felting in fibrespace

D.I.Y. kits

2011-03-24T13:15:00.004Z

A few weeks ago I did the Contemporary Textile Fair down in Teddington, I gave out lots of cards, so if you're a new follower from the fair, "hello". The fair was excellent, so much talent there and it was very diverse, bearing in mind that all the stands were textile based. I had some new items on the stall which went down really well, particularly the puppy brooches. Hopefully they will be available in the shop some time next week.

I'm now preparing for the BCTF (British Craft Trade Fair) which starts a week on sunday, yikes. I'm slowly working my way through the massive to do list. Last year my D.I.Y. kits in tins did really well so I have expanded the range. I now stock:

Puppies

Flowers

Birds

and Pussy Cats

All available to buy in the shop www.fibrespace.bigcartel.com

Oh, and if any of you are going to the BCTF I will be on stand 172, please pop along and say Hi.

Felted Bag Workshop

2011-02-19T08:58:00.003Z

The 'felt a bag' workshop is still going on today despite the snow, hopefully it will start to melt this afternoon.

Have a safe journey,

Beth

What I've been working on

2011-02-09T14:04:00.003Z

I'm just about to post out two new flower fairies that were a custom order, thought I'd share them with you.

I have also been making some pouches for the Contemporary Textile Fair which is at the Landmark Arts Centre in Teddington next month. I'm hoping to get 100 made in various designs, here are some of the puppy ones.

And finally, here are two of my vintage peg doll ladies posing next to a sweet vintage cabinet and radio that I stumbled upon in Space. The peg dolls are also for my stand at the Textile Fair.

Fashion Shoot

2011-02-03T10:31:00.002Z

Whilst the sun was shining I had a little fashion shoot....

In the garden

2011-02-03T09:23:00.004Z

The little flower fairies I made were for this exhibition, if you're in the area please pay a visit, there are some fabulous pieces by very talented felt makers from our region of the IFA.

Here's another....

2011-01-28T14:05:00.002Z

Flower Fairies

2011-01-27T10:39:00.005Z

In the studio this week I have been having lots of fun making these rather grand flower fairies using vintage pegs.....

What do you think? My favourite is the first one with crimson hair.

Festive Napkin Ring Tutorial

2010-12-20T13:10:00.004Z

I had so many plans for the last week of term, I was going to be super organised and make some last minute Christmas presents as well as work on my C&G and update the blog with that tutorial I promised. Unfortunately my youngest was ill all week so I am far from organised. In desperation I had to drag the poor fella around town on Friday, although I did keep him happy by popping into a cafe for a giant chocolate muffin and hot chocolate.

The tutorial was for some festive napkin rings I made last year, I haven't had time to take step by step photos but it's a fairly easy project so I'll just explain how they are made.

Make some flat felt in green (or use commercial felt if like me you find yourself short of time).
Using a bright red wool make a some little felt beads. For those of you who haven't made felt beads before Liz from Mill Girl has a great tutorial here.
Take a small length of brown roving (I'm using natural merino), and wrap it around your fingers.
Dip it in warm soapy water (make sure you're not too heavy handed on the soap as too many suds is a disaster with this technique), and start to roll the felt on some bubble warp. (There is no soap in the picture below because this is a fake step by step photo).
Keep moving the roving around your fingers and rubbing it on the bubble wrap.
Once it has started to felt you can take it off your 4 fingers and just use 2, either continuing to rub it on the bubble wrap or rubbing it on the palm of your hand.
When felted rinse in cold water and leave to dry.
Cut out your holly shaped leaves and when everything is dry sew the leaves and berries onto the ring and hey presto, you have a festive napkin ring!

So, a rather brief version of the tutorial has been delivered and I can cross it off my list, now to spend the afternoon sewing some last minute gifts and a couple of cushion covers. Then maybe tonight I'll find the energy to start the mammoth wrapping that lies ahead.

catch up

2010-12-02T21:18:00.005Z

We've had a week of relatively heavy snow here in North Yorkshire which has meant a day and a half of felting time lost due to school closures and a Christmas fair I was taking part in being cancelled at the last minute. I have also taken the decision to postpone my felted bag workshop which was due to take place on Saturday. The new date for the workshop is Saturday the 19th of February. There are still 3 places left so if you are interested please get in touch.

I have two wholesale orders outstanding, which I'm trying to get finished by the weekend so I can spend the next two weeks working on my city and guilds coursework. It's been a while since I've had time to play in the studio and I'm keen to experiment with some ideas I've had buzzing around my head for a while. I'd like to get back into blogging as well and plan to share a festive felting tutorial. There, I've said it, so now I have to deliver the goods........watch this space.

Workshops

2010-11-02T10:45:00.004Z

I have three new workshops coming up. The first is 'Making a Felt Bag' on Saturday the 4th of December, then on Saturday the 29th of January there's 'Felted Flowers' and finally we have 'Free Choice' on Saturday the 5th of March.

The 'Free Choice' workshop is aimed at people who have felted before but would like help and guidance with certain techniques or a specific project. For example, you may want to have a go at nuno felting or making a more complicated bag with internal pockets or try your hand at slipper making. This workshop is limited to 8 people.

All the workshops run from 10.30 - 3.30 at Calcutt and Forest Moor Village Hall near Knaresborough. The workshops are £30 and include all materials, however there is an additional charge of £5 if you choose to do nuno felting at the 'Free Choice' to cover the cost of the silk. I provide all the equipment so you just need to bring a packed lunch along on the day.

You can book your place through the shop at www.fibrespace.bigcartel.com or contact me at fibrespace@gmail.com if you prefer to send a cheque.

I'm still here...

2010-10-04T08:03:00.004+01:00

Just popping back to clear away the cobwebs! Summer flew by this year, we enjoyed a couple of camping trips and took our kids to their first music festival. The Greenman fetival was fantastic, very family friendly, and I was so chuffed that the children really embraced the experience and enjoyed watching the live bands, despite having 48 hours of continuous rain! Well it was in Wales so what did we accept.

We got a new addition to our family over the holidays, which inspired the kids to make these lovely felted pictures. Can you guess what it is?

Actually, not long after the kids created these, Hammy managed to escape from his cage and disappeared without a trace. Having spent 4 days looking in every nook and cranny, removing the bath pannel and lifting the odd floor board, we came to the conclusion that he'd gone to meet his maker. The kids were upset so we popped off to the pet shop and chose another hamster. A few hours later and Rosalena was settling nicely into her new home, the kids went off to bed happy and I popped into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, only to be confronted by a hideous smell. Some where up above there was a funny noise and when I investigated who should I spy but Hammy in a glass vase on a very high shelf in the kitchen. I think he had been under the floor boards all along and popped out through an air vent straight into the vase. So we now have two hamsters, a male and a female, the kids are under strict instructions not to let them out at the same time, two is definately enough!

Holiday!!

2010-07-25T18:07:00.002+01:00

I'm going to be away from home for the next 2 weeks. In a moment I'm heading off to our city and guilds summer school for a week of felting and good company :-) Then the following week we're off camping, so any orders placed in the shop won't be sent out until after the 10th of August. Hope you are all enjoying your summer,

Beth

Another butterfly

2010-07-03T12:14:00.003+01:00

This is a new brooch I designed recently that proved popular at the BCTF. I'm hoping to get some more made and in the shop soon. They are made from superfine merino felt and this one has been dyed teal.

Nuno Felted Vest

2010-06-30T12:57:00.003+01:00

Last week I had a stall at Woolfest. The previous year I had worn my dress that I made at Charity Musoma Van der Meer's workshop, and it attracted a lot of attention. With a week to go to Woolfest, and a lot of stock still to make I decided I needed another felted item of clothing to wear so I whipped up this nuno top. I made it in a rush and it was really a bit of an experiment, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's felted with superfine merino wool and silk pongee (I think) and over dyed with Brazilwood. I'm already designing some more tops so watch this space....

Birds and Butterflies

2010-06-29T20:13:00.006+01:00

It's been a while hasn't it. I have been so busy with wholesale orders and getting ready for woolfest that I really haven't had any spare time to spend on the computer. However, today I have allowed myself a little (which means the housework didn't get done). Can you see, I have been tweaking the blog and playing around with the new blogger templates. Not sure I'm 100% happy with it so it may change over the coming weeks. I've also managed to list my range of kits in the shop as well as a few on Folksy.

Anyway, here are a few things I have been up to during my blogger absence:

Camping in the Lake District at half term.

Raising and releasing Painted Lady butterflies.

Producing flocks of Little Birds,

and designing a new kit.

WIP

2010-05-11T16:02:00.002+01:00

I'm still busy working on orders, here's a little peak.

any ideas?

2010-04-30T13:45:00.004+01:00

I'm still really busy working on orders from the BCTF, but I thought I'd quickly write a post and share one of my latest bags with you (whilst on my lunch break). This is a simple design which I made for myself it's made from natural brown merino and blue faced leicester. I jazzed it up with one of my little bird brooches.

As the title suggests I need your help, does anyone have any advice on photographing bags. I always struggle, they're too big to fit in the light box and until my daughter enters her teens I don't have a model to hand. To take this picture I hung it on a nail which is not very artistic.

Also, while I'm here I'm going to plug my workshops. The felted bag workshop is sold out, but there are 4 places left on the felted flowers and 7 places left on the nuno felted shawl workshops. For information on dates, times and venue just visit my shop and click on the relevant workshop listing.

School Project

2010-03-24T11:32:00.004Z

A few weeks ago I taught felt making at my daughters school during art week. I was there for 2 and a half days working with years 3 and 4. The children loved it and they made this fantastic wall hanging.

Making prefelts for leaves.

Laying out the tree trunk.

A little spider dangling from the tree.

A cute little hedgehog.

Laying the prefelt leaves on.

Felting Workshops

2010-03-08T12:00:00.001Z

I've been working on a new blog which I'm using as website until my old website has been updated, I've just posted details on there for my latest felt making workshops, so if you're interested please take a peek.

www.fibrespace.co.uk

Awards....

2010-02-16T11:38:00.003Z

Over the past few weeks I have been nominated for the sunshine award by Creative Bumble Bee and NarkeyMarkey. Creative Bumble Bee also nominated me for the Kreative Award :)
Thanks guys, it's always nice to know that people are reading and appreciating my blog. Many of the people I would nominate already seemed to have received the award and I find it so difficult to choose just a few from my ever expanding list of blogs I subscribe to, so I'm just going to list 5 random blogs I read that contain the word felt. Go take a peek there's lots of inspiring work to get you in the mood for felting.

Studio Felter
The Felted Garden
Wool, Felt and Textiles
Daily Felt
Deeply Felt Studios

I have also had my Little Birdies featured on Following the Wind, thank you Brigitte.

Talking of Birdies, I have just listed the first of my new Little Bird Brooch Kits on Etsy. The kit makes two brooches in co-ordinating colours and they come in a smart little tin. I'm hoping to get some more colours listed soon, but probably not until after half term as I need to make and dye some more felt.

and the winners are....

2010-02-12T17:36:00.003Z

Just a quick post to announce the winners before I get ready for a Mum's night out. Thank you to all those who entered and all the lovely comments about my work, I really appreciate it. With the help of Afra, my daughter has picked the two lucky winners,

Number 2 which was Anna Bee and number 27 which was Sarah.

Giveaway!!

2010-02-05T10:02:00.005Z

Oh dear, I really seem to be neglecting my blog at the moment, can you see the cobwebs and dust gathering in the corners. I'm happy to say it's becasue I have been very busy in the studio working on some new lines of work. Here are a few:

Afra is my latest monster bag. I've tried to improve the shape and style of my bags and I think Afra is an improvement on her predecessors, she has a nice chunky handle and a magnetic clasp, and is made from natural grey merino. I've listed Afra in my Etsy shop. The price of my monster bags has gone up quite a bit as they really do take a long time to make and I'm going to have them available for wholesale at the BCTF in April.

I've also been working on these little heart brooches (as it's February). They are needle felted from Norwegian wool, I just love the colours.

And finally, I have re designed my felted flower brooch kits. Last week I supplied some to the York Quilt Museum and Gallery, they have some beautiful felted tunics exhibited at the moment which are well worth a visit. I've also listed some on folksy and etsy. As promised I'm going to give two kits to two lucky blog readers, just leave a comment and I'll draw two winners at random on Friday the 12th of February.

2010-01-20T13:54:00.002Z

Hi,

Just a quick note to say I have donated a couple of felted flowers to craft hope, which have just been listed. Craft Hope is an etsy shop run by volunteers to raise money for Doctors without borders, all the items have been donated and all the money (except etsy fees) will go to the charity. Here's a little bit more information taken from their website www.crafthope.com

"Our Etsy shop will benefit Doctors Without Borders, with 100% of the proceeds going to them. The medical need in Haiti right now is acute. The Doctors Without Borders existing facilities are so badly damaged, they are no longer functional. Post-earthquake medical care will be from tents. So far they have treated 1,500 people – 500 of them need immediate major surgery. There are no facilities to do this in Haiti currently. An inflatable hospital should be arriving in Haiti today."

Please take a little time to browse through the shop as there are lots of lovely items.

Snow, snow,snow....

2010-01-08T09:36:00.003Z

Happy New Year everyone (sorry it's a bit late), I hope you all had a good Christmas.

We had a fantastic Christmas, but I was looking forward to the kids going back to school so I could get back into my studio. Unfortunately on Monday morning J's school had no heating so he stayed at home, then on Tuesday we woke up to 8 inches of snow (I measured it), and J and E's schools were both closed! As the sledge has a big crack in it from hitting a bump just a little too fast a few weeks back we opted for snowman building instead. If you look closely you'll see he's sporting a nuno felt scarf.

The kids are back at school now but my studio is a little bit cold even with the heating on so I'm only managing about two hours a day. I also need to get my tax return done ASAP so I'm afraid it might be a while before I have anything creative to share with you. However, I have been working on a re vamped version of my felt flower kit, when it's finished I'm going to have a little giveaway through the blog, so please come back soon.

All the colours of the rainbow

2009-11-23T19:52:00.002Z

Knitting and Stitching was fantastic, needless to say I spent rather a lot of money, and came home with a wonderful bag of goodies to keep me going for a while. These included some giant knitting needles so I can knit myself a giant scarf (I love big needles because it requires less knitting), some cute cotton tapes, 2 pieces of suede and this book on Natural Dyeing. My daughter picked this book and is eager to get creating, I had to go sock shopping on Sunday!

I had a few brooches on the International Feltmakers stall, and it seems these little birdies are very popular, I managed to make 18 and sold the lot. Look, they come in every colour of the rainbow. I'm hoping to get some more made over the next few days so I can list them in the shop.

Studio

2009-11-17T16:11:00.003Z

Ok, even my Mum has noticed that it's been a long time since the blog was updated, so here's the latest news. During October we had this built at the bottom of our garden.....

my very own felting studio. I have wanted this for so long, and it's absolutely fantastic. I was waiting until it was completely finished before I showed you photos but it's taking me rather a long time to get all my stuff organized, so here are some 'before' snaps and I'll show you some more when it's completed (which realistically will be after Christmas now).

At the moment I'm busy making brooches to display on the International Feltmakers Association stand at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show, if anyone's going on Saturday, I'll be helping out on the stand during the morning. I'm also going there for the day on Friday with my Mum and Auntie, we've been going together every year since I was a student at Leeds and we always have a great day out. I'm already excited and have been saving my pennies, although clearly from the trouble I've been having getting everything to fit in the new studio I DO NOT need any more craft supplies. My daughter, who is 7, has asked to come this year as well, which made me very happy. I'm going to take her round on Saturday afternoon (I think a whole day would be a bit over whelming). I hope she finds it as inspirational as I do, she does love her arts and crafts.

and the winner is...

2009-10-09T22:22:00.002+01:00

Number one, picked by DH, please excuse the photograph, it's late and the number was lost with the flash on. Thank you to everyone who commented, and Crafty Cripple, please e-mail me so I can send out your prize.

Monsterous Bags

2009-10-08T10:05:00.004+01:00

Thank you for all your lovely comments, I'll be picking the winner sometime tomorrow. As promised here is a post that doesn't involve pictures of flower brooches. I have been working on a few bags this week. The grey monster is a commissioned piece, and I have to say it's one of my favourites, I just love her big, adorable eyes and cute nose. She is made from Gotland and Merino. The girlie pink monster (Shirley) has gone into the etsy shop, look at her sweet wensleydale locks of hair, I'd love curls like that. The last one has been embellished with a flower which is a slightly different design from my brooches ( I have been spending some time trying out different flower shapes). The flower bag has also been listed in my etsy shop. The pink and lilac bag have both been hand dyed with natural dyes, lac for pink and logwood for purple. I bought all my dyes from DT crafts, they come in a powdered form so they're really easy to use. However, I do have plans create a little dyers garden and am starting to research which plant to get.

Giveaway!!

2009-10-04T14:11:00.005+01:00

OK, here it is, my little giveaway to celebrate the International Day of Felt. The theme for this day was the segment of the colour wheel yellow through to red. So I've made a little felted flower from merino wool and dyed it yellow using fustic. For your chance to win just leave a comment and I'll draw the winner at random on Friday the 9th of October.

