30 Minute Felt Project- The Mountain Vessel

Over the last few weeks I've been playing a new studio game.....15 minute felt projects.  Just once a week, as an opportunity to approach design work with a blank mental slate, no commitments to outcome and sense of fun experimentation.  This is actually the third of these projects.....the mountain vessel....

  It's so easy to head out the studio with the timer set at 15 minutes and just see what happens. It's allows a simple opening for some spontaneous creating.  This morning I had mountains in mind....and shadows....and laid out a circle of two layers of Norwegian wool.  Problem number 1 in meeting  the 15 minute felt deadline (Norwegian wool is not a quick felter!)! Problem number 2 was that I made my surface too large to complete in such a short time.....

Then I used some strips of resist material I had handy and started to alternate layers of resist, with triangles of merino prefelt. These were not pre-cut- just quickly cut randomly and added to the surface.

Wetted out and ready to felt...This is the point that I started to realize my folly in wool selection and size......

 I did get the piece designed, laid out, wetted out, rolled and hand rubbed....and then my timer went off! Okay...So a little ambitious...but it is an expansion activity not a limiting one,  so I gave myself another 15 minutes to finish up....since the purpose is to have a freeform felting session, but also to not let it take over the whole morning/day/week!

At 30 minutes I rinsed well and shaped the mountain spines....

 Then shaped into a vessel form using a steam iron.....and dried in the morning sun on a pedestal in my studio window....all morning it made me happy to look over at the finished form...

A great creative practise and one I plan to continue over the summer.....but with the expanded, but still limited timeframe of the 30 minute felt project!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Red Textures

 I am having a delicious stretch into new work....making pieces for the felt::feutre exhibition....It is so delightful to work out ideas without too much time pressure; just exploring pure creativity.

This is a technique that I teach in my Surface Design class....using slow felting wools to create nodules....and in this case, worked on a foam resist to make the finished piece take on a three dimensional form......

  I'm quite enjoying having these displayed in the studio, just as they are...I love their redness...it's powerful, and especially in combination with the charred wood piece underneath. The wood is part of a collaboration I am working on with my eldest son, Finn McGuffin....an interior design line in charred wood and felt...more to come on that....

  These red pieces are part of a sculptural piece that is another exploration of Joomchi felt.  They will be turned inside out and become the inner layers of a snowy white multipocketed piece...reflecting on what we show on the outside and all the layers that exist behind that social facade....the life experiences that inform our every movement and word, in multiple ways, but that those we interact with cannot always fully know....

Finishing up the white outer shell today...will show you some pics when complete!

This week is bringing on so many creative ideas...it's been a big week for communication, imagination and manifestation....a "yes" kind of week. 
I've got to go out and get another sketch book....most of the new ideas are for collections of pieces, and I just can't start on those until....until.....maybe December? The calender is very full....so I'll just  fill up the notebooks, and let those collections come to realization when the time is right!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Celestial Jacket 1

 This coat made it's first appearance in my sketchbook early in the year. Once I had opneed up some creative time this week, it positioned itself determinedly in the forefront of my attentions, allowing for no distraction.
 It is a felt jacket, created all in one piece, with lots of surface texture in the form of nuno craters, and stitching both at the prefelt stage and after dyeing.

The craters are still sealed in this picture. The coat has been prefelted, then dried so I could add all the stitches, that will all later be overdyed and become more subtle shadings in the coat. I had never thought before about felting on one piece and the relationship this can have with knitting and steeking. The jacket is designed to have a zipper opening, but the opening will only be cut at the very end, after dyeing.

 Opening the craters.....

And the coat...ready for dyeing. I had always thought this coat would be deep reds and ochres, but something changed during the dyeing day and it became oceanic blues and greens.....finished images tomorrow....

