rosiepink

Flowers, Flowers and More Flowers! And a shiny new work space - woo hoo!

Its been a while, so lots of rambling coming up! Have been on holiday, revamped my work space, me and mum have started a million (and one) projects, and got heads bursting full of ideas!

Among many things I'm working through Danny Gregory's book - "The Creative License". It's about grabbing a Sharpie and sketching something / anything everyday - it inspires you to "just do it", even a few minutes a day.  I figured I could translate this principle into the textiles world too, and into a series of small challenges - otherwise days / weeks can fly by without picking up a needle or piece of wool because "I am too busy" - huh?

Here are a couple of the pieces so far...they are not masterpieces by a long shot, they are experiments and samples (approx 22cm x 16cm) for some much bigger ideas I have in my head (more on that later) but at least now I have recorded so that I won't forget!

Because I have been experimenting with marker pen and coloured pencils recently I first wanted to see if I could get this down into feltwork and machine embroidery.  I tried a couple of ways.  The picture above started as a blank canvas of pale scrims laid on white wool, then the "ink" outline and colour was applied by fabric applique and dark thread.  It's OK, but has room for improvement.  I'm not sure I like the blue colour of the "ink" but it is something to play with further.

Here's how it started:

And a bit of detail from the finished sample:

The other way, which I haven't felted yet, is to add rough outlines in black silk (throwsters waste) to a couple of random basic felt flowers. The ink and paper sketching is somewhat more portable in that you can do it anywhere, anytime but the principal is the same - freedom, experimentation, and most importantly practice.

I'll report back with progress!

The exercise of the next picture (below) was all about limiting the "palette" of materials (initally anyway!), and working faster.   

I always work quickly once I get going but what I mean by this is to start the process with less faffing!  I tend to spend so long "ooh-ing" and "ahh-ing" over jumbles of pretty colours and worrying that I might have missed a nice piece of thread that I just don't get going (mum is the same!). I also keep reading that limiting your resources can force you to be more creative. So I bravely (and quickly!) picked a small handful of colours, one small bag of fabric scraps and laid out this small piece.  I had no idea when I started what it was going to be but as I worked it unsurprisingly turned into a vase of flowers!  However, it was very free-ing to just lay down bits of fabric and fibre until I saw one of my favourite subjects emerging!

I think the next thing to address would be knowing "when to stop". This was going to be a really simple little picture, but I kind of got carried away when I reintroduced all my stash back into the mix!  I also tried to incorporate the "ink" aspect in darker threads but decided it was not really working on this sample, but it added a bit of clarity in places.

Also, on the flowers theme, my neighbour kindly dropped round a beautiful bunch for me before I went on holiday a couple of weeks ago...

and when I got back they had "dropped" splotches all over the cabinet they were on.  I can definitely see a potential embroidery in this one...!

Its crazy what you start to notice when you are actively looking for what to sketch next!

I have purchased five little pinboards so that I can pin up all my favourite and inspiring things during the day - I am forever clipping at magazines, collecting scraps of fabric and odds 'n' ends, and I want to be able to see them all at once!

Now....drum roll....the "Big Clear Out" has finally happened! Woo Hoo!

Since I moved into my house 7 years ago and claimed the downstairs room at the front to be my "studio", so I've been filling it with "stuff". Bits of thread, odd balls of wool, countless stitching books, and piles of fabric.  If you make things, you will understand!  

But it was getting a bit unmanageable, and Mum and I have been meaning to "get Annie organised" for such a long time, and finally could stand the mess no more. So we went through every box and bag and ruthlessly chucked out anything remotely uninspiring or that neither of us could imagine using in a project.  About a third of the room!  I also decided that I would decorate while we were at it - to make it a more inspiring place to be.  

I am so lucky to now have this light and airy (and organised!) workspace....

....transformed from this gloomy mess ! ....

So it was out with the woodchip wallpaper, beige tatty 30 yr old carpet, and piles of junk. In with sanded floorboards, and lots of white paint.   I'm just saving up for my new table and then I can finish the last of the rearranging, all of the baskets can stack neatly underneath the table, and I can put my inspiration pinboards up :-)

Its such a great feeling now I can actually find everything, in fact I even know what I've got now!  Bliss!

