theMADEproject feature!

Very excited today - theMADEproject, with whom I have been communicating for a while on Twitter, have featured me as their seller of the week - have a look at their website at www.themadeproject.com for the full interview! I am also hoping to get involved in their MADE markets which are starting up in 2012. theMADEproject describe themselves as a 'creative online showcase of all that is homemade and wonderful in the UK' and it's really great to be part of this initiative.

Christmas Eve!

Having finished and delivered my tiny godson's Christmas present, I can look forward to a Christmas Eve spent knitting the cat's present, eating mince pies and listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Radio 3 at 3pm - it's been a feature of ever Christmas Eve since I was very small, apart from a couple of years when I was working in retail and had to be at work.

The godson's chair came from Ikea, and has been decoupaged with papers and glue varnish from Decopatch. The legs and back are in a red marbled with gold, the seat is green with adorable dancing teddy bears. When I was a toddler, my grandparents brought me back, from a holiday in Spain, a little rush-seated chair to be my very own, and I still have it to this day - I remember how special I felt having my own chair, and I wanted Thomas to have that too! Decorating it has been great fun - I've not done decoupage before. Next project - turning my boring wooden bead box into a decoupage masterpiece!

I recently knitted a waistcoat for myself from Zwartbles wool, and Sophie the cat made it quite plain that she considered it hers by right. I disagreed, and reclaimed my waistcoat, but as I had a 150 grams or so of the yarn spare, I thought I would make her a small blanket as a Christmas present - it is almost done, ready to be boxed up and put under the tree. I'm sure she will love it - my only concern is that she will try to eat it!

Talking of eating, I am looking forward to the mince pies with interest - they are the fancy Waitrose ones by Heston Blumenthal, which apparently have pine-scented icing sugar to dust over them when they come out of the oven - hmmm.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Wheels and collars

There has been great excitement in the house (not least on the part of the cat, who thinks it's her new toy!) with the arrival of a Haldane spinning wheel, which is on loan from the Brecknock Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers which I joined recently. It has been a steep learning curve, as I have never used a double drive wheel before, but I am seeing an improvement in my yarn (and my temper!) already. It does, however, confirm me in my conviction that when I buy my own wheel it must be a double treadle one, as this single treadle is really very bad for my back and thoroughly un-ergonomic. This means I have to limit spinning to about 15 minutes at a time, which is probably no bad thing as I would otherwise be in danger of doing nothing else!

I have been researching spinning wheels, and in view of what I have learned over the last few weeks about what the important factors for me are (mostly to do with my back, and involving working height and the symmetry of the design and ease of pedalling) my current front runners are the Louët Julia www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer08/KSjuliareview.html and the Kromski Sonata www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/eqp_spn_whl_wheels.php. Although the Louët, which is made in the Netherlands, would appeal to my Dutch heritage, my preference is for the Polish-made Kromski at the moment because a) it's about £100 cheaper and comes with its padded carrying bag included in the price, b) the height of the orifice is 3" higher (less stooping = less backache, which is a major consideration for me), c) it has two footmen connecting the treadles to the wheel, as against one on the Louët, which should make it easier to pedal, d)it is solid wood, whereas the Louët is partly laminate, and I am old-fashioned enough to want solid wood, and e) the Kromski looks more like a traditional wheel and is arguably more ornamental than the utilitarian Louët, which is a consideration as it will be out on view in the living room at all times. The only thing really against the Kromski is that the Lazy Kate for two bobbins is on the 'wrong' side for me for plying - I'd prefer a freestanding Lazy Kate (which comes with the Louët) which I can place on the floor behind me and to the left.

So - it seems likely that, unless my researches come up with any further options, all my Christmas and birthday money will be going towards a Kromski fund...

Meanwhle, I have been knitting - I am part way through a waistcoat of Zwartbles wool, of which more when it's done, but meanwhile, I have made a rather gorgeous collar from 100 grams of Twilley's Freedom Spirit which I happened to have in the stash (matches my very first mittens!), it's a very simple pattern of K1, P1 and K2, P2 ribbing with some increases, and is incredibly cosy - in fact I have worn it continually since it came off the needles!

Winter is coming...

Having shivered my way through the last two winters (including several months in 2009/10 without a functioning central heating system) I am now very enthusiastic about knitwear in general, and fingerless mittens in particular - I have been furiously knitting, and now have a nice selection which will be going into my Folksy shop www.fabrikant.folksy.com in the next few days.

