back to the drawing board
I stippled the card using a stencil brush and red then gold paint
Inside the card (no masking tape this time!)
A selection of handmade Nepalese paper for Karen to play with
All packed in the box
Here’s the finished card which I glued to the lid of the box
All ready for posting
And finally, here they are, on Karen’s beautiful Christmas tree
I was so delighted when I drew Karen in the Christmas card exchange this year. I was also a bit daunted as I have been going through a bit of a dry patch creatively over the past number of months. I knew I wanted to do something that ‘stood out’ (in other words 3D) but this can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to postal systems.
While searching through one of my fibre presses I came across a deep small box that I had used to transfer a porcelain bowl home from my holiday in NZ earlier in the year. We won’t even talk about how my weird creative mind works but seeing the box instantly brought to mind bells so, decision made, I got to work on them.
First I made my resist. I intended making two bells. I covered the resist in an orange viscose fibre and then laid two layers of red merino on top. I added a hanging loop to each bell and some silk paper to each bell which I later pulled off as I didn’t like it. Once prefelted I cut through the resist to make two shapes and then started working on shrinking and shaping. Next, I searched for a suitable bell shape which I could use for the next stage. That’s where the beeswax came in! The lid is shaped like an old fashioned beehive which is an ideal shape to work with. Lots of rubbing and shaping ensued (and I will admit a bit of cutting as the shapes were too long), until I ended up with bell shapes I was happy with. Then I rolled the bases so that the orange showed on the outside.
I decided I wanted a simple embroidered design on each bell. I drew my tiny design on water soluble paper and added my stitches and a few beads to each bell. Then I dissolved the paper and reshaped the bell on the top of my little beehive! Once dry, I got to work on the ‘rope’ and the bell. My little jingle bells were silver and I had been searching, to no avail for gold ones which I thought would look better. Then I thought of using some nail varnish on the outside of the bells. Worked a treat! I then took some cotton embroidery thread and made the ‘rope’ which I attached to the body of the bell and to the inside of the little ‘jingle’. Then I threaded ribbon through the loop at the top of each bell so that Karen could hang them up. They fitted nicely into the box but I felt there was something missing. So I added a few little squares of Nepalese paper which I thought Karen might like to experiment with. Some of these are quite a lot heavier than the usual ones which are used in felting but I have managed to felt them into pieces. I thought she might have fun trying them out.
Next to the card. My cards were the same size as the box so I thought it might be fun to attach it to the box when it was ready. I opted for a monochrome effect to start with; I prefelted a tree which was made from black merino and margillan silk. Then I laid the tree onto a white merino background and felted the lot together. Once fulled, I cut it to size. Then it was decorating time which I did on my sewing machine using free motion embroidery. I added some beads too.
Time to address the card! I stippled the outside of the card with a stencil brush using red and then gold paint. Then I decided to do the same on the inside but got too creative and used masking tape so I could control the area where I was adding the colour. Once happy, I went to remove the masking tape. Disaster! It took away a goodly portion of the card too. I was not a happy bunny! On to the second attempt with the card (without masking tape this time), I was more successful. All done and ready for the post.
Karen has received her card today and I got mine from her yesterday. I love my card. Karen has gone to such detail with it I am going to treasure it. Like Lindsay’s card from a previous swap, it will be putting in an annual appearance at Christmas time.
I love the concept of the card swap. It keeps my felting friends close in my heart, especially at this time of year. Thank you to Ann who organised it and us.
Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2025!
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?
A couple of weeks ago I did a hat class in a small town near me, Spencerville. It is a great little gallery with some workshop space. https://www.spencerstreetmuse.ca/
I had 4 students including the owner. These are the samples I brought to show some possibilities. Sorry for the bad picture, I had to cut it out of one of the other pictures. The 3 ladies all picked the same style of hat, the black and blue one in the middle.
And the gentleman wanted a wizard’s hat for part of a costume. Nothing too tall so we were good for space and time.
You know the drill first you lay out all the wool.
Then you wet it and rub it with Tupperware juice jug lids on top of the bubble wrap. Two of them are getting great patterns in their bubbles. You can see the shape of the wizard hat bottom right.
Then there is the rolling.
Next is the scariest part for most new people…..the cutting.
Then we moved on to more rolling and then some scrunching and a little tossing to get them down to the right size. I do have some basic hat blocks but I make people try them on to see if they fit like they want them to. Then we can fine-tune them before the final shaping. At this point, the gentleman had to leave to make it to work on time so I gave him some information and told him to contact me if he needed help. So no more pictures of his hat.
