Felt Consulting

 I've been having some fun this last week/weekend doing some felt consultancy work for Pollika.
Pollika are a fibre company based in Vancouver who are the North American distributors for many European brands, including De Witte Engel and Painters Threads. I've been working with them to develop felting kits for beginners....kits for yarn shops that give textile people something new to try. 

 The latest kits are on making felt jewelry. I loaded them with great techniques while covering the basics, keeping in mind these are people just trying felting, maybe for the first time. This new kit will be launched at The National Needlearts Association trade show in San Diego this January. the TNNA shows are amazing- yarn and fibre shops from all over North America attend to find new products to share with their customers. I went one year with Pollika, to demonstrate feltmaking in the booth. Lots of fun...

  I had a funny moment this week while editing my pictures. I had to photoshop clean my nails, because I'd forgotten to clean them before shooting, and they were just a little too dirty to be presentable-how does that happen.....ah well...a little PS manicure and we're all set....

And another sample in a warm colourway. There will probably be 6 colourways in total. Now that the instructions are all written and photos taken and off with the graphic designers, I can relax a bit and spend some time making inspiration samples for the show.  Small projects like this make a refreshing change and I love having a bit of embroidery to do in the evenings. 

 I might use the jewelry pieces as a jumping off point to create this years ornament. I didn't think I was going to design one this year, but now the flame is alight and I'm ready to felt and stitch....after I get my last orders done this week and in the mail...by Wednesday!

This was a cover of the instructions for our first kit, released back in June. These are now available in yarns shops across Canada and the US.  That's pretty exciting...to create something that invites people to try something new, to have fun making something beautiful, and maybe to plant the seed of a new passion.   I have some more great plans for Pollika....maybe one more kit for January release and then a set for next May.

Back to work!
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

Kattikloo @ FibresWest

As usual, it's been a very busy few weeks!

I've rebranded my handyed yarn and fibre company, Kattikloo, all ready for FibresWest in Vancouver last week.  I still have to make all the website changes and load up the shop, now that I'm back...but it still feels like a major accomplishment to have gotten this far!

I was able to use most of my display units from the studio at the show...so wonderful and easy....and the show was a great success.....we doubled our sales from last year, with equal sales in yarns and felting fibres. I was so happy to bring all of the felting wools and prefelts....to have the intensely coloured yarns that I dye, and also the walls of felting supplies, which is most true to my creative heart! This was a dream from last years show...and so great to have realized that goal!

I hardly spent a minute in the booth though, as I was teaching all day on both days of the show. My wonderful friend Rachel talked with all of our fabulous customers, and I am so grateful for her company! Every other year all of my boys have come with me, and they don't enjoy fibre talk half as much as Rachel does...so all around a good plan! 

 I have no pictures from my first class in nuno felted vests....but my 10 students were wonderful, and their finished vests, amazing....We used sheer, handdyed silk gauze and extra fine 19 micron merino rovings in a vast array of colours....the finished results were superb and I think everyone was pleased with their results...and a little surprised at the ease of construction. Great students, great fibres and great felting.....

(In the getting to this class there was a little incident with a long train and a very large roll of bubble wrap that I may tell you about separately!)

The second class was a shibori class of 12. It is an idea I developed for an article in Living Crafts magazine last year.  It was quite delightful to teach....a refreshing departure from full on felting or dyeing, but a process which certainly has applications in both.  The last 30 minutes of fulling provided a fun balance to the time spent stitching traditional nui shibori patterns in the habotai and chiffon silk scarves. 

In addition to feltable yarns, we added silk organza, prefelt and silk ribbon elements. Experimented with shibori and yarn to create three dimensional shaping and texture.  One of the best parts of workshops- the new directions that emerge as we share...Lots of fun- room for creativity and application in other textile crafts.   The finished results were fantastic. No finished pictures- I'm sorry...It is a challenge to get picures while teaching, and also of finished items in thses short, one day classes.

Thank you to everyone who came...to my classes and to my booth at the show. Thank you to Rachel for being my super salesperson! And thanks to Brenda from Penelope Fibre Arts for organizing such a warm, friendly, and inspiring show once again!

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

Joomchi Felt Reflections

This is my most recent in the series of scarves/wearables I've been making, inspired by the Korean art of Joomchi- a paper art form and process.  The exploration has culminated in pieces that hold three aspects of surface

design...all of which have a basis in geology.... a relationship between rock and water....Erosion and the forms it leaves behind....and leads into thoughts of the land and how it shapes us....

 In the midst of this felting exploration, we spent an afternoon on a local beach at low tide...and these beautiful rock formations were exposed. I'd never seen them at this location before....and what an amazing mirror they are to the joomchi/felting process...plus the symbolism inherent in the eroding of rock....

 

And in the same place...the simple layering of shales....

 Worn edges in the stone....layers....and like a topographic map of our well earned experiences.....and in felt, still reflecting the ideas of pockets...long sinuous veins of space....

And then the conglomerates...composites of materials bound together by pressure and time....how perfect! In another beautiful island spot, there are amazing examples of conglomerate rocks...when I get back from the retreats, I'm going to take some pictures....and explore these ideas some more....

So very much enjoying this thought/felt play.....a perfect lead in to the upcoming retreat sessions!

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

SaltSpring Island Fall Felting Retreat

Foxglove Farm, SaltSpring Island, British Columbia

 

October 19/20/21st, 2012  10:00am-4:00pm + evenings

  

The British Columbia retreat will be hosted at the very beautiful and charming Foxglove Farm. The farm is located on one of the original homesteads on the island, surrounded by hundreds of acres of protected forest and agricultural fields, bordering Maxwell Lake. An idyllic, inspiring and very relaxing natural setting.  There is accomodation available for up to eight people in the three cottages.

 

All of the retreat details are available on my website here and on the retreat page of the blog here.

It's going to be a beautiful woolly October! I can't wait!

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