another hat

It's been another hectic weekend, Saturday was spent with the "oldies", dropping off my old piano and clarinet for my niece and nephew to "play" with when they visit the grandparents. I say "play" because at just 9 years old my nephew is already better on the piano than I ever was! This weekend saw the finale of the Imagine Festival in Watford so we had a wander into town to watch a couple of the street performances while we were there.

Yesterday evening, I finally found some time to get wet and woolly and started this hat, it is based on the same resist as last week's top hat but I added a little piggy tail. It's still drying, hence all the pins...

There's something about it that reminds me of Guinan from Star Trek...

I think it's the upturned flattened brim?

I also found time today to make a journal cover from some of the lovely silks I purchased from Carol's stand at Woolfest. I'm afraid I forgot to take a photo before I started felting but here is an off-cut to give an idea of what the pattern was like before.

The green wool rather engulfed the finer detail of the pattern while I was fulling it, but I still rather like the final effect:

Front

Back

Snowy night (in June?!)

This feels very strange. Posting a hanging of icicles and snow in the middle of June, but like so much I have done this year it has taken me 6 months to see it through to completion. This piece was "conceived" when I noticed some icicles hanging from a roof last November and was "born" in January when I started work on it. Every so often I would bring it out of the UFO box, decide it needed something else but unsure what, put it back into the box.

Here it is before de-tangling all the icicles...

Last week I added a couple of windows, I think the yellow and the orange in them helps to balance out all the blue.

I also added a star using some silvery thread to the top right but can't decide if I should add a few more (smaller ones) to "lead the eye" around the hanging, what do you think? Maybe some machine quilting on the sky? What would you do?

The fishy hanging is now dry too, I added some machine embroidery and silver Markal paint to the lower half but I still fee the reef needs a bit more definition, perhaps some splashes of red and orange?

And finally, a little teaser of some chiffon scarves I have been working on:

Some more dress-making, a sun hat and some fishes

Following on from Tatiana's workshop, I have been making more nuno felt yardage for dress making. This is a top made using the same basic pattern from the orange shibori jacket.

I started this sun hat in January, using some hand dyed merino, the variegated roving yields a lovely mottled colour when felted, I also felted in a piece of hand dyed silk for decoration and texture

Today, I started working on a new wall hanging of fish on a reef. I am using some hand dyed pongee 5 silk and hope that the ripples and sheen will give the impression of water.

The weather was lovely, so after making the nuno felt I moved outside to "work" in the sunshine.

I have just ordered some longer stretcher bars and hope to share the final hanging next week.

The Finished "Leopard Print" Dress

As promised, here are some photos of me sporting the finished dress. I wore it to my Spinners Weavers and Dyers Guild AGM and it was a real hit!

With a little "help" from Pickle 

This photo was taken while doing the final shaping, I think it is really interesting how the colour of the silk changes when wet (pieces at the top of the picture).

I  have been quite busy this week, finishing the cape with hundreds of felted tassels, I enjoyed making it but it really did take hours and hours to hand felt all those tassels! I just need to edge the neckline and add a button.

This weekend I started working on a textured wall hanging that has been festering in the back of my mind since I saw a photo of icicles hanging from a roof back in November.

This is the sketch I made at the time, as you can see it really was just a seed of an idea at the time...

I raided my goody bag looking for some interesting textures and found some silk noil and different grades of wool nepps along with some hand dyed mulberry silks that I think will make a lovely, colourful addition to the icicles. You know how ice has a sparkly quality when the light hits it just right? I thought some angelina might replicate that effect quite nicely.

Laying out the base (it's about 3ft x 4 ft)

Starting to lay out the "icicles" with some flashes of colour provided by the mulberry silk.

More on the Icicles hanging next time...

I also managed to finish my "leopard print" dress this week too, I was surprised at how long this one took, I can usually make a dress in 2 days but this took all day Sunday and then every evening last week, I finally finished it on Saturday morning! This is the front:

And the back:

I hope to get a photo of me wearing it next week.... watch this space :)

New Year New Goals

I can't believe we are already 3 days into 2015.... so I am already late setting my new goals; not the most auspicious start! :)

My first 2 goals are essentially carried over from last year but they really worked for me so I will carry on with those with just some small edits.

1. Post to my blog at least once per week and to Facebook twice per week
2. Maintain at least 90 listings on Etsy
3. Attend at least 2 workshops with other feltmakers to further develop my felting repertoire
4. Start teaching felt making

Number 2 is an interesting one for me, as we approached Thanksgiving last year I set myself a target of having 90 items listed in my Etsy shop and I noticed a significant increase in sales soon after (not difficult to achieve, you might think, given that I had only sold 8 pieces in the 13 months prior). Initially I put the sales spurt down to a Christmas rush but I have had 5 more sales since Christmas (I'm still bouncing round the house with joy that other people like my work! :) ) so it can't just be people buying Crimbo presents.

Number 3 is a bit of a cheat since I have already signed up for a hat making class with Judit Pocs (I am so excited I can barely sit still) and I already have an idea of what I would like to do for the second one (more on that once it has been confirmed). But I do think it is important to keep learning from each other and expanding our horizons.

Number 4 is still just a handful of seeds in my mind, a few people have suggested I write a tutorial and I have ideas for at least 3 but the new EU VAT rules that came into force on January 1st put a spanner in those plans for a while but after much reading and networking I think there may be a work-around if I email the tutorials (it still isn't clear if ALL the EU countries will agree this is acceptable). I also like the idea of doing some face-to-face teaching although it scares the hell out of me! There is a studio near me that runs a variety of workshops but as far as I can see felting is not on their menu, so I have plans to go and have a chat with the owner.... watch this space :)

I hope you have been taking a few days from your day job and have found time to be creative over the last week or so?  I have been having a whale of a time, here are a few images of the things I have been working on:

A pair of fingerless gloves to match my felt jacket:

Another pair of fingerless gloves with silk hankies for decoration:

A couple of nuno felt scarves:

A black-widow spider inspired cape - in this photo it looks more like a dangerous creature from the deep :)

Rolling the tassels for the fringes took forever, I am so glad it is now finished and busy drying!


A new nuno felt top for me :)

layout of the silk over a resist

layout of wool over the silk

I plan to wear this next week - will try to get a photo of it on, seeing it laid flat on a table under artificial lights really doesn't do it any justice...

What have you been up to over Christmas? Have you made any resolutions or set goals for 2015? I hope your start to 2015 had been great and reflects how the rest of 2015 will pan out.

Linking up to nina-marie, off the wall Friday