Ireland

We got back from Ireland on Wednesday. The journey was complicated by the flight being cancelled and then having to get to Dublin via Belfast and a taxi, arriving at 2am rather than 8.30pm as expected. All due to terrible weather conditions in the UK.One of the many lovely spots was the coast line at the very edge of the Dingle Peninsula; here we found the site of the schoolmaster’s house featured in ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ for those of you who may remember the romantic 70’s film. That’s where I collected this wool from the edge of the cliffs. I have washed it but it will need some tender loving care before I can use it in felting.
The purply stones and heather are also from the same area.

Mono print

I am persevering with the pieces of fabric which I monoprinted in various ways.
This one was done with acrylic paint and fabric medium on a piece of procion dyed cotton. I have also been using the Wacom tablet to draw out more images for digitizing. This was one of the techniques encouraged in Thr3fold Journal; although they have much more sophisticated technology than I do.
I have only a small hoop which makes it all a bit tedious, once you are passed the thrill of seeing the drawn image stitch out for the first time.
This piece looked rather drab until I went for a walk and saw purple thistles amongst the grass, which I think was just the colour scheme I needed to lift things. There will be more stitching before its finished.

I will probably make a bag and will have to decide whether to go for a green or purple silk lining and some kind of dangly in one of those colours.
I enjoyed the get together at The Festival Hall; it is a pity a few more people could not have come along. I also went for a taster day for my Access Course in Art and Design which will start in September, a bit daunting but also fun. No doubt you will be hearing more about that in months to come. I expect the stitching will take a back seat for a while.

We are going to Dublin at the end of the week to see one of my sons and partly as my birthday treat. I have never been to Ireland before so it will be a bit of an adventure.

Hackwood Festival

Yesterday I visited the Hackwood Art Festival, which is in about its third year. I have never managed to get there before which is bad as it is literally round the corner from me. As you can see the setting is beautiful, and the work was of a high standard. I was particularly interested in the print room and a demonstration of paper casting.
If I could have taken something home it might well have been the life size giraffe or the tortoise, way bigger than life size with the shiny metal scales of its shell catching the sunlight - I would have needed to take their garden home as well to fit them in.

I have just received the first copy of the thr3fold journal;' enquiries @thr3foldjournal.com'. At first I thought it seemed a little pricey, although excellently presented, however there is a CD included and when you start to work through that and watch the videos the whole thing comes to life. I am hooked and have been trying some of the dyeing and printing techniques. I think it will be really successful. I always look at Linda and Laura Kemshall’s monthly newsletter, and from that I found out about blogging!! This is their newest venture.

I am off to meet some members of UK Handmade in London tomorrow June 12th. 11am at the foyer of Festival Hall if any other Etsians or crafters can make it.

Fabric covered bowl

I’m still trying to work out the best ways of monoprinting on cotton but in the meantime for a break I made this bowl as one of my sons wanted a ‘house’, or I should say, room warming present. I had just enough hemp rope left to finish it off with one join. It was also a chance to use up some paper beads. I am experimenting with trying to set up a home made light box to take better pictures, so the two aims sort of came together. I haven’t quite cracked improving the photos yet; if only I could stick to one aim it would surely help.

May Bank Holiday

It is a Bank Holiday today and I woke up to heavy rain. It was cold and miserable. My husband has gone to Sweden on a course. Rather than be bored I decided to do some mono printing and to try to follow it through consistently.

I have started by using acrylic paint with fabric medium and a retarder. I am working mainly over some Procion dyed cotton.

I also put the central heating back on which helped; not to speak of a large bar of chocolate. Thanks to people who have commented recently, whom I may not have got back to. I agree Raspberry, Craft Shows are ‘pants’ but still strangely addictive. I suppose that I always think the next one will be better.

Exmoor

I have finished the landscape experimenting with Bokhara couching. I really enjoyed the bright, dramatic colours and the stitch is so versatile.
I had a wet and dismal experience at a local Equestrian event on the recent Bank Holiday. I had thought the craft stalls would be in a water tight marquee, but it was a small tented area and when the heavens opened I was really worried that hours of work would be ruined. Fortunately the car was near and it was only me that got soaked. On top of that I was seriously out of pocket, as it was mostly families there for a cheap day out with the kids, and face painting was the order of the day. I will never take the risk of having a craft stall at an outdoor event again as it is just too risky in our changeable climate. One bright spot was a young girl who decided she should do textiles at college rather than graphic design after seeing the various techniques which are possible.

