WOYWW 326 and an Art Exhibition

The second of two posts today.

I am currently experiencing major problems publishing blogs from Windows LiveWriter into Blogger. According to a forum on the Microsoft website this is due to changes by Microsoft and Blogger and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Until it is sorted, I am copying and pasting from WLW into Blogger's own (awful) "Compose New Blog" so if the layout comes out all wrong, I apologise. It appears to be impossible to get consistent paragraph layouts with this and it's a real pain.

I’m afraid that yet again I don’t have anything to show you on my desk this week. This is because all this week I have been working on an exciting new project which I am not yet at liberty to show you. I was approached last week by someone who is writing a book about Zentangle and she has asked me to make a contribution, using one of my own tangle designs. I have completed a drawing, which she asked should be inspired by my cancer journey of this year, because the publishers want the book to inspire people, and judging by everyone’s amazingly supportive comments over the past 8 months, I seem to qualify for this – not that I feel particularly inspiring – I have just got on with what had to be got on with!!

The author of the book is contacting the publisher to see if there will be any copyright issues if I publish pictures and details on my blog, and I have yet to hear, but here’s a sneak peek:

You’ll have to be satisfied with that for a while!

We went to an art exhibition yesterday in which a friend had several paintings. We were both very impressed with the standard of work, the bulk being pictures, but there was a long table full of different crafts as well.

There was also a collection of exquisite textile art boxes, mostly with a cat theme, and my hubby bought me one for a belated birthday present when I reminded him that he hadn’t actually got around to getting me anything – we have had rather a lot of other things to think of this year!

The cats on the boxes are all inspired by cats that the maker of the boxes either owns now, or has owned in the past (when I say “owned,” what I really mean is “is enslaved to” – cat people will understand!!) and this particular box is based on Laurence and Leo, two exceedingly handsome lads.

(I have propped the sides up on a couple of small bottles to make the proportions of the picture better, but in reality they fold out flat)

Please scroll down to see more pictures of this exquisite object.

It being week 3 of my current chemo cycle, I am feeling considerably better and really enjoyed going on an outing before the whole business starts again on Friday, with treatment #6, after which I will be 3/4 the way through!

Please spare a thought today for our own Shaz, who is undergoing major surgery all day today. She will be in hospital for about a fortnight. I am sure you will all join me in wishing her all the best for a successful outcome and a very speedy recovery!!

Happy WOYWW everyone, and may a fulfilling and creative week be had by all.

A Beautiful Gift

The first of two posts today.

I am currently experiencing major problems publishing blogs from Windows LiveWriter into Blogger. According to a forum on the Microsoft website this is due to changes by Microsoft and Blogger and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Until it is sorted, I am copying and pasting from WLW into Blogger's own (awful) "Compose New Blog" so if the layout comes out all wrong, I apologise. It appears to be impossible to get consistent paragraph layouts with this and it's a real pain. 

As this is the final week of my regular 3-weekly chemo cycle, I am feeling considerably better (just in time to feel horrible again after Friday!) so the timing of this was perfect: on Monday my hubby agreed to take me out for a bit – I have hardly left the house these past weeks and months, except to follow that well-worn path to the hospital and all its attendant joys!

One of the friends I gained while in hospital had contacted me to tell me that she had several pictures in an exhibition held in Dunsford Church over the weekend. Dunsford is a very picturesque village in the Teign Valley, and every two years they put on an art exhibition which is open to all comers, and my hubby and I are both keen to enter something next time! We spent the afternoon in the church having a good look around and meeting some interesting people, and we were very, very impressed with the standard of work, in all media. The bulk of the exhibition was pictures, but there was a large craft section with items laid out on trestle tables the entire length of the church on the further side. Wood carving, embroidery, quilting, stained glass, pottery, etc. etc. At the further end of the table there was a special section showing a collection of the most exquisite textile boxes, many of which featured cats in the design. They opened in the most intriguing way and I fell utterly in love with them! The lady who made them is called Suzanne Shave. She doesn't seem to have a website (yet) which is a shame because it would be great if you could see her other work.

