In my last post I showed a dragonfly brooch that worked out too large for me to wear so is now on my wall…..my steampunk dragonfly brooch has worked out even bigger! It’s made with painted cotton fabric and various trims cut from lace with metal beads, wire and cogs. I’m now doubting I will get a full outfit made in time for the Lincoln Asylum festival in August but at least I’ll have this humongous brooch to wear!
I seem to have developed a bit of a thing for large fabric insect brooches. Billy the beetle is my latest make. No, he’s not a stag beetle, he’s a rare breed, so far only seen in the Lincolnshire Wolds😜 His body started out as a very simple shape cut from cotton fabric which was stuffed and moulded with a few stitched tucks here and there. He’s been decorated lace and hand painted and this time I added legs, wrapping them with threads and adding beads. He has a lot more character than the previous insects, maybe that’s a beetle thing? I can feel an infestation of beetle brooches coming on and it amuses me that when I’m not wearing him I can stand him on my desk as if he’s about to pounce .….sometimes it’s the little things that us smile!
One thing I can never be accused of is bombarding readers with too many blog posts! Every once in a while, today being an example, I realise I’ve been posting on the Felting & Fibre Studio, on Facebook and on Instagram and completely forgetting to add the same content to my website. I didn’t used to have this problem as originally it was possible to link WordPress with Facebook, but then that option was removed and I got sloppy. I’ve only just discovered that it’s an option again and probably has been for years! So, backside kicked, rant over, and time to catch up on what’s been happening this Spring with a post I wrote recently for the Felting & Fibre Studio…..
Two weeks ago I was at the Old Barn Hotel, Grantham as guest tutor for the Lincolnshire Textiles Autumn School. The group had invited me to teach my Tall Trees mixed media workshop for fifteen students.
Our class began on the Friday evening after checking in and enjoying a delicious three course meal. The ladies had been asked to bring a photo, sketch or idea for the piece of work they would be making based on a tree/forest theme. I talked through the various materials I like to work with including Lutradur, Tyvek, wallpaper, organza and interfacing. The group were shown examples of how I’ve used these materials in my work and also how previous students have interpreted this workshop.
During the course of the evening ideas were explored, designs drawn up and our base fabrics painted.
The next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, the group were back to work— painting, auditioning different fabrics and papers, machine and hand stitching and burning. I had a terrific group of highly motivated ladies to work with and it was wonderful how they embraced using materials and methods they wouldn’t normally have used. Some of the more traditional members of the group admitted to feeling a little out of their comfort zone at the start but a bit of gentle coaxing and encouragement “to play” seemed to do the job and very soon all appeared to be having fun!
The group coordinator, Janet Taylor, did a great job of organising the weekend and was very kind when she said “Karen did a wonderful job of motivating everyone and worked hard all weekend. We learned so much, and the group was supportive and helpful throughout. It was such a treat to focus entirely on stitching and creativity, without the usual distractions. The weekend was intense but immensely rewarding, made even better by the company of friendly, like- minded people.”
The weekend flew by and although there was still work to done when these photos were taken you can see how good the pieces are looking! The group has its next meeting on Saturday and I’m looking forward to seeing many of these finished.
Another recent event was the 2024 Big Textile Show at Leicester Racecourse last weekend. The BTS is always a great show and this year was no exception.
My first customer was the lovely Kate from the Lutterworth Stitchers who purchased my multicoloured Collar. Kates a regular visitor to my stall and looks terrific in whatever she chooses to wear as you can see by these images from previous years!
I took a few other new Collars with me including these two in blue and one in dark grey/neutral tones.
My latest distraction is Tyvek Earrings! A few weeks ago I ran a Tyvek workshop for the Louth Textile group and created a pair of earrings as one of my workshop samples. They proved popular with the group so I made several more pairs for the show. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph them all before the opening but these are what came home with me and are now in my SHOP. I’ve never been a fan of smooth Tyvek beads but I love them with the added textures. It’s quite a challenge making these and absolutely impossible to get an exact match but I quite like that as it adds to their uniqueness!