Preparing for a modelling shoot with this and a couple of other new pieces....fun, fun....just waiting for the rain to clear up!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Bark Cowl

On every walk, I fall behind the rest of my family, camera in hand taking pictures of grasses, barks, water, frost, colours....whatever catches my eye... The images live in my hard drives...my computer and my mind, until they are ready to come to life in a new form.

 This cowl, and surfacing pattern is derived from just such a walk...I've been holding this one up front in my imagination for a while...These barks are from a beautiful walk we took down in Burgoyne Bay early in December...what amazing surfaces....I love the random patterning....

 And the maker of these inspirational surfaces...caught! 

 

I hadn't looked at my bark images before making this cowl...and now on reviewing them I'm looking forward to working more with this pattern...more opening, more shadowings, more depth and dimension...and a new collection for this Fall....

This piece was made seamless with resists in white, with some black to create shadowing...then dyed after felting...Such a pleasure to be making! And then a fun photo shoot with my beautiful and talented friend Rachel in downtown Ganges! I love the way the cowl can be worn in many ways to show different expresssions of colour. Designed to be worn over a sweater or coat, with the option of pulling up over the ears as a hood when the weather requires...

I have an unexpected afternoon free, and I'm heading for the studio to work with this surface pattern some more....
Warm wishes,
Fiona

Upcoming Workshops at FibresWest

Nui Shibori Scarves- Creating Texture with Felting Yarns on Silk:

Shibori is a Japanese textile art form that has come to mean cloth that has been bound or compressed. This is accomplished through  stitching, clamping, knotting or folding, then processed through  dyeing or heating to add a new "memory" to the cloth and leave it  transformed in color or surface texture.
  For this beautiful scarf project, we are using the Nui Shibori method of stitching, but rather than pulling the yarns to create patterns with dyes, we are using a feltable wool yarn for our stitches,  then shrinking them to create new textural surfaces. We'll cover traditional stich patterns to create different shaping, yarn and fabric selections for effect, plus fulling your shibori scarf to  transform it from flat to dynamic!

Materials provided for supply fee of $15.00, payable at the beginning of the class.  No experience necessary, but a readiness to sit happily, chat and handsew-a must!   Please specify your main colour preference for your scarf at the time of registration.
9:30-2:30
Maximum Registration: 12
 

Nuno Felt Wrap Vest:
 
 Constructed all in one piece and completed all in one day, this is a unique and flattering wardrobe staple for all seasons. Perfect for layering, and customized to your own sizing and colour preferences. Using silk chiffon and habotai fabrics laminated through felting with merino wool  and accented with silk fibres, we will cover aspects of colour work, design, and nuno felting, while creating this fabulous piece of  wearable art.

Materials provided for supply fee of $25.00, payable at the beginning of the class.  No experience necessary.  Silk Fabrics will be custom dyed for this class- please specify your main colour preference at the  time of registration. We will use the wool to achieve patterns and  highlights in colour. Feltmaking is a physical craft- please wear  older clothing, and be prepared for some physical exertion.

9:30am-3:30pm
Maximum Registration:  10

FibresWest runs from March 22-23, 2013.  
For more information, pricing, and to register visit: www.fibreswest.com/

I'm so looking forward to heading to Cloverdale for FibresWest again this year. It's always so much fun- with classes full of creative people, and a show floor full of delicious fibre. In additon to teaching, I have a glorious 10 x 20 foot booth space that will be full of handdyed yarns and the best felting fibres.

See some of you there!
Warm wishes,
Fiona

Sea Constellations

  The last two weeks have been the most delicious, intense, creative times...My cousins/kindred spirits have been visiting from New Zealand. Family that I have only met a handful of times, often with a decade in between visits, but who travel with me always and close by!  While Erica was creating at the Global Mural Conference in Chemainus, I had the delight of spending more time with my young cousin, Isla, visiting our favourite island spots, and making some felt for her to bring back to loved ones at home.

 

Felting together.....Isla is working on her bag....Finnish wool, felted on a resist; a starfish souvenir of our sharing of this special place and time....