My hubby was as taken with them as I was, and he offered to buy me one! I reminded him that he never did get around to buying me a birthday present this year (there being plenty of other things occupying our minds!), and he agreed to buy my favourite box from the collection, and it now graces our sitting room mantelpiece. Yesterday I took some photos of this beautiful object to share with you now.

The cats on the boxes are all inspired by cats belonging to the lady who made the boxes, either currently or in the past – or should I say, cats to whom she was enslaved? This particular box is in honour of two very handsome cats, Laurence and Leo.

Here is the side view of the box. Suzanne told me that she sources her materials from wherever she can find them – charity shops a lot of the time – she buys scarves and cuts them up. You can see the combination of hand and machine embroidery on this box, and the addition of clusters of small gold beads.

A view from the top, showing the fastening which keeps the box closed.

Underneath, the box has four dinky little stumpy feet! Not strictly necessary but they add such charm to the piece! You an see that they were constructed from rolled up fabric, like the toggles on the closure thread.

The box, open. For the purposes of the photo, I put a couple of small bottles underneath the sides to stop the box form opening fully. Normally the sides would rest on the table.

Looking inside the box, you can see what amazing attention to detail Suzanne shows, with the quality of her finish.

I told my hubby I thought it would be fun to make a few little textile cats to go inside this box, and he suggested taking a leaf out of Suzanne’s book and making representations of all our ktities, past and present! What a lovely idea.

It would be fun to open the box and find it full of cats! I attended several courses on fabric box making back in Plymouth days when I belonged to the Westcountry Embroiderers, and the amazing teacher always said that a box should contain a surprise.

Having had experience of making boxes, I know just how much work has gone into the construction and embellishment of this one. Suzanne said she was delighted it was going to such a good home – to someone who appreciated the work, and who was also a cat person!

Isn’t this a beautiful object? I love its construction, the unusual way it opens, its bold colours and the stylised cats which seem to fill both sides of the box. Happy cats!

Practising Doll Faces and Completing Doll Body

Doing a bit more work on my angels project. Today I practised drawing doll faces according to the instructions of Patti Medaris Culea (links provided by Judy). Not as difficult as I thought, and working from right to left, I think I am gradually improving!

I used some coloured crayons and some pens. I worked on a strip of unbleached calico ironed onto a piece of freezer paper to give it a bit more stability.

I also completed the body of the large cloth angel.

I had awful trouble stuffing this – the polyester stuffing which I have had for many years is really not very good quality and it came out all lumpy, so I had to pull most of the stuffing out of the body and tease it out again and restart the process. This filling seems to do better with narrower pieces like arms and legs than it does with larger volumes, which work better if I don’t attempt to put too much stuffing in. I’m on the look out for something of better quality but so far my online researches haven’t come up with anything definite – if there’s anybody out there (UK) who can recommend a decent polyester filling I’d be grateful.

I also spent a bit of time in my ARTHaven this morning, tidying up, and putting all my Dylusions sprays, paints and Ranger mini-blending tools together into one box, after painting a dab of paint on the top of each handle so they are readily identifiable.

The effects of my third chemo treatment are definitely not as severe as those of the second. The reduced dose has definitely helped.

A Quilty Hug

Recently, I gained a new online friend in the form of Maria, who started commenting on my blog. I mentioned how she has donated quilts to a favourite charity in the USA, Happy Chemo! in my last post. She contacted me and said she would like to send me a quilt for comfort during my chemo sessions. As you can imagine, I was overwhelmed by this kindness and accepted with alacrity, although I felt I did need to remind her that I was located in the UK and that the postage may prove too much, but this did not deter her one bit!

Today, my beautiful quilt arrived, and I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself as I struggled to open the box and reveal the treasure within!

Here it is.

Isn’t it stunning and beautiful? I am so, so thrilled with this marvellous gift.

In with the parcel, Maria had put this hilarious postcard for me – a little education for an ignorant Brit, from a full-blooded Southern Belle, on how English should be spoke!

I hope all y’all are as moved as I am by my new friend’s generosity and kindness. She knows only too well what it is like enduring the rigours of chemo, and how much a quilty hug can mean. Hop over to her blog and just take a look at all the beautiful quilts she has made. Not only is she a very skilled quilter, but I love her turn of phrase – she’s an excellent writer too!

Reading about her, and about Happy Chemo! challenged me to do something to bring a little cheer into the lives of my own fellow chemo sufferers, which is why I have started making my little lavender sachets to give them, to bring them the healing and comforting scent of English lavender from our neighbour’s garden.

As I endure the rigours of chemo in the months ahead, I know that as I look at my beautiful quilt and feel its texture and warmth, and revel in its colours and patterns, I shall be comforted and lifted out of myself, and even when I am feeling at my most poorly, to know that I am loved and cared for, and that people all around the world are praying for me, and I have more blessings in my life than I could possibly deserve, and how impossible it is to count them all.

When we hear everyday on the news of all the awful things that people do to each other in this world, it encourages me no end to know that not everybody is like that, and that there are people who reach out across the world and perform acts of kindness to bless others that they hardly know. I have been challenged a lot of late with the knowledge that I really do very little for other people, and how I could be using my own God-given skills and talents to bring some sunshine into the darkness of the lives of others. Thank you, Maria, not just for this wonderful quilt, but for giving me the push I needed to start doing this in a small way. May God bless you.

Drapes for Half Tester–A Mock-Up

I’ve decided to do a temporary mock-up of my bed drapes. I haven’t done any more embroidery for a while, but when the pieces are finished, they will go around the top.

This is what the frame of the half-tester looks like without the drapes:

You can see, from this photo which I took in the evening some time ago, that there is a light attached inside the frame – you can see the pull cord for it hanging down.

There are still 3 banana boxes remaining from when we moved house, which I still haven’t unpacked (!) and one of these is in the bedroom, and marked “Bed Drapes.” I opened it up today and got them out, and put up what I could onto the half-tester frame. It’s a mock-up and looks a bit messy but it gives me an idea of what needs to be done to make the drapes fit properly.

The curtains with the dark red patterned outsides and green linings were designed to go at the four corners of the four poster and are unfortunately too narrow to extend the full length of the half-tester, but I have put two curtains on each side. Eventually I shall probably sew them together to make one. Also, each curtain is made so that the lining is attached along the long sides, apart from a short distance at the top, to allow the curtain to go on the outside of the frame, and the lining on the inside, sandwiching the frame in between. Because of the diagonal struts supporting the top of the half-tester, I had to unpick the seam a bit further down the length of the curtain, to enable it to go past this piece of wood.

The red woven strip with the wool tassels on it (can’t remember where I got that – probably from some ethnic shop or other) was also in the box, and I’ve pressed that onto the single line of Velcro on the frame as a temporary top edge until I can complete the embroidered pieces – it sticks OK for now, because the fabric is fairly soft and fluffy. It is not long enough to extend the full length of the sides of the half-tester frame, so I have just pressed the ends down onto the Velcro that goes along the top edge of the frame for now. (That Velcro will eventually hold the top canopy.)

The dark blue piece hanging at the head of the bed is supposed to overlay another length of fabric, but I can’t use this until I’ve altered it. The soft Velcro is on the front, because originally it was stuck onto the outside of the four-poster frame, against the wall at the head of the bed, and the half-tester frame is up against the wall and I can’t get at the back of it. It used to hang flat (ungathered) but it is too wide now, so I may cut off the excess, or I might put it up gathered – I haven’t decided about that yet. The dark blue piece is also too wide, and is gathered at the edges at the moment, so that it fits the half-tester frame, but it’s a bit wrinkled and doesn’t hang quite right. This piece was originally going to be covered with shi-sha embroidery but I never got round to it! Probably a good thing, if the piece doesn’t fit properly! I’ve got more of that material and I may cut another piece to fit, but I’ll live with it as it is for a while and see how I feel about it.

