Decorative Needle Felting

 

It’s been a while and in that time my book ‘Decorative Needle Felting Projects’ has not only been published in the U.K. but is now available in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Europe, Japan…I’ve popped some live links on my website here, but you can easily find it in your country of choice by pasting the ISBN number 9781399000307 into a search engine and seeing what comes up. And it’s always great if you can support a local independent bookshop, rather than the usual Big Place. If you don’t follow me on Instagram where I’ve been posting images for a while, then here are a few hints of what to expect. (If you already subscribe to my weekly updated Patreon blog for behind-the-scenes content, then thank you; you’ve been there since the early making days and sharing the dark winter nights in bed as I frantically made little geese with cold fingers).

There’s a mix of wearable designs, from a fox bangle to a sleepy squirrel brooch, with a range of decorative projects.

A front section on techniques, including darning onto felt, patching and adding beads.

Four seasonal sections each containing five lovely patterns, with some stand out Christmas projects including a gingerbread village and a ‘Marvellous Mr Hare’ tree topper - this is one for the dedicated needle felter. 

Generally though, I’ve designed many of the projects to be small scale and easily made in a short amount of time, so that anyone new to needle felting can dive in and create something little and sweet in one session. And for the adventurous, there is the option to upscale and develop your own take on designs.

One of the nice things about having a book published is the opportunity for a dedication to someone special. Initially, back in pre-Covid 2020, that was going to be Joe. (Remember him? Me neither). That leaky ship mercifully sailed long before publication, and I was able to dedicate it to the people who have been the most supportive, through everything I’ve catalogued here, there and elsewhere. That’s you, reading this. 

I almost forgot to add - I was interviewed for our local BBC radio Shropshire last month, to talk about needle felting and the new book - you can find the episode here, on BBC Sounds. I start at 2.08 into the programme, coming in after Bonnie Tyler. It’s only available until the 26th August (2022) so apologies to any historic readers finding this in the future.

My Aunty Dora

 

Last month I finished off another batch of my ‘imaginary toadstools’ for my shop - these ones are darned and patched with various threads and vintage materials. When I create more natural toadstools, such as these...

...I give them folksy names, which are fanciful but not totally unbelievable - ‘Angel Eyes’, ‘Spice Ball’ and ‘Scarlet Bonnet’ are just a few of the toadstools that dwell in the woods in my head. 

However, even I have to admit that I have never come across a toadstool with visible mending on its cap, so I let my imagination go wherever it liked with the naming of these. And here we have my favourite, ‘Aunty Dora’s Bedroom’. 

Now, bear with me, while I explain. I had (as some of you may have) several ‘aunties’, all of a certain age, some of whom were bonafide aunts, some who were a kind of cousin or just friends of my mother’s. I had an Aunty Dora, who lived in Yeovil, Somerset and she was a proper aunty. We didn’t have holidays as such, but usually once a year mum and I would go to stay with Dora for a while. I loved her and always looked forward to our visits. Apart from the novelty of being in a more modern, comfortable household than ours, with a television, proper wall to wall carpeting and a dining table, she was very kind and fun to be with. She always had a little gift for me; just simple things, but I was easily pleased and when she gave me a small plastic box full of brightly coloured map pins (the kind with fatter ends, which I’d never seen before) I was thrilled; she’d brought them back from her job at the Milk Marketing Board, I think. Once when we arrived, she gave me a empty blue glass perfume flagon which still smelled fragrant and every time I sniffed it afterwards it reminded me of our stay with her. And a matchbox sized green plastic television which had a blank grey screen, but when you looked in the peephole in the back, it showed a photo of picture of Spain or France or somewhere exotic, and when you clicked the button on the top, the picture changed.

So, to return to her woolly namesake; I used typically 1970s colours, as that was the era in which I saw her most and although I don’t think she had such outlandish colours in any of her bedrooms, somehow it reminds me of those kinder days. I can only find one photo of her, (which is not the best) of us both enjoying a summers day in her back garden when I would have been about eight or nine, I think. I seem to be sucking on an ‘ice pop’ (another treat) and I am wearing some new and ever so trendy (I thought) espadrilles which were turquoise canvas with a bit of a chunky heel and woven hessian down the sides. New shoes were few and far between, but these were special ‘holiday shoes’ and I felt quite the thing. 

Wherever you are Aunty Dora, thank you for those lovely memories. 

Heading onwards with toadstools

What a month it has been. So many thanks for the supportive comments, advice, emails and messages - who knew there was so much love in the world? I’ve been a little taken aback at how much there is, but profoundly grateful, as it has been an immense help. 