I am learning to spin an have been experimenting with spinning stripy wool - when I get a bit more proficient, the idea is to handspin stripy yarn and then knit beautiful mittens from that! But maybe not till next winter...

Website design

An exciting day today, as the process of designing the new Fabrikant website begins in earnest. Sam of www.bluedaisyvi.co.uk has been talking me through the bewildering range of options available to me! Fortunately, he speaks English rather than computerspeak, which makes life easier. We both have quite a lot of work on at the moment, so it may be a little while before the site goes live, but hopefully early next year it should be up and running. Watch this space...

Guilds and cardies

On Friday I attended my first ever meeting of a Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers - the Brecknock Guild, at Brecon. I have been a member of the Online Guild for a while, and find it hugely valuable (see my Links for details), but a recent correspondence online led to an invitation to come along to the 'land' (as opposed to 'online'!) Guild at Brecon, which is about an hour's drive from me. The three guild members who had invited me were all there, and it was a very interesting and pleasant day - everyone was very friendly, and I didn't feel TOO daunted, even though almost everyone there was a spinner, and obviously very competent! I saw lots of people's yarns and the things they were knitting with it, also some beautiful natural-dyed wool by Louise Boer (added bonus - Louise is Dutch, so I had the chance to practice my very rusty Dutch! I am half-Dutch, but don't really have much family left on that side, and haven't been back to Holland for about 20 years, so I rarely get the chance to speak Dutch. As a result, I am losing it, which is such a shame).

I was also fascinated to see the different types of spinning wheels in use! 7 different models by 4 different manufacturers, I think - I can see I am going to have to do a lot of homework if I am thinking of getting a wheel (as well as selling a whole lot more corsages and wall hangings to pay for it!).

As well as my spindle, I took along my knitting - I have been making a HUGE cardi/coat for a while, using gorgeous Shetland chunky wool and a garter stitch pattern both from Woolcake. I haven't done much to it recently (it was too bulky to take on holiday to Cornwall and Devon) and I urgently wanted to get it finished before we get any cold weather - I have lost a lot of weight in the last year, and consequently most of my wardrobe no longer fits, and I really do need some decent warm winter clothes! I got a lot done during the guild meeting, and finished the last bits off yesterday (why does the finishing off, sewing up etc take as long as knitting half the cardi?!) and it was finally ready to wear yesterday evening. I am delighted with it - it looks great, feels lovely on, and is warm without being stifling (wool is an amazing material). The delightful ladies at Woolcake threw in a kilt pin (it's edge to edge, so needs a pin as a closure if you do want to close it) but I also discovered that one of my felt corsages looks amazing pinned centre front. I will post a picture some time...

A day at the loom

Today has mostly been spent weaving, or in weaving-related activities. I have two projects on the go for which I have been sampling - a large seascape which I have been working up to for over a year since we went on the Balmoral from Penarth to Padstow, and I had several hours to muse on the varying shades of blue, aqua and grey in the sea and sky; and an 'all seasons' stole for my partner, who is a priest, and has commissioned a stole to wear with his robes which includes the four colours of the church's seasons: red, green, purple and gold or yellow. I have uploaded a pic of me at the loom, sampling for the stole - the sample for the tapestry can be seen on the underside of the loom too.

The other thing I did today was just a bit of fun - I have been toying with the idea of making miniature tapestry pictures, and the recent trip to Cornwall (and especially the seascapes by Sally Bassett www.sallybassett.co.uk which I saw at the Art House Gallery at St Ives and the Mill Gallery in Coverack) have inspired me to try it - here's a picture of the tiny seascape, just 3 inches by 4 and a half. Of course, a photograph can't really do justice to the texture, especially the yarns I used to evoke the breaking wave, and the colours in real life are a little more muted - the flash seems to have made them more intense.

Christmas shopping? New stock in my Folksy shop

For those of you who are trying to get ahead of the game with Christmas shopping, I have just listed some felt corsages in my Folksy shop at www.fabrikant.folksy.com. More items will be going into the shop over the next few weeks.

Spinning with cats, and the alchemy of feltmaking

Have been doing some more spinning - ably assisted (well, hampered actually!) by my cat, Sophie, who was determined to sit on my lap yesterday evening. One is not best equipped to defend oneself against a very determined tabby while clutching a spindle in one hand and a quantity of Blue Faced Leicester tops in the other! I developed a whole new approach to park and draft, with my spindle parked under the 'wrong' arm because of the cat/arm of sofa configuration! They don't tell you about this in the spinning books...she's a bit obsessed with wool, so I have to make sure that everything is locked away out of sight and paw, otherwise it gets eaten and/or nested in while I'm not looking.