Because the half-tester is screwed to the wall, the knobs on top at the head end are very close to the wall, and I cannot hang the big tassels over them because their cords are too thick. I’ve just laid them on top of the frame and stuffed the excess down behind, and it seems to work! The tassels at the foot end aren’t a problem, of course, as I can just hang them on the knobs as I did with the four-poster. These tassels are actually curtain tie-backs that I bought to hang over the knobs of the four-poster, as they looked so rich, and co-ordinated so well with the drapes.

Also in the box of bed drapes I found the two long pelmet pieces I made for the bedroom in our old house. They have rufflette tape on them, and I pulled all the gathers out when I washed them, and folded them away in the box. There were two windows in that room, and I think the pelmet piece from the smaller window may be just enough to go round the inside of the half-tester frame, to cover up the wood and provide a backdrop for the front pieces once I’ve made them – I might not be able to gather it very much. The green bobble trim on the pelmet pieces matches that on the bed curtains. The longer pelmet piece I may use as a pelmet to go over the window which at present doesn’t have a pelmet at all – a wooden one would have to be made, or perhaps a purchased pelmet rail? Not sure about that yet. Anyway, if I do it, it will all co-ordinate.

I need to attach more Velcro onto the frame, so that the top pieces as well as the curtains can be attached. I have been using the self-adhesive hooks and the sew-on loops, but after a while the glue on the self-adhesive hooks tends to fail, so when I redid the first lot of Velcro, I stuck it on with extra-sticky double sided tape as well, just to make sure. I’ve also got to adapt the pleated canopy I made for the four-poster as it is much too large at present.

I think my temporary mock-up looks quite cool, but it’s going to be soooo much better when it’s all done properly! I’m not going to be able to do anything more about this until I am well and truly over my operation, but I wanted to get something up over the bed as I was getting a bit fed up with looking at the bare wooden frame! The mock-up will do for a while, and may give me the impetus I need to get the job finished eventually.

Decorations for Half-Tester

My first post in 2015! One of the things I have resolved to do this year is to try and clear the backlog of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) in my ARTHaven, and also to get back into some more textile-based work. One of my oldest UFOs was a project to create decorative drapes for our pine four-poster bed – something I started and never finished. I made the curtains but not the decorative top part. Last autumn I got a new adjustable bed to help with my various medical conditions (I am sleeping a lot better these days) so the four-poster had to go, which I was very sad about. The whole of the top section lifted off and could be disassembled, leaving the bed intact, so we kept the top and disposed of the pine bed base. A local carpenter used the timber from the upper part to create a new half-tester which is attached to the wall above the bed.

As before I have a small strip-light wired to the inside of the frame, and in the picture you can see the pull-cord hanging down. You can also see the velcro strips attached to the framework, to attach the fabric drapes – I will need to add some more for the decorative top part.

When I started making the pieces for the top, I also cut some smaller pieces in the same design and fabric, and used them to decorate a bag that I made:

You can see the separate flaps, each embellished with machine applique and hand embroidery, and each one finished with a different style of tassel.

These are the card templates I made for the bed project. At the back, underneath, you can see the two templates for each piece – the larger one is for cutting the fabric, and the smaller one for cutting the heavy interfacing. After cutting these out, I tacked the fabric onto the interfacing so that the applique and embroidery would go through both layers, and to finish each piece off, the edges of the fabric would be turned in over the interfacing, and a backing piece added.

The smaller templates are used for cutting out the applique pieces which are first ironed onto some Bondaweb.