I’ve had my self indulgent week of beating my breast and wailing - it was inevitable, but it’s over now and I feel cleansed and strangely calm, under the circumstances. I have spent the last week organising and planning - some plans that I was already putting in motion before things went wrong, and some new. My brain can be a slow moving animal, but with the aid of numerous lists, I am making progress and dealing with as much as possible. 

My other studio is the bedroom and it is the best place to sort out wools for add-on workshop packs. I held my first Zoom workshop last Wednesday and despite my initial nerves, it went very well. None of the participants had tried needle felting before and over the two and a half hours, with much live demonstrating from myself, they produced excellent toadstools. It was remarkably like holding a real-life workshop, but in some ways better, as I had equal access to everyone and was able to show working techniques to everyone, equally,  without constantly moving round a table. Later, I was sent this lovely in situ photo of a finished piece - 

So with more confidence than I had before, I have set up four hanging toadstool dates for October in U.K. time, with limited spaces of four people per session. 

October 9th, Friday 10.30am - 1pm

October 15th,  Thursday 10.30 - 1pm

October 23rd, Friday, 10.30 - 1pm

October 29th, Friday, 10.30 - 1pm

I’ve already had a couple of bookings, and it’s early days. All of my courses can be booked directly through myself (email me here) with payment via PayPal or booked on my page on Craft Courses here. I am also offering one to one sessions with flexible dates and timing, which should allow for overseas sessions in differing time zones. (Hello America!) 

So, that’s one thing started and a Patreon page is set up for a launch next week, which will initially be a more personal ‘plus’ extension of this blog, for a small subscription. And although I’m spending most of my time tapping away at one website or another, I am still making a little time each day to wind down with my own work. 

Discover more wanderings by supporting me on my Patreon page 

Unstitching and restitching

I've been playing around with embellishments for a while now and am very much enjoying adding fancy bits to my work. I'm not sure whether to call it 'darning' or 'weaving' - I think possibly darning, as it is working on top of a surface. Anyhow, one evening this week I spent some time adding some embroidery (or darning) bling to a tail, using a rather lovely tangerine Perle thread. 

It's a bit thicker than the Danish threads I've been using. I don't know whether it was the change in feel, or that I was tired; but it didn't work. I plodded on regardless. Always a mistake when you have that nagging gut feeling that you should stop. Now.

By the time I'd finished,  knew it was wrong. I'd also pulled some dark brown wool fibres up into the darn, muddying the glorious colour. Time to put it down and think about bed. 

Looking at it the next day, I knew what I had to do. Tiny sharp scissors did the job.

The problem wasn't with the darning addition, but with the area I was working on. The tail need to be longer and more rooster like. I set about adding extra tailage. (Not a real word).

Much better. More balance. More working area.

And start again.

*Some time* (two hours) later. I can't think why I didn't do it it like this in the first place.

Secret gardens and hidden darns

 

This summer I have found myself making miniature landscapes and oddly, they have become a form of self portrait. Not that I am a small green hump with vegetation growing on top, but the tiny houses often appear  difficult to get to, with minuscule windows implying a shy or sometimes alarmed expression.

 

The winding paths are one of my favourite motifs. You would have to walk up them to get to the house - and would there be anyone at home when you got there? Or are the occupants at home but not available to visitors?

I think, judging from feedback on my Facebook page and Instagram feed, that perception is everything with these pieces. The majority take them at face value; they are what they are. Sometimes people are a little alarmed at the proportionally 'giant' topiary figures. Others find them comforting. As for myself - I like the ambiguity.

'Creeper Cottage' is a case in point. The looming, topiary snail, could be seen as a threat to the house...or a gentle guardian.

I have also been adding extra surface elements, such as patches, as  visual puns. The patch on the front of  'Thimble Row' is deliberately clumsy, with over sized stitches and using a thick thread, as if a child had attempted their first mending project. I think the needle must have frightened the cottages, as they are leaning back and seem somewhat shocked.

'Halfpenny Hill' is similarly 'repaired'. In an actual garden, a bare grassy lawn area is re-seeded. Here, two very small visibly stitched fragments of cloth add interest to the plain hummock. One is hidden away at the back.  In life, we mend old clothes and much loved toys. In these worlds, the landscape is similarly refurbished.

'Swan Haven' is one of my more fanciful pieces; the topiary swan can never swim, but it carries an entire dwelling within a garden, as if it were a bizarre form of static barge.