Oh, and I promise not to show any more flowers for a while, they have rather dominated the blog recently.

Why it's been quiet...

2009-10-03T08:44:00.003+01:00

I haven't listed anything new in the shops for a while becasue I've been busy with this lot. Forty flower brooches and ten soap stone are now on their way to Italy, phew! I've now got a couple of custom orders I'm working on then I plan to make a whole batch of products for the shops. I have lots of ideas for a coordinated range using natural dyes which I'm very excited about. I'll be showing sneak peeks on here before they are listed so keep a look out.

Did you know today is the International Day of Felt, our region of the IFA has worked on a project for this event which will be displayed at the IFA stand at The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.

To celebrate this day of felt I'm going to offer a little give away either today (or tomorrow if I don't get the item finished in time), so please call back soon.

Oh, and one last thing. I am debating whether to sell the instructions to make my flower brooches in a PDF format in my etsy shop, would anyone be interested?

Flowers

2009-09-24T14:28:00.003+01:00

More flower brooches which have been dyed with natural dyes, they look so yummy together, can't wait to make more.

Dyeing with Nature

2009-09-17T20:38:00.005+01:00

The kids have been back at school for nearly two weeks now. Over the holidays I did very little craft wise, so it took me a while to get back into the swing of felting again, but this week has been much more productive than last week. I have been experimenting with my natural dye kit that I bought from DT craft and design at woolfest. I decided it would be easier to felt items first then dye, rather than dye the wool tops. Here are some of my pieces, which are slowly making their way to etsy and folksy. I love the fact that you're never quite sure how they will turn out, it makes the process much more fun.

Dyed with teal (and some left over logwood)

Dyed with logwood

I did some more flowers today using madder, they have a real autumnal feel to them. As soon as they've finished I'll share them with you.

And here's something I've been meaning to blog about for a while. Do you remember this top I made on Charity Musoma Van der Meer's workshop, well I made a similar one for my daughter in lilac. She wore it to her leaver's disco (she's just moved up to Junior school).

Felt Making Workshop - Felted Vessels

2009-08-07T20:56:00.006+01:00

I still have some places left on my felted vessels workshop on Saturday the 15th of August. The workshop runs from 10.30 to 3.30 and is held at Calcutt Village Hall, just outside Knaresborough. The cost of the workshop is £30 which includes all materials, you just need to bring a packed lunch. Here are some examples of the type of work produced...

If you are interested please get in touch with me at fibrespace@gmail.com

Camping in the Cairngorms

2009-08-07T09:35:00.006+01:00

Hi Folks, I'm still here, just enjoying summer with my family. We've just got back from camping in the Cairngorms National Park for 10 days!! That's our longest ever camping trip. That part of Scotland is beautifully stunning, I took lots of photographs and am planning to create a body of felting work which is more art than function, something I've not really done before. I can't wait to get started on the sketch book, something I rediscovered whilst on my City and Guilds course. I was always very precious about work that went into my sketch books and consequently they never really flowed, but on the course I just went for it and didn't worry to much about the end result, and it turned out keeping a sketch book can be fun. My 7 year old daughter likes to join in to. We sit together at the dining table with all my materials spread out and experiment with colour, techniques and shape. Here are a few of my holiday snaps...

that's our tent in the left hand corner, with spectacular views of cairngorm in the background.

We made it to the coast one day but it was very windy, so I sat sheltering in the sand dunes taking photos whilst M helped the kids build sandcastles.

This is the lake that's on the edge of the campsite.

We did a lot of walking.

and saw lots of different creatures.

but my favourite bit was feeding the reindeer.

Woolfest 2009

2009-07-03T09:39:00.005+01:00

Woolfest was fantasic, we were blessed with good weather, which was just as well as we were camping. I met lots of lovely people (so nice to meet others who share your obsession with wool), saw lots of beautiful inspiring things and spent a little money as well. Business wise, it's been my best year so far, I think my concentration on branding has paid off as the stall looked a lot more professional than previous years. Here's a few pictures:

There I am wearing my top / dress that I made on Charity Musoma Van der Meer's workshop the week before. It was a two day workshop organised by the IFA, I really enjoyed it and came away all inspired. I wore my top both days at woolfest and although it was very warm I did not feel uncomfortable in it. It is made from silk chiffon and super fine merino wool (one layer). I've just made a similar one for my daughter that I am going to dye purple, and then I'm going to have a go at making myself a skirt.

Right, I must go and do some work now so I can take a break to watch Andy Murray play at Wimbledon, I'll leave you with a few more pictures from Woolfest.

Tweet, Tweet

2009-06-16T17:55:00.004+01:00

Here are some little birds I've been making for woolfest, the first two are perched on a dry stone wall of felted soaps. I still have lots to do, not enough hours in the day!

Banksy

2009-06-16T11:27:00.002+01:00

I'd really like to go and see this....

Felting Workshops

2009-06-07T10:04:00.003+01:00

I forgot to mention, the new set of felting workshops are up on the website (although some of the photo's need updating - will get DH onto it today). Take a look here.

Sorry, no felt today.....

2009-06-07T09:31:00.004+01:00

I'm being a bit pants with the blog again, I'm also behind in the reading of blogs as well, I have over 500 unread entries in google reader!! Ever since taking time off from the computer during the half term holidays I've struggled to get back into it. It could be the good weather we're having, we had a cracker of weekend last week so we took an impromptu camping trip with our new family sized tent. It was fantastic to get away and explore somewhere new, the kids loved it. We're hoping to do it more often, surely we're due a hot summer aren't we?

These photos were taken on the Ingleton waterfall walk, so proud that the kids managed a 4.5 mile walk in hot weather with no complaining!

I received some good news last week, I don't know if I'd mentioned it here, but I was a little bit slow getting my Woolfest application in and missed out on a stall. I was gutted as I really like doing this show. Well, someone has pulled out, so I got a call last week to tell me there's a stall going if I want it! I'm really excited, but I'm working like mad to get enough stock ready, only 3 weeks to go!. Also, all the B&B's are booked up, so I'm camping with my Auntie (who doesn't camp), fingers crossed for good weather.

Other non felting news, here's my cat, after surgery to rectify an ingrowing eyelid and remove pre cancerous lumps from both ears! She's making a good recovery, but now looks a little bit like a bear! For those of you with white haired cats, use sun block if you want to avoid expensive vet bills!
I'll be back next week with some pictures of things I'm making for woolfest, I have been doing a lot of dyeing!

City and Guilds Felting Exhibition

2009-05-11T19:12:00.005+01:00

Sorry it's taken over a week to post the photographs of the exhibition, I've had a few custom orders :)

So here we go, this is my stuff, sorry about the quality of the photographs, I was rushing to take them before the external verifier arrived. I've also uploaded them small as there are so many (I'll put my work on flickr in a moment).

And here is a snippet of the excellent work produced by the rest of the students....

Can't wait to get going with part 3.

I'm still here.....busy felting

2009-04-23T16:00:00.006+01:00

Oh my gosh! I just changed my profile photograph (thought it was about time you see what I look like), and noticed my last post was March the 24th, how could I let a month go past without blogging. In my defense there has been the two week easter holidays, and I never get much done when the kids are about, but they've been back at school for nearly a week now so no more excuses. I have been very productive this week, but still have a lot of projects unfinished. Inspired by these over on the other blog (who was I kidding when I thought I could write two), I have been experimenting with needle felting.

These two now grace our mantle piece, I think they'll make good props at craft fairs so I plan to make some more in spring colours.

This is my latest bit of felting, I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. I'm using the colours as inspiration for my latest range of felt goodies. DH took some photos of me modeling it at lunch time so I can get it listed on etsy. There was actually one of me smiling which doesn't make me cringe so I'm going to make it my avatar, don't look to closely though, as you can clearly see grey hairs, I must go and purchase some hair dye, does henna cover grey?

I'm also busy finishing everything off for my City and Guilds, we're having an exhibition on the 2nd of May. So when I've finished my outfit I'll have a go at modeling that as well, and I'll share the resist for the cape.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I'm back.

Experimenting with nuno felt

2009-03-24T12:02:00.004Z

We just had our last weekend of the City and Guilds course, which I'm really going to miss. I've learnt lots of new techniques and have been constantly inspired. I'm also going to miss the social aspect, it's so nice to felt amongst others when you are so used to working on your own at home. But, I'm hoping to do part three next year so that's something to look forward to.

