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Showing posts from April, 2013

Felt and Stitch.

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I am loving making felt but will always feel the urge to stitch on all my work. There is nothing that I enjoy as much as the feel of needle and thread... I made my first felted beret this week in a workshop with the lovely Julie Bowen. Her instructions were clear and concise and her work was a true inspiration. After a couple of  hours I managed to finish most of the initial layers of wool and silk fibres. Time ran out in class so I've finished the felting process at home. Here is the finished beret with some hand stitching,  I am pleased with the way it turned out although I need more practise so  will be making more... It goes perfectly with this spotty fabric... so a bag was needed, a quick and easy make that's light and easy to carry.                                                    This is the label for my new collections.                                                             '' Raggle Taggle Gyspy'' I had just enough of

My first attempt....

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I joined my Fibre craft/felt making  course at the beginning of February. We have a class for four hours on Tuesday afternoons and have been looking at some interesting techniques including the wonderful alchemy of Indigo dying, which I loved, and this week the magic of 'Cyanotype'. We painted a piece of white cotton with a green coloured chemical then immediately placed some leaves and grasses on the top. The whole thing was covered in a piece of clear perspex then placed in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. The fabric turned a steely grey where it was exposed to UV light and stayed white under the leaves. when we rinsed the fabric in cold water it turned this fabulous blue. It's truly an amazing process, I'm embroidering over this now and will share the results soon. Felting is a really new skill for me, and I need lots of practise. I love the random nature of the finished results which can't really be predicted. I love the soft feel of 18 micron Me