Felt Number 6

This is another piece of felt I made when I was on the City & Guilds course earlier this year. I used natural coloured wool tops, and the small orange blotched at the bottom of the felt, were from some of the Islay fleece which I'd dyed using onion skins. I embellished the felt using 'Green Fibres' organic cotton thread; machine and hand stitching.  

Dyed Fleece 2

Dyed Fleece; the fleece I brought back from Islay.
The bottom of the photo is just washed fleece; the chunk of wool at the top of the photo, has been dunked in a dyebath of oak leaves. It's a very, very subtle shade of beige. Both of these pieces of fleece have been carded/combed. All ready for using in making future felt pieces!

Uffington Horse 3

This is the second felt that goes with the brown felt (below) that depicts the Uffington Horse; the second piece of the diptych.
The colour has changed; the tiny stitches at the forefront of the felt, isn't blue, as it appears here, the cotton is a 'silver-grey', from Green Fibres, an organic cotton thread.

Felt & the Uffington Horse 2

I've been embellishing the Uffington Horse felt piece. Using space dyed cotton I dyed on my course, I stitched these marks. In the background is the stitched Uffington Horse.
The second part of this diptych is about completed I think.

Felt & the Uffington Horse

Some embellishment on a piece of felt I made recently on the G&Guilds course. Based on my visit last year to Wiltshire, and camping at the site close to the Uffington Horse.
I'm stitching onto a second piece of felt which will sit with this one....a diptych of felt/s!

Felt 5

Another piece of the felt I made on the C&Guilds course. 
The portfolio of work I put in gained me a Distinction; which was lovely, as I feel such a beginner in the Felting field. This example was 'nuno' felt; and so has some hessian there in the mix, for the felt to adhere itself to.
If I'd used a thinner open weave fabric, it would have wrinkled beautifully, and created a very textural surface.
I'd like to experiment with that a bit more in the future.

catch up

Due to my computer monitor going on the blink, I'm unable to access the t'internet at home. So I can't upload any photos at the moment. This will have to be a 'read-only' post!

The ArtWalk was interesting; busy; and tiring, as always. 
I took some blurry and dark photos of the tea-lights, in their jars at Westgate Chapel. It looked beautiful.
My friend, Ann, and I went up to the local lagoon, and sailed the origami boats away in the dusk of Saturday evening; the final day of March. An ending, and a new beginning. We set sail our wishes; said goodbye to those things no longer in our lives.

I've got my City & Guilds Feltmaking portfolio back; but although I have been given the grade, I'll withold telling it, until I can illustrate the post with a photo. 

And have begun the process of growing plants in my garden, as Miro suggested! The potatoes are chitting; the pea-plants are in; the bean and tomato seeds are in. And so are some sunflower seeds; continuing Jon's tradition of planting sunflowers in the garden. 

Planting seeds is to have faith in the future.

Felt 4

A piece of shibori felt I made for my City & Guilds course....now, thankfully completed!
The coursework has been finished, and portfolio handed in. I'm using the final session to make a piece of felt that is just for me! I made the first section last week; tomorrow I'll make the second section. Then it will be a case of adding embellishments and joining the two pieces together. I can do that at my leisure.

Felt 3

Mosaic felt; the pink wavy sections were cut out of a second half-felted piece, and then inserted into the cut-out sections of the grey half-felted piece. I spent hours and hours stitching the pink and grey together.....extremely tedious! As I told Christine, the tutor, 'I'll never use the mosaic technique again!'
After then half-felting the two pieces of felt; then cutting out the sections to insert, and stitching them together; I then had to complete the felting process on the whole piece. 
It seems a very faffy way of inserting a second section of felt onto another piece. I think there are easier methods. And to add insult to injury, I have to re-felt this piece, as it's not completely felted. Ah well; steep learning curve and all that. 