Here are my two final pieces, the cape is not finished yet, but I'm really pleased with the shape, it took the whole weekend to get that far, I don't think I've ever felted anything so hard in my life! At one point I looked like something out of dynasty so the shoulders took a lot of work, now it's a perfect fit. The skirt is nuno felted merino (cobweb) and cotton scrim. I love the textures. I've been experimenting with this blend of wool and nuno, I made a small piece to make into a cuff, but it didn't get completed, so last night I chopped it up and made it into these buttons. Now I can't decide whether to make them into brooches, pendants or just keep them as buttons. Your thoughts would be very much appreciated.

A weekend of Culture

2009-03-11T10:21:00.003Z

I got to see The killers at the weekend up in Newcastle, and as if that wasn't exciting enough, Mike and I were at the very front, right against the barrier, Dave Keuning and Brandon Flowers were about 2 meters away! I could have kicked myself because I told Mike not to bring the camera as we never get decent shots at gigs (hadn't expected to be at the front). They were fantastic, one of the best gigs I've been to in a long while, the support band were good as well, Louis XIV.

The children were staying at their grandparents so we made a weekend of it. We visited the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and saw Yoko Ono's exhibition. Some of her piece I liked but not all, some of it seemed a bit contrived. We also visited the city art gallery and the castle, which was right next to our hotel.

On the way home we stopped off at the Angel of the North, it's the most amazing sculpture that towers above the A1 ( the main road up into the north of England).

Fibrecrafts

2009-03-02T10:08:00.004Z

I have just started another blog, in which I hope to explore textile artists from all corners of the globe. This is not just about felting, I will be blogging about designers who work with a variety of mediums within textiles. Please pop over and take a peek at fibrecrafts.blogspot.com.

Nuno Felting with a sander

2009-02-28T09:21:00.006Z

A few days ago I read this post on the funky felters blog all about cobweb scarves. It inspired me to make a few scarves, I haven't made any since a large wholesale order before Christmas, making dozens of scarves in a few days can really put you off making something which is normally a joy. Anyway, I followed the links on the blog to see if there were any new techniques I could have a go at, one of them mentioned a sander. A few students on the City and Guilds course use sanders and I've been itching to have a go, but our sander is rather large and uncomfortable to hold. So I popped down to the local DIY store and treated myself to a cordless sander (who'd have thought I'd ever get excited over a sander!). I then went on to produce two cobweb, nuno silk scarves. They are the same design but one is on black silk chiffon and the other is on white. The sander worked a treat, once I'd laid the wool out on the the silk and wet it with warm soapy water, I covered it with bubble wrap (bubble side down) and sanded the back of the bubble wrap. Even though it's cordless I was a little paranoid about being electrocuted so I made sure the bubble wrap was completely dry. Having sanded the entire surface I rolled the scarves for a few minutes then began throwing. The results were these two beautiful scarves in just less than an hour. I've just started a group on flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/nuno/ so if you have any nuno felt creations please come and share them.

A little birdie

2009-02-19T14:44:00.003Z

I made this screen on my gocco and have been happily experimenting, printing little birdies onto everything. Here's a set of coasters and a cute little purse.

Postcards

2009-02-13T13:43:00.004Z

I don't think I came any where in the competition, it's being announced sometime today, so I'll share the winning entry with you later.

I've had a really busy week finishing off felting samples for my City and Guilds course, we're meeting up again this weekend, to work on our final projects. Can't wait, I love these weekends, we felt from 10 am to 7 pm for two whole days, only stopping occasionally to eat and drink, heaven!

As you probably guessed from the title I received a parcel of postcards this week. Very happy with the outcome.

Another competition

2009-02-04T09:55:00.004Z

I think I'm getting a little addicted to online competitions. I do like the challenge, and it seems to get my creative juices flowing. When I saw that craftzine were running a contest with singer called 'sewing with nature' I new I had to enter, as part of my City and Guilds course I have been looking at creating the texture of bark in felt. So after many sketches and lots of samples here's my finished piece.....

It's the first piece of clothing I've made from felt that I'm really happy with and I can't wait to have a go at making some more. I think the deadline is today, here are the other entries.

Oh, by the way, the cream bits are fungus, the piece was inspired by fungus growing on a decaying log, just like this...

Monsters!

2009-02-02T09:41:00.003Z

Hooray, more snow. We woke up to a couple of inches this morning and it's still snowing, I love it, we really don't get snow very often here in the UK. However, this time I won't be picking the kids up early from school as I have to much crafting to be getting on with. Maybe we'll ditch the swimming lessons and go sledging after school instead.

Here are some of the monster bags from the workshop I was teaching last weekend (please excuse the poor photos, the lighting wasn't that great). It was a fantastic day, I love the fact that the group created such a varied mix of monsters. I have a couple of monster bags myself waiting patiently to have their finishing touches added, then I'll be listing them over on etsy. At the moment though I'm a little distracted with owls....

Monster Bag Workshop

2009-01-23T15:53:00.003Z

Tomorrow I'm teaching a felted monster workshop for the IFA region 10. Although I've taught quite a few bag workshops before this is the first one using my latest methods which incorporates Norwegian needle felt. In preparation I've been spending this week making monster bags, in order to decide on the best shape resist. Here's my favourite, Catherine, I love her hair, but it keeps getting in her eyes so I'm wondering if I should give her a fringe, what do you think?

front

and back

She's not the prettiest of girls is she, infact she looks a little bit like a man in drag, but don't tell her I said so.

Love Monsters

2009-01-13T09:51:00.004Z

Thanks for those of you who voted for me, alas, I did not win. The knitted boob and the clanger took joint first, but I really enjoyed making the doll and her little outfit. It has reaffirmed my desire to make felt clothing, I'd love a coat like the one the doll modeled and it wasn't too complicated to make, I just don't have a table big enough. Maybe in summer I will be able to have a go out on the lawn, get the kids to help me with the rolling. Until summer I'll just have to make do with making coats for dolls. My daughter was quite taken with the doll and wants me to make her one, at first she wanted it to look like fleabag monkey face, but has since changed her mind and would prefer a princess peach look a like (my kids are a little addicted to Mario driving game wii)! She drew a design last night for me to work to (see I'm teaching her well), but I think she's keen to make the accessories herself....watch this space!

Thinking ahead to Valentine's day I've made a few Love Monsters, they're similar to my mini monster pincushions, but each one is sporting a little heart, they can be given as a token of love, or used as place to keep your pins handy.This cheeky bunch are reeking havok in my Folksy shop, but I'll be making more soon and will put some in the etsy shop as well.

Haute Couture

2009-01-10T10:07:00.004Z

Here's something else I have made this week.....

It is for a competition over on folksy, the brief was to make something inspired by UK news. Here's the piece I wrote to explain my inspiration,

'Fed up with looking like Michelin man during our arctic snap, well you can keep warm and look fantastic in handmade pure wool clothes!

Our model Sarah is wearing a hand felted merino top with a little ribbon rose detail. The skirt is made from a luxury pure wool woven fabric. She is also sporting a custom made merino wool and silk coat with matching flower brooch, the snug but stylish outfit is finished off with a beautifully soft merino wool scarf, perfect for keeping those chilly northern winds out.

Inspired by news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7812487.stm

Voting is now open until midnight on Sunday over on the folksy blog so go take a peak at the other entries, and if you thing I'm worthy of winning I'd really appreciate your vote :-)

Felting again

2009-01-09T09:07:00.003Z

Sorry folks, I've been absent for a rather long time, even my Mum has commented that there has been no recent blog posts. I have come to the conclusion that blogging whilst the children are off school is just a no go, as soon as I'm on the computer my son climbs onto my lap and starts nagging for the Cbeebies website.

Anyway, hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year. Our New Years plans were scuppered by illness, but I don't think we were alone there, lots of nasty bugs around at the moment.

Well the kids went back to school on Monday and my son is now full time, which means I get to do a lot more felting :) , I was going to post on Monday, but realised I had nothing to show, so I got to work felting instead....

here's a handbag I made for my City & Guilds course, the idea was to manipulate felt to create texture. I have an on going theme of forests and fairy tales so I tried to create a bag that looked like it had been made from wood. I think I'll make it into a little pouch that hangs from your belt. I can imagine a forest fairy wearing one to keep her fairy dust in!

Tis the season

2008-12-18T10:18:00.004Z

I gave in and the Christmas tree went up on Sunday. I've seen the school concerts, the kids have had their school party (and met Santa), I'm almost done with the shopping and only one more day of doing the school run! I do feel very Christmassy (although I haven't written any cards yet). Can't wait for the more relaxed mornings, I have two, very tired, small children and we're all struggling to drag ourselves out of bed in a morning. My youngest keeps asking if Santa has been. He has not learned the concept of time yet and has no idea how long a week is, every morning I can see the disappointment on his face but can't wait to see his expression on Christmas morning, last year he was probably a little bit to young for it all.