Finally, a mention of a bit of fame :-) We were chuffed to be published in the Embroiderers Guild Stitch Magazine in the June 2012 edition, in the regular feature of From Sketch to Stitch ....

...and we’re thrilled to be included in the Artists and Crafters section in a new monthly magazine ‘Make and Craft’ (available as a digital or paper version) http://www.makeandcraft.com

It’s a creative hub for the Craft Community packed with inspiration, crafty tips, creative tricks and exciting ideas, featuring contemporary tutorials and projects using a wide variety of supplies and techniques, as well as reviving traditional crafts worth cherishing.  ‘Make & Craft’ magazine also brings you  the latest trends, up-to-date products, craft books and supplies, new techniques, sneak peeks behind the scenes of Artists and Crafters, the best online sites, news round ups, a diary of craft events and a whole host of competitions and giveaways.

I'm sure there is much more, but for now, I'm gasping for a cuppa! We hope you are all well, enjoying some creative time, and not thinking too much about Christmas yet!  There, I said it.  The "C" word ;-) 

The Pasty Pirate, Flaming Nora and Ros' bunting tutorial

Summer has arrived at last - but before you pack your bucket and spade and head for the coast, please allow us to introduce you to the Pasty Pirate.

He looks so friendly doesn't he?  All softly felted and smiling.  But he'll swoop down from the sky and pinch a chunk of your Cornish pasty before you can raise it to your mouth.  

But what would the seaside be without the gulls?  We love them! 

Flaming Nora had a great day on Hastings Beach with 14,321 pirates - you can read all about it in her blog entry of 22nd July pirates on the beach

When she's not looting ships and burying treasure, Nora provides bags of scraps for creative purposes.  She encourages recipients to post photos of their endeavours on tales from the scrap heap

We used some of Nora's silk scraps and a photo of our old bird box, printed off A4 size. The bunting and balloons (with a dab of white acrylic paint for the highlights) are cut from silk scraps then machine stitched in place. The altered image was then copied on a scanner. 

It would make a great image for a house-warming party invitation card.

If you've been inspired by the photo to make some mini-bunting for your house, then Ros has a great tutorial on her blog to show you how. mini-bunting tutorial

We hope you enjoy the great outdoors during the school holidays - now that it's finally stopped raining!

How to make felted soaps and pebbles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hope you enjoy using our new free tutorial - why not get together with some friends to have some felting fun?  It's much kinder on the waistline than coffee and cake!

Felted soaps are quick and inexpensive to make and are an easy introduction to felting for children and adults alike.

Wrapped with ribbon or yarn, a felted soap makes a pretty gift that will last much longer than an uncovered bar of soap and the felt shrinks with the soap so that at the end you have a handy scrubby.

Felted pebbles are made in the same way as soaps - they are ornamental and can also be used as paperweights.

If you have a craft stall, felted soaps and pebbles are so pretty that a couple of baskets placed at the front of the table will draw customers' interest. 

The free tutorial can be found in the left-hand sidebar - have fun!

 

Felting and Fiber Abstract Challenge

We're loving April with the longer, lighter days - but a few less showers would be good!

And in case you're wondering if we ever got the spring clean done?  Ummm, no, not yet, too many other more important things to do!

We hope you have fun with our two new free tutorials, listed in the left-hand sidebar.  One shows how to make felt beads and simple jewellery and the other shows how to make a simple bag/purse using a resist.

If you're stuck in an artistic rut and need a nudge, how about a challenge?  The Felting and Fiber Studio is a collective of international felt and fiber artists (there's a link in our 'blog list' in the right-hand sidebar) and they have thrown out a challenge to make something in 'abstract representation'.  

As we are often influenced by the sea, abstract representations of a seagull and a windsurfer were submitted for the challenge.

Abstract Representation - Seagull 

The sky is wet-felted with blue merino wool, then the seagull is needle-felted onto it using pure-wool yarn in white, grey, lilac and purple.  His beady eye is just that - a pretty bead!