Felt 2

The second piece of felt I made for the City and Guilds course. It's a piece of 'Grid Felt'. 
We made the felt piece, and then cut out sections of it, to create the 'grid'. I would've liked to make the grid from strips of wool that are then felted, but the tutor, Christine said this took longer and was trickier to do! So I did the 'easier' version.   
I've used undyed wool; the colour comes from the natural shades of the sheep fleece. I've added some inserts of transfer hand-dyed organzie, and embroidery using space-dyed thread.
It's based on the limestone pavements that are found in North Yorkshire, and in Ireland.

Felt 1

My first felt sample piece for the City and Guilds course. The red flecks, are from sheep fleece I collected in Shropshire last year, and dyed with procian dyes. I wanted to include some fleece that I'd worked on; though this isn't the Islay fleece. That piece has been in the onion skin dye-bath and is now out and drying, ready for carding. I hope to use that in one of my felt sample pieces, over the next few weeks.


I've been up at the studio today, sewing with mono-filament.....blimey! I couldn't see where I'd stitched! I'm sewing it onto some solufleece, water-soluble 'fabric' that I bought from Harrogate. My eyes were aching after a few rows. I'm using it on my second felt sample for the C&G course, where we created holes.


We have to have a theme for our work; mine is 'natural forms'. Though when I thought about it more, I also realised that I was using a limited palette, which is a change from my usual work practise. Doing textile/fabric work, is informing my painting and drawing work. There are changes coming through; which is interesting, and exciting; and also challenging.

Studios and Snow

Strange to think that this time last year we were covered with snow! This was the view from my first studio at Westgate Studios in Wakefield. Across the fire escape, and over the roofs of the old brick and slate tiled buildings. Emley Moor mast in the far distance.....though not to be seen in this photograph! I love the way that photos of the snow create this blueness. There is a special quality of light in snow; and although my digital camera allows me to alter the setting, I like the resulting blue. I used to love the skies from this window; their ever-changing light.


On another note; I've begun my City and Guilds course in Feltmaking. My first piece was a bit of an anti-climax. A lovely piece of felt, said Christine, the tutor; but too small. All the pieces we make have to be A4 size, and this wasn't. I took it back to the studio, and proceeded to gently pull at the felt to try and make it the right size! I await Christine's verdict; but not the greatest start! 

Sheep Fleece & Felt

On holiday on the Isle Of Islay, back in August, I collected some sheep fleece from Finlaggan.....which is the site of where the Lords of The Isles had their headquarters.

I'm currently reading a book I got whilst on Islay, by Alistair Moffat called 'The Sea Kingdoms; The History of Celtic Britain & Ireland'. It's giving me a fantastic background on Welsh and Scots history.

The creative textiles course has begun again, and I'm 3 weeks into it. So taking on some of Christine's suggestions, I went and bought 2 metal toothed dog-brushes. They are a pretty good imitation carding combs!

And so have started to 'card' the fleece from Islay, using said dog-brushes! I've got quite a nice little pile so far, but there's a LOT of fleece left! It was lovely last Saturday, sitting in the hot sun in my garden, carding through the fleece. I did think though, it was a good job I wasn't doing it on piecework rates! I'd never make a living at it.

Funnily enough, I did once work in a wool factory, decades back, in the 1970's. Not in the carding shop though; I worked on the wool-spinning machines. Very noisy, and dust-full.

Saturday was quite a different experience from the wool-factory.

Felt Making

I went on a workshop to make some felt, the other week. All part of my exploration of textiles. The result was 2 flat pieces of felt, and a 'sausage', which is at the bottom of the picture. The 'sausage' I will cut into slices, and use as small circles of felt.
I made felt, many years ago (too many to remember!) and it was quite an arduous process, using a rolling pin, as I remember!
This workshop seemed much quicker, and easier. Have sheep begun to grow different fleeces these days, I wonder?
I was surprised at how much the wool shrank though! The pieces above are small; for comparison the purple one is 5ins x 6ins; each piece was about twice the size in wool, when I began!
On the textiles course I'm doing, we have 3 weeks to develop our own project. I'd like to do some more felt-making. Be interesting to incorporate the tussah silks into felt, too. We used the tussah silk to make 'silk paper'.