Last Quarter of 2023…..

January 22, 2024January 22, 2024 / Karen Lane / 7 Comments

During the last quarter of 2023 I finally got around to signing up for a couple of online workshops which I’d fancied doing for a while. The first was Fiona Duthie’s Fibre + Paper. I’d dabbled a little with mark making on mulberry paper and then felting it so I knew how easy it felts, but that’s as far as I’d taken it.

I figured that by committing to Fiona’s workshop it would help focus my mind and make me produce samples…..that worked to a degree but then life got in the way! I still have work to do before I can say I’ve completed all of the exercises from this class but I will finish it in my own time. Fiona is very thorough and there is a lot of great content in the form of written instructions and videos. Although this is not a “live” class there is also plenty of support, both from Fiona and from your fellow students. I found the class very inspiring and now have a far better understanding of how, why and when I will use paper in my work in the future.

These are a selection of fibre + paper samples and my first fibre + paper vessel which I am very happy with.

The vessel (or is it a bowl?) is approx 13 cm tall and was made with mulberry paper and 23 micron Merino. The texture you get from the paper is beautiful and, at only 1cm dia, I was amazed at how small an opening I’d achieved! I still have a selection of Fiona’s papers left to work with so looking forward to making another vessel or two with these.

The other workshop was the Fuchsia Necklace. I’ve always admired the very fine finish that Aniko Boros achieves with her felted jewellery and particularly like the shape of the flower and the use of very tiny pebbles in her Fuschsia Necklace Again, this online workshop wasn’t live but presented as a recorded video of the original live class. I don’t mind this as it means you do not have to keep up with others, you can stop, start and go back over a section if you need to. It also has an accompanying pdf which is very detailed.

Aniko recommends working with 14-16 micron fibre and I was certain my DHG Extra Fine Merino was 14 micron. It turned out to be 19 but, with no one in the UK (as far as I know) stocking the really fine fibre, it was going to have to do! This was another very interesting class and this is my resulting Fuchsia inspired necklace, albeit with non fuchsia colour scheme! This was promptly followed by the yellow and grey necklace which is a design of my own.

With time to spare over New Year I decided to take one final class, this time with Maria Friese. It was seeing Maria’s vessels at the Black Sheep: The Darker Side of Felt exhibition back in 2014 that sparked my curiosity and made me want to learn as much as possible about 3D wet felting. I’ve been a huge fan of her work ever since!

Maria’s Golden Spiral based on the Fibonacci principle

I’d been toying with the idea of making a “Wave” wallhanging for the Waltham exhibition, inspired by Maria’s “Golden Spiral”…….so I went ahead and signed up for the pdf tutorial and this is the result.

My wallhanging Wave is approximately 32cm x 30cm x 1.5cm. It’s created from white and grey as well as several different shades of blue and green Merino and Corriedale fibres and embellished with beads.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing these workshops but I must make time now to finish Fiona’s Fibre + Paper samples before starting anything else!

Making Waves Update…..

January 11, 2024January 11, 2024 / Karen Lane / 12 Comments

I mentioned in my last post that Waltham Textiles Exhibition will feature an Octopuses Garden. Well, after many hours of needle felting Olivia, or Oli to her friends, was born. At approx 36cm in diameter she’s a blue ringed octopus, fully articulated and created from carded Corriedale with Merino markings. The only thing left to do now is create and attach her suckers but that will be a fiddly time consuming job and one that will be fitted around less repetitive projects!

In real life the blue ringed octopus is much smaller than Oli. Size differs between species, but they range from around two to six centimetres long, with arms reaching lengths of seven to 10 centimetres. They usually appear as pale-brown in colour, and are only identifiable by their iridescent blue markings when they are agitated or hunting. Native to the Pacific Ocean, they can be found in the soft, sandy bottom of shallow tide pools and coral reefs. Although small and pretty they carry an extremely toxic venom which they use to paralyse their prey! Like other octopuses the blue-ringed octopus has a short lifespan of about two years. During the mating season the female will lay anywhere from 50-100 eggs, which she will guard for a long incubation period lasting almost two months. The male blue-ringed octopus dies after mating.

