Between the Shows...

It's been a hectic time preparing for the Isle of Wight Open Studios and the weekend came and went SO quickly. A very big thank you to everyone who visited us at the Freshwater Parish Hall, where seven of us were exhibiting together and we had nearly 700 visitors through the door...  

This is one of the busiest times of the year for me. It's a great opportunity to show new work and to introduce felt making to a brand new group of people as interest in the workshops continues to grow, especially with the new venues.

Over the last few days I've been busy replenishing stock, including some of the knitted felt designs pictured here...

They are another aspect to my feltwork - made using Shetland wools, knitted up into swatches using the knitting machine and felted in the washing machine. The fabric is then made into all types of functional items. Small bags for mobile phones & ipods, pencil rolls, book jackets, kindle cases, scarves and appliqué flower brooches. Plus there's the felted lavender birds and lavender pincushions, and I will be bringing them all along to the summer shows.

I'm now looking forward to our summer exhibition at Quarr Abbey which starts next Thursday 26th to 31st July. Brother Duncan from the Quarr Benedictine order will be joining us and showing some of his new paintings. Lis Toft will be there with her porcelain & jewellery, photographer Dale Durfee will have her amazing horse & dog pictures and Barry Ecuyer will be showing his latest drawings & paintings.

  

The weather forecast looks promising for the week ahead with temperatures expecting to be almost back to normal, so hopefully we can leave our wellies behind for a change… 

TOOLS - Old & New...

This week found me at Ventnor Botanic Gardens in the Echium Room taking part in the Island Feltmakers exhibition. Part of my display was this wonderful old hat form, recently given to me by a lady whose father owned a tailors shop in London in the 1930s, where this hat form was used to steam and stretch felt hats into shape. I understand it's made from tulip wood, a dense hard water-resistant wood traditionally used in the millinery trade for this very purpose….

It had been left forgotten in her garage for years and was in desperate need of some restoration. KC completely stripped it apart to rub down and clean all the parts. He managed to get the mechanism working again and treated the wood with lemon oil to bring out the grain, restoring it to this magnificent state.

There's even a size gauge on the base which has been almost worn away with use, but you can just make out the first 7¼ hat size. I'm sure 1,000s of hats have been stretched on this and hopefully more to come as I intend to use it in the hats workshops.

I've been using 'tools' of various shapes & sizes to work my felt for years and more recently in the workshops. These have been anything curved - from golf balls and plastic shapes to rolling pins ends - using the curve to help create a shape. But working with a local wood turner we've developed some hand tools that are a real pleasure to hold and work with…

Made from seasoned oak and sealed to protect the wood from the warm soap and abrasiveness of the fibres these particular designs are beautiful to look at, lovely to hold (not too heavy) and easy to grip with wet soapy hands, making them extremely practical.  When making a 3-D form like a bowl or bag, once the resist has been removed the tools can be used to rub against to produce an even curve around the sides. They've been tried & tested in the workshops and most felters find them very useful. They're now available to order so let me know if you'd like more details...

Finally, pictures of the magnificent echiums on the Terrace at Ventnor, with the enormous flowers just about to bloom...

This one had taken a bashing from the wind, but I was able to get a good 
close-up.   It was full of bees!

The weather wasn't brilliant all week but it didn't deter the visitors!

As always it's wonderful to catch up with all feltmakers, to share the enthusiasm 
that so many of us feel about this fantastic process and to be able to 
introduce it to so many who hadn't seen any felt before ...


Thank you all for coming along! 

Summer EVENTS...

It's the beginning of June and the Bank Holiday weekend. Of course, the weather forecast is terrible... Summer has arrived! We've been really busy making stock for the summer events and local galleries. In particular lots of nuno scarves, using some wonderful hand-dyed silk, layered and felted between hand-dyed merino/silk blends. 

The results are always surprising...

I used one of the scarves for the poster design for the first exhibition I'm involved with this summer. "ISLAND FELTMAKERS" is a unique celebration of textiles, felt art and design by a number of the Island's feltmakers who are exhibiting together for the first time...

It's a great opportunity for anyone interested in felt textiles to come along, meet the feltmakers and see a wide range of styles and work on display in the wonderful Echium Room at Ventnor Botanic Gardens. The exhibition runs from Monday 18th to Friday 22nd June. I hope you can make it, I shall be there each day from 10am - 4pm so it will be good to catch up.

