A New Bag

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Created with the help of a pony (thank you Nutmeg and Ian who rode you), Rosie’s store of naturally dyed wool and a bit of needlefelting.  This is my section of the first large felted piece we created on the Wild … Continue reading →

Not much felting happening recently……

You may have noticed that there have not been many felting posts recently….or many posts at all!  I went back into full time work last week after 8 months not in paid work (mostly by choice although I hadn’t intended the break to last quite so long!!).  And I spent the last two or three months filling in application forms etc for quite a lot of the time – it takes a remarkable amount of time and energy….

However now I am working for a publishing company 9.00-6.00 –  still in the proscess of working out how to fit my creative life around paid work once again……

However last weekend I did make a small bag to match one of the first hats I ever made.  It has come out quite well (although I’m not sure I could say the same about the photos.)

Old Hat, New Bag

The bag is quite a complicated design with integral flaps and spikes to match the hat.  It also has a felt button and a stripey inside.  Basically just for fun I threw lots of different techniques at it!!

Unfortunately I forgot that the flap on the main body of the bag was due to fold back once it was finished so I decorated the wrong side.

But I do like it – I think it has quite a sporan like appearance….

Oh and its going to be a busy week this week.  I’m preparing for a stall at Hays Galleria with the felting collective ‘London Loves Felt’ (of which more later).

And I have a play to see on Tuesday, I’m acting as auditions’ secretary for the Scotsman and my friend Barrie on Wednesday (of which also more later) and four nights of concert going at the Kings Place Festival  Thursday to Sunday…..

I must be mad!!

Cyanotype Printing and Indigo Dying

At my Morley College Textiles course we have been experimenting with Indigo Dying and Cyanotype Printing this term.  I particularly like the Cyanotype printing which uses UV light – either sunlight or the UV bed – and works in a similar way to early photography.  It can be used by putting objects like feathers, leaves etc directly onto the cloth and exposing to the sunlight, but I have been making drawings and using acetates.

Drawing and Acetate

I have been frustrated by the results using sunlight – it doesn’t pick up the delicate lines even when I put it under glass to keep the acetate flat against the material (and to stop it blowing away!!!).  However as long as it is run often enough through the UV bed cycle it gets a beautifully delicate result even showing the marks where stray threads from the fraying edges get onto the cloth by mistake……

The pattern is based on photos of some lichen on rocks…………..

I have incorporated this plus my indigo dying efforts into an appliqued bag (also indigo dyed).  Now I am in the procses of embroidering on top of the applique..

Indigo and Cyanoprint bag

Help please re Etsy Shop…

Hi there to anyone reading this.  I think -fingers crossed- that I have just added a link to my new Etsy Shop on my sidebar.

This isn’t strictly speaking supposed to be possible so I have followed suggestions on the help blog and I think it has worked.  I would be grateful if someone reading this could try clicking the link and see what they get – I’m not sure if I’m getting the right place on Etsy as its my site so I can automatically see it!!  (There are only a couple of items on there so far as I am in the process of taking and uploading photos  from various angles….)

Golly – all this techie stuff is a bit complicated!

Blue and Orange Handbag still drying

Here is a picture of the bag I finished this morning just to add something pretty to the post….its not even quite dry yet but I am pleased with it.  For some reason this cobalt blue wool seems to make a particularly smooth felt – different colours of wool really do seem to have different characters….!  The orange decoration is made with a prefelt that I attached before fulling the bag.

Integrated Handles

Grey Bag with Integrated Handle

I’ve been making more bags and I’ve done it – made integrated handles and it really wasn’t difficult.  I don’t know what I was shying away from!!

Here is the finished bag…..

Grey and Pink Bag open

Grey and Pink Bag closed

Mauve Bag (no handle yet!)

‘Henry Moore’ Bag

Yesterday I made a new bag which I think has a 1950s feel to it – perhaps I absorbed ideas from a book I read recently on Henry Moore’s textile designs..

Turquoise Bag laid out before it has been felted

It has pieces of  ‘silk hankie’ between the layers of wool to strengthen it and  to give some extra texture.  The darker patches are silk chiffon so there are elements of nunofelt…. and the inside is a dark greenish turquoise.

Bag being felted around a piece of pipe lagging

Once I had felted and fulled the bag I cut a a oblong of thick polestyrene packing (that I found in a load of packing materials someone was throwing out). I stretched the wet bag  over the block to experiment with shaping it in the same way that I would shape a hat on a hat block.

I’m pleased with the way it has turned out.  Now I just need to make a handle.  I really must get into making integral handles!!   I know how but I hate making felt ropes so I keep avoiding it…..

Turquoise Bag stretched and dried