The Fabulous Felters

For the past 6 weeks I have had the privilege of teaching a group of lovely ladies on an evening Feltmaking course at Barton Peveril College. The group was fairly small, some were artists or designers who wanted to try something new and others had caught the felt bug previously and wanted to do more.

The students began the course by making felt pictures which were inspired by images that the students brought in for ideas. We used wool in a range of ways from laying the fibres directly onto the surface of the bubble wrap to making pre-felted shapes that we then cut out and  pieced together. Silk fibres, bamboo and other natural and synthetic fibres were also used in the felt.

Holiday by Pam

Sky-Scape by Katherine

It was a really fun course to teach and I was pleased that everyone enjoyed it. Each week my students would bring in finished items and new work that they had been making and the group have even decided to start their own felting group. They will be called ‘The Fabulous Felters’ and will get together once a week to continue their work with felt. I look forward to seeing their new work and hope they start up a flickr group or blog so that I can link to them soon too.

by Liz, Helen and Sarah

Over the 6 weeks we experimented with and made nuno felt, 3d felt, landscape and still life pictures, bags, hats, slippers, needle felting and felting around pebbles.

Sarah needle-felts a lilly onto a bag

Inspired by rocks - Julie

Nuno Scarf by Sarah

Seascape by Kim

The group were incredibly busy and enthusiastic which meant that by the end of the course we had a whole table full of colour, texture and fun.

Hat by Kim

Thanks everyone for a great course and I wish you all lots of fun in your new group – don’t forget to let me know when you have your first group exhibition! :-)

Felt Making – A Stop Motion Film

I’ve been learning how to make films! Here is a stop motion film of a piece of felt being made….hope you like it! x

Feltique

I am very excited about a new book about feltmaking in which I am in! It comes out today and can be ordered on Amazon.

One of the authors of the book, Brookelynn Morris is the guest blogger this week on Craftzine and is giving away 10 copies to those in desperate need!

I have yet to see the book but will post a couple of pics up once it arrives. It is full of different feltmaking techniques including a nuno scarf made by me!

Enjoy!

Feltmaking Workshops

I am planning some new workshops for the coming Autumn. If you would like to be on my mailing list please contact me and I will send you the details once I have confirmed the workshops. I am currently teaching at Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh and will be running a 5 week feltmaking course beginning in June. For more information about this workshop click here.

 

 

5 Week Feltmaking Course
Begins Monday 8th June
7.00 – 9.30 pm
£45

Learn how to felt using wet felt and dry felt methods
Use different fibres (silk, jute, denim, soya and wool)
Make flat felt
3d felt
Make seamless felt

Batik and Machine Embroidered Bible Covers

I’ve had a lot of fun this week making a couple of Bible Covers for a commission. 

They are both made with cotton that has been painted with batik wax and fabric paints. I have then machine stitched on the top before constructing the cover so that the picture or pattern is slightly random as to where it bends around the spine. 

Batik is a lot of fun and I like the fact that it is difficult to control and that it might drip accidently – it makes it interesting to stitch onto afterwards as it provides you with different shapes. The heart in the middle was kind of an accident – I foolishly forgot to put the paint on after the wax and was happily ironing away when I realised that I hadn’t added any extra paint. When I took the iron off there was a heart shape so I thought I would let it stay there and make it a feature of the cover!

I’m feeling very crafty at the moment which makes me a very happy bunny indeed. I do hope the recipients like them – all I was given were the measurements and one colour suggestion for one of the bibles. I guess if God is a creator and we are made in his image and he is always with us – perhaps I was co-creator or sous-chef!

Spinning

I was very kindly given a spinning wheel by a friend of mine last year, and this weekend I finally managed to take it out for a spin, so to speak. It was a little tricky at first to get the hang of the pedaling and drafting the wool but I found this video very helpful to get me started.

This is the result! It is a combination of merino and Icelandic wool, slightly over spun in some places and under spun in others but I am quite pleased with it. 

 

River Hamble Stitch

River Hamble Stitch

First piece of work for a while! Good to be back at the sewing machine. :-)

Student-Teacher/Teacher-Student

PGCE PCET (as a student), NCFE in Textile Art (as a tutor), Taster Days in Feltmaking, Weaving and Sketchbooks (tutor); and starting this week – A Level (Year 2) Textiles (tutor – covering maternity leave). Why, oh why am I even looking at the beautifully tempting courses at West Dean College in Chichester (as a wannabe student)?! Sigh. 

