Felting Fun at Wiggonby

Fabulous Felt Pieces

Recently I headed out to Wiggonby CofE School to run a felt making session for the Key Stage 1 pupils. I like running these one off workshops as it's a chance to see different schools and how they operate and they're always a lot of fun. Felt making is such a tactile and satisfying process that it's difficult not to enjoy it! I also like that even with no experience it is possible to produce really interesting pieces of felt.

Laying out the fibres

Laying out the fibres

Laying out the fibres

One of the challenges with this session was that I essentially had three classes (reception, year 1 and year 2) all together which is quite an age range. Interestingly, it was actually the older children who struggled a little more as I think they were thinking it through more whereas the younger children just got stuck in. It got quite loud at one point but they all seemed to be having a good time and everyone produced a piece of felt. I think they're planning to use the felt to decorate their new classroom, which I think is a good use for it!

Building up designs

Building up designs

Building up designs

It was lovely (if a little surprising for me) when I got to meet the class as they all knew who I was and knew that I used birds and feather a lot in my work as they had been looking at my website. This gave me a good 'way in' as I was able to talk about how I used felt in my work and about how I found the natural world very inspiring. As a class they were very keen on nature and enjoyed telling me about the wildlife around them. One of the boys brought in a picture of some feather drawings he'd done at home after looking at my work in school. It was great that he felt he could bring that in to show me. I was very impressed as he'd very carefully observed and drawn the texture of the feather. With all the negative stories about education in the press at the moment it was quite uplifting to go into a class and see children not just full of enthusiasm and interest about the natural world and art but able to explore that interest in school.

Starting to felt

Starting to felt

It's interesting working in very rural schools like this one compared to those in town, the children all had a very clear understanding of where the fibres we were working with came from which you often don't get in (not surprisingly) in more urban schools.

Rolling the felt

Seeing how it was going

At the end of the session I had one of those great 'this is why I do this moments.' One of the pupils came up to me with a feather she had found (she's been collecting them) and said she wanted me to have it as a thank you for helping them to make felt. It was such a lovely gesture and a really nice way to finish my week.

Finished felts

Finished felts

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

Mushrooms...the start of something?

Felted Mushroom

Today I have typed up a proposal written by my friend Helen and I for a piece of performance/installation art involving felting and mushrooms and Kendal. I do not wish to give too much away suffice to say that if our proposal is accepted I think it will be one of the most fun, and random, projects I've worked on, and I've worked on some strange projects!

I have also made a small felted mushroom from Jacob and Shetland fleece to get into the spirit of things. I think it's really quite sweet. I used a seamless felt method where a plastic resist is used to form 3D shapes, in this case a bell shape and tube shape. The Jacob, used for the cap and mixed with the Shetland for the stalk, is quite a coarse fibre and the resulting felt is still quite hairy which gives the mushroom a rather fuzzy texture and appearance. The spots are merino which felts much more easily and is a much softer fibre which I think works well as the spots kind of melt into the cap.

Beautiful Birdie Cushion

Perching prettily

I've just finished my first Christmas present, woohoo! The only problem being that I really like it and want to keep it for myself. However, I think I will resist (or just make another one.) I made this birdie from a fleece blanket, I've found the blankets are often cheaper than buying fleece from a roll and they generally have nicer, more on trend prints and colours as well. I love the warm pinky purple of this one. I added some felt, embroidery and buttons for his eyes and quilted him some wings and he's ready to fly away. Or at least perch prettily on my nana's sofa! The only part I'm not sure about is the tail. I think it is maybe a bit wide or possibly needs quilted feathers similar to the wings. Overall though, I'm quite pleased with him.

The other side

Wing detail

Eye detail