I also made a new batch of gold and silver Tyvek Brooches. I like to mix textures and so these often feature on my felted scarves and collars. These three came home with me so are also in my SHOP along with some new wet felted Brooches.
A few days before the show I started to rework a piece I’ve had hanging in my hallway for several years. It’s been hanging on display behind glass, I don’t know why I originally did that as I’ve always preferred to see textile pieces unglazed. Anyway I recently removed the glass which instantly improved the look but then decided to give it a revamp with added textures, more FM stitch and stronger colours. I’m thinking peeling paint on rusty metal and I’m liking where it’s going but it’s not finished yet so I had it displayed on my stand as “work in progress”!
I’ve detailed a few more events that have happened over the past few months over on the Felting and Fibre Studio which can be found here.
With only three more workshops before Christmas things are starting to quieten down so time to think about new projects and ideas for 2025.
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!
I’m not the most techie of folk but I’m doing a happy dance this week as I’ve managed to set up an Online Shop linked to my Sumup Account. I’ve added a “Shop” tab to my websites navigation bar and put a few items in there to start things off including a forthcoming workshop, brooches, pendants, and scarves/collars. I’m often being asked if I will teach online so I’m also hoping to add online tutorials to the shop at some point later this year….I needed to put that last sentence in print to encourage me to get on with it!!
Visit the Shop using this link or the “Shop” tab on the navigation bar.
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”)
With the temperature dropping dramatically over the past week it’s no surprise that my last make of 2020 and my first of 2021 have been scarves. The beauty of both of these is that they are reversible so you have one scarf…..several possibilities.
2020’s last project was a fringed, reversible cobweb scarf made from a fabulous Superfine Merino blend called Champs Elyse from the Italian company DHG. The reverse side is a patchwork of hand dyed Margilan silk. I particularly love this and have been living in it for the past week as its incredibly soft and lightweight and goes with almost everything I wear.
I’ve recently made several single sided ruffle scarvesbut my first scarf of this year is a reversible ruffle.
As with so many of my projects, the colour scheme for my new year scarf changed and developed as I worked. Originally it was going to be a combination of colours inspired by the Champs Elyse.
Having laid out the central fibres in blue and green I ditched the multicoloured idea and I’m so pleased I did as I prefer the simplicity of this final scheme with this particular shape. It’s difficult to get a true representation of the colours in a photo but on the blue side I’ve overlaid with a very deep purple Viscose. This has created an extra depth of colour that I’m really pleased with. Apologies for the mismatched brooches…..I grabbed what I had for the sake of getting photos and posting this evening! I will be making a couple this week which will be more appropriate for the ruffle scarf.
The past couple of weeks have been very grey, damp and overcast but, unlike a lot of folk I know, I love being outdoors when it’s like this and have even found myself volunteering for extra long dog walks!! Don’t get me wrong, I love the Summer but there’s something very atmospheric about a grey damp day and the smell of the soil and vegetation underfoot.
I think I’ve been subconsciously channelling the grey into my latest work because I hadn’t really thought about changing from a gold/rust palette to a grey scheme….it just seemed to happen.
Again, although I’ve not been dwelling on it, I also think that lockdown, and the resulting lack of opportunity for nights out and seasonal parties, has maybe left me pining for a bit of glamour.
The first grey collar was one of my mystery (unlabelled) fibre blends. It’s a little hairy but extremely soft. It’s the longest of the three which gives it scope for being worn in different ways.
The second is a blend of Superfine Merino with white Bamboo fibre which creates a fabulous sheen.
The third is Superfine Merino with white Bamboo and a dusky pink Viscose fibre. I love the silky effect that’s created by the Viscose and find I’m using this more and more.
I’m now working on shoulder bags to coordinate with the collars.
Nights out are on hold for the time being but we may as well be ready for when we can get that little black number on again!
Lincs In Stitches 