Since September last year I have been training to be a tutor in adult education, studying the PGCE PCET. (Post Graduate Certificate of Education in Post Compulsory Education and Training.) Despite a rocky start and the temptation to run out of the door on a number of occasions I have made it through to January and am finding it hugely useful in my working life. The course runs until June and consumes one evening a week at Southampton University. The course includes at least 75 hours teaching time (including session plans and evaluation write-ups), session observations and 7 assignments of varying lengths.

I decided to enroll on this course to develop my professional skills as a tutor and having completed the PTTLLS (Preparation to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) and CTTLLS (Certificate to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) City and Guilds Courses the previous year, knew that if I didn’t do it now or in the next 5 years I would have to redo the PTTLLS and CTTLLS courses (and I really didn’t want to do that. Really.)

So here I am – almost half way through and feeling quite busy. It’s an interesting course and it is good to be learning again. Being a student again is very interesting and being a tutor at the same time as being a student is also very interesting as I am becoming quite aware and paranoid of my own body language as a student because I really notice it in my students when I am a tutor! 

Anyway, I am really enjoying myself at the moment and have been reflecting on the art work that I haven’t done for the past few months. My studio space became the junk room again and so this morning I cleared the desk and arranged my fabric paints and threads ready for some new work. I have missed creating so much that when I am teaching and watching other people be creative I get that achey feeling in my stomache (like the one when you are in love for the first time and you really miss your boyfriend). Ah.

So I will hopefully be doing some more of my own work soon and having a break from it has actually been quite refreshing. West Dean College will have to wait although I would love to go on one of their courses at some point this year. Part of being a qualified teacher means that I will have to show I have been continuing my learning in my subject area. I wanted to do some more weaving (I’d like to try tapestry weaving on a proper loom) but the only course I could find locally was the one I am teaching at Barton Peveril (which is weaving on a very tiny hand made loom) plus I can’t really go on that one so I will have to travel further afield. I think they have one at West Dean…

Update: Just to confirm that the course I wanted to run out of was not the one I am teaching but the one I am a student on. One of my students said to me today that I had made her laugh when she read that I had wanted to run out the door and thought I meant on the course I was teaching! I confessed that I had also wanted to run out of the door on this course too (I was very nervous in the beginning and my first lesson didn’t go to plan which knocked my confidence a bit for the first few weeks) but the course I was talking about was my PGCE at Southampton Uni. And just in case any of my tutors happen to read this – I am really enjoying the course now and glad I didn’t run out of the door. :-)

The Knitting and Stitching Show – Alexandra Palace

The UK Hyperbolic Coral Reef

Walking into the entrance of Alexandra Palace in London when The Knitting and Stitching Show is on is always a colourful and lively experience. This year visitors were greeted with a giant crocheted coral reef by crocheters from around the world. The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef has been created by crocheters from all over the world and managed by the The Institute For Figuring.

This installation was just the Uk contigent still in its growing stage, and was sewn together by Sara Noble. and another crocheter.  

The show was busy and full of women (and a few men) carting around bags and pull along trolleys to store all their new woolly wonders.

A few of my favourite exhibitors were:

• Jan Beaney’s ‘Out of the Mist’, ‘In Decline’ and ‘End of Season’ embroideries.

• The Mechanical Drawing exhibition of The Schiffli Project: Alice Kettle’s ‘Nepenthe’, Stephen Dixon and Alison Welsh, and Lynn Setterington.

• Louise Gardiner

I also came across a company called Cornish Organic Wool who are really passionate about well, cornish organic wool and I was so impressed by them and their enthusiasm wanted to link to them. Beautiful colours and knitting patterns and very soft wool.

How To Make Felt Slippers

I recently taught Sue how to make a pair of felt slippers from merino wool and hand spun silk. Sue filmed the making of the slippers in order to watch the process again for her own slipper making fun. She very kindly made me a copy of the film so that I could share it with other slipper making enthusiasts!

Here is the video and a list of equipment you will need if you want to make a pair of slippers.

• Merino Wool – around 200g and other fibres for decoration
• Bubblewrap – you will need three pieces – 50cm x 50cm
• Scissors
• Paper and Pen
• Warm water and a bottle or plant spray – you can buy the spray bulbs seen in the film from www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk for around £8
• Washing up liquid, Olive Soap or soap flakes – I use Ecover washing up liquid which I find easier to use
• Sink, bowl, draining board, washboard (the washboard in the video has made the felting so much quicker. This one that Sue has is from www.carbolicsoap.com and I thoroughly recommend it)