Stamped bag

I finished this bag recently but have been holding on to it to use as a sample for a small workshop I am running in a local library. Basically it is stamped and then coloured with a fabric paint wash. I have backed and lined it with silk dupion which has such lovely jewel like colours.

The stitch is called Crown Stitch, I haven't used it before. There is quite a bit of free machining,some with a thicker thread used by placing the reel in a jam jar to the side of the machine. As you see I added a tassel.

Happy Easter

This is a small bowl, 4 1/2 inches, that I made this week from merino tops. The band round the outside is made from Suffolk/Jacob cross fleece which I washed myself. It was felted in rather than being added later. Inside I have added whisps of flax. I am pleased with it; the best bit is how light it feels.

Peru

This is such fun, I found it via Flickr. Its particularly great because I just gave this piece away - now I can pretend it is in a gallery. You can click to see it full size. Find the toy at dumpr.net.

Colours

The previous tutorial came about as I was busy working out a project for a small group at a local day centre, so I thought I would photograph the stages and put it up as a tutorial for Whipup. I have enjoyed reading tutorials on there in the past. I have been enjoying just stitching and choosing colours this week


I also had some fun with the Flickr toy site. I made the cube and played with some other ideas. Have a look but be careful it is really time consuming. It is my first craft fair since Christmas tomorrow, so I have been finding a few new things to try to tempt people with. I hope it will not be a too depressing day!

Painted papers.

Painting various types of papers is great fun in itself, it also helps with design ideas and the end results can be used in a number of ways. I often use them to cover sketch or scrapbooks. You can also make some lovely paper beads. Here I have used both recycled brown paper from carrier bags and a roll of brown wrapping paper. I think the recycled paper gives the best results as it tends to be stronger, and will stand more scrunching; this is an essential stage, and gets out some feelings, but if you get too worked up you may find your paper in tatters!

Firstly scrunch up the paper and paint the top of the crinkles. I have used “Brusho”, which is a form of water colour powder. You may use inks, watercolours, just try out the paints you have.
You need to let the paper dry between coats, or hurry it up with a hairdryer or hot air gun. Next repeat the first step with a second colour.You can add some marks with your paint at this point.

Colour in the rest of the paper. For this you do need to have a transparent wash which will not hide the first marks.
Iron the back of your paper; remember you are ironing in the crinkles which help to make the texture.

If you have Markal Paint Sticks they are really useful at this stage; if not use wax crayons. You can gently rub over the crinkles with the paint stick or rub it onto a bit of scrap paper and brush off onto your brown paper with an old toothbrush. Lightly touch the top of the folds with gold acrylic.
Give the paper another iron, I used the cotton setting.
Now you use what I think is a wonderful product Acrylic Wax, if you don’t have that I would use PVA glue. The wax is nice because it gives a soft texture to the paper which begins to feel and look like leather. Now you are ready to use the paper to cover a book or just admire your handywork.

Felt course

It was the last session at the felt making course on Saturday. You can see from the picture that we had a really productive and good humoured day


It is hard work rubbing the felt by hand to get it to take shape, but really satisfying. I have learned how to card wool now to blend colours. A really confusing process, which looks so simple when somebody else does it. I think it is well worth the trouble. I also learned how to dye wool using acid dyes. A really exciting course and I will miss it next Saturday, especially as I have now worked out the buses to Waterloo.

Felt course

I would highly recommend the felt making course at The Mary Ward Centre for anyone living near to London. As you can see we learnt a 3d felting method, and also were give information on different types of wool. There was time to make a few samples from wools such as Blue Faced Leicester, and to try out Camel Fleece.

Next Saturday we are going to learn how to make flaps and pockets which should be fun, I have to say that it was hard work as well.

This little construction was felted in three layers around a sort of 'flint' that you find on the beach in England. It was hard waiting for it to dry so that I could cut it open.

