Drum Carding ALPACA...

A really interesting aspect to the workshops at the Alpaca Farm is using drum carders to prepare the fleece for felting. Previously I'd had limited experience using these machines so it's wonderful to have them and I've been able to get lots of practice in...

I hadn't appreciated quite how straightforward it is to use the sheared alpaca fleece without any preparation. I started using Desdemona's - a lovely white Huacaya - pulling clumps of it straight out of the bag, just finger picking it to fluff out the fibres, removing any bits and feeding them straight into the carder tray.

It seemed such a shame to get these marvellous carding machines dirty!!! They're  hand-made in Shropshire by Paul Brittain of Classic Carders. We have TWO available in the workshops and they are an absolute pleasure to use.

It didn't take long to fill up the large drum - these are jumbo size and produce a lovely large batt. I've been experimenting with blending some natural coloured Shetland wool in with the white alpaca - the possibilities are infinite. 

I also tried felting the batt as it came off the carder and it gave me a lovely (half length!) scarf, washing all the dirt from the fibres in the felting process. I also used the batts to make a bag blending Desdemona's white fleece with the Shetland colours. One of Jude Allman's wonderful raku buttons compliments the natural coloured fibres and just finishes the bag.

This year's shearing starts in a couple of weeks time so there's going to be plenty of new fleece for us to use in the workshops. I mentioned in the last post that alpacas come in over 20 natural shades...

This is the official colour chart !!!


(And you can click on any of the photos to enlarge...)

FELTING with ALPACAS...

These are exciting times...!  As I mentioned before I've been invited to hold a series of workshops at the West Wight Alpaca farm in Wellow starting after Easter and I'm able to confirm the dates here. West Wight Alpacas is home to both a herd of rare coloured Suri Alpacas and the more common Huacaya Alpacas (pronounced Wacaya) and makes a perfect location to hold felt making classes in their brand new workshop facility, surrounded by all these amazing animals!

As you can see I've been experimenting with the alpaca fibres and they do felt very differently to the wools I'm most familiar with. The Suri fibres are beautifully soft and silky to handle, which makes them quite difficult (but not impossible) to felt as the fibres do take quite a bit of working. I did use them to make some of the examples here like the black lattice scarf and the bowls (click on the photos to enlarge). However these fibres are better suited to hand spinning and produce a luxurious knitting yarn.

The Huacaya has the more normal 'Teddy Bear' fleece that is closer to wool and is much easier to felt. The alpaca natural colour range is amazing! They come in twenty two different shades, from white to black with every other natural colour of fawn, brown & grey in between, which makes them perfect for these felting projects. The finished felt also retains a wonderful 'alpaca' quality, the bowls & bags have a lovely soft hairy-ness which is quite unique!

With the forthcoming feltmaking workshops we plan to use a 50/50 mix of alpaca and wool. All the natural coloured fibres for the workshops will be available to buy at the farm shop and we will be using large drum carders during the workshops to blend these fibres into individual colour combinations for the felting projects. 

 

Huacaya Alpacas (above) and Suri Alpacas (below) at Wellow



It's been an exciting time for WWA as they have just returned from their first major UK Alpaca Futurity show at the Birmingham NEC with lots of rosettes and two of their brown Suris winning Champion (Kaiser) & Reserve Champion (Kimi).

There's more alpaca information at : http://www.westwightalpacas.co.uk/ 

And there's more workshop information and booking details here...

SPRING GALLERY...

Spring has certainly arrived here on the island and Sally's felt daffodils say it all…

Today I'm posting up a 'Felt Gallery' of work produced at this weekend's workshops. The pictures below were made at the "Painting with Fibres" workshop on Saturday here in Freshwater. Everyone bought along photos, sketches & ideas to work from, building up their designs with pre-felts and textures. They will continue to stitch and needle felt into their pictures,
adding textures and embellishments and I'll hopefully be able to show some more completed work soon...

On Sunday the workshop at Brading Roman Villa was a shorter session, producing much more spontaneous work…

This was my first workshop at the Roman Villa. It's a wonderful venue, with a great group who all responded so enthusiastically to the felt making and ALL want to continue - so I'm really looking forward to returning in July to hold a
'Felt Bowls & Bags' workshop! Please get in touch with Joy at Brading if you would like more details.

I just want to quickly mention another exciting new venue…

I've been invited to hold a series of workshops at the West Wight Alpaca Farm in Wellow starting after Easter. I am finalising all the details at the moment and will be posting the dates up very soon...

SCARVES & HATS and more workshop news...

February has been another very busy month of workshops and this has been the first opportunity I've had to catch up for weeks! Even with the extra day I missed my regular 'first day of the month' posting but we made good use of the Leap Day with a Scarf workshop on the 29th and here are some of the results...

I've mentioned before that this Scarf workshop is for all abilities, so beginners have a chance to make something really substantial whilst learning to work with the fibres and textures.

There's also been several workshops this month for those wanting to improve their skills which has resulted in some amazing hats & slippers, bags with pockets and shoulder straps, lots of soft pots & bowls and some fantastic tea cosies!

Sometimes it's tricky to photograph the felt at the end of a workshop when it's still wet and need finishing. Gradually work comes back to me and I'm able to photograph it at it's best, complete with decoration and embellishment.

We had great fun this Saturday making felt Tea Cosies in Freshwater and the week before I spent a lovely day showing my friends at the Weavers, Spinners & Dyers Guild in Rookley how to make felt bowls… But I'm going to wait to post up all those photos in a week or so.