As always I left it too late to make things for the shop, most bits and bobs I've made have gone into the Folksy shop as it's UK only (for the time being whilst it's in Beta) and there's still time to post things out. I listed these two felt covered sketch books last night and have a big batch of brooches waiting to go in (just need a bit of sunshine so I can photograph them). Next year it'll be different, I'm going to start the preparation for the festive season in January, surely then I can be more organised!

Harold and Felix

2008-12-12T16:32:00.003Z

The snow was great, we got to go sledging and the kids (and I) loved it. Now it's just very,very cold and I don't do cold very well, so I'm sporting a lot of layers at the moment. Is everyone nearly ready for Christmas? I've just about finished the gift shopping, but that's it! We still don't have any decorations up yet, I like to leave it as late as possible so it's all still new and special when Christmas arrives. One year I left it until Christmas Eve....we got a really good bargain on the tree, but it was a little lopsided and it's top had been snapped off! My husband thinks I'm being miserable but for me it's all about keeping Christmas special. I reckon the 18th might be a good day for decorating, one week before Christmas and just before the kids break up from school, however the Children and hubby might over rule me.

Here's a few pictures of my latest creations....

Harold (and his pet spider) and Felix. When I was making Felix I had an idea in my head of a really cute cat bag, bless him, he didn't really turn out cute, at one point he nearly became a dog, think I need to go back to the drawing board!! Harold is over in my Etsy shop, whilst Felix is hanging out in the Folksy shop.

It's snowing!!

2008-12-04T09:43:00.002Z

I feel like a kid again, we woke up to about 2 inches of snow, and it's still snowing :), walking to school was strange as it was like a ghost town, it suddenly occurred to me that I should have listened to the local radio to see if the school was actually open! Thankfully it was, but the head teacher said we could pick the children up early if we liked so I'm going to collect E at 12 when I pick J up, and have an afternoon of sledging!!! I'm starting to feel all Christmassy, I might have to go and listen to a bit of Nat King Cole.

If you go down to the woods today....

2008-11-28T15:44:00.003Z

Watch out for monsters!! Here are my latest creations, Agatha (a witch with a heart of gold and a desperately bad hair do), and George (not sure what he is but he lives in the deep dark woods and doesn't say a lot).

Thank you for all the well wishes, I recovered and managed to make 16 of the new brooches for the knitting and stitching show, which appeared to be a bit of a hit as they'd all gone by the time I did my stint on the IFA stand on Sunday. I'm teaching a scarf making workshop tomorrow, then I've a full day of felting on Sunday (City and Guilds Course). Then just a few more orders to finish and that's it! No more work until after Christmas. I'm hoping to use the time to develop a few ideas I have bobbing around my head (as well as some Christmas shopping). I'll also be getting the blog and the website a bit more up to date, I want to show you some of the work I've been doing on my course - I have been learning new techniques. There's a new programme of workshops to go up on the website as well.

But right now I'm off to make myself a big cup of tea, it's soooo cold here today, and I'm doing my best not to whimp out and stick the heating on straight away, what with the 30% increase in fuel prices!!

Feeling Grim

2008-11-11T10:10:00.004Z

I think I have sinusitis, which is really inconvenient as I have orders to full fill and Christmas fairs to get ready for and I feel like crap!

Here's a new design, I learnt the technique on my City and Guilds Felting course and after playing around a little, I came up with this design. I'm really pleased with them, it's soooo nice to make something new. I'd like to have a go at making some hair bobbles using the same technique, so I best go and dose up on Sudafed, only two hours to the school pick up!

Remember, remember

2008-11-07T09:44:00.003Z

The Fifth of November.... OK so I'm a little late with this post, but we recently got a new camera, more of an everyday camera rather than the big beast which I use to take photos of my work. This new camera has a firework setting so I thought I'd test it out. Most of them are rubbish as you have to anticipate the explosion in order to capture it, but I got a few good ones, however I did spend most of the display looking at the camera and not the fireworks so I don't think I'll bother again. I've come to the same conclusion about the kids school plays, you spend so long trying to get a decent picture of your child being cute up on stage that you actually miss the performance. Now I just sit and enjoy, and do (not so) discreet waves!

Ute left a comment asking if the Norwegian was too scratchy. It is a little more scratchy than the merino, but not too much. I wouldn't wear it against my skin in something like a scarf, but it's great for the soaps as it makes a fantastic scrub.

Stones

2008-11-04T09:38:00.004Z

Well half term has been and gone way too fast, we spent most of the week in Killarney in Ireland visiting family. It's such a beautiful place, even when it's raining all the time! Mike and I got to climb a very small mountain on the first day (without kids), the views were amazing, but it was a bit nippy on the top!!

The only bad thing about the holiday was that I missed an opportunity to be in The Guardian!! I have listed my workshops on the School of Everything, it's a UK website that is free to use and is a bit like a workshop and classes directory. The Guardian were doing a feature on it and as I'd recently had a student attend one of my workshops by finding me through the site they wanted to feature me, but this all came to ahead whilst I was in Ireland which was no good as they wanted to photograph me, as you can imagine I was gutted. Hey ho, I'm sure they'll be other opportunities.

Now the kids are back to school it's time to start felting again. I've made these felted pebble soaps using Norwegian wool (I find the Norwegian doesn't pill as much as the merino and it creates a really nice scrub). I managed to get my hands on some wooden soap dishes wholesale so I'm selling them as a set. I've listed one on etsy, one on Folksy and one on MyE hive.

Flowers

2008-10-22T12:28:00.002+01:00

Here's another batch of flowers, I'd got a bit bored with the flowers so I made these a little different by incorporating some leather scraps I bought at the recent Fashion and Embroidery Show at Harrogate. These are destined for a variety places, some will be on the International Felt Makers stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show, some will be for sale at the Festive Fizz at my kids school, one is in my Esty shop, another in my Folksy shop and the last one is in my new shop at MyEhive. MyEhive is a new selling site based in the UK, it only opened at the beginning of October, and if you're quick to sign up and get to be one of the first 100 you'll get free membership for life. It works abit like Big Cartel, were you pay a monthly subscription rather than listing and commission fees. Etsy has been quite quiet recently so I thought it was worth trying out some new places.

Pretty Pink Flowers

2008-10-20T09:29:00.004+01:00

The other day I found a gorgeous silk scarf in our local charity shop, I bought it, rushed home and nuno felted it straight away. It came out even better than I'd hoped, although the photographs don't do it justice. Have I mentioned before that cerise pink is one of my favourite colours? I was tempted to keep it for myself, but I really have too many scarves (I have a tendency to keep ones I've made), so I've put it in the etsy shop. I'm hoping to get into town this week and tour the charity shops to see if I can get my hands on any more scarves.

I taught a felt a bag workshop at the weekend, and gave the students the option to make a monster bag if they wanted to, here's one made by Melody, isn't he fantastic, I love the stunned look on his face.

Awards and Tags

2008-10-10T16:32:00.007+01:00

A while ago I received this award:

From Sara's Texture Crafts

and this one from The Funky Felter

Thank you very much, I am honored to receive these from such talented Textile artists.

I've also been tagged twice this week by Ingermaaike of Daily Felt and Helen + ilana = Hi of Deeply Felt Studios.

Many of my favourite blogs have already been tagged or have received the awards and as time management is not my strong point at the moment (right now I should really be cleaning the kitchen), I'm not going to tag or pass the awards on, instead I'm going to leave you with a few blogs I've recently discovered.

laurenalane
artmind
clasheen
lizzyhouse

and because I always like to include a photograph here's one of a huge pile of felted soap pebbles...

Have a good weekend everyone (I'm felting for two full days as I'm on a city and Guilds Course - lucky me!!!).

A quick break from the manic felting!

2008-09-26T09:36:00.005+01:00

Here are some of the reasons why I have been absent recently.....

A forest of Christmas trees

Nuno Scarves

Hair bobbles in bags

I have been working on a wholesale order, still more to do, but the first parcel has gone off. Right now I'm off to make more flower brooches. I'll be back soon, my list of things I'd like to blog about is steadily growing, so maybe when all my orders and etsy requests are finished I might try to blog everyday so I can catch up.

Howies Competition

2008-09-17T11:23:00.004+01:00

A while ago I joined Folksy.com, I guess you could call it the UK equivalent of Etsy. It's still in Beta at the moment (is that how you phrase it?), but it's a really neat site. I love Etsy, but am always willing to give new things ago. I tried dawanda a while back and even though I've had a few sales, I just can't seem to get to grips with the lay out, and never use it anymore. So I saw Folksy on another blog and thought I'd give it a try, I joined and listed one bag, then I forgot all about it, until very recently. When I rediscovered it I spent a bit more time looking around and have really come to like it, it's so nice that it's a UK site and there are a lot of familiar names on there. What I need to do now is make some things to go in the shop, something I'm struggling with at the moment (through lack of time - not ideas), I'm not even doing very well at stocking the Etsy shop, and I feel the Christmas shopping season is nearly upon us!!! Anyway, Folksy had a competition in conjunction with Howies, the brief was "Life is complicated. Sport is simple." It just ended at 9.00 am today, and I managed to get my entry finished yesterday, just in the nick of time! Here it is....

