A Felt Gryke

More on a grykes theme - this time a sample piece, which turned out to be  a finished piece, based on Maiden Hair Spleenwort. The base is foam covered with hand dyed annd embellished felt. Framed in a box frame it hangs nicely. 

Source inspiration.

Before framing.

Details and below...

Finished!

And hung.

Limestone Pavement

Having finished my Meltwater textile piece I need to start thinking about what to do next....

This is a sample piece which may, if I have the patience, lead to a larger gryke based 'thing'! The sample is carved and needle-felted foam with stitchwork and an attempt to make Maidenhair Spleenwort. 

Meltwater : finished!

A while back I posted about the work that was going into my 'Meltwater' textile piece; click here to read that. I've been rather busy, so it's been a bit of a long haul, but it's finally done. All the glass pebbles that are supposed to represent the 'wet' pebbles and the 'dry' felt pebbles have been securely attached, and organza 'water' trickles added together with 'bubbles' and more... Seeing it outside made such a difference to the colours - far more glacial than under artificial light...

Left: the planning stage with some detail and right: finished. 

..and some details ...

Meltwater textile

It may appear that I haven't been doing a lot of artwork, but when I can, I have... My current project has involved a lot of thinking - trying to do things in the correct order and fusing glass!  So here are a few photos of progress so far. I began by printing the back cloth - using a large sheet of polythene; rolling acryllic paint onto it, mark making with in it, adding acrylic inks and then taking a mono print on cloth. This was then quilted - by machine stitching and hand stitching ...I have planned where fused glass pebbles go on it, to represent the wet stones within the meltwater channel as well as felt pebbles, for the drier pebbles....there's quite a long way to go, but the photos may give you an idea of progress so far... There are organza layers and plenty of hand embroidery to be added yet as well...

Using an embelisher

With a meeting coming up, where we sahll be looking at the use of embellishers, I thought that I ought to metaphorically, dust mine off. An embelisher is like a sewing machine, but rather than an threaded needle that goes up and down, it has pronged needles that 'needle-felt' flet nad fabric into a background. although there is a lot more you can do with them I am sure - and hopefully will find out just what next week - watch this space! In the meantime ..and 'dusting off' here are three ice inspired semi abstract pices - made with an embellisher, incorporaating marino tops, dyed muslin and other fabrics and wool and  then a bit of machine stitching was added. What to do with them next is the question, as they are ok in their own right, but shall I chop them up and incorporate them into another piece? 

Bowberhead Wet Felting Workshop

 As it was National Meadows Day, Cumbria Wildlife Trust had an open day at Bowberhead; allowing the public to explore the beauty of this upland hay meadow. As part of this I was able to run two workshops: in the morning a wet felting workshop and in the afternoon a sketching workshop. I began both by leading a guided walk through the meadows looking at the flora and management of the meadows and hopefully inspiring participants for their artwork! The meadows, due to the weather this year, are past their best, but there was still plenty to see with notably good displays of Hay Rattle seedheads, Betony, Knapweed and a range of grass species. Due to the unpredictability of the day's weather, we felted inside the lovely old cattle shed ...everyone was pretty much a beginner and threw themselves whole heartedy into the process! The photos below are while the felts were wet and some will be embellished with a bit of needle felting, embroidery or bead-work once dry. Well done all!

Workshops week

Part of my way of thinking is to try to free up weeks, by concentrating 'work' into a single week...so this week it was wet felting and drypoint courses as well as an evening talk. Great work produced by all and it was particularly helpful that the sun shone to dry the felt! Much of the felt will be sewn into to finish it and drypoint etchings may be coloured too. 

The ideal drying rack! 

Some fabulous drypoint etching...

Felted Primroses

We all look forward to spring and being as it feels nothing like spring - here is a sample piece that I prepared for a forthcoming workshop,  primroses. 

The finished sample.

Layng down fibres ...

Needle felting onto prefelt...

Adding detail...

Geting there ...

Needle felted ...

..and wet felted.