I am trying to spin a fairly thin, but consistent, yarn at present. I'm quite pleased with the results so far (see pic). I have acquired a number of resources on the recommendations of various members of the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, and am booked into a workshop next month, so I anticipate a steep learning curve.

Meanwhile, firmly back within my comfort zones, I did an informal feltmaking workshop today for two friends, who went away with their first creations - two beautiful, and very different, pieces of flat felt, made from merino and BFL in wonderful colours (courtesy of Wingham Wool Works and Carol Webb). I think there are now two more feltmaking addicts out there! I was interested that Steph described the process as 'alchemy' - a word I often use about the magical transformation from a handful of fibres to a sturdy, beautiful piece of textile, just by the application of a bit of soap, water, and work!

As promised, pic of first yarn

First skein of Blue Faced Leicester two-ply drying in the sun!

In a spin...

For a while now I have been thinking that it is inevitable that I should eventually learn to spin - as a weaver and knitter, it's the obvious next step in the mastery of fibre - and now, suddenly, I am spinning! I went to the Creative Stitching and Hobbycraft show in Cardiff on Saturday and saw Rachel Powell of www.rachel-powell.com demonstrating spinning with a drop spindle - within an hour I was the proud owner of my first high-whorl spindle, and much of Sunday was spent turning a pile of Blue Faced Leicester tops into my very first yarn! As I write this, two skeins (one single, one two-ply) are hanging over the sink to dry, weighted down by various kitchen implements. I am now a spinning addict.

Spinning my own yarn will allow a range of different techniques to enrich the Felting British Wool project (I am posting this post in that blog too) - both as surface texture and mixed media. I look forward to experimenting! Meanwhile, the next stage in the project is scouring and carding the fleeces which are currently in the garage - the day job is taking up all my time at the moment, so that may have to wait a couple of weeks.

Pics of my first yarn to follow...

Weekend in London Part Three – Afternoon Tea at the Orangery, Kensington Palace

Nothing to do with textiles, but such fun! I had never had proper afternoon tea in London, and visiting Ruth seemed like a great excuse to try one – I have heard that the Ritz is overpriced but disappointing, so I had done some research online, and the Orangery at Kensington Palace seemed to please a lot of people.

We got there about 2.45 on Sunday and had a queue of 20 minutes or so. Later on (towards 4pm) the queues were far longer, although our waiter said that weekdays are much quieter. Once seated by our charming waiter (even on a busy Sunday there were plenty of helpful staff), we decided that if it was worth doing, it was worth doing properly, so we went for the Royal Champagne Tea, which consisted of a flute of champagne, a pot of tea of your choice (Darjeeling for me, Earl Grey for Ruth), a selection of finger sandwiches (nice bread, including a delicious seeded brown, and fillings of cucumber and cream cheese, ham and mustard, cheese and pickle, and smoked salmon – very good), orange-infused scones (possibly the best scones I have ever eaten) with strawberry jam which looked home-made, and Cornish clotted cream, and then a selection of little cakes including a divine tart which I think was orange and passionfruit.

The Orangery is amazing – lofty, cream and pale green interior which creates a very classy ambience, huge windows (obviously) with a view across the terrace to Kensington Palace’s gardens. Each table has a real miniature orange tree in a pot! The whole experience is opulent and classy, but very friendly – none of the snootiness that can sometimes mar posh venues in London. The only slight criticism is the toilets, which are around the back of the building and in a prefab – perfectly adequate, but not quite the marble-and-gilt opulence one might expect!

The experience did not disappoint – for a little over £20 each, we had a sumptuous and decadent champagne tea in a beautiful setting, were thoroughly pampered, and came away congratulating ourselves on a real treat – and determined to do it again when we next have something to celebrate! Highly recommended – see www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/Foodanddrink/Orangery for details and also opening times and closed dates.

Weekend in London Part Two - The Selvedge Autumn Fair

Congratulations to Selvedge for putting on a really great little fair! The quality of the items for sale was consistently very high, prices were reasonable (sometimes leaving me wondering how the makers were actually making any money!), presentation was beautiful, and the goodie bags from Gudren Sjoden, including a Gudrun scarf, was a real treat. The whole event was more than worth the £2.50 admission – it would have been worth that just to visit it as an exhibition.

There were so many wonderful stalls that I am not going to attempt a complete review – instead I will just mention a few highlights. You’ll just have to go to the next Selvedge Fair and see for yourself! (In case you haven’t come across Selvedge yet – it is an iconic magazine for textile artists and makers which is published 6 times a year. They also have a shop, and run fairs a couple of times a year. See www.selvedge.org for more details).