Latest news from West Wight Alpacas... They are having their official OPEN WEEKEND celebrations on Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th July from 10 - 4pm. Michelle & Neil are inviting everyone to come and look around the farm and see the alpacas, including the new arrivals. The shop will be open and stocked with an amazing range of hand-made alpaca products. Refreshments will be available and throughout the weekend there will be demonstrations of felt making & knitting using the alpaca fibre. You will also have the chance to walk with the alpacas around the paddock, with donations going to Freshwater Lifeboats. West Wight Alpacas is at Main Road Wellow PO41 0SZ and there's more information here.

We've also got more dates arranged for felt making workshops taking place at the farm during July & August, click here for dates and details.

One of the high-lights of the summer is the Isle of Wight OPEN STUDIOS, taking place in West Wight on the 13th - 16th July. I shall be at Freshwater Parish Hall with a group of six artists exhibiting paintings, photography, ceramics, fused glass plus my felt designs, and you'll find lots more information about Open Studios here. It coincides with the Olympic Torch passing through West Wight on the Saturday, so you could combine both momentous events! We will be producing a map showing the studios of all the artists taking part, plus the torch route and I shall post details nearer the time.

I'm also taking part in an exhibition at QUARR ABBEY from the 25th - 31st July, but again more details will follow.

It's going to be a busy summer...!

Shearing ALPACAS...

Saturday was Shearing Day at West Wight Alpacas and with over thirty alpacas to shear they needed extra people to help out, so I volunteered my services. Having felted so much natural fleece and fibres over the years I'd never seen the shearing process first hand and close up so I was really excited to be involved.

When I arrived at the farm the afternoon had already got off to a dramatic start with a baby alpaca just born and barely 20 minutes old when I took this picture…

Itisha with baby Tinkerbell

With 33,000 alpacas now in the UK a team of expert Australian alpaca shearers had come over to do the work. They arrived having been shearing on the island all day with another farm to visit afterwards.  They tackled the task with great efficiency and professionalism, making sure each animal was sheared cleanly. The alpacas are tethered whilst the shearing takes place. It's up to the helpers to collect the fleece as it is cut, folding the main saddle piece together, labelling it and carrying it to the skirting table for sorting, whilst also collecting and keeping the secondary cuts separate. 

Vince and Berlin waiting their turn...

Kaiser being shorn...

Fleece on the skirting table

Shearing is obviously a very necessary process, together with the toe nail clipping, teeth checks and vaccinations that are all done at the same time. Observing from the side-lines it made me appreciate the terrific responsibility that comes with owning and caring for these magnificent animals. It is a traumatic time for everyone involved - I know I was shattered after just a few hours of helping out... 

Little Summer without her coat...

But the shearing relieves the alpacas of a heavy winter coat (Kaiser's was over 8 kilos) and they are soon back in the field, light-weight and grazing as if nothing's happened…  

Bella & friends back in the field...

The end product - the wonderful fibre that these animals produce is of a fantastic quality and I'm really looking forward to using it in the felting workshops this summer. You can see the drum carding in action here and click on any of the photos to enlarge... 

The new workshop dates have been posted here.


POSTSCRIPT (1st June) :


I learned some very sad news today about little Tinkerbell. Apparently she was born with certain problems and had to undergo an operation when she was barely a day old. She received the best possible care over the past two weeks but she didn't pull through. It's understandable that everyone at the farm is devastated...     

SHIBORI Flower Cushion...

With the first 'Felt Cushion' workshop coming up in a couple of weeks time I've been working on a new design.

This cushion is decidedly OTT ! Colourful and bold, the design incorporates some exciting new techniques and can be dressed up or down to compliment any sofa! The flower is constructed with layers of pre-felted petals, some completely felted into the background square, others partially needle-felted together, giving the cushion a real 3-D feel. A separate centre piece was felted using a 'shibori' technique, needle-felted onto the flower and decorated with wooden beads.

'Shibori' is a term used to describe the Japanese techniques of shaping and embellishing fabric by knotting & binding. When applied to pre-felts it can create interesting textures which remain in place after further felting.

The flower centre was created by knotting felt balls into a pre-felted circle. This was fully felted by hand in warm soapy water. After felting the knots were untied and the felt balls were left completely felted together creating the bobbly texture. (This piece would actually make a wonderful felt corsage in itself!)

The centre was needle-felted onto the petals and beads were sewn in place. The finished felt flower square was then sewn to a fabric backing to make the cushion cover.

This has been a really fun project to work on. There couldn't be a greater contrast to all the natural alpaca shades I've been surrounded by recently.  

I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out practically in the classes and seeing all the variations my students will come up with. The 'Felt Cushion' workshops will take place in Freshwater & Newport in June so for dates and booking details follow the links...

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...