  

Isla with her finished Starfish Bag. Plus some of our other makings/inspirations in the background. The studio/classroom was transformed this week...the display units came off the walls to open up mural spaces....the big table and surrounding floor was full of felting and the small tables were in full use for painting/drawing/writing and the making of shimmery mermaids....

  A bag for Tarn in NZ with one of Isla's Starfish felt charms. Felted in white Finnish, then immersion dyed.....The charm ring is felted directly into the bag, as are the handle rings....I love the colours and potential for adding changeable tokens by using the rings....

  Happy, happy felting....and chatting, and laughing and tears.....big ideas imagined, and resolve well planted.....A stillpoint of a visit in which we grounded ourselves, gathered our momentums and energies and now propel forward....with hopes of connecting our spaces across oceans before too long....

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Joomchi Felting 2

  Felting with resists to create interesting surfaces....an exploration in materials...I'm enjoying tossing around in my head the language of another craft, Joomchi,  while exploring this feltwork...the making of pockets....

 Using different materials to create bubble and pockets....tyvek, high thread count quilting cottons, woven interfacing, non woven interfacings, cotton battings.....I stretched a layer of silk habotai over the wool and resists.....

  Fully felted ....the resists are all light and flexible, and the piece is very wearable....and very beautiful when held up the the light. The cotton batting resists did get caught in the nuno felting process and compressed a little, but less than then surrounding felted surfaces....all still very oceanic somehow....

 In relationship with the last surface of openings....a different kind of pocket......I love the patterning of the two together....seperate in sections and overlaid....

  These will become part of the dress (coat)......that plan has been revised a bit, and I'm going to be making a new bodice section this week....I will tell you all about it.....but for today....heading out to the studio right now to make the Joomchi scarf.....a combination of these textures combined in one piece....
Happy creative fall energies flowing.....I hope yours are too!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Inspired by Joomchi

  I recently came across two books...images on the covers that stopped my steps and set my heart beating a little faster....
Yesterday's studio inspiration came from Joomchi and Beyond by Jiyoung Chung.

 It is an enticing craft form....similar to felting, but also different.   I love finding a medium new to me, and letting the inspiration trickle into my own work....sometimes it happens...sometimes it's time is not yet ripe....

  As of yesterday I have completed most of my "required" work.....gallery restocked....fibre shows done.....retreats planned and almost full.....and now I can just be creative.....and yesterday became about starting a relationship with Joomchi....
Spaces...openings....screens and obscurities....layers and layers...what can be seen and what can not....the idea of "pockets" and what they may hold....

Openings cut, and pulled and formed at prefelt stage.....

And felted.....I love the random relationship of the spaces....

  It will became a part of this dress (that may became a short sleeved cardigan/coat).....probably dyed in shimmery underwater hues.The bodice is knitted and fulled cashmere and silk, the felting of which was a once very unhappy accident- but that was two or three years ago now, and the knitwear just presented itself again last week, ready for transformation! Now it's just exciting!....an underlayer of handdyed silk, nuno felted into ripples....

  This dress is the piece I am working on primarily this week....It still has many layers to be added to it before it will be finished...and creating every layer is pure pleasure!  Such a luxury to be able to spend the time desired fully devoted to a single project! Oh! Happy fall studio time!

  Read more about joomchi, and the work of artist Jiyoung Chung at http://jiyoungchung.com/
  Warm wishes,
Fiona

Small Things

  It's been busy, busy in the studio the last few weeks....and maybe more busy in my head as I clear house and make way to fulfill my destiny (doesn't that sound grand! It just popped into my head.....You could also read.... solidify my Fall/Winter/Spring creative calendar....Shuffle the deck to create an order that allows me room to achieve my dreams and ambitions....hmmmm...that's rather grand too.....maybe that's just the way of things.... It's a day of good air, clear thinking and aspiration!)....

