cards

I made some cards today, a quick decision, just black wool with multi coloured silk cap material on top. Some nice effects I think:

wouldn't do it again...

.... trying to felt such a big piece in one piece

adding more to the length

and more

and more

now I tried to full it

finally put it in the bucket and used my feet

after rinsing

after rinsing and spinning in the washing machine

now it is very visible how bad it turned out.
By mistake I used  different wool, the top was done
in nice gotland and the bottom in crossbred

well thats how it has to be cut anyway, so I might be able to rescue it

working on the background

I have started working on the background piece today. It has to be done in stages because the table is not big enough - well who has a 4m table anyway!

First part is felted, I left it open on 2 sides to add more

Then I rolled it up

and layed out more wool waiting to be worked on now.

Of course there is no turning possible, so it is a process of wetting, surface felting and 'massaging', quite terapeutic, though I could imagine, a sander would come handy. I never worked with a sander on felt, the combination of water and electricity is not really to my taste.
It will need adding another piece for the width and then the same procedure to get the right length. Once this is all done and fulled, I will need less space. Lots of flowers and leaves and strings have to be done, embroidered/beaded and then attached to the background.

go ahead!

Got the go ahead for the commission piece today including an installment for material. I am happy to start now to do some proper work, it was a lot of planning and investigating the last time. I love to do a big piece, will probably use my big living room window for hanging it temporarily once I have finished the background to place all the flowers and leaves and vines I am going to make. Well the whole house is a workshop anyway - thank you Alex for your patience :)

Challenge

I've got the wonderful opportunity/challenge to do a big wall hanging for a great  house right at the water. It is a wonderful light house with lots of curves, which I like so much. It is filled with light and you can feel how carefully the owners have chosen every piece. Everything is just right, nothing overdone, very classy. I feel very happy to have met the owner, a great person, which knows what she wants but is open for everything. I think we could work together very well, her guidelines will stop me to get too enthusiastic and will keep me on track. I am very grateful for this challenge which will help me in my own development. And it will sharpen my sense for quality, my own home certainly needs more style. It is a bit embarrassing to do nice things for others and to live in a messy home myself.

time?

I finished 8 more angels and 3 birdies and finally sent a large parcel to another gallery yesterday: www.kina.co.nz . The lady has rang me and was so excited about my birdies! Well I hope she can also sell them - my babies....

waiting for christmas

can we fly your dreams?

I am so grateful to Cornelia from Cornits Filzzauberschule to teach how to make angels. I am more and more developing my own style now and I have already in mind to develop them into fairies of some kind, fantasie people of Lord of the Rings or Avatar.... I would really love to meet her in person when I am in Germany. In fact I would love to meet a lot of european felters, their work is so inspiring!
I am taking part again in the adventskurs and now, that I am free - not bound to any coop, it is so much fun just to explore and experiment! All this surface enhancing was not my thing originally and it takes some time of course. But it teaches me patience and it calmes me, it is really pleasant.
I get also a lot of practical inspiration/advice from a friend here in NZ - Suse. She is so practical and has great ideas to minimize the effort when felting. They have a large farm and she works very hard, but still finds time for her craft work and she has always a good word for everybody.
Lots of plans in my mind, but first I have to sell the stock I have left, so many scarves.........

more birdies and more angels

After finishing some more angels yesterday and posting them today, I started working on some more birdies today. I had received an email from a gallery in New Plymouth asking  for my birdies. Finally somebody who likes them as much as I do hopefully. She was also interested in angels and keyrings. Good, I still have a lot of keyrings, but of course I will make more angels. They start to become characters too, thats good. I might change some to fairies, hmmm will see where it leads to ;)
Besides I want to do some funny things for the garden, still dreaming about a 'tree hugger"....

back to weaving

Now that I am not a co-op member anymore I can finally not only paint but also weave again. It is very embarrassing, I still have a project from a workshop 2 years ago on the loom and now I am struggling to remember how it was done.
If've got all the notes just need to find out where I stopped, will take me a bit.....

I managed on the weekend to update my website a bit and this morning I sent enquires to some galleries if they would take on my work. Well let's what'll happen.
Last weekend at the market I did together with my friend Suse a guy offered us all his wife's knitting machines including yarn for free, just need to pick them up. She was a professional knitter, but after a stroke cannot work anymore. There is even an electronic machine included, very tempting. I just need to find a way to pick it up. I better don't mention my storage problem.......
Next weekend is Heritage Day at the Lake House Art Centre. They have asked if I would join the market, but I am not sure. I would need to get a light table and an easy to assemble gazebo to manage this. Not sure if it is worth the hassle. Though it would be fun to go to the Heritage Day

Auckland Trip

We went on Tuesday to Auckland for the opening of the exhibition Reflexions of Aotearoa at the Lake House Arts Centre where some of my work was included. It is such a lovely place! Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera, so I have only taken a photo with the cellphone of the walldisplay which included some of my work

It is nice to have such a great outlet for my work!

The next day we celebrated the birthday of Alex brother with a nice lunch and in the afternoon we took off to the Auckland Art Gallery. The new display is so great! I wanted to see the collection which were gifted by Julian Robertson and is on display until end of October. Real Piccassos and Matisse and and and.....

This giant flowers hang at the entrance and they open and close

The drive home this afternoon was really pleasant, lots of sunshine and we stopped at Jack Morgan Museum in Hukerenui. The display there is great and tells the story of the pioneer spirit.

more for Felt United

A quick decision this morning to make another piece for Felt United, still drying

waiting for their wings.....