I’ve also recently given a makeover to a 3D wet felted piece, this was the first of two coral inspired vessels I made in 2023. The second one was heavily FM stitched, and far more interesting for it! I’ve been looking at this first vessel for a while and thinking “should I”? Over Christmas I finally bit the bullet and added FM stitch. The images on the left show before and on the right show after.

I absolutely love stitching into felt, whether by hand or machine, and I’m really pleased with the outcome and the added depth the machine stitching has created in this project.

Making Waves II…..

July 29, 2023September 3, 2025 / Karen Lane / 10 Comments

As part of the Waltham Windmill “Making Waves” challenge all members will have a metre wide wall space at next years exhibition to use as they wish. It’s too early to know for sure what I’m going to be putting up in my space (no shortage of ideas though!) but one possible piece could be this wet felted wallhanging I’ve called “Going with the Flow”. The inspiration for this came from the wonderful, wavy markings on the large stone slabs on Seahouses beach in Northumberland. This is one of my favourite spots in the UK and I took these photos a couple of years ago knowing that one day they would inspire a piece of work.

For the background I pulled out my box of oddments, short lengths of fibre left over from various projects, not enough to put back in their pack but too much to throw away…..not that I ever throw any fibre away! I recently bought myself a drum carder from Richard Britton and had fun carding all those oddments before laying them out.

This is how it looked after felting with silk fabrics, silk fibres, knitting yarn and nepps. I liked the silk circles bottom left but wanted them more 3D so they were removed and replaced with hand dyed fabric discs, recycled from another project.

So now I had my base fabric it was time to start embellishing. I made a start with a few lines of free motion stitch, mimicking the curving marks on the stone slabs. I didn’t have a sketch, or a plan, for where I was going but I like to work this way, making a start and then seeing where it takes me. I have to admit it would sometimes be far quicker to have a plan as it would avoid all of the attaching and removing and repositioning until it looks right, but I really do enjoy that part of the process!

Its been several months in the making but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on it using a combination of free motion stitch, hand embroidery, recycled fabrics and coffee capsules, sheer fabrics, hand painted silk fabrics and machine wrapped cords. The more I embellished the further it shifted from being about single slab of rock to becoming more about the ocean in general with its abstract rivulets of water, seaweed, coral and the obligatory rock pools. Approx 90cm x 50cm.

A highly textural abstract wet felted Wallhanging in shades of blue/green/gold.

Another of the specific items we’ve been challenged with for the Making Waves exhibition is a fish. I immediately decided I was going to wet felt mine which lead to us having a in-house felted fish workshop and the creation of TroutPout! She’s made from carded Corriedale and is approximately 33cm x 36cm excluding the fins.

These are some of the other fabulous fish that members have made so far, this one is Barbara’s scary Fangtooth…..

Lucy made a wonderful wet felted Puffer Fish adding recycled plastics, including pipette tips, wine bottle netting and glass beads with recycling symbols underneath, to highlight the plight of our oceans.

Sue is new to wet felting but she’s taken to it like a fish to water (couldn’t resist!) and has made “Angry Fish”. I think he looks more sulky than angry but he’s terrific!

And there are several others that are work in progress….

I’ve been teaching 3D Seed Pod workshops recently using wire wrapped with Tyvek fabric and decided I’d also like to make an Anglerfish from wire rather than fibre. It was only when I’d got the 60cm x 33cm framework made that I sat back and realised I’d gone past the stage where I had meant to start adding my fabric! Time for plan B…..maybe I could use wire mesh to give it “body”?

I looked for some online but hesitated as I wasn’t sure how flexible or suitable the mesh would be. Having put the fish to one side, a few days later I joined the Lincolnshire Textile group and at my first meeting I was offered a piece of silver coloured Sinamay. Sinamay is one of the most popular hat-making foundations. It’s woven from the processed stalks of the abaca tree, a type of banana native to the Philippines. I couldn’t believe my luck……..being silver coloured this off cut looked like wire mesh but wasn’t and if I sprayed it lightly with water I could shape it to fit and stitch it with aluminium wire to my framework. So this is Wanda, also known as “Gone Fishing!” made with a combination of galvanised, aluminium and beading wire and Sinamay. She wasn’t easy to photograph as I didn’t have large enough sheets of black card but hopefully enough detail is showing.

