Edges

Hello there!

How are you doing? Keeping well I hope…I’ve finally managed to finish this blog post which I started some time ago! I can hardly believe we are well into February already…how did that happen?!

So this post is just to document a few thoughts and samples…and might give you a little insight into part of the felting process along the way.

One of the things I want to explore a little further with my felting is ‘edges’. I’ve long debated whether leaving the edges of a felted picture on show within a frame hinders it from selling.  Certainly, from past experience a picture with a mount seems to be preferred.  However, perhaps my edges just weren’t good enough!? 

Following a couple of online workshops last year, I have learned how to give my edges a little more attention than I normally would. I’ve also made a couple of pictures, shown below, where the bottom edge is left very organic with silks that have been Nuno felted into the main piece…I really enjoyed that process and like the end result.  Time will tell as to whether they sell!

(*update! Since starting this blogpost, the picture below, ‘Home to Roost’  has sold…which is brilliant news!)

The silk at the bottom gathers with the fine fibres during the felting process. The fibres work their way through the silk fabric and as the felt shrinks the silk ruches and creates that lovely ‘skirt’ on the bottom edge.

So what else could I do with my edges…

I have made a few samples to have a play around with ideas and to have some options to refer back to for future pieces when I feel like a more organic edge might work.

A ‘holey’ finish…a tideline perhaps? This was achieved by applying prefelted ‘rings’ onto the bottom with a silk chiffon layer underneath. Once fully felted, I snipped away the excess chiffon to leave the circles.

A loose, yarn border…nice way to use some of my stash of art yarns! Barely felted in to leave loops and waves along the bottom of the piece.  Gives a nice organic edge…again, maybe a tideline?

This was a piece of crinkly cotton felted in along the bottom…the odd fine wool fibres latch on and gather it in places to create an undulating edge.

Looking at my ‘creative sparks’ squares, pieces of scrap felt added to slightly overhang  the edge gives an option for a more geometric finish…maybe to give an impression of stones, boulders or cliffs, or as part of an abstract design…if placed side by side along the bottom edge, all slightly different sizes/lengths. They could even be added on any (or all) of the edges, not just the bottom.  Above is a smaller piece of added felt, and there’s  a longer piece in the picture below.  I have a bag full of felt offcuts, and as long as you rough up the underside, it can still be incorporated into a new piece and should felt in successfully, but will stand a little proud of the main surface.  That’s the great thing about felt…even the ‘failed’ pieces can be reused at some point.

There’s also a little ‘loop’ of yarn there in the picture above…maybe that could be executed all the way along an edge? Hmm…can you hear my imagination ticking?

Or of course the edges can just be worked to be left really even with lovely corners…slow, careful felting enables this, and whilst the edges below aren’t entirely perfect, the overall square shape could fit neatly, without trimming, into a box frame or floating frame…maybe without glass if thoroughly felted, and displayed like a canvas

The possibilities are endless really aren’t they? 

An alternative edge could be achieved by adding

• Beads
• Crochet
• Lace
• Shells
• Feathers
• Small found objects

Plenty of ideas to play around with…I feel some more samples coming on! Making time to play and try out new things is really important, without the pressure of having to make a finished project…a collection of these samples of felt will be a good reference for future work, or if nothing else they would have been fun to do and will be nice to look at…and stroke from time to time (or is that just me?! 😆).

Are you experimenting with anything creatively at the moment?  I’d love to hear about it. All we need is an extra day in the week, right?! 

So until next time, wishing you many happy and creative hours ahead…

Take care

x Tanya x

As time flies by...

So, we are nearing the end of July already as I type this...what is turning out to be a very strange year is also passing by at the rate of knots!

There have been other things going on here that have taken me away from my felting for a little while - making time for family, the allotment and garden and just generally keeping on top of the day job...oh and making masks/face coverings!  Never thought that would be something I would be sewing, but I've made a fair few over the past few weeks so that everyone's got a good supply.

The sewing machine is not my natural environment, but with the enforced practice I think my skills have improved...slightly!!  The upside is that it has been a good opportunity to use up some of my substantial fabric stash!

