rosiepink

Time flies!

Hi...Can't believe it's been over two months since we wrote!

Have been really busy with work commitments (officey work, not fun fibre work!) and other stuff so all of a sudden it's June and we haven't been playing with fibres nearly as much as we'd have liked.  Anyway, hopefully will have more time now and so have just recently unburied some woolly, fibrey treasures and dusted off the sewing machine and have been making a start on some more felt pieces.

Mum has been trying out a carding machine we bought a while back and I think she is finding it somewhat addictive!  Below are some photos of felt pictures she carded some wool for and then did some really beautiful decorative stitching on.  I haven't got photos of the whole things just some details.

 

 

 

I decided to get some old bits and pieces out of my samples box (where I throw odds and ends of felt scraps and experiments) to get a few ideas and start thinking about some future projects, here they are laid on the desk...

 

I got all inspired and decided to make a large panel with the greens and pinks and somehow have ended up with blues and yellows.  I haven't got a photo of the new work in progress, as the light has gone for today.  But it just shows that it doesn't matter if I make a plan, as soon as I look in the boxes of colours I am lost to grabbing whatever takes my eye!

I have also been doing a bit of experimenting.  The other day I decided to rework a piece of felt I made a little while ago.  Normally I leave the edges of felt to be natural but I decided to cut this piece up and "finish" the edges.  I rather like the wavy edges and think I will definitely be playing more with this idea!

 

Felt & Machine Embroidery Artwork - Beach Huts

Just thought we'd share some photos of a commission piece of artwork we've just finished.  It's very similar in style to the previous beach huts pictures we've created but this time it was a lot bigger at 4 feet long!  Really enjoyed making this one and would love to do more!  Here is a picture of the finished thing and also of some detail:

 

 

We have just been to Cornwall for a long weekend and have come back with a camera full of inspirational photos so hopefully will find some time to turn some of them into new felt artwork.  Too many ideas, not enough hours!

Back from Camping - and a New Felt Picture and a New Toy To Play With!

We have been away on various camping holidays over the past few weeks and are back refreshed and ready to go again.  Between us we took 100s of photos "for inspiration" (my hubby just doesn't understand why I need 25 pictures of the same seagull all in a slightly different position...!)  Here is one of the pictures which I think I will turn into a felty, fabriccy picture one day soon...

 

Well, the English summer hasn't exactly provided much great camping weather - we went to several different places including Devon (twice), Norfolk and Lyme Regis and got soaked most of the time except for a few nice days in Devon.   I don't mind the rain as it makes the tent feel quite cosy but as it's still supposed to be summer I thought I'd make another bright and cheerful picture - this time another interpretation of the beach huts at Hengistbury Head in Bournemouth...

Hope you like it!

PS - We've just bought a new (second hand but still fabulous!) toy - a spinning wheel!  We are very excited and can't wait to get going.  Have had just one quick go on it so far (after about four hours of figuring out what goes where) and can feel a new addiction coming on!  We are super excited about having our own spun yarns to play with!

PPS - In case its confusing our blog sometimes says "we" and sometimes "I" in the text.  That's because I (Annie) do most of the blogging (mum doesn't like computers quite as much as I do!) so while its about both of us there's lots of "I" in it! 

Finished Picture & Problems Leaving Comments - can you help?

Hello, we'll be offline next week so I thought I'd just post a pic of our latest piece of artwork.  This has gone to Coastal Creatives gallery where it will hopefully find a loving new home.  Very sad to see it go, I really do love this picture - it is so colourful and happy!  Hope you like it too.

Can you help (please)?  We would really love to get more involved in the blogging community and we read with interest many other blogs.  However, we keep having trouble when trying to leave comments on other blogs, especially if the blog is not a Typepad one e.g. Blogger.  We just keep getting redirected to our own account page on Typepad - weird!  This also left us wondering if it is the same for people trying to leave comments for us.  We know lots of people do read our blog, going by the anonymous hit counter thingy at Typepad, (which makes us very happy!) but wonder if comments are difficult to leave here too?  If you have tried to comment, but can't, please please send us an email (rosiepinkATbtinternetDOTcom) to let us know.   That would be very much appreciated. 

More Felt Pods (with a twist!) and another Machine Embroidery Adventure!

Mum decided to make a change and do something different with wet felt pods just recently.  She thought a new shape would be interesting.  The result was this rather quirky set of 3 "chimnea" shaped vessels which we like very much!

We've also been trying to find time to create art for the walls and so last week I indulged in a day of creativity making a felt picture of a beach near Coverack, Cornwall.  We have a camping holiday pretty much every year in Cornwall and love every minute of it.  I always take loads of photos for inspiration as the scenery is beautiful!

Here is a photo of the beach:

and here is my felty, machine embroidered interpretation:

And some detail...

Hope you like it! 

Felt and Machine Embroidery

We have been doing more work with machine embroidery on felt recently.  It's such a wonderful process - the stitching on the felt always looks beautiful and gives the felt a new dimension.  It adds texture but it also seems to make thinner and decorative felt more durable for wearable items and felt jewellery.  Here is an example of some flat felt we have been playing with:

                                    

After hours of experimentation (and many prototypes!) we stitched some of our felt into this cuff:

                                    

This is made from the piece of felt shown in this post.  It is lined with silk and finished with a bright pink button.  We plan to make several more of these but the great thing is that each one is 100% unique.  It would be impossible to make two exactly the same due to the nature of the felt making and free machine embroidery.

The felt shown below was one of our favourite pieces but, alas, it was lost to a failed prototype.  Boo hoo!

                                 

We really loved the sparkly copper thread in this piece - it caught the light beautifully. Still, it gives us an excuse make some more!