Atelier Millinery and their fab hats and fascinators (and free ribbon rosette in the goodie bag!) – in Soho or online at www.atelier-millinery.com – they also do courses so you can make your own hat!

Romney Marsh Wools – enterprising small company from Kent, with a flock of a thousand Romney Sheep and some Merinos. Some of their fleeces go to the Wool Board, but some are retained and processed in Wales to make knitting yarn and also yarn which is then woven into throws, rugs and cushions. They also believe in using the fleece in as many ways as possible, and have therefore developed a range of soap and toiletries which use the lanolin – the hand cream I sampled was lush! www.romneymarshwools.co.uk

The Linen Works almost made me wish I was getting married so that I could set up my wedding list with them – gorgeous domestic linens which I would just love in my home, and at good prices. www.thelinenworks.co.uk

Delicious blankets in luxury yarns from Esk – kintted in Scotland. They are doing stuff to their website at the moment and it all sounds very exciting. www.esk-life.com

Lovely accessories from Rosie’s Armoire (the friend I went with succumbed to a very pretty pendant) www.rosiesarmoire.co.uk

Thanks to www.bluebirdjewellry.co.uk for the comments on Etsy, websites and blogging.

Quilted cushions from India Rose www.indiarosedesign.com which I coveted, but sadly couldn’t justify...

Rebecca Engels of www.rebeccasaix.com had some very interesting French textiles and haberdashery.

Really nice colours and textures in lambswool knitwear from Gabrielle Vary www.gabriellevary.co.uk

Pretty things, including the nicest pincushions I have seen in a very long time, from Ellie Evans www.ellie-evans.co.uk. I particularly liked her labels, which say ‘Ellie Evans made this with her hands’ – you can’t say fairer than that!

And for me, possibly the most gorgeous things of all the gorgeous things on display – vintage embroidered Eastern European linens from Parna www.parna.co.uk – I think all my Christmas and birthday money for the foreseeable future will be spent on these beautiful, tactile textiles.

Altogether an excellent morning out – go to the next one! Get there early, to beat the crowds, so that you can browse at your leisure!

Weekend in London Part One - V&A, The Power of Making

Have just returned from a long weekend in London with my wonderful friend Ruth – we had arranged an itinerary which included lots of lovely things: a visit to the V&A to see the Power of Making exhibition, the wool and haberdashery departments of John Lewis and Liberty’s, the Selvedge Autumn Fair, afternoon tea (with champagne!) at the Orangery at Kensington Palace, and finally a visit to the Handweavers’ Studio, which happens to be just round the corner from where Ruth lives.

The Power of Making was very thought-provoking, and I am glad to have been able to go early in the day, because by 11.30 the queues stretched across the foyer. It was good to have time to linger over the exhibits, and read the notes in detail. There was a bit more technology/robotics/3D printing than I had been expecting (I suppose subliminally I had been thinking of it as ‘the power of hand-making’), but several of the objects caught my attention particularly.

Dalton Ghetti’s ‘Alphabet pencil tip sculpture’ looks at first glance like a nice retro kitch piece of domestic wall art, a kind of 3D collage in a box frame. But – look closer, and you’ll see that the hand-sharpened graphite tip of each pencil is carved into a tiny letter, almost like the typeface of an old-fashioned typewriter, from A-Z. Incredibly skilful (I have enough trouble sharpening a pencil to an ordinary point!) and a nice lesson in actually looking.

Textile-wise, there were quite a few goodies. The Korniakow Cooperative from Poland used to make lace for ecclesiastical linen. However, the market for this is in decline, and they have diversified. The item on display here is a gorgeous cream crochet lace G-string - very beautiful and not at all sleazy, despite the inevitable titters from some of the visitors.

The Casdagli father and son’s embroideries have received a lot of media attention, so I won’t describe them in detail – but the differences in style were interesting, and bore out Captain Casdagli’s comments about the contrast between his work and his father’s. The son’s work was a delicately coloured and dynamic sampler of images and text from the Just So Stories. His father’s, by contrast, was symmetrical and severe – stereotypically masculine, arguably, or indicative of the need for security and order in the context in which it was made – a Nazi POW camp. I thought it was a shame that the notes did not mention that there were hidden anti-Nazi messages embroidered in Morse code around the border – I knew about this from the media reporting, and I think the curators missed a trick not mentioning it.