The first garden I created earlier this year was the most secretive and difficult to photograph. This is entirely deliberate, as it is intended for the eventual owner to enjoy from a certain angle. My favourite view is simply head on, as if I were about to brave the long, straight path which leads to the tall, silent manor - protected (or guarded) by twin trees. Someone inside definitely knows you are coming.

'Shepherd's Cottage' is another patched and darned affair, with the sheep 'shepherding' the house - or possibly about to nibble it.

Many years ago, when I was an art student , I was taught that a good sculpture has points of interest from all views, so I delight in putting the darns in the least likely of places, where they will not at first be noticed.

The final landscape is the tiniest of all, designed to fit into a ring box. 

Behind the rather melancholy looking house, is  a neat,  incy-wincy darn in an unlikely shade of pink. This diminutive piece of felted real estate is now on a long journey to a new home, where I hope the owner will enjoy this snippet of 'the artist disguised as a house'. 

Capturing the unicorn

When I started needle felting eleven years ago, I thought I would be mostly re-creating the imaginary toys that I painted at the time. This didn't really happen, as I discovered that the wool took over and I created a whole new world of little things.

However, in one of my many 'dry patches' last year, and stuck for inspiration, I decided to make a 'real' version of this unicorn, painted last year (I think) which went off to a new home soon after it was finished. I had hoped to find suitable button wheels, but ended up needle felting them instead. 

 

'Eunice' was a kind of inbetweeny piece, but she did provide a gentle push towards new designs. I finally showed her on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, and she was snapped up by one of my kind followers. I popped a card in with her and noticed with a faint feeling of shock that it was from an old artwork dating to 2008, eleven years ago. My grasp on the passing of time has never been exactly firm, but I am going to make an effort to start painting again, before another decade drifts by.

On-line needle felt workshop launch

I have finally finished my first online needle felt project and what a 'journey' that has been! It's in my nature to take a long time to do things and this time it seemed to take forever as I agonised over whether to do a 'talking head' video to help pitch it. Breaking news - I became so stressed over it, that in the end I decided not to. Until I'm a little more confident. However, I did get Joe to take an up-to-date profile picture, since my last publicity photo was taken ten years ago.

My first project is a sleepy squirrel brooch, designed for simplicity and ease of making. It contains fifty (yes, fifty) step photos, written instructions and four mini supplementary demo videos.

The normal price will be £15 (roughly $19.60 US at the time of writing) but as an introductory offer it is £10 (roughly $14 US) until Friday 26th November 2018. 

To take advantage of this, or just to have a peek, please click on the link below for the course site.This will take you to the landing page which has a full description, materials list and option to sign up.

SLEEPY SQUIRREL BROOCH ONLINE WORKSHOP

 

Little wheely animals and things

I've been very remiss in posting any needle felt work here, which is strange, as I certainly haven't stopped working. While we've had a stressful few months, needle felting has been one thing that has calmed my anxiety down. Perhaps it is because I use my Instagram account to post  work in progress and pieces for sale, and once that's done I forget about showing it on my blog. Anyhow, my latest 'thing' has been making miniature vintage style toys on wheels. Obviously not toy toys, but models of toys, such as these little rabbits - 

As you can see from the photo with my fingers showing, they really are very small (which strangely does not make them any quicker to make). I've used antique sewing machine bobbins to represent the wheels and added some parts of an old silver and moonstone necklace to make the pull chains with. It's always lovely when work sells immediately and these two have long been sent to their new homes. 

Then there is Bertie, again on bobbin spools and with a vintage other of pearl button to finish his pull chain with.

 'Bertie', available for sale on Etsy

And Walter, who is larger and with vintage buttons to represent wheels. The frame is my own hand twisted affair and the old brass button at the end of the gilt chain is one I've had since I was a teenager and used to adorn a nice felt burgundy waistcoat (until the moths got it).

      'Walter', available for sale on Etsy

Earlier this year I made my first foray into adding 'things' to my work with this button moon fox - it took some time to get it all to balance and so that the fox appeared to be gazing into a full moon without toppling over.

 'Fox and the Moon' available for sale on Etsy

And finally, in 'other news', I have only held one workshop this year, in nearby Ludlow at the Loudwater Studio. With three people attending, it's possibly the smallest class I've ever had, but very enjoyable nonetheless. 

 

I have made the decision this year to cut back on workshops, as I find the worry of whether they will happen or not and the travelling,  a bit much to cope with nowadays. While I really enjoy the actual events, I find they wipe me out mentally and physically. So I'm really quite excited to be entering the world of internet craft courses and later this year hope to be able to offer my first online workshop - maybe with videos!