I'm coming to the end of this current programme of workshops with three more dates in Freshwater over the next few Saturdays. There will be more workshops planned after Easter and I'll be posting these as soon as they are finalised.

There's still places available on the "Hats & Slippers" day next Saturday 10th March and also on the "Felt Kindle/I-Pad Case" workshop on March 24th in Freshwater.

If you haven't been able to make any of the previous dates and would like to come along to either of these workshops and make any 3-D project such as a bag, bowl or even a tea cosy then please get in touch ....

HATS UPDATE : "Keeping up with my students..."

I'm not a hat wearing person BUT I just had to have a go at another one after seeing all the fantastic creations my students were making...

Totally unwearable (for me) but great fun to make, with matching scarf..! 

 

Experimenting with TEXTURES...

Lots of experimenting with textures over the last few days in preparation for the new workshop next week - with some very pleasing results ! 

The natural colours of the fibres & textures blend SO beautifully with the wool backgrounds. I deliberately chose non-Merino wool with a good natural colour range - Norwegian grey, Shetland browns, BFL and Welsh white.  

Quite a contrast to the bright scarves of previous weeks...

The fibres shown here before (above) & after felting (below) are as follows :

Wool Slub/Knops - Linen Noil - Jute

Synthetic Mesh - Banana Tops -  Skeleton Leaf

Bamboo Tops - Carded Cotton - Carded Jute

Soya Staple - Flax Tops - Crab Fibre Tops

  

It was surprising just how quickly all the fibres felted into the wool. 

The more fibrous flax & jute were easily trapped. The fine silky crab & banana fibres 

felted in beautifully leaving shiny crimps. The cotton & linen noil were applied more

 thickly and the wool worked through the base of these clumps leaving the top loose and easy to pinch into shapes and ridges - perfect for surface texture.

I plan to work further into these swatches with hand stitching & beads, but for now I've simply photographed them with shells, pods and other natural forms.

'Experimenting with Textures' is for those who have some felting experience and 

would like to try using this amazing range of alternative fibres. 

ALL these textures will be available to use and included in the price of the day, along with other organic & synthetic yarns and fibres. You can make sample swatches like the ones shown here, create a 3-D project or cover pebbles with felted textures.

This workshop will be held at OliVEN in Newport High Street on Wed. 25th January

 and places are still available. 

For more details and information about booking call 554 934.

NEW Scarf Workshops...

I don't know what the collective name is for a group of scarves…? I thought a "breeze" worked well enough as I battled against the wind, while KC patiently tried to photograph the new scarves outdoors, trying to take advantage of the light on this beautiful sunny wintery day. But felt is very light-weight and these scarves fluttered at the slightest breeze…  So we moved back inside!

As promised here are photographs of the scarves I've been working on... 

The Scarf Workshops are taking place in Newport on 30th January and 29th February.  These workshops are for all abilities and as you can see from the photos there will be plenty of opportunity to experiment with techniques, colours, fibres and textures.

You'll find more information on the previous post 'Scarves & Textures'  and you can make a booking through OliVen the Patchwork Cafe on 01983 554 934.

It should be a really exciting day!

Planning ahead for 'Scarves' & 'Textures'...

The programme of workshops planned for the New Year include several new themes and I'm in the middle of all the preparation work at the moment. 'Felt Scarves' and 'Experimenting with Textures' are really exciting new workshops and I'm looking forward to both. In the planning and preparation stages I'm also discovering and appreciating certain similarities between the two...

Making felt scarves offers many opportunities to experiment with textures and fibres. As I'm working up samples it's also giving me the chance to use some of my supplies that I've been wanting to try. I recently bought some fantastic plaits of hand-dyed Merino tops from Fibre Factory (which make perfect scarf lengths) combined with dyed Wensleydale locks, dyed tussah silks, so many novelty yarns, hand-painted silk fabrics, woven fabrics, metallic gauzes and anything else I can find to blend in...  

This workshop is aimed at ALL abilities, which works well as everyone bounces ideas off each other and the beginners learn from watching the more experienced felters handling materials. A scarf makes a marvellous first project. There's plenty of practice in laying out fibres, with scope for experimenting with colour & texture and there's the added sense of achievement in being able to make something so very unique and wearable in just a day!

I will be demonstrating different techniques and will have a range of scarves on display. There will be simple ideas for beginners to try, such as a lattice scarf, plus advanced techniques such as nuno felting. You can decide on the day, and maybe even make two..?

I have been asked about holding a scarf workshop for a long time now and the difficulty has been finding a venue where everyone has plenty of room to work. Well, problem solved ! We have found a suitable place in Newport and there are two workshops scheduled - see here for all the dates & details.

'Experimenting with Textures' is for those who have some felting experience, but haven't yet tried using the amazing range of alternative fibres available. These are not just the animal fibres like alpaca, silk or mohair that we are familiar with, but have you tried using banana, jute, soya, bamboo or even crab fibre? Some of their unique characteristics I'm only just discovering for myself! They can be used to great effect to give texture and form to fibre pictures or 3-dimensional pots & bowls. All these textured fibres will be provided in this workshop, along with other organic and synthetic yarns & fibres. You can come along and explore the different effects by making a series of sample pieces or use them to create a 3-D project.

I'm really looking forward to these workshops as well as all the others in the new  programme for 2012. I know many of you have booked up already as a number of the workshops in Freshwater & Newport are full, so I look forward to meeting up with you again soon.

All the very best for this NEW YEAR... And enjoy your felting!

PS. I shall be posting up some photos of the new scarves and texture samples just as soon as they're finished… They can now be seen here.