This is the first chance I've had to write a little update - the 'day job' has required a lot more attention lately, so my creating and blogging have had to take an even further backseat than usual!
Anyway, since my last blog post I did manage to finish the second 'Golden Blooms' picture which I was really pleased with.
Back in November, I also put a couple of pieces in a gallery to see how that might work. There's a really gorgeous little place called 'Blue Bramble Gallery' in the backstreets of St Ives - be sure to seek it out if you are ever in town, as it contains such a wonderful array of art, ceramics and jewellery.
So I was delighted that Blue Bramble sold my little 'Jenny Wren' picture within the first month - remember this one? Textile art can be quite tricky to sell, so we'll see how we get on with my other work in the gallery...no harm in trying!
If you follow my social media pages, you may remember I needlefelted this little robin in the run up to Christmas - it seems I can never to go too long without creating a robin in some way or another!
Wanting to work on a slightly bigger scale, referring back to my sketchbook, I wanted to have a go at translating one of my ideas into felt, and in particular this one of the three jugs. The 'sketch' was a collage of tissue papers and painted papers.
I wanted to keep the grey and pink theme, so laid out fibres and patterned cotton as a base. The finished composition is slightly different - the jugs are much more dominant, but I quite like that. I also like the way the felting process has given the jugs a lovely quirky look. I sometimes struggle with the wonkiness that hand-felting can give, but I'm learning to embrace it and the way it gives a picture a lively, almost animated feel.
Other news...
You may remember from quite a long time ago, I made two travel tags to join a collaborative project being run by Anne Kelly . Well my tags have found their way back home after their touring adventure - it was so nice to be a part of that project, I really enjoyed making them.
Just for fun, whenever I've had a few spare moments, I've also been making an art doll. This was something a bit different for me, and I probably didn't plan it well enough before hand as she has developed rather organically!! I wet felted a head/body shape around a resist so that I could stuff it...then needlefelted features were added.
Well, once she had eyes, a nose and lips she sort of came alive and I felt duty bound to at least give her some hair and make her a dress to cover her dignity!!
I started by giving her knotted threads for hair, but then changed my mind and gave her a nice soft grey wavy bob. As you can see, she had a couple of different 'looks' before her final makeover!
Her dress is made out of scraps of ecodyed and printed fabrics, all stitched together. I hadn't really thought about arms and legs, and so she was put to one side for quite a while until I came up with the idea of little puffs. Did anyone else's mum make them a humpty dumpty soft toy with puff arms and legs when they were little? I think the pattern probably came out of the Woman's Weekly all those years ago - well I think that's where I got the idea from!
This was the closest thing I could find on google images - except the one my mum made me was much more colourful!
My doll's hands are little silk cocoons, and she's holding a little posy of nature finds - a feather, poppy pods and dried nigella head.
At that point I decided to give her wings - oak leaves seemed fitting!
To this day, she still doesn't have any legs, but who needs legs when you can fly?!! I may get around to giving her some one day...she doesn't have a name as such, but I refer to her as my eco-fairy!
Dress construction is very naive, and very much made up as I went along - well to be honest the whole thing is less than perfect - but I'm really rather fond of her. If I were to ever make another, I know which things I would plan out better in advance!! But this one will stay looking down over me in my craft room, patiently waiting for legs...
Also...
... I haven't forgotten about trying to organise a 'Crafternoon'. There was so much going on in the months leading up to Christmas, but it's still on the list to do!!
Right, that will have to do for now - hope to be able to get making on a more regular basis very soon, but until then thank you for reading!
Best wishes
Tanya
xx