Not wanting to dwell on anything pandemic related in this blog post, I will move on to other things...

Since my last post, I continued with my hare wall hanging which I enjoyed making immensely - it's finished and on the wall in our sitting room.

I also managed to fit in a little needle felting and created a couple of small pieces which just need framing up before being ready to put up for sale.  These were made on the surface of some thick off cuts of handmade felt that I had here - it was really nice to work into.

Now that the sewing machine has been put away, my table has been freed up and I can't wait to get felting again - I'm really looking forward to experimenting with a few ideas and did this little sample to see how some of my eco-dyed silk would work during the felting process.

Wet felting involves a lot of hot water, soap and rubbing and rolling, so I really wanted to check that the colours would stay 'fast' with all that action!  Really pleased to see that the colours didn't run or fade at all which is great because I love the effect given by the variegated colours on the silk created from flowers and leaves...and look at those scrummy textures 😍.

I actually really like the little square piece as it is...

Encouraged by the results of the sample square,  I have done some more eco-dyeing so that I have a slightly bigger stash of  silk to use.  I have some pieces in solar jars in the garden, and I steamed some silk bundled up with leaves, flowers and onion skins in the aga.

I will need to wait for the solar jars a few more weeks I think, but the hollyhock flowers will give a lovely purple shade - I've also got jars containing verbena, red onion skins, white onion skins and coreopsis.  Just need some more sunshine and let nature do its thing on the threads and silks stuffed inside the jars.

The steamed bundles have given me some great results - I'm hoping to use these in some abstract landscape ideas I have.

So, before the week is out I hope to have a few more felting experiments on the go...I've been making lots of notes and sketches and trying to be honest about the the type of work I WANT to produce rather that the pieces I feel I ought to be making, because sometimes there's a bit of a difference!  Thinking about the type of art I’m personally drawn to,  I am currently being pulled towards a slightly more abstracted approach, and I'm quite excited about the possibilities...and felt is a really versatile medium in which to explore the ideas I have, particularly in terms of surface textures.

It's going to be a case of playing, exploring and trying a few new things...which may work well, or they may not...but I won't know unless I try will I? 

Garden update...

Just a little update on the garden pond and new border we created during lockdown - I can't believe how well it's all taken off!  From bare ground and little life to being absolutely stuffed full of plants (from a cheap box of seeds) and life seemingly appearing from nowhere in the pond!

That’s my lovely mum in the picture above...probably thinking we’d gone a bit mad!

There are LOTS of dragonfly and damselfly nymphs in the pond, as well as water beetles, pond skaters and water snails.  There are also other tiny, swimming things that I have no idea what they are...but it's all good!  We have more bird visitors, some of which like to have a little bath in the shallower water - before the planting took off, I even saw a swift swoop down to have a drink from the pond on the wing - fantastic!

The whole border is buzzing, humming and fluttering constantly with bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths.

So it really is true - just plant the plants and create the pond, and the wildlife will find it.

Have you been creative in the garden? Would love to hear about it...or any pond tips you might have?

So until next time, keep well, keep safe and find some joy in the simple things in life.

Tanya xx

Felting and framing...

Well, firstly I am so delighted to have sold 'Golden Blooms' after posting it on Facebook!  Every sale I make gives me such a warm glow I can't tell you...

At that stage it wasn't framed, and framing is sooo important.  There are so many decisions to be made -

* what size frame?

* what type and colour frame?

* with a mount or 'floated' to show the natural edges of the felt?

The way a piece of textile art is framed can make or break it, and whilst it would be wonderful to have work professionally framed I have always done it myself to keep costs down, so there's more pressure to get it right!

This particular piece is larger than usual, and I decided on a large box frame, which I painted white, and float mounted the piece of felt on foamboard.  I like to see the natural edges of the piece, and this way of framing gives it a nice surrounding space.  I reckon I made the right decisions in this case, and thankfully the customer agreed and bought it.  I didn't take a photo of it without the glass, so excuse the reflections, but it gives you an idea of how it was presented.