What I have decided to do now, is to make each finished piece double-sided, and to attach the tops to the outside and the inside of the frame, respectively. Hopefully they will hang properly, but if not, I shall have to make separate pieces for the inside and outside, and maybe add tassels only to the outside pieces.

The next picture shows the pieces I have already started, with the machine applique. Top right is a pile of more pieces – no room to spread them all out to be photographed.

The next photo shows some of the embroidery materials to be used to embellish the pieces. I have a collection of coloured threads with lurex – as usual the photo doesn’t show the sparkliness of these yarns – they are the large spools at the back. In the front of the basket is a selection of different coloured embroidery threads, and on the table in front, scissors, my mother-of-pearl stiletto and some crewel and chenille needles, and on the left, a selection of Indian shi-sha mirrors.

I have done a lot of embroidery using these in the past, including on my wedding dress. These little circles of mirror have quite rough edges, and no holes for sewing them down as you’d find with sequins; there is a special shi-sha embroidery stitch which anchors them onto the surface of the fabric, rather like a rubbed-over setting of a gemstone in jewellery. When these tiny mirrors catch the light, they wink and flash, which is very dramatic on any fabric in motion such as a curtain, and they give a very rich, exotic look. I love them! Originally they would have been made of flakes of mica, but they are made of glass these days – the mirrors are far from optically perfect and look rather dull and grey before they are attached, but they do reflect the light wonderfully well.

Here are the pieces to which I have added embroidery so far. Some of them require further embellishment. The stitches I am using are fairly simple ones – chain stitch with variations, and stem stitch. I have never been any good at satin stitch or long-and-short stitch, and love using chain stitch to cover areas with colour, and for outlining shapes.

As I progress with this work, I shall be showing some detail shots of the embroidery, but at this stage, this is just showing what I have done so far, after opening up the box and reminding myself what I have already achieved. I did all this so many years ago that I couldn’t really remember at all what I had done, and when I opened the box, was surprised to find my book on tassels, and also some wonderful notes from an embroidery day I attended when we lived in Plymouth – probably back in the 1980s! It was like Christmas, opening the box and finding all the lovely fabrics and shapes. This has to be one of the oldest UFOs in my possession, and high time it got an airing and was finished!

Second Felt Making Class

Last night was week 2 of the felt class, and this time we were taught how to make a picture in felt. I went with the idea of creating a mountain and lake scene with a sunset, but as it turned out (time mostly) I ended up just depicting a sunset over water. I had originally planned to frame it with trees either side, and my finished piece is wide enough to accommodate this if I choose to add some needle-felted trees later on. I asked whether it was possible to add more wet felting after the piece had dried, but our teacher told me it was not, because the new felt would shrink, and draw up the old felt which was already shrunk. Common sense really!

During the class, I did manage to take some photographs of the work in progress, but a couple of times I forgot (so caught up with what I was doing!) so there’s a bit of a gap in the photographic record. During the initial rubbing stage, when the wet material is between the pieces of bubble wrap (the most strenuous stage) my arms did give out a bit, and our lovely teacher, bless her, offered to rub my felt for me for a while so I could have a rest! If I was doing this at home, I would be able to go off and leave it for a while, but of course at the class, we have only two hours so we have to get on if we are going to complete the piece.

Before the class began, the teacher showed us the Youtube video I’d sent her the link for – I found this the other day and was highly amused and thought we’d really got off pretty lightly considering! After all, we weren’t expected to round up our sheep and shear them, and neither were we expected to bring a horse along to the class! Lol! Watch this and see!

She also warned us about buying wool rovings from dubious sources and said that she had had some recently that were full of moths! Not at all nice, and not at all what you want to bring into your house!

Anyway, to work… I was really hacked off with myself because my lovely parcel of dyed Merino rovings arrived in the post today, in time for the class, and I left them at home!! Duh… Anyway, I had enough to be going on with. (I decided to buy some ready-dyed stuff because it’s a lot of work to dye my own, and I was having problems with it felting in the dye bath.)

