The challenges of working big with feltmaking; pebbles lovely pebbles; so many projects but not enough time - where did January go?!

Choosing colours for a project, great fun! :)

Annie

Back in June I laid out a base of fibres 120cm x 120cm because I liked the idea of attempting to make a great big bit of felt. I mentioned it at the end of this post but in the end I had to roll it up out of the way because I didn't have a plan for it, it was taking up too much of my work space and I also wanted to work on other things.

A couple of weeks ago I got it out again following yet another craft space reorganisation! There still isn't enough room for it really but I want to work on it now. I always crave just one more table (one flat clear surface to do things - but in reality it would just get another project plonked on it!)

Anyway, after much deliberation I decided to revert to my original plan of making this piece into a big vase of (or general splat of) imaginary flowers. I've decided to use it as a test piece to try out various ideas so there is no pressure for it to have a fantastic outcome, this one is just about the process. In the photo at the top I'm holding a bunch of fibres up against the layout trying to decide on the next layer, which I have subsequently laid down, and now moved on to auditioning various colours and weights of fabrics. Nothing is decided yet, this bit is just about moving things about and seeing what happens!

So, anyway, back to the table and the size of the layout. The first issue (aside from it taking up far too much room!) is that when you have a big layout on the go it is hard to see the whole thing as you work. I considered working on the floor so I could see it from above but that would just lead to it getting walked on and scattered across the floor. It would be so much easier if you could layout fibres on an easel so you could stand back from your work. Alas gravity does not agree with that. So for a while I was getting up and down on to a stool but that is exhausting and only helps while you are actually up on the stool. Hmmm.....so I thought I'd try to raise one end of the tables up and see what happened. I won't go into too much detail about trying to find various things to raise the legs up only to remember 30 minutes later when I was trying to prop the table up that the legs were completely adjustable! So I now have one end at 68 cm and the other end at 88cm high.

Ignore the mess :) It's still not quite enough slant but it does help a lot. Trouble is that I think any more than that might put too much pressure on the front legs. If I decide to do more working big I may have to make a proper hinged / tiltable work surface or something. The architects ones you can buy don't seem to be big enough and are rather expensive in many cases. Has anyone else had this issue, or is it just me?!

Another project on a slow burner inspired from a trip last year is one that could lead to many creative projects... In December last year my husband and I had a lovely week in Yorkshire. We hired a little cottage at the edge of a woodland. An hour walk through the woodland came out on a wonderful beach with really big colourful pebbles - indigo blue, pinks, rusty oranges and reds, greens, greys, yellows, all sorts. Plus loads of really interesting mustardy coloured seaweed. I could have spent all day wandering on that beach picking things up and putting them down. Fascinating shapes, colours, textures and patterns, and lots of the pebbles were huge, way bigger than my size 8 walking boots! But after about an hour and a half my husband declared that it was too cold and most definitely time for the pub! Happily that was just a short stroll back up through the woods where we found a lovely open fire, and great home cooked food :)

Anyway, as always I took about a million photos and felt my creative brain tingling!

Oh, and just because they are very cute and could make a nice felt picture one day, here are the seals at Ravenscar down the road from where we were staying

I carded up a couple of test batts to make into prefelts or samples reflecting some of the colours at the beach.  I picked out some of the obvious colours and then some of the less featured colours and magnified them.

I felted both batts quite loosely to give me plenty of options in how I might want to use them later. I'm not sure what my plans are for these yet, more to come later.

I thought it might be effective to cut out some pebble shapes from the felt to use in further work so I cut out a couple of rough stencils just to see.....  Yes, I quite like it, this needs further exploration! :)

I've got so many projects on the go or waiting to get on the go! I still haven't found a perfect way to organise and manage all of my ideas and projects but things filter through eventually and as long as there is regularly some creativity in the day, even if it is a bit chaotic, then that's the important thing!