Another feature of our exhibition will be the Octopus’s Garden so we will be needing a few Octopus and a variety of coral decorate it…..my collection is steadily growing!

I mentioned having joined the Lincolnshire Textile Group and, as luck would have it, their current theme, and next years exhibition, is “Water” so sits nicely with the Waltham theme. It’s good to know I can carry on creating ocean inspired work for at least the next 12 months!

Making Waves I…..

July 4, 2023 / Karen Lane / 10 Comments

The Waltham Windmill textile group, of which I’m a member, have a theme which runs for two years culminating in an exhibition of work. The current theme is Making Waves and the exhibition for this one will be held sometime in the first half of 2024.

Within the groups theme we have free rein to make whatever we want plus we’ve agreed a number of specific items we will each make. One of the items is a jelly fish. Having done a bit of research into the many and varied species of jelly fish I came across the spotted Blue Jellyfish which is native to UK waters. My first thought was to create a “wet look” using Merino fibre covered with lots of viscose which would create a sheen and then I would free motion stitch the spots. That was quickly replaced with the idea of making my jellyfish from sheer fabrics…..I seem to have accumulated lots of sheers and only ever use tiny amounts so this would be a perfect opportunity to use up some of my stash. After rummaging through a huge sack of fabrics, almost losing hope of ever finding the colour I needed, I came across a small piece of blue and another of turquoise, just enough to do the job…..so much for stash busting!!

Blue Jellyfish (Cyanea lamarkii), feeding on small plankton, England – source www.wildlifetrusts.org

The remnants of fabric, and the size of my embroidery hoop, determined the size of my jelly fish. I’d got some of the wash away stabiliser left over from a project I did a few years ago so that would be useful for stiffening and shaping the jelly fish.

I had enough blue fabric to cut out two circles plus one slightly larger from the turquoise. I also added a small white circle of fabric underneath thinking it would highlight the spotty area. Next I cut up some scraps of felt for the spots and arranged them on the blue discs before covering with the turquoise sheer. This sandwich was then put in the hoop and I machine stitched around the spots…..or at least that was my intention! Unfortunately I struggled to see where some of the felt was so it’s a bit hit and miss but it was near enough!

After removing it from the hoop I washed out some of the stabiliser retaining a good bit of the glue on the fabric to enable me to shape it over a plastic bowl. I didn’t think to photograph the drying stage so the next image shows it dry with the unattached tentacles cut from tulle and sheers.

The final step was to wet felt a blue “inner”, with additional thin felt tentacles, sew the fabric tentacles inside it and insert into its casing.

I’m quite pleased with the finished result and this particular area of the exhibition should be interesting as we’ve used lots of different styles and techniques between us.

Another idea I’ve been playing with is barnacles. I’ve always had a fascination for barnacles and can’t resist collecting them when I find them on stones and shells. These marine crustaceans are related to the crab and lobster and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings.

There are around 1,000 different species and, as adults, typical barnacles are covered with calcareous plates and are cemented, head down, to rocks, shells, pilings, ships’ hulls, driftwood, or seaweed, or to the bodies of larger sea creatures, from clams to whales.

They feed by reaching into the water column with eight pairs of thoracic limbs called cirri which are long and feathery. The cirri extend to filter food, such as plankton, from the water and move it towards the mouth as you can see in this video. (Follow the link and scroll down to Ecology)

I’ve always liked this photo of barnacles on a rusty piece of metal which was taken on a visit to Ullapool harbour so I’m experimenting with different fabrics, including cotton and Tyvek, to make a barnacle inspired wall hanging. So far I’m leaning towards the Tyvek fabric.

Something else I think will lend itself to the theme is dendritic printing. I love the vein like patterns, very reminiscent of coral, which can be created by pressing acrylic paint between two sheets of glass or plastic and then printing with it. I’ve been trying this out on different surfaces including paper, Lutradur, chiffon and cotton.

The most surprising result was a the print on felt, I was amazed at the clarity of it and I can see this being developed further with added stitching.