Alyce Santoro’s ‘Voidness’ woven dress was woven by her mother Jeanette Santoro using Polyester thread and cassette audio tape, using a 1940s dobby loom. This was intended as part of an interactive installation, but it made a really attractive fabric, and looked genuinely wearable.

As a feltmaker I was amused by Heleen Klopper’s ‘Woolfiller’ – the use of needle-felting techniques to ‘darn’ holes in knitwear. The next time the moths get to my woollens I will give this a try!

But the accolade of ‘star of the show’ goes jointly to two objects. Christien Meindertsma (being half-Dutch, I was intrigued to see that many of the makers were Dutch!) had created large wooden knitting needles (a couple of inches thick and maybe 4 feet long) to knit a wall-sized giant Aran rug – using cream wool as thick as a broom-handle, which apparently took 18 merino fleeces to produce. The traditional cable designs, scaled up to several feet high, were so effective – I wanted to take this home and hang it on my wall!

The other star object for me was Susie MacMurray’s ‘Widow’ dress. A base of black napa leather was pierced by over 100,000 adamantine dressmakers’ pins some 3 inches long, giving an effect not unlike silver tinsel. The dress was an elegant evening dress, sleeveless and sweeping to a train which puddled on the floor, but lethally prickly. It is intended to be a ‘psychological portrait of a widow’, simultaneously ‘invitingly sensual and stand-offish’. Very disturbing and so beautiful.

While at the V&A I also had a look at the Jameel Prize shortlist. The Jameel Prize is a biennial award for contemporary art, craft and design inspired by Islamic tradition. I was most struck by the installation by Bita Ghezelayagh – she uses the basic idea of the felt capes and tunics widely worn across the Middle East and Asia by shepherds and others, but embellishes her tunics with embroidered text, woven metal wire, and hundreds of tiny metal charms – keys, tulips, crowns, and small rectangular charms with the image of a hero of the Iran-Iraq war printed on them. I loved the way that this artist subverted a traditional skill and garment by adding images and symbols of conflict taken from Iranian post-revolutionary popular culture. I could hardly tear myself away from this exhibit...

New project, new blog!

Today, appropriately enough during Wool Week, sees the start of my new project - felting with British wool, exploring the properties of undyed British fleeces and designing and creating felt pieces to celebrate this amazing material.

Rather than blogging on this blog, mixed up with my other activities, I have decided to create a separate blog, with regular links from this one - http://FeltingBritishWool.blogspot.com - which will follow the whole project from first fleeces, through washing, preparing the fleeces, sampling to learn about their properties when felted, design, creating felt pieces and (hopefully) exhibition. I aim to photograph every stage for the blog.

The project will probably take me well into next year, as I don't have a lot of time around the day job. I hope you will follow me through the process!

New project, new blog!

Today, appropriately enough during Wool Week, sees the start of my new project - felting with British wool, exploring the properties of undyed British fleeces and designing and creating felt pieces to celebrate this amazing material.

Rather than blogging on this blog, mixed up with my other activities, I have decided to create a separate blog, with regular links from this one - www.FeltingBritishWool.blogpspot.com - which will follow the whole project from first fleeces, through washing, preparing the fleeces, sampling to learn about their properties when felted, design, creating felt pieces and (hopefully) exhibition. I aim to photograph every stage for the blog.

The project will probably take me well into next year, as I don't have a lot of time around the day job. I hope you will follow me through the process!

Folksy Shop - coming soon

To supplement the Etsy shop (which hasn't sold much lately - I think my stuff just disappears in the deluge of listings from the USA) I have opened a Folksy shop - Folksy is kind of a UK equivalent, although it's not the same company. Have a look at http://fabrikant.folksy.com in a couple of weeks, when some new stock will be for sale.

Exmoor Fleece Fair and Woolcake

Just got back from the Exmoor Fleece Fair - a really great event organised by Lesley Prior http://devonfinefibres.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/exmoor-fleece-fair-update-and-directions/ and bought a couple of fleeces - one Herbidean (dark and fluffy) and one Wensleydale (ringlets). I need to wash them both before I can start to use them for feltmaking, although I don't want to overdo it with the Wensleydale as I want to keep the gorgeous ringlet structure for texture and interest in my felt.