It's all about me time, getting out of the house and having a break from the baby!

Little Yellow Stars

2008-09-10T16:51:00.006+01:00

I just had a little look through the etsy treasury lists, something I haven't done for a while as scrolling through the list titles looking for little yellow stars (which lets you know if any of your items are featured in the list) can become a little obsessive! So I had a nice surprise when it turns out I'm in four, three of those treasuries has the same item, this bag here....

It's funny because it is my most viewed item, it's regularly in treasuries, 52 people currently heart it and I've even reduced the bag to a bargain $45, and still it gathers dust on the shop shelf!!

A new term

2008-09-09T22:08:00.006+01:00

My baby just started school only a week after his 4th birthday (I'm pretty confident he'll be the youngest in his year), bless, he looked so cute in his uniform! He's really enjoying it, and talks a lot about all the things he's done, thankfully he's just part time until Christmas, and has his big sister to look out for him. Fortunately for me I have my crafts, so I'm not suffering home alone in the very quiet house, I now have 5 mornings a week to felt, yay!!

So this week I have been working on a few monster bags and pincushions that I've promised customers. Today I popped downstairs to make a cup of tea, and when I went back into the studio here's what I saw, they look a bit scary all lined up don't they. Do you recognise the yellow one? Herbert had a sex change!!

Did you also notice the word studio? Over the summer we rearranged the bedrooms so the kids are sharing and I've got the smallest room as a studio ( a temporary arrangement until we think about extending or converting the garage). It still needs a bit of organising with shelves and better storage but I'm settling in nicely, and the downstairs looks a lot better (I was starting to take over the house). Hopefully now I have all this time to be creative I'll be able to blog a bit more often. I seem to have got out of the habit, although I have quite a few things I'd like to share with you.

Make Do and Mend

2008-09-05T12:17:00.003+01:00

That was the title of the contemporary recycled arts and crafts exhibition at the Chapel Allerton Festival. So I had a stall selling brooches and cuffs made from felted jumpers. I used the jumpers as a base to needle felt onto (at the festival quilts I bought one these, and one of these which I can't recommend enough, well worth the expense). Here are some of the pieces....

I did quite well and met some lovely people, so nice to meet customers face to face for a change.

I also treated myself to this gorgeous bag from deco-blue designs, for those of you who are local check her stall out at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show this year, she has some lovely products.

Now the craft show is out of the way and my eldest is back at school, soon to be followed by my youngest (big first day at school on Monday!), I am getting back into the felting groove. I have really missed creating over the summer. I'm working on a collection of new monster bags, here's one which is a custom order.

Got to fly, my youngest is insisting I play playmobil airports, roll on Monday!

I'm still here!

2008-08-17T17:39:00.003+01:00

Just not had much time to blog (or craft) with it being the school holidays. The little crafting time I do have is spent preparing for the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival, the theme is recycled crafts, so I'm using up my stash of felted jumpers (sweaters). I'll post some pictures soon. In the meantime, here's a little squirrel - I've been experimenting with needle felting and ended up with this little chap, not sure what to do with him though, at the moment he just sits and watches over me in my studio.

On Friday I went to the Festival of Quilts at the N.E.C. It was my first time, the quilts were fantastic, I took a lot of photographs, but as I don't know who made the quilts I'm a bit reluctant about posting them on here. There was also a lot of stalls!! I had no intention of buying any fabric, as I have quite a collection at home, but I'm afraid I couldn't resist :)

Herbert

2008-07-24T17:31:00.003+01:00

When I made my own monster bag I'd blended enough yellow wool to make two, so here's Herbert. I'd planned on giving her frizzy hair, adorned with ribbons. However, once her face was constructed I discovered that she was in fact a he, and Herbert (as he's now been named) did not want to wear ribbons or have frizzy hair! He's gone into the shop this afternoon, along with a batch of nest rings. I'm loving the bird's nests and moments ago had a flash of inspiration for some nest coasters.....watch this space!

The Ball

2008-07-23T20:15:00.003+01:00

The Ball was fantastic!! It was held in a marquee in the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral (7 hour coach journey!), and amazingly for the UK the sun was shining, so we had Champagne out on the lawn to start off with, then a lovely meal and more Champagne, and then a lot of dancing. I didn't take my camera to the ball, as it's a bit on the bulky side, so here are some pictures of us at the hotel. I was really worried that the dress was a little on the short side, but it was a bargain £19.99 from TK Maxx and it was made of silk chiffon! I'm not normally drawn to yellow, but just fell in love with this dress as soon as I saw it, don't suppose I'll ever wear it again :(

The morning after we were up early and went to walk around the Cathedral before catching the coach home. It really is a beautiful place.

Monster Bags

2008-07-17T16:22:00.004+01:00

Here are my most recent little monsters:

Rupert - SOLD

Elsie - in the shop

and Darcy!

I've made Darcy for myself. I'm going to a ball at the weekend and I've made her to match my outfit, I'll take a picture of the whole outfit later. I was going to make a felt dress for the ball (one which I'd started on the Charlotte Buch course), but I decided it might be a bit to warm, besides it needs lining and there has been too much going on here with school about to finish (plus we're having a new bathroon fitted at long last). So I made this bag instead, and a flower brooch to match Darcy's.

Here are some rings I have been working on too, I can't seem to stop making nests!! They're in the shop now.

Woolfest

2008-07-13T12:56:00.006+01:00

Woolfest was fantastic! For those of you who don't live in the UK, it's an annual two day festival of wool held at Cockermouth in the Lake District. They have stands for everything relating to wool, so there is spinning, knitting, felting, traditional wool crafts from across Europe and animals. Each stand is made up of one or more sheep pens, so here's my sheep pen....

The monster bags really helped catch peoples attention as the walked past, but also I was giving felted flower demonstrations (as I was selling kits). It was totally crazy, I'd have a crowd of people watching, then after I'd finished someone would always say, 'oh, I missed the beginning can you do it again', so I was demonstrating constantly! Here's a pile of flowers which were made over the two days, they're in my studio waiting to be turned into brooches.

My Mum and Auntie were helping me out again (a big Thank You to them), so I managed to have a good look around. Here are some of the very cute animals that were on display.....

and here are some of my purchases....more buttons!

I also bought some lopi and Norwegian wool which is waiting to be needle felted into brooches.

One of the best things about woolfest is meeting other fibre enthusiasts, as I mostly sell on the Internet it's so nice to meet customers face to face, and a few previous customers and blog readers came and introduced themselves which was lovely.

So in conclusion I'll definitely be there again next year!!

Look what I got in the post!

2008-07-06T11:45:00.003+01:00

Woolfest coming soon, just wanted to show you this. I ordered it from etsy for my niece's birthday, isn't it cute! And I got a little mini matchbox note book and sweet felt lolly as freebies. Please take a look at her shop, her works fantastic and so well made.... Look Mama Made It

Charlotte Buch Course

2008-07-01T16:51:00.005+01:00

Now I'm back from woolfest and have a bit more time on my hands I'm hoping to catch up on my blog entries. The woolfest was fantastic, but I'll save that for another day. Today I want to share with you some of the clothes that I made at the Charlotte Buch 4 day workshop I attended a few weeks ago. Her work is amazing and she is such a fantastic teacher, I learnt so much and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you ever get the opportunity to attend one of her courses I highly recommend it. So here's what I made....

A reversible backless waistcoat, great for summer evenings.

and a skirt, this is waiting to be lined then I'll model it for you!

I also made a dress for a ball I'm going to in a few weeks time, but it's not finished yet, I'll do a show and tell later when I have done the finishing touches. Quite a few people made jackets, which looked fantastic, here's a few that were finished....

Baby Booties!!

2008-06-15T18:54:00.004+01:00

I've been busy, busy, busy making things for Woolfest, which I'll share with you soon, however this weekend I've been a little distracted. I've been making baby booties for the Michael Miller Baby Bootie competition. The deadline is Wednesday! I've made a lot, some of which were abandoned half way through, but I've ended up with three pairs, the problem now is deciding which pair to enter.

