photos as promised.

Collecting up some of the pieces done over the last few weeks,there is more than I thought.This felt bag is nearly finished-just a little binding to attach.

Cyanotyped willow leaves on an old French dress bought at a brocante-the fabric is so tough.Close up of the same dress.

Finally,a felt cut-work wrap,which is made using needlefelt and the wonderful machine,which will be lonely here for the next few months.

Autumn in the south west.

All the tourists have gone and the town is settling back into familiar ways again.

 Obviously the weather is just right for a  good crop of wild cepes.

Only proper shoppers here instead of browsers and watchers, as in the high summer.This year, the walnuts have been badly affected by the heat,so no chance of collecting from windfalls in a friends garden.Our hazelnuts have also been affected,mainly by the indigenous red squirrel, but we don't mind him/her having them.Pictures from the studio tomorrow, hopefully.

Back to work

I'm back in the studio again after a week of teaching in hot,humid weather.Using the felt machine adds to the humidity but some lovely work was done in spite of the heat.Now, I'm trying to anticipate my need for felt over the winter months, as the machine certainly wont be going back to the UK with us!

This piece is made up of various naturally dyed fabrics, felted to pre felt ,then heavily stitched.It will have a border eventually, made in combinations of recycled and dyed fabrics-more stitching during the winter,I expect.

This one is a large wrap made from various recycled animal prints.I'm considering putting some of these on my Etsy shop, but time is a bit short at present,as I'm also doing a version of an Alabama Chanin skirt and working on a possible piece for the new felt exhibition organised by the German Felt group.
We have night visitors on our verandah-maybe dormice, maybe a squirrel we're not sure,so sleep isn't so good.Hate to put down traps, especially as it is a red squirrel and the dormice are lovely, but desperation may set in soon.

exhibition visit

I've just seen a really interesting exhibition in the tourist office in Issegeac(just over the border from us in the Dordogne.The combination of traditional weaving techniques with far from trad materials is really inspiring and in some of the work, an African influence seems very strong.Certainly worth the visit and made me think.

The work looked really right in the space,though this image is a bit marred by the heater !

Loved this one.We have lichen growing like weeds on our trees, proof positive that our air is really pure.

 Not sure about the feathers ,as I have a bit of a bird phobia, but on the whole,an impressive collection of work.

Hot Hot Hot

The weather has really become summery with a vengeance-weather station recorded 38 in the shade yesterday.I'm needing 2 fans working in the studio, so the felt machine is a boon because it really takes the hard work out of making large pieces.Busy preparing for my course coming up in Sept,re assembling notes/samples etc and trying to fit in printing sessions between, whilst hiding from the heat-yes it really is that hot.

This is a piece for the Dying of the sun exhibition in Perth.Only needs mounting now.

My son makes bespoke campers-could I get him to make one for me like this lovely ice cream van?  www.bespokecampers.co.uk

Wouldn't it make a wonderful mobile studio?

Finally,some inspiration for another lino cut and look at the blue sky!

time passes quickly

Haven't had time to blog because we have had our daughter out here and have been catching up with family life.There has been some time to felt, but not to talk about it!

 This is one of my pieces for an upcoming exhibition,silk shibori dyed and felted on the machine.

 It can be worn in several ways and I think it may be spoken for!
Looks good at the back too

We have very hot weather at the moment-42 degrees according to our weather station,in the shade,so I'm working slowly on a lace shawl, using cut out techniques that I used for last year's exhibition in Denmark.Watch this space.

creative block removed

Finally found the energy to make something which isn't thrown straight in the bin, though there are still failures, or rather ,learning experiences which really count as such.No pictures of finished items yet, but they are on the way! Meanwhile, this is the busy rolling machine area-it really helps with experiments because it is so much quicker and if a project is less than perfect, I feel that not so much time is 'wasted'

creative block

Most of what I'm doing at present is going in the bin!Lots of learning via mistakes but it's a bit frustrating.So, here are a couple of things which made me smile.Above is some guerilla knitting in Agen.

The cat was sitting under a car near this notice and I thought twice about stroking it after reading the notice.

This advert column was also in Agen.Maybe I'll have some work to show after today instead of all this displacement activity!

more experiments

 Paeony petals and poppy  petals on silk.

 Piper print experiments-combining monoprint and drypoint.

 A lace felt sample-what to do with it?

MY FELT JUBILEE T COSY

Last ,but not least a cushion for the rather vibrant directors chair, using fabric from the Miao people bought for me by my daughter for Christmas.Waited all this time for a suitable use!

This is my yardage

This is a close up of my yardage for a jacket, but it can't be completed until I can getto my sewingmachine, which is hemmed by the progress of the floor tiling !

 This is one piece, which is really much more black/grey than the bluish tones here.

 And this is what the wind did to my lovely, carefully nurtured wild flower bank last night-who would expect that in May in SW France?

English weather

Today,we have the same weather as we left behind in England, which is a bit annoying to say the very least.This has given me time to make felt yardage in preparation for a winter jacket to wear at home ,tho it feels as if I need it here really.