I was especially glad to meet Julie and Debbie from Woolcake, their yarns and designs are just gorgeous - I tried on their garter stitch long cardigan/coat and was inspired to buy the yarn and pattern to make it - I had been thinking only the other day that I needed a new knitting project for autumn evenings! I chose 'Val', which is a darkish brown Shetland chunky worsted, so soft and scrummy, and I am really looking forward to it. For more on this wonderful company, check out http://woolcake.co.uk

Pink Fizz charity sale

I was delighted to be able to join Hermione Long and 50+ others for a Pink Fizz Tea at Rogerstone today - I had a stall there, together with Stephanie Keates (descended from a line of Witney blanket-makers, so with a good textile pedigree!), who was selling her gorgeous hearts, flowers and seriously cute owls - with 25% of sales going to the two nominated charities - the A21 Campaign which works to eliminate sex-trafficking, and Newport Women's Aid, which runs the women's refuge.

I had a number of lines for sale - felt corsages, mostly made from Blue Faced Leicester wool dyed by Carole Webb of Brecon and Freyalyn in Yorkshire, and incorporating handmade lampwork beads by Doris John of Jewlls4U. I also made some of her beads into matching earrings, with sterling silver findings.

Since last year I have been knitting fingerless mittens in spare moments, and I took a few of these along too, and despite it being August I sold some!

New kid on the block was the Fabrikant Bear - entirely hand-made, from undyed BFL felt and stuffed with waste wool, with boot-button eyes and embroidered features. These collectors' bears take many hours to make - from fibre to bear - so they are only made to order - this was the first time I had taken one to a public event, and there was quite a lot of interest in him. The pic shows his little cousin - I have found the smaller size bear just too fiddly to make, so am now making a larger size, approx 10 inches tall. I need to meet some teddy bear collectors who will really appreciate these bears! The do not have safety eyes, so are not suitable as toys for children.

I will be listing some new stock in my Folksy shop over the next few weeks - check out www.fabrikant.folksy.com to see what's new.

More delicious beads

I visited Doris John of Jewlls4U this afternoon, and came away laden with more of her delicious lampwork beads in a range of colours to suit the colourways of corsages I am planning to make in the next few weeks. Also some small seed beads to work into some of my British natural wool wall hangings, which are also on the agenda for the summer. She really does make and retail some lovely things. The challenge now is to get on and make some felt to use these fabulous beads with! Doris has now started doing one-to-one demonstrations and lessons - google Jewlls4U to see website.

Fabrikant gets an Etsy shop!

After much deliberation, I have decided that my eBay shop is not getting me the sales or exposure I need, and is getting too expensive, and that Etsy - the place to buy all things hand-made - is the place to be. So, I now have a brand new shiny Etsy shop, at www.fabrikant.etsy.com and will be listing things for sale over the next few weeks. Buying on Etsy is easy - just a quick basic registration process to register you as an Etsy user, and you can pay by Paypal. See you at the Etsy shop!

New Twitter username!

For those of you interested in following me on Twitter, please note that I have changed my Twitter username to bring it in line with my forthcoming website - I am now @FabrikantCoUk. If you are already following me, Twitter should have already updated your Following list.

Experimental felt course

Spent all of Saturday and Sunday at Craft in the Bay, the wonderful gallery, workshop space and cafe of the Makers Guild in Wales. I was on a course entitled 'Experimental Felt' with Claire Cawte. It was a very stimulating weekend - although I have been making felt for a while, and am quite competent in the techinques, there is always the risk of getting stuck in a rut. It's good to see someone else's way of working, and also to spend some time 'playing' with different styles. The course covered a range of techniques including flat felt (my challenge was to make really fine felt, as I have a tendency towards thick, dense felt), cobweb, nuno, and 3D. I will upload a photo of the things I made (including the large pot which I made at home on Saturday evening when I got home from the workshop!).

Cobweb was a challenge - not something I'd really done before, and it's surprisingly hard to make felt with so many holes in! I needed far less fibre than I thought - in fact, my more successful sample was made with one eighth of the fibre I originally thought I would use. I want to do more of this - it's a good discipline, and makes wonderful floaty scarves!

Nuno felting is where you start with a fabric (cotton muslin, cotton scrim, or silk) and felt wool fibres onto it. As the felt shrinks during the felting process, it scrunches up the base fabric in a very pleasing way. All sorts of unexpected results happen, and it can be very beautiful. Liz Clay is a leading British maker in Nuno felt, and you can see some of her work at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen exhibition space in Bovey Tracey.

For 3D felt we made pots - I had done this before, too, but had forgotten what fun it is! Which is why I rushed home and made another pot myself - it is very robust as it's made from 5 layers of fibre, the inside is the dark brown of Welsh Mountain fleece, and the outside is light brown Blue Faced Leicester. It is what Winnie the Pooh called a useful pot for putting things in...