Here is my first layer of fibres being laid out on the bubble wrap. I decided to use undyed rovings for this, as last time I used up all the avocado-dyed stuff I’d done, just for the back of my piece!

You can see that, as instructed, I am laying the pieces down in a horizontal direction first, and overlapping them slightly.

Here is the second layer complete, this time laid in a vertical direction.

The third layer is the picture layer, with the pieces being laid predominantly in the horizontal direction again, but with the opportunity to lay small amounts in different directions to create the picture. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph this before I’d wet it, but here it is at the next stage, ready for felting.

You can see that I have created a sky which is very dark blue at the edges, and gradually lightening into the centre where the sunset is. It was amazing, blending the colours, and being able to lay down very small amounts – it was almost like painting with the fibres. I continued the sun colours down into the water (which was also blue, but with the addition of a small amount of green), adding some vertical fibres to create the illusion of a reflection. Small amounts of white were added to emphasise the sun, the horizon, some whispy clouds, and a suggestion of ripples on the water.

The next picture shows the top layer of bubble wrap laid on top of the wet fibres. The underside of the bubble wrap was wet with the hot soapy water, and more of this was added to the top surface.

The rubbing has to be done very gently to start with, or the fibres will move about and spoil the picture. As the fibres begin to felt, one can get ever more vigorous with it, and it was at this stage that my poor arms started to suffer! It is probably easier if one can stand up and have more downward pressure, but it was very hard work from a seated position. Teacher to the rescue!

The felt after the rubbing state, and ready for rolling. You can see how it is all coming together.

The piece was squeezed out to remove some of the water, and thrown down a few times onto the table to aid the shrinking process, and then the felt on the bubble wrap was put onto the towel, the top layer of bubble wrap replaced, and the whole thing was rolled up around  a rolling pin, and the forward and backward rock-and-roll movement began – 100 times in one direction, and then the felt turned through 90 degrees and then a further 100 times in the other direction. This was another stage I forgot to photograph!

Now for the photos of all our finished work, laid out on the table together. Our teacher is so encouraging, and said how thrilled she was with our work, and had not seen nicer pictures, even in a book! Although many people said they wanted to embellish their pieces further, she said that in many cases, they could stand as they were, and needed no further work.

Because we had a bit more time this evening, she asked each person to speak a bit about their work – what the inspiration was, how we felt about it, and what, if anything, we would have done differently or wanted to add later on. Some very interesting things came out.

The grey and brown one in the foreground was inspired by the design of the settee in a Gustav Klimt painting. The lady who made it said that she was disappointed how blue the grey wool turned out to be, but this was an illusion caused by the proximity of the brown – an interesting effect. We were all intrigued by the tassel-like pieces extending beyond the edge of the felt – she was worried about them not being sufficiently attached, but our teacher said they could be secured with some needle-felting.

The piece beyond was full of colour with the flowers beautifully depicted. She had added some brightly-coloured dyed wool nepps – little knobs of compacted fibre – to imitate small flowers, which was very effective.

The piece just above the Klimt one depicts the sea with a sea wall, and there are going to be some felted beach huts added, which will be a lovely pop of colour. I love how she’s depicted the waves.

The picture above shows a wonderfully vibrant piece – those gorgeous brightly coloured flowers are beautifully set off against the very dark background. She said it was inspired by the work of artist Yvonne Coomber, who now lives locally. I have seen some of her work in the past and the colours and shapes remind me of Kaffe Fassett’s designs.

Others had introduced some bling into their work, in the form of sequins etc. – easy to use if they are anchored down with a thin layer of wool fibre over the top. People also added texture in the form of nepps, and curly fleece – again, taking extra care so that they are anchored securely with a fine layer of fibre over the top.

Here is my finished piece after rinsing and drying. A Sunset Over Water.

Altogether a very interesting and productive evening. We are being well taught; there are group times and lots of individual attention. Having a relatively small number in the class really helps, but there are enough of us to provide plenty of interest as we share our different inspirations and expressions in our pieces.

WOYWW-ers – Please scroll down to see my WOYWW post.

First Felt-Making Class

Last night was my first felt-making class. We were instructed to bring along an eclectic group of objects ranging from large sheets of bubble wrap, a rolling pin and a bar of soap (preferably olive oil) to a plastic milk bottle with two lids! This last one intrigued me no end and I couldn’t wait to find out the purpose of the second lid!

Looking at the pieces of roving that I had dyed:

I realised that the dyeing process had started to felt the fibres; not seriously as they could still be pulled apart, but it was noticeable. This happens very easily, however careful one is with minimum handling and manipulation of the fibres. I decided the only answer was to card them, which I then proceeded to do, and this separated the fibres again, but turned the rovings (with the fibres running parallel to the length of the roving) into rolags (short lengths with the fibres running around at right angles to the length) – these latter are what are produced from the carding process, and are used by spinners. It completely dealt with the felting problem and the wool ended up incredibly soft and aerated.

Here is my box, all packed up and ready to go for the class.

You can see the bubble wrap on the left, then my apron, some dyed wool, a piece of foam (for needle felting, which we didn’t do tonight), a glimpse of the rolling pin, and finally the famous milk bottle! Everything else is underneath.

My hubby drove me over, and it was really quite near where we live – a beautiful modern school with lots of fantastic facilities. Our class was held in a room fitted out as a woodworking workshop with lots of benches with vices on them, but there were also lots of tables and chairs, and a sink for water, so it was ideal, as we each had a table to work at.

There were nine of us in the class – a very nice number – enough to make a good class but not so many that you didn’t get individual attention.

Our teacher is a very nice lady who told us that she also teaches mosaics, candle making and soap making, and was very delighted that she had been asked to teach the felt-making class because she loves it so much.

Tonight’s assignment, as stated in the instruction sheet for the course, was to make a scarf in autumn colours, but as it turned out, we were allowed to be a lot more flexible than this. We had been told to bring along some Merino rovings in various colours, but the teacher set up a large sale table and there was plenty of wool to buy if anyone had not managed to get any.

I decided early on that I didn’t really want to make a scarf, mainly because it is quite a long piece of felt and I wasn’t sure how well my arms would hold out, and also I’m not really a scarf person, unless it’s very cold weather! Also, I realised pretty soon on that I didn’t have enough of any one colour to give cohesion to the design, so I opted for a smaller, rectangular piece which could end up as a small hanging, or be used for other purposes. Anyway, tonight’s class was an introductory session just to give us a feel for the medium, and to experience the technique of wet felt making for ourselves. As for the autumn colours, only a few people followed this guideline and there was plenty of variety besides!

The first 40 minutes of the class was taken up with the teacher showing us the various pieces of felt that she’d made, ranging from scarves to 3-D flowers, and little pictures to bags. She then explained the basic principles of felt making, and what makes wool felt, and then she did a demonstration so that we would know what to do.

It immediately became clear what the second milk bottle lid was for! We had to mix up some flakes of the olive oil soap in water as hot as we could bear it, in the milk bottle. One lid was left intact, so that one could shake up the contents, or take it home without spilling it, and the second had holes pierced in it. The bottle was then used to sprinkle the hot soapy water all over the felt.

I took my camera, but until the end, forgot all about using it, as we were so engrossed, and so busy for the entire time!

The first stage was to lay out one piece of bubble wrap (bubble side up) and then to arrange overlapping pieces of wool pulled off the roving, so that all the fibres ran parallel, in the same direction. For the second layer, the fibres were laid at right angles, and then a final layer was laid down, the fibres being as in the first layer. This would give strength to the felt. We were told not to do more than three layers of fairly thinly spread wool fibres, because if it was too thick, it wouldn’t be very pleasant to wear as a scarf.