Working on ideas for felted sea anemones

There are so many possibilities within this theme that my mind is working overtime and I’ve a few other projects on the go right now. One of them is this small 20cm dia embroidery being worked on an eco print cotton fabric.

Another is a wallhanging approximately 95cm x 45cm. It started out as a wet felted background made from various remnants of fibre which I ran through the drum carder. It’s had a lot of embellishment since this picture was taken, incorporating machine stitch, hand stitch, cord making, recycled coffee capsules, burnt sheer fabrics and hand painted silk fabrics. It’s almost finished now so I will feature that in my next post.

British Quilt & Stitch Village…..

March 31, 2022 / Karen Lane / 7 Comments

Back in 2019 I signed up to take part, for the first time, in the 2020 British Quilt & Stitch Village Show which is held annually at Uttoxeter Racecourse in Staffordshire. Needless to say it got postponed due to Covid and was rescheduled for 2021. With Covid delaying it yet again it was rescheduled for 2022 and will finally be launching in three weeks time on the 22nd of April.

It’s been such a long time coming I am so excited at the thought of getting back to exhibiting again after all this time! It’s also going to be great to see the other exhibits…..online exhibitions are better than none but you can’t beat being up close and personal to really appreciate other people’s work.

The show will be on from 10am each day on the 22nd , 23rd & 24th of April with lots of fantastic exhibitors and traders eager to help us replenish our stash! There is lots of free parking and the site is wheelchair accessible. The show offers a warm, friendly atmosphere, displaying plenty of embroidery/quilt exhibits (group & competition), and work from textile artists and Feltmakers plus a variety of traders and fabulous workshops.

If you are planning to visit please stop by my stall and say hello. Unless there is a last minute shuffle you will find me in the Premier Bar, these are just a few of the pieces I will have on show.

A Collar or a Necklace?

March 27, 2022March 27, 2022 / Karen Lane / 8 Comments

I can’t decide whether to call my latest pieces, made from World of Wool Superfine Merino and Viscose fibres, a collar or a necklace? Weighing less than 1oz they are my lightest yet, and I really don’t know I’m wearing them, but they are perfect for dressing up a plain outfit.

The grey/pink version is held in place with a hand painted, embroidered and beaded Tyvek brooch while the grey/yellow has a matching felted flower (with a nod to Pam de Groot’s “splash”)

Monstera…..

February 15, 2022 / Karen Lane / 9 Comments

Where did January go? With the lifting of Covid restrictions and things starting to get back to normal the time is passing in a blur. It’s terrific to be takings bookings for classes once again and I’m looking forward to working with new groups this year. It’s also going to be great, after two years of cancelled exhibitions, to be showing my work at the Quilt & Stitch Village at Uttoxeter in April and the Big Textile Show at Leicester in October.

At the Waltham Textile group we normally have a biannual exhibition of our work but, due to Covid, it was cancelled in 2020 rescheduled for 2021 and then had to be cancelled again. It’s now been confirmed for August but in the meantime I’ve sold my main “Leaf” themed piece made for that show so recently made this mixed media “Monstera” to replace it.

I bought a 40cm x 80cm canvas with the intention of painting Monstera leaves on it and then adding a 3D Felted leaf. After drawing a template onto paper and offering it up to plan the layout I changed my mind about painting onto the canvas. It’s not something I’ve done before and the surface appeared to be a bit too textured for the look I wanted to create. Instead I sketched the leaves onto a piece of white cotton fabric, outlined them with an Inktense pencil and added a little shading. The aim was for very simple, very smooth, perfectly formed leaves looking more like curved metal than the foliage on my cheese plant. I think this was influenced by the very smooth metallic looking Tyvek seed pods I’ve been making lately.

The Monstera in our lounge looks a bit neglected, to the point that I couldn’t bring myself to photograph it for this post! Its been with me for more years than I can remember, moving from house to house, and I thought it would be nice to make a piece of work inspired by this plant….or should I say the plant it used to be!!

I don’t consider myself a painter but I do like painting on to fabric. If you need to paint precise lines a good tip is to use aloe vera (by far the cheapest) or acrylic medium instead of water when applying acrylics on fabric. This keeps the paint where you want it to be and avoids it bleeding into other areas. I managed to get a tiny bit of black paint on the lower section of the fabric but stopped short of starting all over again when I realised the felted leaf would cover it up!