Finally, I had a go at encapsulating stitched linen fabric and cutting away to reveal the stitching - a technique of Claire's which I found very interesting.

Claire Cawte is a textile artist and felt maker who is into natural dyes, organic forms and inclusion of found object into felt - and also very good indeed at leading workshops like this.

The other participants on the course were great - a very varied lot, with all sorts of interesting back stories, and it made for a really good atmosphere in the workshop and at lunch breaks. It was interesting that a number of people were recovering from serious illness and had consequently given up demanding jobs to rediscover what was important to them and be creative. It felt like a wake-up call to me - don't wait until the day job makes you ill before you start to focus on the creative side of life!

British wool

I have been playing with some British wool recently - Blue-faced Leicester in a range of colours, and have been felting some graduated coloured samples to see what ideas I can come up with for the Olympic cushion which I have posted about before. Will upload some photos when I have done some more samples - I think I have decided to go for monochrome, un-dyed wools, using some locks (British sourced!) for textural interest. Watch this space...

Twitter!

Fabrikant is now on Twitter! Follow me at @FabrikantOnline

New stock in my eBay shop

Just to let you know that I have listed some corsages in my eBay shop, www.stores.ebay.co.uk/Fabrikant-Online. These use various vintage faux pearls and beads - the next batch will include Doris' fab beads!

If you like what you see in the shop, but would like it in a different colourway, please contact me as I have a range of colours of wool and beads here in my studio and am happy to make corsages to order. You can pay online by Paypal.

Collaboration with fab bead-maker

Have just returned from a great afternoon with Doris John, a glass lampwork bead-maker who lives not far from me - Doris, who is originally from Germany, has converted her garage into a bead-making studio, and also sells wholesale beads as well as her own creations - her eBay shop is at http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Jewlls4U but her beads are even more delicious 'in the flesh'! The lustre is amazing, and her use of colours is really imaginative. And it is so nice to find someone genuinely enthusiastic about their craft. Doris is hoping to start running courses soon, too. I will definitely be up for that - but meanwhile we are collaborating, with Doris supplying me with interesting hand-made beads for my corsages, and stocking some of my corsages on her stall at the next bead show (to demonstrate how her beads can be used!), while I will credit her beads on the labels of my corsages. Result! What an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon - pictures of the new beads on corsages will be added as soon as I have time to make some appropriately-coloured felt...

New links

Done! A selection of new links is now at the bottom of the page. To avoid leaving this blog, right-click on the link and select 'open in new window'.

Links

I will shortly get round to adding a whole lot more links to the bottom of this page - watch this space!

Wonderwool Wales

What a fabulous day! Glorious weather for driving over the Brecon Beacons to the Royal Welsh Showground at Builth Wells, and a show that was even better than last year. The bag creche is a great idea, as I was soon laden down with goodies...

It was good to meet Helen Melvin of Fiery Felts, down from North Wales - she is currently leading a workshop on the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, and it was nice to put a face to a name (and buy some of her lovely wool).

Also finally met Carole Webb, whose hand-dyed Blue Faced Leicester I have been using for a while to make felt corsages, having bought a selection of colours at Erwood Station www.erwood-station.co.uk . She is also able to take commissions, which I shall certainly be following up with her.

Had an interesting conversation with Sue Blacker of The Natural Fibre Company www.thenaturalfibre.co.uk, in which she told me about the Woolsack 2012 project www.woolsack.org, which is seeking to make 20,000 cushions from British wool to present to participants in the Olympics. This is a fun idea which I definitely want to get involved with! It focussed my mind on sourcing British wools today, and I am already mulling over the possibilities of different colours of Blue Faced Leicester and Welsh Mountain...

I also treated myself to a peg loom - I really fancy making some tactile rugs and possibly wall hangings out of fleece. I have some scoured Manx Loughtan which I was going to try felting, but I think some of could be diverted to the peg loom. This might be something the Ouessant is useful for as well. (Note to self - the Ouessant fleeces are still stinking the garage out, and I really must do something with them soon!!!)

Altogether a very satisfactory day. Wonderwool is quite an experience - sensory overload, frankly, and one needs to be disciplined. And possibly the highlight of the day was meeting a very interactive Leicester Longwool sheep - I had no idea these were so HUGE! Stunning fleece, too - like a greying poodle. I want some...

Technical Eureka moment!

