Experimental

Saturday morning dawned dark, cloudy and very wet. Simon and Charlotte had planned to accompany me to Scarborough and whilst I was at a felt workshop they would go and play with their cameras on the beach. The weather made that plan seem unwise but they went and were rewarded with a lovely sunny, if cool, day.

I was dropped at the church hall for a day of indulgence. No boot full of fibres and equipment for me just towels and lunch. It was rather freeing to be at someone else’s workshop and not have to worry about anything other than what I was making. Having chosen to do shirbori vessels with Jenny Pepper I was looking forward to the day and having time to experiment.

We began by using a resist and laying out our wool before felting in the usual manner.

You can see it’s an odd shape. After felting it most of the way we stopped and began using shirbori tying techniques to create texture and shape in our work. Below is a selection of items that I used in my felt.

At the end of the day this is what they looked like.

The first image is of my felt and look I’d made a thing! Now we had to wait for the felt to be bone dry before we could snip off the bindings.

We all seemed to really like the shapes created by putting objects like marbles and pebbles into the work but I also liked the stitching which was ruched in creating extra texture. Binding some of the spikey bits added further texture but these weren’t my favourite parts.

 

It’s a very sculptural piece of felt which my husband thinks is a weird thing but my teenage daughter thinks is cool. Me? I’m very pleased with the outcome and can envisage using elements of this technique in other work. I had a lovely day with Jenny experimenting and most of all, just having the time to play around and think about future workshops.

Three more workshops are in the offing over the next few weeks, I can’t wait!