This is the finished Nuno silk wrap I made with Vivienne Morpeth earlier this week. Now it’s dry the texture and lustre of the silk really sing and I absolutely love it!
Wet Felting
Nuno with Vivienne Morpeth…..
The weather in Lincolnshire has been dull, wet and miserable but I’ve had a fantastic day felting in Barton on Humber at the studio of IFA tutor Vivienne Morpeth. Vivienne creates wonderful Nuno felted wearable art which I saw for the first time back in April and I knew I had to have a workshop with her.
A small sample of Vivienne’s work on display in her studio
Vivienne’s studio is very light and airy and she made me feel very welcome. I learnt a lot from today as she is incredibly generous when it comes to sharing her knowledge, built up from her many years experience of felt making.
Laying out the silk
I chose to work with a neutral palette (no surprise there) creating a wrap using very fine Merino tops, Uzbekistan Silk and Habotai.
Adding the pebbles
Making this wrap really helped me to appreciate how much work goes into one of Vivienne’s Nuno dresses and, having done it, I’m even more keen now to make a dress! I’m sure this workshop will go down a storm with my group at Belchford!
Vivienne and my almost finished wrap
I’ve brought it home to finish off…..just need to tidy up the edges so will post photos of the finished item once it’s dry. Thanks for a fantastic day Vivienne and look forward to hosting you in Belchford sometime soon.
Yellow Poppies Workshop…..
I’m really pleased to be announcing that I will be holding a two day workshop in August to recreate one of my favourite pieces, the wet felted wall hanging I call Yellow Poppies. Since my quilts started touring with Grosvenor Shows earlier this year I’ve received more email comments about this piece than any other, which is really nice, with several ladies asking when I will be running a workshop.
The venue will be the beautiful light and airy Simply Stitch Studio at East Keswick owned and run by textile tutor Nicola Hulme. The facilities are perfect for encouraging creativity and with over 400 bolts of patchwork fabric from Makower, Lewis & Irene and Cloud 9 as well as Hobbs quilt wadding you can take the opportunity of a little retail therapy if the mood takes you! Nicola offers an extensive workshop programme so it’s well worth taking a look at her website to see what’s available.
Bergschaf Necklace…..
Chunky Bergschaf Necklace
I’ve just finished an experimental piece which was started during Mandy Nash’s workshop in Belchford last weekend. It’s a chunky Bergschaf necklace made from shades of grey and natural Bergschaf wool with yellow, pink and orange spots and hangs from a thin cord.
Weekend Workshop with Mandy Nash…..
My little group, Felt Inspired, have just played host to a wonderful wet felting weekend workshop with felt maker Mandy Nash. The four “Inspired” regulars myself, Rosie, Dreda and Pat were joined by Jane, Enid, Joan, Helen, Sandra and Robyn (Feltybits). As well as being an inspiring tutor, Mandy, who travelled up from Llantrisant, is Vice Chair, exhibitions officer and a regional co-ordinator of the International Feltmakers Association.
Mandy Nash
The morning began with Mandy showing the ten of us examples of her wonderful wet felted objects, including hats, bags, funky fish and vessels, mainly created using Bergschaf wool.
A small selection of Mandy’s work
Some of the ladies were keen to experiment with the “book” resist technique with five of them making vessels while Robyn decided she would like to make a fish.
Sandra working with a book resist
Robyn’s fish & bowl, Rosie’s festival hat, Sandra’s coastline inspired vessel (centre) and Pats four-sided vessel (right)
The rest of us chose to make a hat using a flat resist and added embellishment. In addition Mandy talked us through the various surface design techniques she uses and demonstrated how we could achieve these effects using Bergschaf wool batts.
Rosie working on her festival hat
Joan made a beautiful bowler hat with slash detail
Enid’s 3 sided two-tone grey vessel, Jane’s dark blue & Dreda’s light blue vessel.
Helen and I were both smitten with Mandy’s “fern” hat so chose to make that……
Helen’s “fern” hat
My fern hat
Many thanks to Mandy for an inspiring two days and thanks to all the ladies who participated. If anyone would like to join our group we meet on the second Wednesday of the month at Belchford Village Hall. For more information please use the contact form.