My paper template for the painted leaves was 13” x 18” so to make the felted leaf I multiplied by 1.4 enlarging it to 18.5” x 24” to allow for shrinkage. Layer one was a very yellowish green Merino (might have been lichen but not certain). Layer two was a combination of various shades of grey with the yellowish green running down the centre. This was topped with a layer of dark green Merino and Ireland Viscose all around the edge and snippets of gold Viscose down the centre. These images don’t give a true representation of colours but you get the gist.

After wetting out I measured the fibres and found they had spread to approx 20” x 27”. At the fulling stage, every now and then, I put the original template on top to check for size and ensure I was keeping to the right shape.

Once it had shrunk to the correct size it was left to dry. The next stage was to add wires to the back of the leaf so it could be shaped. This could possibly have been done with directional laying of the fibres and lots of fulling but I wanted the option of posing the leaf once it was attached to the canvas and wires are a good way of doing this.

The wires were spaced out and attached on the reverse using a zigzag stitch which also formed the veins on the front side. You can see that bright yellowish green colour on the reverse of the leaf. Once that was done it was just a matter of cutting into the felt to form the individual leaves and the characteristic little holes of the cheese plant before attaching to the canvas.

Inspired by Nature…..3D Textiles

December 10, 2021December 13, 2021 / Karen Lane / 7 Comments

My recent Forest Floor workshop for the ladies of Snape Textiles up in Bedale has reignited my interest in working with Tyvek fabric. It’s a material I hadn’t used for a little while but making a tiny seed pod a few weeks ago, as a sample for their class, has led to more, and larger, pieces and an idea for a new workshop I’m calling Inspired by Nature…..3D Textiles.

The small seed pods are 6cm from end to end, the large one is 30cm

These pieces all start with a wire armature wrapped in hand painted Tyvek fabric which is then distressed with a heat gun.

What I particularly like about this technique is the metallic look that can be achieved…..although they are strong, and look as if they are heavy, these pieces actually have the weight and feel of paper.

The first Inspired by Nature – 3D Textile class will be held at Belchford Village Hall LN96LJ on the 22nd January 2022 so if you are interested in learning this technique, or want to know more about the workshop please get in touch via the contact form.

Forest Floor…..

December 6, 2021December 6, 2021 / Karen Lane / 8 Comments

I recently had the pleasure of running two consecutive one-day workshops for members of the Snape Textile Group up in the beautiful village of Bedale, North Yorkshire.

The group had booked my Forest Floor workshop which covers lots of different techniques for working with heat manipulative materials and creating the kind of stuff you find littering the forest floor such as leaves, twigs, bark and seed pods. With 30 ladies interested it was decided to split this fast paced class into two days to ensure all of them had the best learning experience and no one got left behind!

After each demonstration the students set to painting, stitching, wrapping and distressing (using heat guns and soldering irons) their Tyvek and Lutradur to create the various elements.

This is a sample based workshop and students are not necessarily expected to produce a finished piece of work by the end of it when it’s booked as a one day class. We do discuss how to pull everything together and create a suitable background but this is something that can be done afterwards at your own pace. If a group particularly want to see it through to the end it can either be booked as a two day class or we simply limit the amount of leaves made on the day to get a finished piece done. Yes, it’s those leaves that tend to hook folk in and then the time just disappears!

It was a full on weekend with the ladies producing an array of wonderful work and, hopefully, having a lot of fun in the process. This was the first time some had used a heat gun or a soldering iron but going by the response it won’t be the last!

Thanks to all for your enthusiasm, hard work and good company and a special thanks to Sarah Lowe for hosting me for the weekend. I’m looking forward to working with you all again at some point in the future.

Do You Recycle Your Coffee Capsules?

November 9, 2021November 9, 2021 / Karen Lane / 3 Comments

Do you recycle your coffee capsules? I’ve recently started doing this, on a very small scale I admit, by getting creative and adding them as inclusions to my felt. It got me wondering what other folk might be creating with theirs. This is a guest blog I’ve just written for the Felting and Fibre Studio on that subject…..