This my 100th blog.
I would never have imagined that was possible when I started on my felting journey. Thanks to Els for getting me started and Kate at ArtyBird who has taught me such a lot over the last two years. Thanks also to everyone who reads my ramblings. If you could leave me a comment I'd be delighted!
I have been felting Christmas brooches.
My first two have become part of my Christmas wreath.
The one I will be wearing on Christmas day.
Happy Christmas to you all. :)
Still working with the theme of lattices, I decided to try and make a vessel.
I kept with the brown , orange, grey and green theme that I had used for my flat pieces and used a resist previously used to make some small vases. I incorporated some synthetic chiffon into the piece trapped between prefelt and fibres.
Here is the the starting point.
It was really hard to get this lattice to meld together and I really should have thought to keep all joins and ends away from the edges of the resist. The shape got a bit out of control , during the felting process and was only tamed by first drying the piece around a glass jar and a then couple of discrete stitches.
Looking at the finished piece I thought it was missing something, so I decided to make some cords and weave them through the lattice. The final effect is quite bizarre but I like the idea that I have used one resist to make such constrasting pieces.
The original vases
The crazy lattice version
The versatility of felt .
The start of year 2 of my Artybird course has a lot of drawing assignments. This is doubly challenging for me as I am a beginner in drawing and as my theme is river edges, they are not very transportable. While approaching these challenges I started with the warm up to music exercises. Charcoal in hand blindfold on music blaring I scribbled away . My two choices of music Hallelujah sung by KD Land and You overtake me by The flaming lips. If you know these tunes you will be able , I hope to identify the drawing which goes with which music.
Next more music , eyes open , draw what you hear in white wax . This is of course virtually invisible so overall you are nearly as blind as before. I did learn from my first attempts that less is probably more , as if you scribble in time to fast music for 4 minutes there is no white space left.
Next wash with diluted ink to reveal the masterpiece and then add lines to bring it all together. So far so good. I was quite please with my piece so far.
Finally used diluted bleach to remove lines in the wash and ink as a final layer of detail. Well ok , I give it a try , still playing the same piece of music by the way , nothing happens. Can bleach stop bleaching , age and stop working????? I don't think so. Then it came to me, permanent ink . I had used permanent ink . I had not really thought about it just used a bottle of black ink. Totally impervious to fading naturally or with bleach. So it's back to the drawing board and the music.
Well all of my wonderful felted bags , sculptures and hats , along with my jewellery and vases are packed up and sent off to Kate for final assessment. What I lot of stuff I have made when I put it all together. So that is the end of my first year intermediate course with Artybird and my second year with Artybird. I have to say I have loved my second year just as much as the first year.
It's quite hard to pick my favorite part. Maybe it's hats !
Maybe it's sculpture ?
All I know is I have learned a lot , laughed a lot , really enjoyed talking and sharing thoughts , ideas and progress with my virtual classmate, Paula, and I have made things I am really proud of . So I don't think I can ask for more.
Next year promises to be just as exciting and challenging , with experimental pieces , thread and much more. I can't wait to get started.
After all the testing it was time to make my final year one assignment a handbag.
To recap it had to be a beautiful but also practical for every day use handbag. I intended to incorporate textured silk and stitching and two handles. It will have a smartphone pocket. After so much testing it becomes increasingly difficult to actually did the real thing for me , which is a bit bizarre.
Getting ready to start , fibre for all layers weighed out!
The pocket
Placing the silk
Attaching the silk
All the cutting for the handles and flap
Finished and thinking about stitching.
Close up of stitching just before finishing
Final finished bag
Whilst we were away at the wedding having a lot of fun as this photos shows.
My big bag was drying beautifully into a lovely shape and a nice mottled effect. It really beautiful the way three distinct layers and colours if fibre meld together in this way.
The question was how to finish off the handle. My plan was to hand stitch and give a kind of top stitch effect on both sides, this was quite difficult to do I found , as trying to get the two sides well stitched together and a reasonably straight top stitch on both sides was very hard. In the end I first did a line of small stitches which were to hold in all together , and then a more decorative top stitch on both sides.
I am please with the final result. It will be good for holding knitting , shopping and taking my miniatures felts to a gallery ..... One day .
This piece was inspirered by the felt united theme of water and the ideas conjured up by the word drift. Many things floated into my head when I was contemplating what to make and I do not know why this idea came to the top
I wanted to imagine the water lily pads which look so beautiful and peaceful with their quiet regular overlapping shapes, from the underneath. I had seen a beautiful pool in the Netherlands in spring of this year.
But I was also reminded of something I saw many years ago where a swimmer was picking beautiful water lily flowers , by swimming in the pond and holding the blooms in his teeth.
I also thought it would be a way of trying out the technique of felting I learned from Miriam Verbeek at Feltfull 2013. Here you needle felt the fibres into your fabric, making a new feltable fabric that can be cut into complex shapes, which in turn can be joined together. Perfect for water lily pads.
Here's my sketched idea and a sample , alongside by needle felted felt fabric made from some home dyed cotton lawn and merino fibres , ready for cutting.
Having made all the individual lily pads I felted it into a single piece . It is about 1 metre long.langamL
The finished piece will be on display as part of the drift exhibition organized by Lagom Felt Studio in Crieff Scotland.
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