For a while now, I have been wrestling with a conundrum in the making of felt corsages. If I make a sheet of felt, and cut out the shapes I need for the corsages, this leaves me with unfinished edges which, depending on how dense the felt is, can sometimes be prone to fraying. If, on the other hand, I make each component as a separate piece of felt, the edges are wonderfully finished, but I have two new problems - firstly, it takes ages (it takes longer to make two small rounds for one corsage than it does to make a sheet of felt which can yield four corsages), and secondly, because the rate of shrinkage is rather unpredictable, it's hard to get the right size - especially when you are making, for example, a large and a small circle to make a double flower.

So what was my Eureka moment? It came, inevitably, in the shower! (OK, so Archimedes was in the bath, but this is 2011!) What I need to do is to make a sheet of felt, yes - but then dry it, cut out the shapes I want (a fraction bigger to allow for further shrinkage, but at this point that shouldn't be more than about 10%), and then wet it and full it again so that the edges seal! Simple really...but then so was the idea of displacement...

Discovery at Tintern

The day job took me to Tintern at the weekend, and I discovered the Abbey Mill craft centre just along from the abbey - and in particular Sam Taylor, who trades as Taylor Made Beads and has a shop in the Boat House. Sam not only stocks a HUGE range of commercially produced beads and findings for jewellery makers, but also makes the most fabulous glass beads herself - and I can see that some of her statement beads are going to make it onto my felt corsages! She also has a website, www.taylormadebeads.co.uk and will even undertake commissions. Her prices are very good considering the amount of time and skill involved in the creation of these artisan-made beads.

Rothko and inspiration

I was rather pleased with the felt wall hanging which I made for a friend's Christmas present - she loves Mark Rothko, and I made an interpretation in felt of one of his paintings. It was quite a technical challenge, working with three pre-felts with their differential shrinkage rates, and roughly a dozen colours of merino wool tops from Wingham Wool Works to get the subtleties of Rothko's colours. It took three attempts, but in the end it passed my quality control, and the recipient expressed herself delighted with the result, which is now hanging in her home, so it must be ok...I will upload a photo on here some time, although I don't know how well the subtle luminosity of the colours will show.


Also - recently went to see the exhibition Warp & Weft at Craft in the Bay http://makersguildinwales.org.uk which was excellent although there was less in it than I had expected. And I am so looking forward to Wonderwool Wales at the Royal Welsh Showground in April! http://wonderwoolwales.co.uk

Current projects

The current project are various - small scale and practical is the production of lots of fingerless mittens, which have re-connected me with knitting - I bought some lovely ones in the artisan market at Frome in September and then shrunk them in the wash because they got in with some towels which I washed at 60 degrees - I was very upset, but thanks to the lovely people in the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers http://www.onlineguildwsd.org.uk/ I found some patterns for mittens, adapted and merged the patterns and techniques to get exactly what I wanted, and have been knitting furiously ever since - every time a friend sees my mittens, I get another order! I am now mostly using Debbie Bliss Donegal, which is wool and mohair and wonderful marled colours - the present pair I am knitting are deep brick red, gorgeous.

The other project is BIG - I am testing the capabilities of the Brinkley loom which I acquired from Jane Meredith http://www.plantdyedwool.co.uk/ in the summer by attempting a tapestry wall hanging. With my partner and friends I went on the Balmoral back in July, sailing from Penarth to Padstow, and had plenty of leisure on the way to muse on the shades of blue, grey and white in the sea and skyscapes. Inevitably this has ended up as a tapestry design, and I have been sampling to learn what effects the different yarns and locks I have been hoarding can achieve. My favourite yarn is some indigo-dyed silk from Anne Campbell in North Wales - she works a day or two a week as resident spinner at Trefriw Woollen Mill, and a friend brought back a sample of her yarns from there a while back. The lustrous blue marled silk was just too good to miss out on, and so I asked Anne to dye and spin me some more, which she duly did. It is stunning, and now that I have sampled it, I can't wait to get on and weave! But I am being disciplined, and making sure I am 100% happy with the design before I warp the loom and commit myself!

New improved blog

As part of the re-launch of the textile side of my life (which has been somewhat eclipsed recently by the day job) I have created this new blog which replaces my old one - for anyone who wants to look at it still, it is at http://themichaelmasgalleryblog.blogspot.com, although frankly I was so bad at keeping up with it that there's very little on it. Must try harder... Part of the re-launch is a new name for the business - I am half-Dutch, and 'fabrikant' is Dutch for manufacturer, maker or mill-owner, so it seemed appropriate for one who is completely obsessed with all things textile, and the process of making. My eBay shop has also been re-named and can be found at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Fabrikant-Online and I hope soon to have some stock in it!