If at first you don’t succeed…

July 10, 2014October 12, 2015 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

Collection of wet felted vessels made at Jenny Peppers “Multiple Resist” Workshop.

Last Saturday I rode back up north to the beautiful little village of Hutton Buscel to take part in another of Jenny Peppers felting workshops. Once again it was a lovely day with good company, excellent tuition from Jenny, and lots of hard work from the “students”, but with great results all round.
This was Jenny’s “Multiple Resist” workshop, in which she demonstrated how to create a bowl with the illusion of two smaller bowls inside it. As with Jenny’s last workshop, we all began with the same size and shape of resist for our vessel but you can see from the photos, the end results were all very unique, which was brilliant.

The first layer is cut away to reveal the colour below.

The piece has been rubbed and rolled and now the first layer is cut away to reveal the colour of the layer below.

One of the bowls taking shape.

I chose to use a subtle colour scheme of greys and yellows and added snippets of yellow knitting wool and cream silks as embellishment.

My bowl was looking more like a beret at this stage.

Some of the other ladies made fabulously colourful bowls and some added extra interest by shaping the openings rather than leaving them circular.

A beautiful bowl with an unusual shaped opening.

The following photos show what a difference the workshops with Robyn from Feltybits and Jenny have made to my work. One of the key things I have learnt about making vessels is the importance of basic rubbing and rolling to strengthen the felt. My first little bowl was so poorly felted it could hardly stand up on its own but I am glad it didn’t put me off. I am a big believer in “if at first you don’t succeed….”

First attempt at a wet felted bowl...it can only get better!

My first bowl…a bit fluffy and floppy and very poorly felted!

Wet felted Merino Bowl – 2nd attempt and feel like I am getting somewhere!

Wet felted bowl made with multiple resists.

My multiple resist bowl – worlds apart from the first, flimsy vessel!

Memories of a Greek Holiday…

June 12, 2014June 14, 2014 / Karen Lane / 1 Comment

I can’t believe its been 2 months since my last post…holidays and family commitments have kept me away from the PC for a while but things are getting back to normal now so its time to catch up on what’s been happening ‘craft’ wise.

At the end of April (the day before we were due to fly out to Greece for a 2 week flotilla holiday) Robyn was due to hold another felting workshop. Although I knew I really ought to stay at home and do the packing I managed to somehow escape to Robyn’s studio for the day and had a great time (as always) with the other ladies as we all got creative with bits of fluff!

I wanted to do something different and create an abstract picture in this session but wasn’t sure how to approach it. Robyn suggested a great method which began with creating small piles of ‘carded’ Merino, combining different colours/shades. When I had sufficient piles of wool these were laid out and used to create a large sheet of multicoloured ‘pre-felt‘.

The pre-felt has been cut up and rearranged.

The next stage was to cut the pre-felt into squares and rearrange it, in a different order, onto a plain background, adding bits of scrim, nepps and silks and completing the felting process. There was so much pre-felt I ended up making two pictures, one square and one rectangular. I enjoyed the process and was really pleased with how the pictures turned out.

Close up of the first picture showing the embellishment

Once we got back from holiday I picked up the pieces again and added some sari silks, a few seed beads and some machine embroidery. I feel like the pictures have taken on a bit of a ‘sea-side’ feel and, with having the two week holiday sandwiched between starting and finishing them, they now remind me of happy times island hopping in the Ionian.

First of two abstract, wet felted pictures created with the guidance of Robyn at Feltybits.

Second of the abstract pictures made at Robyn’s workshop

Fairy Shoes…

February 21, 2014October 12, 2015 / Karen Lane / Leave a comment

I have been meaning to post these photos for several days but where does the time go? Last Saturday I met up with a group of other ladies at the Thomas Garrett Rooms in Heighington to take part in the ‘Fairy Shoes’ felting workshop run by Robyn Smith of Feltybits. Once again it was a great workshop with Robyn offering lots of encouragement and advice regarding wet felting, working with a resist and embellishing. The tiny shoes were created using Merino wool tops and decorated with seed beads. The finished items all turned out different in colour and style and looked particularly cute when lined up for the photos!