FELT MAGAZINE article...

Today marks the second anniversary of FELTING matters...

Two years on, and what better way to mark this auspicious day by mentioning some really thrilling news...!

FELT magazine, the Australian publication is featuring my Shibori Cushion in their next issue 8, available on-line from 1st December. The cushion project was originally designed for one of my summer workshops and was featured on the blog in May. It's been a very popular post with lots of views and you can see it again here...

The magazine editor Michelle asked if we had an alternative photo of the cushion that they could use and as we are literally minutes away from the Bay we thought it might make a good setting, better light, interesting textures... However it's been very autumnal here and every time we planned to take the shots it was either rainy, windy, gloomy or high tide! The slightest breeze causes the felt to move resulting in that fuzzy out of focus look, but KC took this lucky shot and it will be featured in the magazine along with all the step-by-step instructions to make the cushion.

FELT magazine has such a wide following across the world, with contributions by many internationally respected felt makers all sharing their expertise, so I feel very honoured to be included. And it's a such marvellous way to mark this anniversary!

The other piece of exciting news is the launch of my new "Felt Jewellery" kits. Many people have suggested I made them available especially with Christmas coming up as they will make ideal gifts!

Each kit contains enough Merino fibre to make a couple of felt flowers or plenty of felt beads for necklaces and bracelets, plus soap, beads for decoration and brooch pins. The simple techniques have been tried & tested in my workshops and the kit contains a 8-page leaflet with full step-by-step instructions and photographs. Making small items of jewellery is a perfect introduction to felting and is great fun for all ages and abilities.

The kits are £8 each and come in several different colourways. They will be available for sale on-line in my Folksy shop and at the Christmas events, with the first coming up this weekend...

The Dimbola Christmas Fair is this Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th November, open each day from 10am - 4.30pm. There is FREE admission which includes entry to the Museum & Photographic Galleries, so you can browse amongst the craft stalls and enjoy the permanent photographic exhibitions and displays. The tea rooms also offer wonderful lunches & home-made cakes.

The weather forecast isn't too promising so where better to spend a few hours this wet weekend! Christmas shopping at Dimbola, Freshwater Bay...

"UNDERWATER MOSAIC" Part 1 ...

Today saw the launch of an exciting new community project based at Brading Roman Villa. The aim of the project is to reproduce an enlarged version of a sea painting by Island artist Pat Clarke in as many different media as possible….

"Underwater Mosaic" is an amazing fantasy picture painted by Pat about 4 years ago.  It's full of imagery, movement and extraordinary detail and for this project has been divided into 9 sections, three times making 27 panels in all, each approx 15.5" x 10" (40 x 25 cm).

Participants will each take a section to reproduce in any craft or medium, any way they choose - from oils, watercolour, pastels or felt tip pens to textiles, ceramics, mosaics, or collage... Then the finished panels will be returned to the Villa in January 2013 to be reassembled into the completed pictures, which will be on permanent display.

I'm delighted to be taking part and I've been given a central piece, with some lovely colour and interesting detail. I've already started planning...

I shall make a series of pre-felts to block out the main shapes, felt these together and then needle felt the pattern and fine details, possibly adding some stitch and beading? It will be important to keep all the shapes and colour as accurate and close to the original as possible as they will need to match up with the surrounding panels when they're all put back together.

I have known Pat and her artwork for a while now but I didn't realise her background was with the National Trust, specialising in Japanese & Chinese restoration work. This explains her attention to detail and her love of colour, especially gold! She is a member of the 'Society for Art of the Imagination" and regularly exhibits amongst fellow artists of international acclaim.

"Underwater Mosaic" is perfect for this project! There's plenty of interest & detail in every corner and the entire surface of the painting is linked with swirls of colour and texture. Having divided it up into the 27 panels it’s going to be really interesting to see how the new "mosaic" all fits back together again in the New Year…

If you would like any more information about how you can take part in the project please get in touch with Joy at Brading Roman Villa by email bradingeducation@hotmail.co.uk or ring 01983 406223

And more SCARVES...

The enthusiasm and energy generated at the recent Scarf Workshops was very contagious! It spurred me into action over the weekend - helped by a delivery of some wonderful fibres from Woolyknit…

I just love the subtle blends of colour in these mixtures. All the colour choices are already made, so there's no wasting time deliberating over what goes with which - you can just get straight into the laying out with no excuse for any procrastination!