 Now while the head is busy with it's big goals...little projects emerged from the hands....I was making very thick, firm felt for a table top, and made a smaller piece alongside.  The wool was about 4 inches high, about 8 layers deep....first two layers of Finn wool, then 4 layers of Friesian, then two more layers of Finn....I used the Friesian to create a more "bouncy" layer in the middle....It worked well for the intended purpose......I decided to cut the small piece up into simple shapes....

  Then dyed and overdyed....and hand embroidered.  And I loved having these tiny projects to work on in the evening....Handstitching is so serene...so slow and peaceful... it feels like the perfect ending to a feltmaking project...the closing of the creative circle that starts with a meditative, quiet laying out of the fibres...then gets physical...more and more so, with the feltmaking....then slows down again through the dyeing and comes to a meditative resting place once again, as the the last stitch is made and last french knot snipped!  My stitching is simple...but paying attention through the process adds a lot to the work for me....so very satisfying.....

  These have all been delivered to ArtCraft here on Salt Spring and I'm making more for Knotty by Nature in Victoria.....and I hope they sell well.....simply because it would be pure pleasure to make some more!

  In balance to these small makings, I'll be posting about my upcoming plans....
tomorrow...just a few more pictures to find, and a couple of details to be arranged....and 5 scarves on the felting table needing to be finished! On we go!
Hope your having a sunny, wool filled, creative weekend (maybe full of good air, clear thinking and grand aspirations too!)!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Summer Colours-July

So it's not quite tomorrow, as in when I said I was going to post the finished pictures of these.....but taking into account summer time, island time and Fiona time...I'm feeling pretty happy to be only a day out!

The dye pot called for a bright poppy.....a blend of orange and pink....that I can only call Happy....If I wanted to wear something that perked me up on low days, or reflected my spring on up days...this would be it!

And one scarf in a blend of purples into greys....it's quite rich and delicious! These will all either be available in the studio, or at ArtCraft....

The bag I started off dyeing in bright chartreuse and Happy coral.....But it just did not feel right and I couldn't live with it...

I overdyed the red side with some turquoise and purple and.....voila.....

Luckily this  bag was created with very durable Norwegian C-1 and Icelandic wool, and very thoroughly fulled.....because....my special felting and dyeing guest, Ginny Huber, arrived in the midst of the process and I completely forgot it was boiling away on the stove! I usually do all my dyeing and steaming outdoors, but I've run out of propane and all the island visitors are scooping it up as fast as it arrives! Lucky, lucky, lucky.....that I remembered...later than sooner! The bag was quite happy, simmering away...no harm done, and it is very well fulled...and the dye is very well set! Grin!

I'm liking these simple stitch patterns these days, and this bag just called for a few stitches.....I really like it.....but it's for the shop! More dyeing tomorrow (which may be anytime in the next week, in case you're just getting to know me! )...

Warm wishes,

Fiona

Catching up....

 Oh My! I've been in and out of town....preparing for gallery shows, preparing for fiber trade shows, preparing for studio visitors.....a summer whirlwind of wool and colour....
  But now I'm back....and not going to any more (far away) shows until late September, so I can settle in to an island summer, regular studio hours and some felt play....
  I'm starting work on a new interior design line this weekend (very exciting!) and need to get a few staples made for the studio shop before immersing in that direction...

I stayed up late last night, working in the studio, enjoying a margarita and a movie and catching up...three new topography scarves, and a Norwegian/Icelandic bucket purse....felted above....

  .....and now fulled completely and ready for dyeing....That's the bag resist below the bag.  I felted metal rings into the body as a closure and to attach the handles. I like this finish...it's very clean and simple and I like that it is integral to the felt.  What colours shall they become?  Better warm up the dyepots and let inspiration strike....I'm feeling a strong draw to vermillion and coral orange these days....I'll post the finished results tomorrow (when I'm also having a special studio visitor-and  maybe some dyeing together!)...


Happy Summer Days!
Warm wishes,
Fiona