Surface Design Online: Spring Session

Registration for my Surface Design Online- Spring Session is now open!
The class will start on April 5th and run until May 17th. 

All of the workshop information is available on my website:
http://www.fionaduthie.com/surface-design-in-feltmaking-online-workshop/

I'm holding a little draw to thank everyone for their enthusiastic support of this new class.
There will be two opportunities to win a free class:

One winner will be drawn from those who:
Like my Facebook page, and share the link to the class information on their timeline. Leave me a comment on FB to let me know you have shared.
The name will be drawn from those comments.

One winner will be drawn from those who subscribe to my workshop information newsletter using the link on my website or at the bottom of this post.

The draw will take place on Wednesday, February 19th, at 9:00pm PST. I'll post the winner here, and on Facebook.

I love sharing this material with you. It forms to soul of my work, and it is like a dream to get to run these classes in this way!
Thank you again!

February 19th update:

FaceBook winner is......Nell Burns
The newsletter winner has been contacted by email and I am just waiting to hear back from them, before announcing!

Thank you everyone who took part in this! Your support is very much appreciated.

Watch for lots more felt happening around here in the coming weeks!

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Workshop information Newsletter:

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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

Trickster Tales

Last week was the last week in our Storytelling and Arts day in the studio. This was a weekly series of classes I have been running since the early Fall. So much fun! What a sweet, talented, and creative group of children!

In our Spring session we studied Trickster Tales, and we explored these through storytelling, painting, drawing, plant dyeing, and of course, feltmaking! 

 The children each chose the Trickster they most identified with, and slowly transformed themselves....This picture was taken on the last day of our classes- introducing Squirrel, Fox, Coyote and Monkey....I was Raven, but also photographer! They did wonderful work...on all of their projects!

It was truly a pleasure to get to have these afternoons together.... 

And now the studio is cleaned up and transformed once again into my full time adult space ...ready for visitors and for me to focus on my exhibition work and book....here we go!

Happy summertime....
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

New Felt Market Bag

  
The day started out with this...a blank canvas...perfect white simplicity.....ready for some colour play...Two layers of blue faced leicester, then two layers of Finn...BFL on the inside for a soft hand as you reach in and Finn on the outside for more durability. The finished texture is very nice....an inside pocket, metal rings felted directly onto the bag, and some ties for closure, also part of the one integral whole....I love this... that the structure is complete at the end of the felting....

Then I hit the dyepots...It was a good dyeing day....three separate immersion dips, creating bold patterns with subtle shifts....Mmmmmm....

  And then the stitching...so simple...some running stitch and french knots...hard to do because I cut off the tip of my thumb last weekend.....A thumb is pretty important to french knot making...I must be more careful when cooking when hungry! I have a lot more french knots in my future!  Warm and delectable....a little bit Autumnal....a departure in colors for me...and such a welcome change...inspired by a commission for a customer in Germany...it is good to stretch...
  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

Sculptural Scarves

This summer I'm exploring ways to incorporate as much three dimensional texture as possible into my work. It such a fun experiment...I love that I can be making items to sell, while playing..... These experiments often involve trips to the hardware store...hardware and building materials seem a good combination with feltmaking! And lead to some very interesting conversations in the shop, which I'm sure they are quite used to on an isalnd of artists! For this texture it involved finding wiring that would hold it's shape while being very lightweight.  The scarves can be folded, twisted, wrapped and crimped into any shape the wearer desires...simple...dramatic....traditional or wild.....The wool is ultrafine organic merino....and it is so soft and luscious...delightful!

A few wearable sculpture possibilities....I like to think that the wearer can feel like an artist when they put on this scarf....that they can take a moment to create a wearable art piece that reflects their mood in that moment... or maybe where thay want that mood to go...That the wearer gets to partake in the creative process, as well as a the maker....

As always, these are all handfelted in white, then overdyed...I love this process....I love the whiteness, and everytime have to re-commit to myself, my sensibilities, and my love of colour...

I want to make an extra large version of this scarf for myself, for exuberant wearing at shows...and just for when the mood strikes...Plus I'm seeing sculptural bags and jacket lapels....so much to make! But first I have to finish my fibre art bike....next posting!

Warm wishes,

Fiona

Felt Armour

  Luckily for me, I had a board meeting to go to yesterday which got me out of the house, into the great bright, white outdoors early in the morning. I needed that reminder to stop working and get outside....

 So later in the day we went down to Fulford, to the beach....visited the petroglyph, and got blown away....

  It felt like emerging from a hibernation....and having all the cobwebs swept away....

   I wore my felt tunic for the first time yesterday...like an armour against the elements, both real and imagined... it's been billowly, blustery and snowy here....lots of it..and it's quite lovely....

  ...and a good day for some felt armour!  So here I am for those that wanted to see the tunic on....Not the best picture, but it does the job....the tunic felt is great to wear, soft, snug, warm, strong, and a little wild....
  I'm going to make some bags this week based on this design...linen nuno felted, racka locks, overdyed, stitches...I can hardly wait to show these this Fall.... 
Warm wishes,
Fiona

Bold and Dramatic...

Ahhhh...First Felt of 2012 is finished....I'm so happy with the results....It feels like a just the right starting point and direction to head in for this year.

My peacock blue plans ventured into inky midnights...

 My red (to be purple) mini pocket disappeared into the depths-The purple becoming barely discernible but the pocket is still there- perfectly unobtrusive and ready to hold secret messages....Paua shell bead at the pockets edge...blue and shiny...meeting the wild, now raven black racka locks...which reach out over the nuno linen to find the partially eclipsed shibori moon on the tunic side...

 Neck details adorned with dyes and red stitches and a paua shell bead...

 Shibori moons on the back and side...in honour of the moon under which this was made....(not indigo dyed...although I did fit in my full moon indigo dyeing day this past weekend....).

The finished tunic is simple and dramatic...artistic and bold....and I'm so ready wear it this year....

Warm wishes,

Fiona

Felting with Wool Locks

Mmmmm...I've been wanting to work more with wool locks and felting...I got to play a bit with this with some new pieces I've been making for WinterCraft.

This is the layout for two scarves. I love laying out the layers of white. It's so serene amd perfect.  There is an underlayer of fine merino, then I used lengths of plastic resists since the locks are quite fine and would probably felt into the surface. On one side are Blue Faced Leicester Locks and on the other are Mohair. Then another layer of merino roving on top...Once the pieces were around the prefelt stage, I cut them apart, down the middle, so they could be finished individually and the cut line would felt also.

 This is the mohair lock scarf, with some shibori stitching done before dyeing. It's so nice to wear...and works well as a shoulder wrap also. It would so dramatic to wear with an evening dress....if one had occasion to do so!

I have some super amazing Racka locks I bought recently from Namaste Farms. I so want to try these out this way with a wild and black sweeping line of locks on a scarf.....or jacket! That is my planned birthday project! A new felt jacket.....

 Aren't these wild! I had never heard of Racka sheep until very recently. This came as a great reminder to get the Felt Gathering online project underway for January. Very Exciting!

Back to the studio and some little felted birds I am making...

Warm wishes,

Fiona