The final layer was where we could introduce some pattern, with different colours being laid down, and we were told that you could add different fibres for texture at this stage, but anything non-wool (and non-felting) would have to be trapped under a thin layer of wool to anchor it in place.

Once all the fibres were laid down, the whole thing was wetted with the hot soapy water from the milk bottle. The second layer of bubble wrap was then laid on top, bubble side down, and then the surface was wetted with more soap solution from the milk bottle, and with the bar of soap being rubbed over the surface – this made a nice slippery surface, to make the next stage easier.

Now was where the hard work began. At first, the rubbing had to be gentle, so that the pieces of fibre underneath wouldn’t shift. This is not an exact science, of course, and there is always some movement, but that’s the joy of any hand-made project! As the felting process started to take hold (after about 5 mins) one could get more vigorous, and eventually quite aggressive, until about ten minutes had elapsed.

We were then told to peel back the bubble wrap and examine the work. The “pinch test,” whereby you pinch a little from the surface of the work and see how well stuck down it is – if it lifts too much, then more rubbing is required, but if you couldn’t pull it out very far and were able to lift the piece with it, it was felting well. We were told to expect shrinkage of about a third.

The bubble wrap sandwich with the felt in between, was then transferred onto a towel, and this was rolled up with the felt in the middle like a Swiss roll. We then had to do what the teacher called “rock and roll” – rolling the Swiss roll back and forth a hundred times, then unrolling it and turning it round, and repeating the process. Depending on the result after the second time of rolling, one either advanced to the next stage or did some more rocking and rolling. When this process was complete, the Swiss roll could be unrolled and the felt taken out.

If insufficient felting and shrinking had taken place by this stage, we were told to bunch up the piece and throw it as violently as possible onto the table top to increase more shrinking. Once we were satisfied with the result, the felt had to be rinsed to get the soap out, and then we all laid out our work on the table for teacher/group critique.

Here are some photos of the work. Bear in mind that this is still wet, and the samples don’t look as good as they will when fully dry.

As you can see, there’s quite a bit of variety! The teacher said that considering that this was our first attempt, we had done very well.

I realised after I took these pictures that I didn’t include my own piece! Here it is, after it had dried.

I began it by laying down the first layer of avocado-dyed wool. The second layer was a mostly undyed wool – you can see a bit of this at the bottom where I didn’t cover it up adequately. The third layer was mostly greens and browns, and I tried to pull them out into thin strands, overlapping them and keeping them at different lengths. Finally, I laid down circles of orange and added small rolled-up pieces of brown and orange. Things do move around a bit once you start the felting process, but that’s part of the attraction of the whole thing – you never know quite what you are going to end up with!

I am surprised just how quickly the felting process takes place, and how fast one can make a small project. I had thought it would take a lot longer and a lot more effort to get the fibres to felt together but it is fast enough to be alarming if one isn’t careful – the teacher warned us to keep all supplies of dry wool well out of the way once we started, because if it accidentally got wet, especially with hot water, and was then agitated and moved, felting would take place immediately.

This was so much fun to do. I love how the fibres blend together and form quite a firm, soft fabric – there’s so much potential in this! I am looking forward to being able to make three-dimensional pieces, and adding texture to the surface, incorporating different fibres, adding embellishments (made from felt or other materials), hand and machine embroidery, and using resist to prevent two surfaces from felting together… the possibilities are endless! You can make virtually anything out of felt and I have found thousands of pictures online (Pinterest is a great source) – people even make delightful little cat beds out of it!

This morning I was very tired indeed when I woke up, probably as a result of all the physical work I did last night! I had a lie-in and rested this morning. Felting is probably not an activity I will be able to do every day but I have proved myself well able to do it, so I am feeling very encouraged. It’s another string to my bow!