And the finished hats, they all turned out really well. And one of the ladies bout the black and blue sample hat so I will have to make another.
Sorry for the sort of quick post with not much info but our Guild Sale and Exhibition is this weekend and I am in charge( silly people letting that happen). We will be on our second and last day when you read this.
Several of my recent posts have been about the work that was being created by members of the Waltham Textile group for our Making Waves Exhibition. It’s been about six weeks now since that took place so many of our readers will have already seen images, and possibly the video, but if you haven’t, and you’re interested, you can view them on Facebook or Instagram.
Something else I had wanted to make for the show, but didn’t make time for, was a felted Leafy Seadragon. I discovered so many weird and wonderful sea creatures while researching for the exhibition but this species is in a category of its own!!
Image source: Treehugger.com
Leafy seadragons inhabit rocky reefs, seaweed beds, and seagrass meadows in waters off the coast of South Australia, where they have been adopted as the state’s marine emblem.
These timid creatures grow to between 20 and 30cm in length. They use their ornate leaf-like appendages as very effective camouflage to blend in with their surroundings, becoming almost invisible to the untrained eye.
Belonging to the same family as seahorses and pipefish, Australian leafy seadragons are generally brown to yellow in body colour, while their spectacular appendages are typically olive-tinted and provide near-perfect camouflage in seaweed. Depending on the age and health of the individual some Leafies can also change their colouration if they need to.
The leaf-like structures are not used for swimming. They move very slowly using their pectoral and dorsal fins which are so delicate they are almost transparent.
Image source: @animalfactfiles
So I thought I’d have a go at making a Leafie this month and I’m hoping there will be space for me to display her as part of my submission to “Water“ – the 2024 Lincs Textiles Exhibition in Lincoln Cathedral at the end of August. Our work will be on show in the Chapter House at the Cathedral so if you are in the vicinity it would be lovely to see you there!
I know these creatures are normally pictured horizontally but for aesthetic purposes I’m using artistic lisence and hanging mine vertically! So, would it be wet felted and stuffed or needle felted? I liked the idea of wet felting the body but decided against it as I didn’t think it would provide enough support for the appendages.
Best to start with a 1.2mm galvanised wire armature and needle felt the body…..but what was I thinking when I switched to 0.5mm aluminium wire for the appendages? I was thinking I could form the leaf shapes using that wire and fill them in with painted lutradur……what I wasn’t thinking was that they would twist and bend and drive me nuts all the time I was needle felting the body! That wire was making the whole thing too fragile and too difficult to work with so it had to go!
It was replaced with 0.6mmgalvanised wire which, being retro fitted, would now require careful poking and anchoring to ensure they all stayed put! This also meant the leaf/seaweed shapes would need a rethink. They wouldn’t be outlined with wire, as I’d originally intended, because the replacement wire was far too stiff for that. But at least it was easier to work on now!
I began adding detail and colour to the head. When I was happy with that I moved on to wet felting several boney spikes to attach in rows along the back, front and sides and then needle felted colour to the body.
Next the new wires that will hold the foliage were wrapped with fibre and I made flat felt to cut up for the leaves.
This is where I’m at right now. There’s more foliage to add and the de-fuzzing to do so I’ll include a photo of the finished dragon in my next post. In the meantime I just have to share some inspiring Leafie sculptures I came across online.
I was blown away by the beautiful design and detail in these first two which are the work of artist Ellen Jewett Ellen says “Each sculpture is constructed using an additive technique, layered from inside to out by an accumulation of innumerable tiny components. Many of these components are microcosmic representations of plants, animals and objects. Some are beautiful, some are grotesque and some are fantastical. The singularity of each sculpture is the sum total of its small narrative structures.”
In addition to her life as a professional artist Ellen operates a small scale animal refuge with the help of her partner on their Vancouver Island farm.
Image source: ellenjewettsculpture.com
Image source: ellenjewettsculpture.com
I also like this one made by Australian artist Dean Fox using recycled copper and brass on natural rock…… “I am much inspired by the beautiful environment of Kangaroo Island in South Australia where I live. The beaches and bush alike are a constant source of ideas and materials. During my working life in the building and metalwork industry I learnt the many skills I now employ in my creative work. I work in metal, copper and brass and may incorporate found objects and natural timber into my work.”
Image source: deanfoxsculptor.com
Mine is still very much a WIP but in my head I’m already working on a more abstract version for Leafie number two which may or may not involve fibre.
