Festival

Detail of one of the felt pieces made

I had a lovely day with my textiles group up at The Heathlands Project yesterday. A few weeks ago I asked them what they'd like to do and two of the things they came up with were more felt making (see the marvellous Jimmy Sparks for other felt making exploits) and more exhibitions and competitions. So, we decided that working together the group could make one or two pieces to enter into the Jersey Textile Showcase 2014.

Cutting out shapes

Cutting out shapes

Cutting out shapes

The theme this year is 'Festival' so we began by talking about festivals; what they were about, what they might sound, smell, look and feel like. The guys then produced some designs and then split into two groups where they combined their ideas and made two gorgeous pieces of felt. We used raw Jacob fleece for the base (as we get it free) and brightly coloured merino tops for the top layer. It was great how much the guys remembered from last time and how well they helped each other and worked together. The felt making was last week and I sadly had no camera to record the work but it was good (if a bit smelly.)

Adding machine stitch

Adding hand stitch

Adding hand stitch

This week they decided to each cut a shape from the felt they had made and work into it and then we will combine the embellished felt pieces to create a piece or two of art that we can enter for the competition. I forgot my camera again this week so the pictures are from my (not very good) 'phone but they give you an idea.

Adding hand stitch and sequins

More hand stitch and sequins