The thing to bear in mind is that, whilst I framed it myself, it took time...one of the downsides of framing something with fibres is that every time you think you've got it right, cleaned the glass and sealed the back, you flip it over and a little bit of fluff has magically (and naughtily) appeared on the inside of the glass!! Aaargh!  

Anyway, I got there in the end, and it has gone off to its new home.

You can see beside it there is another picture - remember the little collage I shared in my last blog post?  Well this was the felted picture that evolved from that and I really like how it turned out.

My 'idea' collage

My collage inspired piece 'Autumn Berries'

It's difficult to capture in a photo, but there's a lot of surface texture going on here created using scrim, chiffon, silk hankies, wool nepps and coarse British breed wool fibres in the wet felting process.  All the little berries were needle felted on and hand stitch was added to give definition.

This one will also be for sale, so do get in touch if you are interested.

Following the sale of 'Golden Blooms' I have had a request to do a similar piece so I have made a start on that - I don't want to make it exactly the same so I'm changing the shape of the vase and the arrangement.  The colours need to stay similar, although I had to dye some more silk for the flowers and the onion skin pot produced a much deeper, orangey gold which is rather yummy - maybe it was a stronger concentration of onion skins to water?

The photos below show some of the process so far...it's yet to be finished so I'll hopefully share that on the next blog.

Starting with some icelandic white wool roving to lay out as a base

The fibres carefully laid out 

Cotton scrim, fibres, organza and silk hankies added to give texture

Close up of some of the added elements

Adding soft grey wool fibres to the bottom half

wetted down and ready for a lengthy, slow felting sessions adding warm soapy water and gentle elbow grease!

Adding different elements along the way

Results from the onion skin dye pot for the flowers and stitch

Felted and ready for embellishment

So I'm going to crack on with this piece, although I'm jotting down lots of new ideas all the time in my sketchbook for more pictures.  I'm wanting to keep to that limited colour palette and more contemporary feel - I'm liking that at the moment!  Perhaps I might use some of the November colours I've been capturing whilst out and about...

Until next time, thanks for reading, and don't forget you can leave a comment below, say 'hello' or let me know what you're being inspired by at the moment - I like a little chat!

Best wishes

Tanya xx

Finding inspiration in nature...

Nature inspired...

Even as a little girl, I always had my head stuck in a nature book - whether it was about birds, bees and butterflies or foxes, badgers and hedgehogs.

Nature still excites me...and inspires me.

I've been watching a family of wrens in our garden over the last few weeks - there are two or three youngsters who scuttle around like mice in and amongst the shelter of the plants 'peeping' away and waiting for a very diligent parent to return with food.  I've tried very hard to take some photographs of them, but they are quite rightly very wary of me and my camera and without a good zoom lens it's tricky to get any close up shots.  I probably looked quite comical creeping around the garden trying to get closer to them! They move so quickly, darting and bobbing around - a wildlife photographer I am not!!

I'll share just a couple, but the images aren't very sharp, and bearing in mind they didn't keep still for a second I hope you'll forgive that!

Giving up on the wrens, this sparrow seemed quite happy to sit still to have his photo taken!!

However, I love our little Jenny Wrens and I was inspired to do a little needlefelted version - perhaps I'd have more luck with that!

I had already created a background of layered, printed chiffon which I had stitched to a piece of blanket.  I hadn't planned a use for this, but it seemed a perfect backdrop for my birdy.

Chiffon layers stitched down

Starting my woolly sketch

As I didn't have a good enough photo of my own to work from, I used one sourced from google (hooray for google images!).

Finished!

Whether it was because it was all a bit spontaneous and unplanned I'm not sure, but it worked out really well!  I made it on the small side to keep it manageable, but that does have its challenges as it's quite fiddly to add detail with the wool and needle at that scale.  The finished picture is 4" square.

A bit of embellishment with french knots, scrim and buttons

I'm super pleased with it - hope you like it too.  I've framed it up in a little white frame which sets it off really nicely.

Framed behind glass - forgive any reflection!

I'm quite happy to give this wren a home, but it is up for sale if anyone would like to purchase it.  Please do get in touch if you would like any more information.

Staying on the bird theme, I'm in the process of making a similar small piece with a blue tit.  My background was initially a little piece of nuno-felt that I made especially - I have a beautiful chiffon scarf that I had picked up in a charity shop a while back and I cut a small piece and felted it to some wool fibres which creates that lovely crinkly effect.

Can anyone else see the creepy guy in the blue shirt?

I began my blue tit, but I just wasn't happy with it - I think it was a combination of needling into the nuno felt and the pose of the bird with its head facing forward was proving tricky for me to get detail to stand out.

Loose wool sketch - but not happy with its progress!!

So I have made a new background, in the same style as the wren picture, simply stitching the chiffon onto some blanket - this has given me a much firmer surface to work into.

Chiffon stitched onto blanket

I chose a different pose for my blue tit as well - this is just a picture of it in progress, there's a lot to do yet.  I'm still not sure of it though...I might put it to one side for a bit and come back to it. I think I've given it the head shape of a great tit or something silly like that.  So frustrating when something's not going quite as planned!  Perhaps I should have been more spontaneous as with the wren!

Blue tit in progress - lots more to do yet, but still not happy with it!!

Something I sometimes struggle with is the 'drawing' element - I'm really not sure it's where my strength is!  I think that's why the textile collaging keeps calling me back - it's much more free and easy, whereas the needlefelting is quite painstaking and fiddly.

I've shared successes and failures on this post - I could so easily show you just the great bits but in reality for every one thing that I'm pleased with, there are probably four or five that I'm disappointed with!!

Anyway, as long as I'm creating something there are always new things to learn and enjoy...and that's part of the journey.

Photo inspiration...

Whilst I may have failed to get 'that' photo of a wren, I have been taking photographs of things that don't move.  Walking the dog down to the estuary at Lelant, there are lots of different colours and textures to take note of along the shore line.  These images are great to refer back to as inspiration for surface design and background ideas - I've shared a few of them below, some taken along the estuary and some out walking around the farm.

Boat moored on estuary at Lelant

Love this blue and the contrasting buoy xx

nice bit of flaky paint on the side of the boat

More flaky paint! Would make a great background

Sea battered wood - and that lovely pop of yellow lichen

Seaweed and lichen

Nice pattern in the stone wall

That green!

Saturated the colours on this one a bit - old, sea worn wood

 Had to include a little picture of Rufus, who thinks he's an otter and just casually swims along whilst we walked along the shore!

Walking Rufus also takes me along the country lanes and fields of our farm, and there are already those wonderful colours of an approaching autumn xx

Grass heads

Dock flowers drying out

Gorgeous seed heads

Grasses blowing in the breeze

The camera flashed!

In sepia - some treasure that I brought home in my pocket xx

Other news...

I've started on a sample for the 'Crafternoon' I have in mind for the autumn - keeping it really simple so that hopefully anyone that wants to come can more or less finish it in an afternoon.  This is really fun to do - embracing the lovely naive look of it and the simple shapes and stitching so that anyone can do it, regardless of sewing experience.  It's amazing what you can do with just a running stitch!  Hopefully I'll get some takers for the session and raise some money for MIND in the process!

In progress - buttons and words to add yet!

Allotment news...

Well, we are pretty much self-sufficient in salads and veg and potatoes which is wonderful - and our sprout and leek plants are looking really good for autumn/winter.  I think the recent rain did everything the world of good.

However, I'm surprised I haven't turned a shade of green with the amount of runner beans I've been eating!!  We have beans with everything and are giving a lot away to family and friends as we have such a glut of them...but I'm not grumbling, they are delicious!!

Until next time...

Thank you for reading my ramblings, and although there's not as much creating as I'd like going on (too much to do and enjoy outside during summer!) I do have a number of ideas milling around that I hope to get my teeth into soon.

Best wishes

Tanya xx