Felting Workshop with Caroline Merrell

Recently Cath & Deb from Traverse and I went on a felting weekend workshop taught by Caroline Merrell.  We had a fabulous time learning all sorts of 3D and sculpting techniques.

On the Saturday we started by making one piece with different types of samples on it - a ball cut in half, braids, and a tube.

Laying out the various samples

By the end of the day I had one rather large piece of felt with various bits added to it.  On Sunday morning I cut it into two pieces: a third and two thirds.  This is the two thirds!

 The craters cut into the felt around the tails.

Further cuts into the felt revealing the felt layers below

I started a second piece.  This is the first layer with bubblewrap resists.


Another layer of felt and more bubblewrap resists.

This was covered with more felt and a top layer of brown which I hoped would make a contrast with the layers underneath.  It didn't really work out how I hoped.

I started another piece with tails in the centre.   The brown felt reminds me of the old brown underfelt that people used under carpets.

I needlefelted some fibres onto the top of this piece.


The final piece I started was using a bubblewrap mask.


I had put a layer of  fibres over the bubblewrap and then I decided to cut rectangles out of a piece of prefelt and put the on the top with a piece of fabric trapped in between.


Then I cut into the felt where the holes in the mask had been.


None of these pieces are finished.  They all need stitching at the very least.   I will write another post about what I have done or will be doing with the felt pieces at a later date.   At least one piece needs to be finished in time for Traverse's exhibition in April.

Just to whet your appetite - here's what I did with Saturday's sample piece on the Monday after the felting weekend.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

E is for Envision

In our Living Your Word of the Year group we are using a fortnightly (bi-weekly) A-Z challenge throughout the year to help us focus on our word and live it out.

Because of the way I have made my journal it's a case of going with the flow of what background the pages have when I turn to them.

As you know from my previous post I did these pages before the D pages.  I stuck down the Teresa Collins folder on the D page so that it folded onto the E pages.

I had gone through some magazines and picked out images and words that attracted me.

The folder opened out with the white printed quote already on it.  Interestingly at church on the morning I did these pages a friend prayed for me and spoke about a changed perception.

I found the the coloured-in image in my stash.  It's one of Valerie's designs from her book: Colorful Blessings.  

I looked at the things I had decided to commit to in my first Word of the Year blogpost and printed out some photos.  On the page above there's a piece of finished textile work to go with my commitment to finish work.

I printed out a photo of a walk and a photo of me when I was slim. Or at least slimmer than I am now and somewhere I would like to get back to.  I was listening to Terry Savelle Foy talking about keeping the vision before you - an actual picture rather than just inside our head - so printed this out.  I put a photo of someone with their Bible and praying.  I also put a photo of my right hand as a reminder of what it looked like before I broke my fingers and the word 'believe' to confirm my belief that my hand will be whole again.

Here are the pages together in my journal.

Thank you for joining me today.
Bernice

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Join Mary Brack, Valerie Sjodin and I in our Facebook group where we are giving participants the opportunity to live out an A-Z of their own word throughout 2019.  Mary explains what we are doing in her blog post.  We don't like a lot of rules, so we will have suggestions and options to spark creativity, and to help in recording and exploring our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We will each blog about our experiences and our art.

 Living Your Word of the Year 2019

Hashtags on Instagram:  #livingyourword2019

Check out the other blogs:
Mary: www.foundonbrighton.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

To ensure you get updates from Valerie, Mary & I why not subscribe to our blogs.

And it's finished

After 7 months I have finished Module 1 of my Master Practitioner course.  It is hoped that you will complete a module in 6 months but I had task for a month extra because of my broken fingers.  I finished both the piece and my workbook and submitted it with one day to spare.  I'm sure I could have asked for more time but I had promised myself I would finish by the end of February.  And I did.

In my last workbook post I showed you the pages up to my final design.  So now you get to see the pages about making the actual piece.

I lived with the lutradur out on the table for about 4 weeks and for several days I added or removed bits on the collages until I was satisfied with them.

I used  bondaweb where possible to attach most of the collage bits to the linen background and then started stitching the collages.  I aimed to stitch one square a day but sometimes managed two.

Then there was the problem of how to fix it all together.  I had been mulling this over whilst I had been stitching.

Fortunately my fixing of choice - double-sided tape - worked really well and I didn't have to add any extra stitches.

 Here is the book folded up with a ribbon around it.

Originally this piece was going to hang on the wall in the Revealed exhibition but now it's going to sit on a table.  I deliberately chose different textures for the collages so that as people touch the work they can feel those differences.

To see this piece of work come along to the Traverse stand at the British Quilt & Stitch Village at Uttoxeter Racecourse from April 12th - 14th.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice