felted fabric and Mr Bear

When I was playing with nuno felting using sari ribbon (see the previous post), I thought about doing some similar things with different types of fabrics. This is a bigger piece of felt using some strips of tray-dyed muslin (blogged here).

nuno felt

nuno felt detail

When I started this piece my plan was to make a piece of fabric and use part of it to cover a dining chair seat but I’m not sure now, I quite like it as a whole. Though I would have paid a bit more attention to the edges if I hadn’t been intending to cut them off! Perhaps I’ll hang it up for a while and then cut it up. It’s 53 x 73 cm (shrunk from 75 x 95cm).

If you hang felt, how do you hang it? if you don’t want to frame it? I don’t think I’ve come across anything written down about that and would be interested to know what methods people use.

On another note, I was thrilled to learn a week or two back that I’d won a giveaway on Caroline Inckle’s blog The house of secret superheroes and could choose any print from her Etsy shop – a difficult decision as they are all so lovely, but in the end this is the one I chose…

meeting mr bear

It’s ‘Meeting Mr Bear’, which is one of a set I’ve loved since I first saw them on Caroline’s old blog. The image says something very special and magical to me about God, about love and prayer and discovery and trust. I know that’s a very idiosyncratic interpretation of the work, but this image touches my spirit and it’s such a joy to me to have the print. Thank you, Caroline.

treats and things

Treats that came in the post in the last few days – a set of beautiful cards by Caroline Inckle; and a copy of Alyson B. Stanfield’s I’d Rather be in the Studio – The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. I’ve read good things about this book, and although I’m not (yet) making things to sell, I think that some of the ideas will be relevant to promoting any small creative business, including web design. Marketing is not my strong point – self-effacement, that’s easy; self-promotion doesn’t come naturally at all. It’s something I very much need to change so I’m looking forward to reading and learning from Alyson’s book.

Another treat recently was going round to Tiree airport (all of half a mile from where we live) – three times – once to meet the plane and twice to see it off. For some reason I find planes very exciting and airports very interesting! I blogged about it on my other blog. This is a different view of the airport that caught my eye.

patterns at Tiree airport

I made something yesterday too – a needlefelted thingy to go on a birthday card – but I won’t post a pic till after the day. Just a little scrap of frivolity, but I’ve been feeling blocked since I packed up to move, so it was good to have a deadline to play to. My aim for this week is to make Alan some felt slippers; I’d been thinking about it anyway and I feel inspired by this tutorial posted a few weeks ago by Monika of red2white. I’ve got as far as drawing round Alan’s (size 11) feet! And shortlisted some fibres – I’ll mostly use some Hebridean roving I got at the Woolfest, which is a springy dark brown/black with some white fibres, and card it with undyed alpaca and dyed merino for softness and to enrich the colour.

fleece

space to work and play

In our new house my office and my art space are sharing the same room; it could also be an occasional dining room and we may sleep in here as well when we have lots of visitors – so I’ve spent the weekend creating that space and I think it will work.

Luckily we also have a walk-in cupboard where I can keep and deal with a lot of the essential but not very pretty stuff to do with accounts and correspondence, so there is space in ‘my’ room for more textiles. One set of shelves is for work and all the rest are for art!

I don’t have all my textile books here yet – we had to leave most of them in Kendal till the next trip back. But I’ve managed a shelf-full, even so! I’ve overflowed into a kitchen cupboard with dyeing equipment but otherwise most of my stash has fitted in here, as well as my beloved filing cabinet, a big table for artwork and the smaller one that serves as my desk. There’s just enough room around the big table to seat six friendly people, and it will also fold down to almost nothing when we need the floorspace for sleeping.

These are the four corners of my new space. Those who know me well will not expect this tidiness to last very long! I’m trying to take in how good it feels to walk into right now, to motivate myself to make a habit of putting away what I take out before it descends into chaos.

Fiona's room

Fiona's room

Fiona's room

Fiona's room

You can’t see it because it got dark before I finished, but the very best part is that when I look out of the window I can see the sea…

still here – just

September and October have flown silently by and it’s only just over a week till our move to Tiree. If I had time to think about it I’d be full of trepidation, but as I still have masses of packing to do, and there are a few other little chores like the quarterly VAT return to get out of the way meanwhile, I don’t suppose I will have any time to think at all.

Not content with my inability to keep up with one blog, I’ve started a second one as well, Tiree journal, (and I’ve been neglecting that one too). I don’t plan to separate life and art or anything like that, but I do want to keep the focus here mainly on textiles, and I know I’ll also want to keep a record of this adventure we’re setting out on, or I’ll forget.

Not much to report on the art front, but here is a little piece of silk, an experiment in ‘painting’ with stitch resist, made before I packed up the equipment. I am so looking forward to getting everything out of boxes at the other end and getting back to making.

stitched resist sample

Thank you to everyone who’s left a comment in the last month or two – if I didn’t reply, I apologise. It will be lovely to be able to catch up with you all soon. Just a few ferry journeys between now and then…