year ahead – Felting and Fiber Studio

Looking Ahead 2014

January 3, 2014 zedster66 Comments 17 comments

I think every year I plan to be more organised over the coming year. I don’t think I’ve done too badly, I did rearrange some rooms to make my felting and craft stuff more accessible, so it should be even easier this year since I can now leave projects out and don’t have to spend valuable time tidying everything away. I’m going to keep writing notes and lists of things to do in my diary each day , so I don’t forget.

I really enjoyed the craft fair that I did, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do more this year. Just working out how to find out where they are happening will be an improvement on last year 🙂 I photographed and printed out my ‘inventory’ of all the things I’ve made which makes it easier to keep track, so I’m going to keep up with that aswell this year. I used to upload everything to flickr, but I find it hard to use since the change.

I’d like to be able to work on a new e-book this year or at least more tutorials. As much as I love our weather here, it isn’t the best for taking photos, so that is a big hindrance in doing tutorials. The light in Winter can be perfect, but some days there’s barely 5 hours of ‘daylight’, so finding the perfect conditions can be difficult. The light in Summer is weird: pale, hazy with a yellow tint, so maybe it’s time to invest in a lightbox. I would also love to be able to get involved in community workshops, something which people will really enjoy doing, learning a new usable skill and giving people an alternative creative outlet and way to express themselves. Hopefully if I get enough interest I can also get funding. But if anyone has any openings for a felter one day a week, I’m open to offers 🙂

Two things I’d like to try out more with felting is embellishment fibres and using wool to create the ‘design’ or surface interest. I don’t think I’d ever be able to do anything like those gorgeous wet felted paintings, but I do enjoy using wool in a more controlled way to create an interesting effect.

I’ve been working on what I call my ‘other fibres project’ off and on for years, using embellishment fibres to add interest to felt. I made a few pieces with bamboo recently and enjoyed that a lot, especially adding texture and shape to felt, so I’d like to find time to work on that more.

Thanks for supporting us this year 🙂 Have you made plans for this year?

Happy New Year

January 1, 2014 shepherdessann Comments 13 comments

It’s New Years Day and I feel like I should say something profound but I haven’t been able to think of anything other than I hope your old year ended well and the new one will go the way you hope.

Last year I picked the words explore and persevere as my words for the year. I didn’t try as many new things as I would have liked but I did do some things, I did some small art works and took a boot making class on line. The boot making class brings us to perseverance. I have made 2 sets of boot tops so far and am not happy with them. I did adjust the pattern between tries and I am still not happy. the upper fits better but the Uncle is not right yet. I ordered more wool and will adjust the pattern again and hope that I am 3rd time lucky. so more perseverance this year too.

I think the other idea I would like to work on is self awareness. Trying to do the things I want and not what others think I should do. That sounds a bit selfish but I don’t mean ignoring other peoples needs just being more aware of my own.

Step one for everything is doing the new year sort and tidy. Nothing like working to make a mess. Everything is on the wrong place and its time to put it all back and maybe find better places for things. And maybe but only maybe, get rid of some stuff. I am not good at getting rid of things that might be useful. I have the packrat gene.