No time to make anymore as I'm doing a 4 day felting course starting tomorrow. It's a master class in felt for clothing - techniques and methods for making thin felt fabrics with Charlotte Buch. I'm really excited, 4 whole days of felt making!!! My parents have come to look after the children, for which I am very, very grateful, thanks Mum and Dad. The only down side is I decided to commute rather stay in a B&B on my own, so I'll be setting off at 7.30, to head off down the A1/M1, it's been quite some considerable time since I drove to work in rush hour traffic!

Functional Felt Swap

2008-05-29T17:14:00.006+01:00

Well, yesterday was the deadline for posting our felt out and I made it to the post office 5 minutes before closing time, having stayed up late the night before finishing my pieces off. That's me, always last minute!! I had planned to make a knitting needle case but kept putting it off, I guess my heart wasn't in it - is that how the saying goes, it sounds funny, anyway, at the last minute I was inspired by a lovely Barefoots book I was reading to my Son, and ended up making this little ocean based sewing kit. I had a lot of fun making it so there might be some more in the pipeline.

Pincushion

Tape Measure Holder
Needle Case

Bird Nests

2008-05-20T10:04:00.006+01:00

After a flurry of posting regularly I seemed to have slipped back into my old ways again! In my defense I am quite busy trying to make lots of things for the woolfest, without wanting to sound silly, I'm in the creative zone right now. I seem to have an unending supply of ideas at the moment and keep surprising myself with new designs. It makes a nice change from struggling to come up with new designs and relegating prototypes to the recycling basket. That's the beauty of felting, you can recycle it, my recent needle cases and notebooks were made out of a felt scarf I made last year, but was never happy with. Here's a few pictures of some of my latest creations....can you spot the theme?

And here are a few pictures I took at the weekend. My parents have a fantastic garden, so I took the opportunity to practice using my macro lens.

My first award!!

2008-05-13T19:15:00.005+01:00

A few weeks ago I had a nice surprise, I was given the Arte y Pico award by ethel and edna, a lovely crafty blog which I've just recently discovered.

The rules read:

1) Pick 5 blogs who deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and who also contribute to the blogging community no matter what language.
2) Each award must have the name of the author and also a link to their blog.
3) Each award winner must show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) The award winner and the one who has given the prize must show the link of the “Arte y pico“ blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Show these rules.

So here's my 5:

1. Sarah at guerilla embroidery

2. Leah at Kneek

3. PG at middle of nowhere

4. Sarah at paper-and-string

5. Anabel at fieltromania

It was very difficult to pick just 5 as I subscribe to 109!!

And just to finish off the post I have some work in progress to show.

Sunshine and Felted Beads

2008-05-10T07:44:00.008+01:00

Hurray!!! We've had a whole week of sunshine and it looks like today is going to be another good day. We've had to wait a really long time this year for the weather to hot up, lets hope it stays.

Last Saturday I went to the region 10 members day for the International Feltmakers Association. The theme for the day was jewellery, I had a great time and learnt some new techniques as well as being hugely inspired. Here's some of the work I did on the day,

A flower made from Finn wool.

A giant bead made from Finn wool.

Some interlocking hoops from Finn wool (not sure what I'll do with these yet).

And a bead made from merino wool.

As you can see I was quite taken with the Finn wool, so I ordered some from Piiku, it arrived yesterday, just look at the gorgeous colours!!

And finally, here's some beads which I've been churning out this week....

And here's a cute little bag modeled by my daughter, just before the grass was cut :)

Bags, Books and Bowls

2008-04-29T14:16:00.005+01:00

Where does the time go? I can't believe we're nearly into May. I have been busy working on ideas for woolfest, it's getting very close and at the moment I don't have a lot of things to sell. Here are my latest pieces, a felted bowl, which I dip dyed and embellished with buttons and this cute little notebook cover. I'm really pleased with the notebook, and plan to do some more.

I have also been playing with the Gocco, I wanted to try making a screen from a photograph, unfortunately not all of them worked so I've wasted two screen, which is a bit of a pain as I have to order them from Japan, but here's one that worked, I'm using them as thank you cards to put in with my orders.

I've also been soaking up inspiration from these two books which I'm borrowing from the library, our local library has a good craft section, which is just as well as I have no more room on the shelves for more books!!

Fabric Jewellery by Teresa Searle

Felt So Good by Betz White (UK version of Warm Fuzzies)

The jewellery book had some pompoms made from fabric which looked really nice, so I had a go with some scraps of silk I have and made this one, which I attached to bag which was lying around waiting for a little something to lift it.

And here's a bag with some lace felted into the front, it gives it a lovely texture, I dyed this the same time as the bowl, cerise pink is one of my favourite colours.

Anyway, best go now, I have some felt balls and pincushions to finish off before the school run.

Felt Making Workshops

2008-04-18T16:53:00.004+01:00

Here are my new workshops. Each workshop is £25, which includes all your materials. To book a place you need to send a £10 deposit, this is non refundable, but if you can't make the workshop for any reason, it can be transfered to another workshop, providing there are places left. The remaining £15 is payable on the day. All the workshops are at Calcutt Village Hall, just outside Knaresborough in North Yorkshire. There is ample parking available. The maximum number is 10 so book early to avoid disappointment.

Saturday 26th of July 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felt a Bag
Make a felt bag using the resist method of felting (no seams) and make a felt flower to embellish it.
Only 6 places left.

Saturday 23rd of August 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felt Jewellery
Use a combination of wet and needle felting to make felt beads, sushi beads, rope, flowers and pendants.

Saturday 20th of September 2008
10.30 -3.30
Felt Vessels
Learn to make 3D felt that can be transformed into felt vases and bowls.

Saturday 18th of October 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felted Monster Bags
Have fun making your own unique monster bag.

Saturday 29th of November 2008
10.30 - 3.30
Felted Scarves
Keep warm and snug during winter with your own felted scarf (made from merino wool which is extremely soft and comfortable against the skin).

To book a place contact me at fibrespace@gmail.com

Competitions!!!

2008-04-17T09:59:00.005+01:00

I love entering crafty competitions, I find it motivates me to try out ideas and have a go at new things. In the past I have seen competitions on the web, and got as far as thinking about possible designs, but then the closing date has come way to quickly and I end up missing the deadline. I seem to have a bit more time on my hands now (with the youngest doing 4 half sessions a week at pre-school), or maybe I am just more motivated with my felting at the moment, anyway, I'm going competition mad. I've just entered the last of my softies in the 2nd Annual Softie Awards, I ended up entering the big blue ugly monster in the cutest face category along with his friend the blob, so as not to hurt their feelings, but between you and me, they don't stand a cat in hells chance when you look at all the very cute entries. Still, I've told them that it's the taking part that counts and that not everyone can be a winner.

I've also entered Victor into the embroidered to death category. I finished him last night. I've been wanting to do a large owl sculpture for a while now. I'm really pleased because Victor came out better than I had imagined. At one point he wasn't looking so good, but I managed to manipulate his head to give him that 'w' shape on top, which made a big difference.

Here's another competition that grabbed my attention, I was reading the craftzine blog, and there was details of a competition to make a pair of baby booties out of Michael Miller fabric. I have designed and made a few booties before and love Michael Miller fabric so I was thinking that I must enter (also there are some great prizes on offer). Then I nearly fell of my chair when I scrolled down and saw a pair of my booties posted on the blog for inspiration! Here they are, I'd made them last year for my friends little girl.

Pink

2008-04-13T10:24:00.003+01:00

Vone got in touch and has picked Dixie, so Dixie has been wrapped up and parceled off to start new adventures over on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. So I just spent the morning listing the other mini monsters on etsy.

I was teaching a felting workshop yesterday, Nuno felted scarves, unfortunately there wasn't enough time to take photographs, which is a shame because the students made some fantastic scarves. I'm having a bit of a break from the workshops, but they'll be starting up again in June. I'd like to do some new workshops and am thinking of offering a monster bag workshop and felted vessels.

Here's my latest felt creation, another mini monster, she's my favourite so far, I've entered her into the pink category of the 2nd Annual Softie Awards , and I was very excited to see her make an appearance on Softies Central.

I have the house to myself as the rest of the family have gone to look at bikes, so I'm going to go and make the most of it now.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

2008-04-10T10:19:00.004+01:00

I made this chap yesterday for the softie awards, I had been intending to enter him into the cutest face category, but in an attempt to do cute I think I created a pretty ugly monster! If I get chance I might just start all over again.

Functional Felt Swap

2008-04-10T09:45:00.003+01:00

I've just signed up for the functional felt swap organized by painted fish studio and three sneaky bugs looks like it might be fun!

A parcel in the post

2008-04-09T18:55:00.003+01:00

My lovely Japanese fabric arrived today!!! Look, they are so unbelievably cute.