Workshop on the Web

Not much time to post this weekend as I go up to London tomorrow to start the felt course. I have packed silks and lace to include in the felt as instructed and bought myself a new notebook.
I have been excited now it’s finally March as I have written an ‘article’ for Workshop On the Web. If you are signed up you can read it in this months issue, or if not I can recommend having a look at the site where there is a free back issue to see what it is all about. There are a number of workshops and lots of information about new products, books etc... Have a look in my links.

I have been making some printing blocks this week. I used the cord from the blind I bought for rolling my felt. I liked the shapes etc. just in their own right.
I should also mention Downunderdale from Thread Studio in Australia who has become my most appreciated first customer on Etsy.

Felt

If you look at one of Raspberry's recent posts, see my links, you will see she has been making felt balls; hers have developed into key rings. Here are a few of mine.

There are also some felt beads, that is felt and silk wrapped over paper beads. I’ll do more with these one day. Have you made felt balls, how did they develop? What did you use them for? I have cut them and used PVA to seal the edges and attached as decoration to a bag. I prefer to make them Sheila Smiths’s way i.e. wrapping and using a felting needle to shape them.

For the next three Saturdays I am going to a felt making course at the Mary Ward Centre in London. I have never been there before but it seems to have a really interesting history and is in the Bloomsbury area
of London. I am really looking forward to it and will let you know what we do.

Lace edge

This is a sample of machine embroidery on transfer printed polycotton which I have made into a small ‘cushion’ by adding a machine embroidered lace edge using dissolvable fabric. It really small, about 6x4 inches. A have made a few edges like this but I find it quite hard work, although the end result is quite pretty. I did a bit of hand stitching, Cretan, and a small area using a thicker thread on the bobbin.



There is an interesting post here about how to add lettering using bleach;its an interesting blog in general.
If you have not seen this video about the obsession of crafting do have a look for a really good chuckle.
My latest shop items can be seen here.

Busy week

For someone who has given up full time work, I seem to have been really busy.
I had to buy a new car as my old one ‘died’; I also went for a group interview at the University for Creative Arts. I plan to start an Access Course in Art and Design in the autumn. I wonder if any of you have done this course, and what your experience of it was?

Playing with transfer paints lead to me machining this little zipped bag.
I put the polycotton onto acrylic felt and free machined the pattern, which I had made using a paper resist. I wound a thicker thread onto the bobbin and worked the piece upside down in some places. This was easy as I could draw out the lines on the felt. I then sewed the piece onto some of my procion dyed cotton.

If you look at my Etsy shop I would be pleased to know if the people in the States think my prices are Ok, too high etc.. Are the shipping costs likely to put people off? Feedback would be helpful.

Stamped bag

I wrote about this piece after I had been to a talk given by Sherrill Kahn at the Knitting and Stitching Show.
I eventually finished it and made it into a bag.
I have used raised chain band as the main stitch combined with some free machining.
I have just put it in my Etsy shop.

. Other than that I have continued playing with painted papers and using transfer paints with paper, leaf and lace resists. An easy
way to transfer images to cloth.

Papers

I have been playing with colouring papers today; trying to work on some ideas for a workshop. I used a variety of paper, including brown paper and greaseproof. The thick watercolour was the most successful and the greaseproof had a nice feel.
I will probably stitch into the handmade paper which feels just like material.
It’s a while since I did this and I think there will be a few more stages before they are finished.

Thank you for the kind comments about the felt bag; it was particularly nice to get a comment all the way from Italy.

Felt bag

I decided to make a felt bag last weekend; to see if I still could and also to use some dyed wool which I bought at The Knitting and Stitching Show in the autumn. I thought you might like to see some of the stages. Starting to lay out the wool over a cardboard template. I have used warm water and soap to ‘glue’ the fibres together for the first stage. I washed it out with diluted white vinegar at the end.

I am so pleased with my charity shop find, a rigid plastic CD stand. Just the thing for throwing the wool onto for the final felting stage.Below is the bag without its final decorations.Making felt balls using a felting needle and the rolled cords for the finishingsI made an insert to give the bag a firmer base. I am pleased with the end result, but my stern critic, you know who, says I should spend more time on the design stage, which is why I am thinking of taking an Access to Art and Design Course next autumn.