Ring cushion

Just finished the wedding ring cushion for my sister and future husband. It is made of three layers of felted merino with silk noil  and silk hankies, silk gauze fabric, strips of silk chiffon and cotton muslin as decoration. I used the green and gold silks for the Kerry colours for Juliette and the red merino with sparkly angelina fibres for Denis for the Cork colours. I felted a flat piece in roughly a square shape, intentionally making a piece bigger than I needed so I could cut my favourite piece out.  When firmly felted, I used a piece of recycled satin scarf cut to size for the back as the template for the felted piece.  Before stuffing and sewing up I tried a few sample machine embroidery stitches on the excess felt. I picked a flower stitch that seemed able to follow curves without the need to make the machine ready for free machining (which involves removing some bits and adding other – and I just don’t have the patience for that fiddling about!!!). I then used a fade away pen and drew some heart shapes around the muslin which had created the best surface texture of all the additions. I then followed the pen line with the machine embroidery stitch. Finally I pinned and stitched the satin to the felt leaving about two inches not sewed, turned it right side around and stuffed the cushion with some cushion filling that a friend had given me a couple of weeks ago. I then hand stitched it completely closed and added a lovely light gold organza ribbon in the centre for tying the rings.  I am so pleased with the end result and again I learned a lot. I would love to make more of these as well but am racking my brains trying to find an excuse!! Otherwise I will end up with loads of lovely small cushions all over the house!

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Composite Felted Hat

Have just completed two outstanding projects, thanks to a morning babysitting given to me by my generous sister.

The hat is made of felted Kerry and merino wool fibres and then cut into equally sized squares. This turned out to be a fortuitous accident as when the felt was made some years ago, I had not the skill to complete a hat. My mum and I felted the wool one night with the intention of making ‘something’ and decided to try making a hat by in joining the squares. But it sat there unfinished for at least three years until Mum found the bag of bits and gave it to me. I took it away intending to work on it at some point.  After a further six months I started sewing the squares together alternating the black/green and white squares. It took me two attempts at hand sewing it, using blanket stitch, then whip stitch until I realised that the stitches were too visible and it needed machine stitching. I joined the squares together in a rectangle shape of two lines of squares. Then I created a six piece crown for the top of the head but snipped the corner squares in half at both ends in order to create an oval shape. I then joined the oval and rectangle together. I had previously worked out how many squares I needed for the oval and base by measuring my hat block. When the oval and rectangle were joined together it was a little loose so I decided to felt it again. This was partly to strengthen it and also to shrink it to get the exact hat block size. I was delighted with the results, as I only ever half believed that it would actually work out properly. Today I finally got around to making a lining. I cut an oval and rectangle shape from green lining a little larger than the hat size to allow for hemming. I joined the oval and rectangle together and hemmed the edge of the rectangle that would be joined to the hat. I then hand stitched the lining in place, learning, as I went that big stitches worked better to hold the lining in place. I am so delighted with this hat, it was a complete learning experience from start to finish. And I hope to use this design to make more in the very near future. I call this hat Composite for want of a better word! It is an example of style I am developing where I join separate pieces of felt together to create something that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

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Mermaid sculpture using Paverpol

Here is the mermaid fabric sculpture Eleanor and I made recently as part of our school’s Textile and Craft exhibition which I am organising. Each class is making a project based on Nature and the Sea using a variety of materials and crafts. This exhibition marks the Year of Craft as designated by the Crafts council of Ireland. Eleanor’s class are doing an under the water theme and we have already felted  a background for the display. The mermaid will be part of this display as well.  Here are some photos of the progression. The basic form was constructed using florist wire, tinfoil and kitchen paper to bulk it out before adding various fabrics which were dipped in Paverpol first. We sat the mermaid on a brick which was covered in a piece of silk painted another night by a friend at one of our craft nights and left behind forgotten. We collected some seaweed for added effect and I used some old rope dipped in bronze coloured paverpol for the hair. We used a tiny plant pot for the treasure chest and some broken costume jewellery.

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Composite felt scarf

I can’t believe this is the first post  in so many months but life has just been so busy with the new baby.  I’m going to try to get back into it . Here’s a scarf I made recently for my mum to match a lilac tailored jacket. It is made of merino fibres of pinks and lilac, dyed needlepunch fabric, chiffon fabric, silk fibres and dyed silk gauze. The scarf is laid out in mostly linear design with a few cross lattices to add support. Rather than the traditional way of making nuno or fabric felt and laying the fibres over the fabric base or vice versa I am currently enjoying working by laying the various fibres laongside each other overlapping enough to catch. Also I am working more on design and attributing one element of design to each colour fibre or fabric. For example the cerise coloured merino is a circle, the needlepunch is a straight piece with holes torn into the middle of the strips. The chiffon was manipulated by pulling some strings at the side and causing a puckering effect before felting. I am enjoying this new approach to design. I have struggled with holding back on design and not overdoing it to the point of cluttering the effect. This new approach is very satisfying and still just as creative.

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Classes in the Fabric Gallery/Craft Cafe, Bray

Feltmaking Evening Classes at  Flowers By Lynda, Greystones

Felting basics

Wednesday night October 20^th 8pm-10.30pm

Create your very first piece, inspired by flowers if you wish!

Three dimensional felting

Wednesday night November 3^rd 8pm-10.30pm

Make your own 3d piece, a bag, bowl, or a bunch of flowers!

Nuno (fabric) felting

Wednesday night November 17^th 8pm-10.30pm

Create your own felted scarf using a fabric base.

Felting presents

Wednesday night December 1^st 8pm-10.30pm

Make seasonally inspired tree hanging ornaments!

Price per person is based on class and all materials supplied. €35.

Minimum class size 4. All welcome. Individual attention and fun projects.

To book contact Lynda at 201 6566 or Sharon 087 2020560

Feltmaking Classes at the Fabric Gallery/Craft Cafe, Bray, Co.Wicklow

Felting foundation course

Monday October 11^th 10am-12.30pm

Learn the skills of basic feltmaking and create your own picture.

Three dimensional felting

Monday November 8^th 10am-12.30pm

Create your own bag or bowl.

Nuno (fabric) felting

Monday December 13^th 10am-12.30pm

Create your own felted scarf using a fabric base.

Please bring your own wool roving fibres or these can be purchased in the shop.

Minimum class size 4 people.  All welcome. Individual attention.

Price per person is €30 for class only.

To book contact Fabric Gallery at 01 2860979  or Sharon at 087 2020560

Sharon Wells 2010

www.feltcreative.ie

www.wordpress.sharonwells.com

 

Back from summer.

I’ve been so busy since coming back from Kerry. The kids are back to school and we are slowly getting back into a routine. I have a few things on the boil for the next few months. The craft club will be back up and running soon when I organise everything.  A very exciting development for me is that I will be teaching feltmaking and knitting classes in Bray and Greystones. When the schedules are finalised I will list them here on the blog. During the summer I managed to get some hats made, learning more from each one. I must say I  love making hats much more than I expected and think it will become the new addiction. I am also working on some pieces for the Feltmakers upcoming juried exhibition and really enjoying the making of something for arts sake without the need for making it practical in its use. Here are some photos of the hats for now and I’ll be back as soon as I get some more stuff tied down!!

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Jam making craft night

Last night was the final pre summer craft night. A few of us got together in my house to make jam and have a chat. Alison gave me some of her homegrown rhubarb to use. I also used the last carton of frozen raspberries from last year’s summer bounty to make a jelly which I had prepared the juice for the day before. Sinead brought some frozen berries and Gay brought some more rhubarb and some ginger which really gave the jam a beautiful taste. I baked some scones and whipped some cream and we indulged in those with a cup of tea. We made about 15 pots of jam and there was enough for everyone to take some home and some were kept for presents. We were lucky that the 2kg of rhubarb wasn’t ruined when I got distracted and started showing the girls the various little projects I am working on! There was a moment there !!  One of the photos is Gay showing the bottom of the pot a little burnt, but luckily we saved it just in time! Sinead gave us some extra tips from a great jam book she brought and told us how her mum used to make and sell jam.  a few of us also had jam making stories from our childhood and good memories of collecting and topping and tailing fruit! Gay brought some lovely labels and wax paper so we could finish off the pots nicely. Lovely evening of chat as well. There was a photo of me holding a pot of jam with a silly face on and my eyes shut, but since I looked like a total eejit I left that photo out !!!! After summer we will continue the craft group with mosaics, decoupage, embroidery, crochet and felting and maybe some baking cup cakes too!  See ye then!

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Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Exhibition -A Woolly Wonder

‘The distinctive crenellated forms of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef are

variations of a mathematical structure known as hyperbolic space’

Alison and I went into Dublin this morning to see the last day of the Hyperbolic Crochet Exhibition. We had a time slot between Robert’s 3 month check up and picking the other kids up from school at 2.30pm. The Science museum only opened at 12noon. Anyway, we made it in for 12, parked at Merrion square across from the National Gallery, and found our way past Pearse street dart station to the Science Museum. Many mums with their kids born in Holles St will know exactly what route we took!!!! The exhibition was truly inspiring, there was so much detail that it impossible to absorb it all. And it was all inspired by the mathematical structure of hyperbolic space and the preservation of the coral reefs. The crochet forms were various in style and materials. Some were made from wool, (I even spotted some felted ones), plastic bags, plastic bottles, metallic threads and electroluminescent wire. Some of the structures represented were staghorn coral, aqua flora, knitted wire sea creatures, beaded plastic trash, hand spun octopi, tube anemones, and beaded jellyfish to name a few. The destruction of coral reefs was addressed using white forms which represented the bleached bone reef. The exhibition also addressed the Toxic Reef in the Pacific Ocean which is 30 metres deep and twice the size of Texas, which is essentially a garbage patch of plastics. I have included photos here, some of which are accidentally blurry but they actually look like they are underwater which is why I decided they should really be left in!

www.sciencegallery.com/crochetcoralreef

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A little bit of craft every day!

The reason for the baby bliss!

I think I am beginning to get back to my crafty self after having the baby. I was in a state of baby bliss for the last few months and didn’t feel the need to craft! I have, however, begun to notice a restlessness and a yearning for creativity again. So, I am fiddling around with some of the many projects that I have in my head. I have nearly completed the resist pattern for a nunofelted top. I am taking my time with this pattern as I intend to use it for style variations if the size works out correctly. I have been adding and subtracting and dividing numbers to work out the shrinkage rates. But it is not an exact science and the top will evolve as I make it anyway. I was delighted to have the opportunity to use some of my draughting and illustration equipment again and it came in so handy!! Drawing a curved line  and getting angles right is so much easier with the right tool!

I am doing a little bit of something every day even if it is only sums!!!  One of my favourite things to do when  I am short of time and need a craft fix is to dye some fibres in the microwave. I learned the technique from the Spinners and dyers at the Knitting and Stitching show in Dublin a couple of years ago. The cone with the yarn on it is left over from a sock factory that my Dad worked in years ago and when the cones were empty my sisters and I would use them to play shop with, all various colours,we would pretend they were coca cola, red lemonade and 7up!  One photo is of the reason for the baby bliss! Coincidentally a friend sent me a blog to check out that features a 20 minute a day challenge to make something! A wonderful idea. I think I might just take up the challenge for the rest of the year!

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Samples and ropes

On Monday, the baby took a very long nap first thing when I got back from dropping the kids to school. I took this opportunity to have a rare morning of craftyness. On suggestion from Eleanor Roche of Feltmakers I made a sample of the nuno felt top I have planned. I cut a piece of the dyed silk at A4 size and added the pre-felt and roving. It felted very easily but I turned the sample over very early to rub the fibres through on the reverse side just in case. I spent the rest of that morning and a small while the next morning designing a simple long sleeved tunic and then calculating the dimensions of the resist that will be used, adding 30% to all measurements. I also cut the sinamay fascinator that I made at Marjo’s craft night and added some glue to the edges of the sinamay. I forgot to glue all the edges so will have to go back and finish that. I then made some small ropes which I had intended to add to the fascinator. I made the ropes using a combination of methods one of which Gina had showed us at the last feltmaking drop in. The ropes felted very fast and were very strong.  I’m looking forward now to making the top soon! It was a nice crafty experimenting and learning session and I got a few things done that had been waiting a while and it gave me inspiration for new projects as well!

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