Scarves do take time to lay out. As with all felting, that time taken in the laying will always reflect in the finished piece. It's really important to aim for consistency and evenness, blending in the colours along the whole length. I personally prefer the subtlety of these blends as for me they make the scarves much more wearable.

They also need quite a pounding in the final stages and at this point I usually hand them over to KC - being stronger and taller really helps. Throwing the scarves onto a hard surface really shocks the fibres and achieves the tight 'ruched' effect which sometimes causes the fabric to almost disappear.

As for fabrics I use any type of sheer scarf as a base, with a colour that works with the fibres or an interesting pattern. They're not always silk, some polyester chiffons work just fine as long as they are sheer and not too slippery. Most of my fabrics are recycled or charity shop finds! 

  

We are holding another Scarf Workshop at Oliven the Patchwork Café in Newport on Wed 24th October and there are still places available. I will be showing how to make nuno scarves like these, plus how to lay out the lattice scarves.  More details about the workshop here and to make a booking contact Wendy on 01983 554 934...  

And all the scarves featured here will be available for sale at the Christmas Shows coming up fast...

September SCARVES...

I seem to have missed out a month this year! I'm afraid September came and went without any posts. It's not that there wasn't anything to write about - quite the opposite - I just simply ran out of days!

Last Saturday saw another wonderful Scarf Workshop at Oliven in Newport! The great thing about making scarves is that they can be felted, finished and wearable in a day BUT they do take a lot of effort.  This class is for all abilities and there were some great results, with everyone experimenting with different textures and fabrics as you can see from this small selection of photos of work in progress...

We have another Scarf Workshop planned at Oliven for the end of October and there are more details here.

As well as the usual programmes of workshops at Newport & Brading we are holding a couple of workshops with a distinctly Halloween theme at the Alpaca Farm on the 31st October. It's also half term so these workshops are aimed at young felt makers. We have  morning and afternoon sessions making 'Felt Pictures' and 'Felt Jewellery' and there are more details and booking information here...

With Halloween in mind here is an appropriate picture to finish… 

Dorothy's Wolf is felted entirely from Alpaca fibres!

Following RUPERT 2012...

One of the jobs I've been working on recently is preparing the artwork and all the printed material for the Followers of Rupert Annual event that takes place each summer. Last year I posted up a couple of features about the work for the 2011 Annual and you can catch up with Part 1 and Part 2  - but to avoid too much repetition I'm just going to include some of the artwork stages this time and you can click on the pictures to enlarge…

The 2012 theme was again chosen by Tony Griffin the Annual organiser. One of his favourite Rupert characters is the Gooseberry Fool, rather an obscure and mischievous chap first featured in the 1951 annual. For the first piece of artwork I adapted the story's title page, introducing Rupert into the frame and enlarging the Fool. I particularly love the overall 'gooseberry' shape of the design used here...

For the second piece of artwork I took the end-sheets from the 1951 annual (a really lovely sepia watercolour drawn by Alfred Bestall) and placed Rupert and the GF into a coloured version, looking out across the lake at the cloud castles, with the Imps of Spring close by. I love the gnarled tree trunk with the secret door leading to another world...

As I've mentioned before I only draw Rupert once a year, and then just copy and re-jig existing Alfred Bestall illustrations to suit the new purpose. I start by working out rough sketches for the new designs - they're not exact copies as I alter and move various elements to fit the new A4 formats, plus leave space for headings & text.

These pieces of artwork will be used for all the printed matter for this weekend event - from badges and T-shirts, to programmes, menu cards, committee badges, lunch tickets and posters.

One of the enjoyable aspects to the job is the calligraphy - the badge and place names are all handwritten! I don't have much call to do this nowadays, but it was part of my training. It's lovely to have the chance to use my old pens, even though I need several days of practice to get the eye, hand & pen co-ordination flowing as freely as I'd like….

... and haven't some people got such interesting names!

I do hope they all have a wonderful time at the 2012 Annual at the end of the month!

The brand NEW Rupert Bear website was launched at the end of August, where you can find out more about the Followers, and lots more Ruperty info. Follow this link...    

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!