A quick catch up…..
This is a quick catch up post, just to record a couple of felting projects that were recently finished. The first is a pair of Bergschaf slipper boots, an early present to myself! I made them using a scaled up version (and then some!) of the fairy boots I made in the summer. The two boots are made as one, using a flat resist, and then cut apart before fulling and shaping. They are the warmest and most comfortable slippers I have ever had. I can see these lasting for years so I’m intending to embellish them with hand embroidery at some point over Christmas.
Grey Bergschaf wet felted slipper boots
The second project was a wet felted cushion for my elderly aunt who is nearly 90 yrs young and loves warm colours, particularly orange. She lives in a small flat, there is nothing she actually needs but she does love anything felted so I thought this Merino cushion would be something she could get some enjoyment from looking at.
Daphne’s wet felted floral cushion.
Concertina Hat Workshop…..
Back in the Summer I read a post on the Felting & Fibre Studio about a concertina hat workshop being run by Teri Berry. It sounded really interesting but at that time I couldn’t commit due to holidays and other workshops. Fortunately Teri’s first workshop was such a huge success that it is being run again this month. As a result I’ve just finished my first wet felted Merino concertina hat and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I’m now looking forward to trying out the next design which is Teri’s wacky but wonderful “Snail Hat”…….watch this space!
Sculptural Collar…..
This is the finished blue and pink Merino sculptural collar which I started last week at Felt Inspired in Belchford.
Wet felted Sculptural Collar made from Merino wool.
I used a press stud fastener to hold it in place and added a wet felted floral detail including three leaves, two cords and a ‘rainbow bead‘. I learnt the rainbow bead technique from the wonderful Dutch felt artist Annemie Koenen. They take a crazy amount of effort to make but are so beautiful it’s well worth it!
Where does the time go…..
I can’t believe it’s been a month since we started the felting group in Belchford. Where does the time go…..
Once again we had eight ladies gathered for a felting session. Val and Karen couldn’t make it this month but we welcomed two new faces, Ann and Sheila. Sheila brought her current project to work on which is a very handsome needle felted owl…..
Sheila and her owl.
Adding feather detail on the back.
Ann began working on a needle felted landscape and I’m loving the colour scheme…..
Rosie was busy with her beautiful new wool making more vegetables (we’re starting to suspect an obsession here!)…..
Looking good enough to eat!
Olga was working on her sketchbook ideas for new projects…..
Olga working on ideas in her sketchbook.
Pat was busy with embellisher…..
Pat busy on the embellisher
Janet made a wet felted bowl and then did some more work on the lovely picture she started last session….
I started another Merino collar which will get finished at home…
Fibres laid out ready for felting.
All in all another enjoyable day in Belchford.
“with patience and love”…..
Earlier this week, under the watchful eye of internationally acclaimed Feltmaker Annemie Koenen, I learnt to make felt “with patience and love”. The workshop in Suffolk was hosted by Region 7 of the IFA and I had a wonderful 3 days in the company of Annemie, Sally, Rachel, Jenny and Gaye.
Annemie demonstrates how to make felt “with patience and love”.
A few photos of work in progress…..
Everyone looks to be concentrating hard!
I took my own Merino wool to the workshop but once I had seen the beautiful hand dyed Merino with Tussah Silk that Annemie had brought with her I just had to use it!
My collar is taking shape
Annemie’s approach to teaching this workshop was to ask each of us in turn what we would like to make and then ensure that we were guided and supported at every stage to accomplish our goal. Annemie has a very relaxed and approachable style of teaching but that doesn’t make her a soft touch! She watched us all like a hawk and kept a very strict eye on timings and on the quality of our work. As a result I came away with a stunning collar and a head full of tips and inspiration for future projects.
My finished Autumnal collar
A big thank you to Annemie for a wonderful workshop and to the ladies in Region 7 for making me feel so welcome.
The ladies with their finished projects.
Lincs In Stitches 