Abstract Representation - Windsurfer

The sea is wet-felted with turquoise merino wool and the windsurfer board and sail are represented by strips of white, yellow and purple merino wool wet-felted into place.

Abstract Representation - Sea and Sky

This image was achieved using just dry fibres - it's a beautiful picture, but impossible to hang on a wall!

It's good to take a challenge - sometimes we need a little push to leave our comfort zones.

 

 

 

 

Re-purposing Felt and Fabrics

With the days getting longer and brighter I had the urge to spring clean the workroom.  Mum lent a hand but not much cleaning or sorting got done, because after moving things around we of course rediscovered lots of pretty bits of leftover felt and fabrics that we didn’t want to hide away again - we have stacks of charity shop gems - open weave scarves, cushion covers, sparkly tops!  So we sat in a room that looked like a ransacked haberdashery shop and planned to ‘re-purpose’ some of it.  It’s a great idea because you feel as if you’re getting something for nothing.

Last year we found an interesting piece of fabric in a charity shop that begged to be used in some nuno felt.  It was extremely flimsy with a large open weave and had thin coloured stripes that reminded us of the sea.  At the time we laid out merino wool tops in sea colours then placed the material on the top.  The felting made the material ‘wave’ and although we liked it very much, we never got around to doing anything with it, so it went in "the box".

The piece is 26” x 14” and therefore large enough to use as the background for a picture.  So we pondered a bit and remembered that this is the year of the dragon that promises good luck, good fortune and creativity, so we thought a weedy sea dragon would be fun.  It’s a close relative of the sea horse and comes in so many colours that we couldn’t resist grabbing some other scraps of felt left over from various projects, a little merino waste scraped from the carding drum and a few inches of fancy yarn to needle felt a weedy sea dragon onto the nuno felt.

 

The spring clean is waiting to be done another day.....soon!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone.  Merry Christmas! 

It's been such a busy year! Not nearly enough time to play and make felt and sew, so we'll definitely have to sort that out over the next year!  Just wanted to pop by and wish everyone a Merry Christmas - hope you all have a lovely time.

I decided today that anything Christmas related that wasn't done by now would just have to wait. Its my first day off from the office for the holiday today and I decided to indulge myself and sew!

I wanted a quick and simple project that I could finish in a couple of hours (otherwise things have a habit of remaining in the unfinished pile! So I dug around in my felt leftovers box and found an interesting little piece of felt in need of some love!  So in a couple of hours of blissful, non-planned out stitching it became this picture of a wintery sunshiney hillside...

...from this little scrap of felt (measuring 20cm x 15cm):

It just needs a bit of backing card, and maybe a recycled frame.  It was cut from a big piece of felt when I was experimenting with layering sections of felt a while back.  That project never got finished but it has opened up a new world of smaller projects!

Mum has been busy with nuno felting and has made this really pretty cushion front.  Much of the stronger colour comes from fine fabric (recycled chiffon and silk scarves!) felted into the merino wool.  Machine stitching adds lovely detail to the petals and the flower centre:

One last thing before I go, I made a new discovery today.  Not sure if it works or not, but is definitely worthy of further exploration!   While photographing the winter hillside picture I stumbled upon this effect by accidentally turning my spotlight light on while it was under the felt...I'm hoping it looks like twinkly fairly lights (either that or a forest fire.  Hopefully fairy lights win?!):

Merry Christmas!!

(here is a beautiful Christmas card handmade by my mum, just for you x)

Experimental Stitched Felt & Fabric Collage - Work in Progress

While rummaging through some of my stash boxes at the weekend I came across a lonely, unfinished and neglected felt picture that I felted about 2 years ago and then abandoned because I thought at the time it hadn’t gone “right” and was nothing like what I’d had in mind.  But of course there is no right and wrong, and, with fresh eyes I decided I would begin to rescue and recycle this piece, instead of doing what I had planned to do that day.  I’m sooo easily distracted!

It’s a harbour scene inspired by so many lovely coastal holidays.  I'm using it now simply as base for a completely different take on the original idea - instead of just felt and stitch I am completing it using lots of messy stitched fabric collage to give it loads of texture and a whole new colour palette to really bring it to life.  You can see in the pictures the first few bits of fabric being applied.  It could be a complete disaster!  But I like to experiment so we will see :-)

It’s quite a big piece at 90cm x 55cm so will take quite a while to finish!  There’s lots of tearing & cutting and miles & miles of stitching to do.  There will be both hand and machine stitching and maybe even a bit of acrylic paint I reckon.  Not sure yet.  Whatever takes my mood at the time!

I’ve collected together some of my photos of harbour scenes from holidays in Devon and Cornwall for inspiration so it will be a mixture of elements from those photos and a lot from imagination.  There will almost certainly be bunting!  More pictures to come as it progresses...

Felted Flotsam Picture

Hello

Just wanted to share this simple but effective felt picture of flotsam that mum made recently.  She made a fine piece of flat felt from blues and turquoises with scattered torn scrim, nepps, silk noils and silk tops.  For an experiment she used CMC paste (after felting) to give it a 3D effect of gentle waves.  This photo is taken at angle, so hopefully you can see the shape of the waves. 

Here it is in its flat form before the CMC paste was applied. 

The finished size is 80 cm x 40 cm.  It seems the list of things you can make and do with handmade felt is endless - if only there were more hours in the day to play!

Many happy hours of machine and hand stitching later......

.....a piece of flowery textile art is finished.  Ta dah!  Fluffy felty stitchy flowers. Done :-)

Really enjoyed making this picture - lots of texture was created while machine stitching into the handmade felt and then adding small details by hand lifted the colours in places, especially a little spray of white flowers here and there and lots of colorful french knots.  Trouble is that its hard to know when to stop!

Making Handspun Yarns for Creating Texture in Handmade Felt

I had a bit of a play yesterday - look what I made!  OK, so I'm no expert and its a bit rough and bumpy, but luckily that's exactly what we want for adding texture to our handmade felt artwork!

Handspun yarn is great for adding texture in handmade felt, and for ages we've wanted to be able to make our own so that we can have just a couple of metres of each of lots of colours that are custom to our projects.   I've been putting off having a go despite us buying some equipment a couple of years ago as I didn't really know what I was doing and had little time to figure it out.  However, yesterday I got brave, dusted off the carder and the wheel, watched a couple of great "how to" videos and just had a go!  I decided not to worry about being too technical and to just see what happened - especially as this yarn doesn't need to be "good" yarn - I quickly realised that I could easily create an overtwisted, knobbly, and very imperfect yarn!  Ta dah!  Perfect for felt making!

Here are my "ingredients" ready to be yummed up by the carding machine....

Before carding my batt I watched a handful of short videos on creating art batts, and these are the ones I liked best:

How to card an art batt on a drum carder from NeauveauFibreArts shows a technique for layering everything up before feeding it in to the carder which seems to work nicely!

Drum Carding Art Batts by AtomicBlue

Carding a Jazzy Batt by JazzTurtleCreations

After watching the last two I realised there are so many toys that I want NEED!  Especially a carder with coarser cloth and wider teeth to cope with more fibre types.  Will have to save up :-)

So, here are the fibres starting to get pulled on to the big drum - yum!

And here is my finished batt after about 10 minutes of playing with the carder and putting random colours and fibres through!

Among other things, it is made of merino, wensleydale, silks and some lovely sparkly angelina fibres although I couldn't persuade the camera to pick up the glittery detail unfortunately!

I'm a bit impatient, always looking for instant gratification, so I only watched one or two videos on how to actually spin.  I had one lesson a couple of years so thought that would do!

How to Spin Roving into Yarn from NeauveauFibreArts was the one I watched and it was a good intro.  Again, I realised I now want NEED a wheel with a bigger orifice!  I want to make thick, bobbly, highly textured yarns!

I'm sure there is a proper way to prepare a batt for spinning but I just sort of tore mine apart and had a go!  The batt didn't make much, only about 30g!  But its a start.  I need to practice making a hank, but here it is in all its imperfect glory!

Anyway, I'm glad I got over my "fear" of having a go and now I can't wait to make loads! 

Oh, and I finally made some progress on stitching the flowers pic....

...the finished thing will be with you shortly!