This is the machine sliding its way down from the top of the car,after a 14 hour journey.

Very scary watching it come towards me from this angle.We dreaded being asked to unwrap it, as it did look as if we were transporting a body in there but here it is and here it stays.Being put to good use too

Cyanotypes

I've been busily testing my last year's cyanotype chemicals ,which I thought might be past their best and have found that they do still work, tho don't seem to be washing out to white as they should.The sun has been as strong as it possibly could be so if there are any failures, it has to be the chemicals.Fortunately, I have a new supply. but here are some images using the old stuff-some on paper and some on fabric,some using digital negatives and some using plants.

I've promised myself that I'll blog more regularly now that I have a clean house after removing 6 months of mice droppings and spider webs, but for now, back to the rolling machine to finish another piece of yardage, this time using re cycled scarves in black and white.

Another long gap!

Time is flying by,not helped by ill health and a family crisis,plus preparing to travel to France for 6 months.There are piles of 'vital supplies' lying in every room and barely any time to do creative stuff.The IFA conference was a really excellent experience-time to talk to people I hadn't seen for ages and to do some very good workshops.We all had one full day class and two half days and all of mine made me think about my own work in a different way,which couldn't be better.
My full day was with Sue Bradley, using a needle felt machine and transfer printing press.This is some of the work Sue showed us.

I started to de construct a charity shop cardy, but haven't had time to finish it yet, so more of that in France,I hope.My aim is to wet felt the items using the rolling machine,rather than using an embellisher,becuase somehow, I don't seem to get on very well with them,but it was interesting to have a go.I'm also reading and sampling from Alabama Chanin's wonderful book ALABAMA STUDIO SEWING AND DESIGN,aiming to adapt some of the ideas for my felt.It really is a glorious book and very inspiring,plus it has patterns to use and adapt.
My half day workshops were equally as inspiring, with Chris Lines and Sheila Smith, both of whom added to my felting arsenal.

dancing hares

Close up of some of my hares,dancing across scrim.Am taking a breather and thinking where to go next.We have hare visitors to our field in France and I can watch them whilst ironing,so maybe a curtain, but maybe not-who knows?

Not much work being done

I'm currently working on a new piece based on the sacred hare-no photographs yet, because it isn't working out as I wanted so far.Isn't it always the case that when you have a strong idea in your head,it's hard to make the work equal the idea? My screen print on scrim was a failure,so now I'll have to try a new approach, over the Easter weekend.Some days are good,some are not so!Maybe the change in the weather has blunted my creative  juices.

Long time since last post

After a long period of feeling non creative and generally off colour,I've finally managed to produce something worth showing .It's a poor picture,because the light inside our 1650s house is dreadful, even with flash.The garment has recycled fabric and natural dyed pieces with a 'lace'edging,constructed much like my snow queen work last summer.Have also dyed some fabric with bought dried walnut husks, which turn out to be nowhere near as good as the real thing,of which there is a lovely bucket full festering away in France.Never mind, will soon be back there in the big studio with my lovely machine!

Finished!

This is the blanket I've been working on for what seems weeks,using my lovely rolling machine.I thought it would be a good idea to use it as a sort of sampler,to see how the various fabrics attached to the base felt,using the various settings available.It was finished finally in the rinse and spin cycle of the washing machine,so all in all it feels like rather a lazy way to produce a large item, but I'm not complaining!It  is very warm, but light and has a collection of recycled fabric,natural dyed silk and various pieces picked up on journeys to different places,so really, a story unfolding. Close up below.

My machine was made by Feltcrafts and I can't praise it and them,enough!

recent work

I've been enjoying myself, working through an online course written by Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth.I've gained some interesting new ideas to apply to my feltmaking, and had the piece so far completed on the back of the sofa,so I could work out what to do next.The sun came out and my cat magically appeared.

I think she likes it!

A detail of a section.I have used my naturally dyed fabrics, and what is best of all,tiny scraps of fabric which I am now so glad I saved.Progress is slow but pleasurable and the end result, when I have edged it with plain felt made using the new machine,will be a lovely warm blanket which has a history, and the approval of the cat.

My samples based on the visit to Oxford

This is the one I like the best, made on the wonderful machine.It is basically a wool sandwich with scrim on both sides of pre felt shapes.It lets the light through beautifully so could make a good window curtain, bit also would be good on the bottom of a light garment to give weight where needed.The other samples were done on silk and muslin-didn't like the muslin at all, far too white in contrast to the wool.Isn't it amazing that there are so many whites, and some can be too white?

trip to Oxford

We went to look at the Egyptian mummies and were fascinated by the method of wrapping with linen cloth-couldn't find any detailed info about it,so this will need a long trawl on Google.It's like Log Cabin patchwork and has many exciting possibilities for felt, I think.

Close up of the pattern.Must have taken ages to do this and a great deal of skill.

This is a carved pattern on a stone statue,which I intend to do some work on this afternoon, so should have samples on the site later ,allowing for other distractions!Another technique which will be part of my PURE WHITE course.