And this is what I have been doing with it, making buttons to sell at Woolfest. Only I've run out of the button bits (I just bought a few to have a try a while back), so I've tracked down more supplies this afternoon. Unfortunately that means more patient waiting for the postman, in the meantime I may have to think up a project or two to use some of the fabric, or maybe I'll just look and stroke.

Curly and Veronica...

2008-04-08T17:35:00.003+01:00

Well I went to the British Craft Trade Fair, I whizzed around in an hour and made it back in time to finish a few more monster pincushions and tidy up in preparation for some when felting tonight before heading off on the school run.

There was some fantastic stuff at the fair, it's not open to the public as it's a trade fair, but I wanted to have a look around as I'm thinking of exhibiting next year. I went last year as I'd managed to get my hands on an invite and was surprised to see quite a lot of felt, this year there wasn't as much, I'm wondering whether the felters didn't do so well last year so gave it a miss this year. Felting is time consuming so the finished articles aren't cheap! There was no one there doing work similar to mine, which is good. There was an awful lot of jewellery and glass work, if you're a jewellery designer it must be hard to stand out from the crowd. I also checked out the way people displayed their work which is often just as important as your work for grabbing peoples attention.

Anyway here's the new monsters....(as you can see I had a bit of fun with the photo shoot)...

Curly's just been caught bouncing on the bed.

Curly loves to ride his red tractor.

Curly with his girlfriend Veronica.

More Pincushions

2008-04-08T11:37:00.003+01:00

Ok, the winner hasn't been in touch yet so I can't list the other pincushions until she's picked her favourite. However, I've just finished these two and listed them on Etsy. Rupert and Lizzie, they look very alike don't they, you could almost mistake them for Brother and Sister. I'll keep this one short as I've got a big to do list!! I can't decide whether to go to the British Craft Trade Fair this afternoon whilst my youngest is at pre-school, or stay at home and catch up with everything.

and the winner is.....

2008-04-07T11:41:00.003+01:00

Vone said...

Those are the coolest pin cushins ever.

Well done Vone, I used a random number generator and it came out with 93, so Vone you can choose from one of the following pincushions. As soon as Vone lets me know her choice I will be putting the others in my Etsy shop (probably later tonight as the kids have swimming lessons this afternoon and this evening) . Here they are...

Lucinda

Matty

Alexander

Norman

and Dixie

Wee Owl

2008-04-04T17:27:00.005+01:00

Here's the little felted bead, I finished him yesterday and as I was going out and he matched my outfit I decided to keep him for myself :)

He didn't photograph so well as he's so small.

Fabric and Felting

2008-04-03T15:05:00.004+01:00

Oh my, I was supposed to have been wet felting last night, but can you believe I spent all night on the computer buying fabric!! Where did the hours go? It was because I wanted some cute Japanese fabric to cover some buttons, I'd seen a few designs I liked but really struggled to find one shop that sold them all, that is until I stumbled upon www.superbuzzy.com, and then I must have spent another two hours, looking at all they're beautiful fabric and filling up my shopping cart :) When I'd finished I was feeling a bit guilty so I made my little baby monster into a cute necklace (which I've just listed on Etsy), then went to bed. However, I then had an idea of an owl necklace stuck in my head, so, unable to leave it until the morning, I went and grabbed my supplies and started needle felting in bed!! I think I strained my eyes because my bedside lamp is pants. Do any other crafters find it hard to switch off, I now carry a pad and pencil permanently in my bag because I will come up with new ideas all the time. There's no photos of the owl yet, I thought I had finished it but H came home at lunch time and said it needed ears, he was right, I added ears and it looks much better, I just don't have the energy to retake the photos.

One of the Mini Monsters had a Baby

2008-04-02T18:18:00.002+01:00

I didn't even know she was expecting!!

(I created this little one whilst I should have been doing housework, now I must go and clean the kitchen!)

A one horned mini monster!!

2008-04-02T14:29:00.006+01:00

I'd like to say a big hello to everyone who has dropped on by from Craft, and thank you everyone for all your comments about my latest creations, it was so nice to get so much positive feedback. Here's another one of my mini monster pincushions, I've two more half finished which I'm hoping to get done tonight.

And in sharp contrast, here's a flower brooch which has been waiting to be sewn together for some time now. I've just popped it in the etsy shop. I'm feeling much better now and am hoping to get stuck into some wet felting, so there will be more monster bags coming soon.

Mini Monster Giveaway

2008-03-31T18:53:00.005+01:00

Oh my, two posts in one day!! I am in the process of making five of these mini monster pin cushions, but I've managed to finish these two already, and couldn't wait to show you. I'm going to give one away to a lucky reader, to enter just leave a comment below, I'll draw the winner on Monday the 7th of April, and they'll be able to pick their favourite (I should have at least three more by then).

Bugs and Beads

2008-03-31T16:11:00.005+01:00

Hi there, sorry it's been a while since my last post, I've been ill. I thought I was going a bit mad, as I had a succession of symptoms, without being really sick. It started with a sore back, then the next day it was shivers and a slight temp, the next few days I had a rash, that seemed to come and go a bit, then all my joints swelled up and became stiff and painful. That's the point I went to the doctors, turned out I'd had some sort of nasty bug, (phew, thought I was becoming a hypochondriac). I'm now on anti-inflammatory drugs which are starting to work their magic. So, I'm afraid I haven't much felting to share with you. It's been horrible not being physically able to felt, instead I had to make do with sketch book work, which has led to more felting ideas! Not that I needed any more, I already have a big list of things to try out. I did manage this necklace, I bought the glass beads at the bead fair, then made felt beads to match.

For those of you wanting to try out felt beads you should visit Mill Girl, she has an excellent tutorial.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to The Funky Felter for featuring me on her blog.

And here's another idea I'm working on, coasters, H is not so keen as they're not symmetrical!

Talking of H, he was very sweet at the weekend and took the kids out for lunch, the cinema and even the art gallery, so I could rest at home :) It was bliss, just what I needed before another week of entertaining them before they go back to school and pre-school.

Is anyone else sick of having chocolate eggs in the house, I am constantly being nagged for more chocolate, the sooner they're gone the better. I might even have to help deplete the stocks after they've gone to bed - is that a bad parent thing to do?

Alfred and Charles

2008-03-20T17:02:00.003Z

These two monster bags have just gone into the shop.

I promise the next post will be monster free. I've just had a fab weekend shopping with my Mum, we went down to Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC on Saturday, then on Sunday we went to the bead fair (which is just around the corner from me). So you can expect some sewing and jewellery pictures in the next post!

Custom Made Felted Monster

2008-03-19T13:15:00.004Z

Here's a monster I've been work on. As I've made him for a custom order I feel he should remain nameless, I'm sure he'll be given a name when he arrives at his new home. He has a few special features, like Gertrude he has a bit of a problem with one of his eyes, and a little tongue that pops out when he doesn't get his own way. He's also had a bit of surgery recently and is waiting for his scar to heal. But the best thing about this monster is that hiding under his tie is a little pocket just the right size to hold keepsakes.

There's a few people waiting on monster bags, so I'm going to try and finish a few off this afternoon.

I've been tagged

2008-03-18T09:46:00.003Z

I've been tagged by Copperheart
(check out her Jewellery, it's lovely)

Here are the rules of tagging:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

So here goes:

This is more difficult than I thought...erm...I am a serial crafter and have spent my life moving from one type of craft to another, it creates serious storage problems, the looms are now temporarily stored in the garage, until I have more time.
When I was little I lived in Germany for a while.
I briefly lived in London, but it wasn't for me, I'm a Northern lass.
I have a problem with eyeballs - very screamish, and yet I love creating my felted pop out eyes?
When I was little I witnessed my pet cat eating my pet mouse, a hard way to learn about the food chain.
Now I'm struggling.......I'm addicted to Haribo, I have a big bag to myself every Friday night... I don't even like to share them with my kids (it's because I don't want them to develop a sweet tooth, honest).

Now who shall I tag, chances are they've been tagged before, but here goes:

http://ashleyrosehelvey.blogspot.com/
http://feltmeupdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://greenbeanbaby.typepad.com/main/
http://guerilla-embroidery.blogspot.com/
http://swirlyarts.blogspot.com/
http://imagingermonkey.blogspot.com/

And because I don't like to write a post without any images, here's a tree I made for my brother's birthday, it's at a funny angle to avoid the reflections on the glass, (note to self - photograph the art work before it's framed).

As promised, more Monsters in the making

2008-03-18T09:39:00.002Z

Here's a sneaky peak at some monsters I've been making. The green bag will be heading into the Etsy shop and the blue monster is a commissioned piece. I was hoping to have more made, but my daughter has been off school with a throat infection. Maybe I'll manage more today, I'll let you know as soon as they're listed on Etsy.