Felt United

Just made a little necklace for Felt United Day

work in progress

I got finally my motivation back. It is so great just to do what I like to do and that I don't have to produce and to produce and to produce....
So I started yesterday some more of my 'Fly your Dreams' Birdies

lunch break..... 

I can already imagine his face....

waiting for colour....

I love to do them and it is also a good way to get rid of old wool, not nice enough for spinning anymore or not suitable for wet felting, but it still makes wonderful bodies.

While I am working on them my inspiration flies to other things I intend to do for our garden. My dream is to do all sorts of sculptures not only from wool to have our own little sculpture walk.

time of change

I have left the collective last thursday and since then I see clearly how much this membership constrained me the last months. At the beginning I was excited and proud to be good enough to be asked to join. I realized quite quickly that there was an underlying unhealthy atmosphere in the coop. It was wonderful to get a lot of inspiration by being involved in events/exhibitions but it was also devastating and depressing to be involved in an ongoing feud of vanity. Good vibes were fading, walking on eggshells was normal and hardly any open word was spoken.
It is amazing how free one can feel suddenly!
I will take time to think about the future. One thing is clear, I am not regretting the past 3 years,  I could have stopped earlier of course. It was an important time for my own development. I realize, wherever I go, I'll  always take a burden with me - myself, my demand on myself, my values which are not negotiable, my sometimes for others hard to understand honesty. Well it is me, who makes life difficult for myself, when I don't adapt to other people which are more easy going.
I am looking forward to enjoy doing what I like to do, to felt when I feel for felting, to knit when I feel for knitting and to paint when I feel for painting. And I want to paint again. I haven't been painting since I joined the coop, I was only welcome with feltwork. I will practise again, play with brush and paint whenever I feel for.
I will have a stall at markets together with 2 felter friends. I will start to sell online and most important

I will have a life again !!

another cover

I made another netbook cover and tried to include some fabric and silk. I think I was not patient enough and used a bit warm water, which made the wool felt to quick. Maybe I should add some stitching?

I am also working on some manequin torsos to hang. They look so ugly in white plastic, that I decided to cover them with old sewing patterns.

They are still a work in progress, need to dry now.

Scarf was not selected

My scarf was not selected for the exhibition with the comment

Not well felted - we can see you have enjoyed the technique, but further exploration needs to come to refine that. Think where the bubbles are going to fall in a scarf. Further colour design required.


Well thats life, I am happy to keep it for myself :)

Shibori scarf for Exhibition in Hamilton

At our Creative Fibre meeting last Monday the other ladies convinced me to put something in the National Exhibition in Hamilton 8th-11th of September.
Of course deadline for sending the entry form is already tomorrow 8th of August and the parcels have to arrive between 11th and 16th of August. So I was a bit in a rush what to do and decided for an easy shibory style scarf.
I used white polwarth tops and glass marbles and polystyrone balls.

I made this already on Monday/Tuesday but it still needed dyeing.
Well I was away the rest of the week for 2 days workshop and on Friday my usual day in the shop. Yesterday I had just a lazy day with not much doing, just a bit of spinning. But today I finally got the dyeing done

I used the technique Angela Meecham showed us:
I put warm water in a big container, just big enough to fit in the microwave. I added a hint of turquoise and mixed it and added some vinegar. Then I put the dry scarf in. She said it is better not to presoak the things, then it takes the colour better. When the fibre is already wet, it is already 'occupied' and it is much harder for the dye to bond. Then I added gradually different colours to the water by just making a bit space on the edge by pushing the scarf back and then adding the dye. The bubbles were treated last.
I am quite happy how it looks after the setting in the microwave. Now it needs to be fully dried before I will remove the marbles and the polystyrone balls.
Can't wait to see the result!

Felting Workshop with Angela Meecham

I spent two great days at a Felting Workshop with Angela Meecham in Kamo.
We had to leave Kerikeri very early 7.30am  to be there in time but it was well worth it. We tried out all sorts of fibres and fabrics for surface texture. It is amazing how it behaves some times.  This is a sample I made

I like very much the cotton gauze bottom left, but it was also amazing how the silver fabric in the middle turned out. My favourite is a piece of red organza which crinkled only in one direction, what a surprise! Bottom right is a piece of cheap fabric from the $2 shop, when the sun shines on it, it sparkles wonderful.

And then I tried some of the fabrics again on a white background and that is such a difference

It looses a lot in the white background, which shows, what an advantage black as background gives.

Angela also showed us dyeing in the microwave, especially overdyeing of colours.  I have to use this much more. Sometimes I have a boring coloured yarn or sliver, which I don't like anymore, well overdye it!

On the second day in the afternoon Angela showed us how to make a sculpted hat, that was fun!! Look at Anita, what a stunning hat!

We had two great days, very cold in the morning, but brilliant sunshine so that we could sit outside for lunch in the sun surrounded by the bowling green and flowering trees

The wet samples dried quickly on the concrete in the sun

and in the end of the second afternoon we had such a variety to look at

Thank you Angela for so much inspiration  :)

And here is the link for all the photos  if one of you wants to see more  

https://picasaweb.google.com/ilseseidel/FeltingWorkshopWithAngelaMeecham?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrRwaKOqJiBQQ