I’ve had various projects in mind for quite a while now, one of which was to use up some of the many pieces of beach glass that I’ve collected on my trips to the seaside. So it was obvious really that I’d be inspired by the colours of the sea and by what else you might find there. In an earlier post I showed you seaquest, an item inspired by the sea and recycling a ceramic ball from my garden. Below you’ll see the spiral.

I don’t know if you can see but some of the glass is ridged, coloured or has other patterns in it. Because glass can’t be rolled up (it’d pierce the felt) the whole piece was created just by rubbing. I laid out four layers of white fibres, put in the glass then laid 2 layers of white over the top plus the final carded layer you see above. It’s a substantial piece which I intend to hang outdoors.

These are just two of the finished pieces, I’m now working on a third one inspired by rusty pieces of metal that I also collected from the beach. I wonder what I’ll be inspired to do with the cones, feathers and shells awaiting my attention?

I taught a felt picture workshop for the Yorkshire Alpaca Group on Saturday and they made some great pictures. It was a lovely warm and welcoming group, we had a lot of fun.

They all have alpaca fibres for the backgrounds and some are wholly alapca. Others have been decorated with a few merino fibres to experiment with colour.

Some of the pictures also have cotton and wool threads incorporated.The seascape above has silk cocoon added.

Some of the pictures have quite specific shapes on them, which were achieved by laying the fibres on in the correct position or, use of pre-felts which allow you to get nice clean edges to shapes.

Above left was modelled to create a low relief effect and I just love the fantasy bird. Lots of varied pictures for inspiration.

I’ve had in my mind to create more felt to use outdoors but also for it to be inspired by the outdoors and to incorporate found objects where possible. The first piece (below) I’d been thinking of for quite some time. It’s based on a ceramic ball which I bought 3 or 4 years ago for the garden. It was a little too pale but I thought it would weather in. It didn’t and each time I spotted it I was offended as it always seemed to stick out rather than blend in. What better to do with it then, than to cover it in felt.

It was/is my intention to replace it in the garden. I was inspired by the sea colours of the fibres I recently blended and decided that it would be perfect for this project. Changing the shape slightly and breaking the silhouette was also high on my list so as I ruminated about the sea, I was inspired by thoughts of limpets, sea anemones and waves.

I’ve used different coloured layers of fibres in the felt so that I can cut into it at the end and peal back some leaf shapes. This will further change the shape and reveal a very nice purple and, if memory serves me, a lime green.To create shapes under the felt I made some large felt balls and cut them in half. You can see that I glued them onto the ball with a hot glue gun but as soon as I started to work with the wet felt, they dropped off. In the end, I secured them with a couple of stitches just to hold them in place whilst I worked on the rest.

The wiggly pieces (sea anemones to my mind) on top are just rolls of felt with pipe cleaners in the centre. I decided to use the pipe cleaners for two reasons. Firstly, so I could rebend them into any shape I wanted should I be bored whilst in the garden and secondly, to ensure that if they get soaking wet they won’t just go floppy on me. The waves are represented by the ridges around the ball. Some of the larger ones I stitched in to help me hold them in place, the rest were just moulded in as I went along.

This project has worked out very well, I’m pleased with it and have called it Seaquest. There are still two questions to be answered though: 1. Do I keep it indoors or put it back out in the garden? I really can’t decide 2. Do I cut into it and reveal some of the colours underneath? I might just have to live with it as it is for a while longer.

If you fancy bringing the outdoors into your life, I’m running a workshop on Saturday 24th April where we’ll explore incorporating items like shells, pine cones, pebbles and beach glass. It’ll be a fun day.

I had a great day yesterday working with some lovely people discovering wet and dry felting techniques for making jewellery. Although there are no pctures, as yet, of the beads made up into necklaces I thought you’d like to see the fabulous range of flowers they made.

Whenever I teach a workshop I make an item as a way of demonstrating technique. Often, I don’t finish them on the day as I’m busy assisting people, so I recently decided to have a finishing day and thought you’d like to see the results.

As you can see I liked the simple design of this bag so much I repeated it. Rather than a flap I created two rolls to become the fastening. They might be quite interesting beaded as well.

The slippers below are made of Norwegian and hand dyed Swaledale fibres. It’s quite a hairy mix but it works very well for slippers as both fibres are so hard wearing. I enjoyed stitching into them even though they are a slightly difficult shape for that.

I’ve been working on items for my Bringing the Outdoors In workshop which I hope to show you soon.

The slipper workshop was great fun with some really lovely items made. You can see them on my pages.I taught a small group on Saturday, they made handbags and the youngest participant was only nine but she put a fabulous dog’s face on the bag. Yesterday I taught another felt picture workshop with some really stunning pieces produced. I’ll display pictures as soon as I have them. It seems to have been quite a busy period and it’s always so nice to see what people produce.

I’ve been very slow at showing these felt pictures but they really are too good to hide. It was a small class last week and I didn’t get a photo of all the felts but the two landscapes by Margaret and Judith are inspiring.

Take a look at what’s been produced at other workshops. I can’t wait to see what the slipper lot make tomorrow!

I enjoyed carding the fibres so much yesterday that I was inspired to use some of them for pictures. The boat picture is made entirely of carded fibres and I’m quite pleased with the result. In the centre is the vibrant, orange, pink and red fibres to which I’ve added some orange circles. It’s my intention to embroider onto this a little.

At the end is the fibres which to me looked so like a picture that I have indeed turned it into an abstract piece. I thnk I’ll probably stitch into this one too. Next week I hope to show you a 3D piece I’m working on which will also be made from carded fibres. So much you can do with leftover fibre!

Sometimes you end up with some fibres which have begun to felt and are difficult to pull for laying out. These and ends of colours I put into my bit bag. I use the bit bag when I’m looking for tiny amounts of a specific colour and for making felt beads. When I make the felt beads from these leftovers I cut the fibres into one inch lengths and mix in my hand. This is easy to do when the fibres are so short and allows you to use them up easily.

My favourite way of using them up has to be the carding of the fibres. If you can’t pull the fibres to put them on the carder split the top down it’s length a couple of times and you’ll find it much easier. Just look at the images below for what can be achieved by taking the time to card.

I really love the mix of orange, pink and red, so vibrant!  The final image is all the leftover bits carded to produce fibres that almost look like a painting. Carding allows you to create unique colours. If you store these they will eventually begin to felt again so I usually make them into pre-felts (part made felt, stop felting whilst still soft) which can be stored for a long time and mean you always have something lovely in your stash. All those bits you might have thrown away have a new life and you get 100% usage from your fibres. Good financial sense and great looking pre-felts!

I’ve just had a look at the Adelaide Walker website and there are some good deals during January. Although the Vat has gone back up prices have been held on all fibres for the whole of the month. In addition they now have have Wensleydale curls on offer and also have a Cashmere / Tussah Silk blend in stock. Definitely worth buying now, if you have the cash.