texture – Angela Barrow

Dual purpose pot

April 14, 2016April 12, 2016

In an earlier post I showed some dyeing I’d been doing that I intended to use on some Midsummer Night’s Dream inspired work. I began this pot by carding up lots of browns with a little grey and black for the interior of the pot, I wanted it to be dark and not detract from the exterior.

Midi continued to oversee my work, it’s nice to have company. For the two external layers I carded up lots of green, all of the carded wool was from my bit bag so it was using up fibres at the same time 🙂

There is: bits of broken skeleton leaf, silk, scrim, synthetic fabric, bits of hessian, silk fibres, mulberry silk bark and Teeswater curls all hand dyed.

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Lots of texture all way round.

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To become one of my pieces for Midsummer Night’s Dream this is just the start but in the meantime it will serve a dual purpose and become a sample for the textured vessels workshop on 30th April. Once I’ve worked on it further I’ll show it again.

Surface texture vase

February 22, 2016

This sweet little pot was made a couple of weeks ago from Jacob and Teeswater wools.

It was made using a basic circular resist with a felt ball hidden in the layers that I then cut back to reveal.

The interior is turquoise Merino and there’s hand dyed Teeswater around the edge of the pot.

On the three front fins there’s also a thin line of turquoise Merino.

It underwent various shapes during felting as I played around with the final shape. This final shape was the most pleasing and I can even see this as a hanging pod. It was fun experimenting with extrusions and textures and there’ll be a lot more of this in my textured vessels workshop on 30th April.

Hidden texture workshop

September 24, 2014

I couldn’t have been more pleased with how this workshop went. A lovely group of ladies and the work! – just see for yourself.

You can very clearly see the depth of texture achieved in this bag by Janice. This was the very first piece of felt she’d made and to tackle, 3D, texture and carding skills in her first time was brilliant. And she smiled thoughout

Deborah kept her design simple but very striking, the sinuous curves are lovely. Each bag has an internal pocket followed by 2 layers of wool then the design work as we laid out the texture which would be hidden by 2 further layers of carded wool.

I’m so disappointed that I don’t have a better photo of Jenis’ bag to show you but the black proved a little harder to photograph and the group was about to leave at this point. There are several horizontal layers of lines and raised mounds which were very effective. Instead of a long handle Jeni cut a hand hold in at the end of felting. Mulberry silk fibres were also incorporated into the felt but they don’t show up in photos as the bag was still wet. Bet it looks even better now

Sue was ambitious with her design and there was a point when I thought she’d be finishing it at home but it was completed in the time we had. It has quite a celtic feel about it, I wonder if it’s the colour contributing to that? This is the only bag without a handle as Sue was considering using a metal chained handle as a contrast to the wool.

I have more workshops coming up and am looking forward to the lacy cobweb felt scarf workshop a week on Sunday 5th october. It’s at the festival Hall in Gisburn which is a lovely light space to work in. I hope to see some of you there.

More hidden texture

September 16, 2014March 28, 2019

This is the shape of bag I set out to create but not the colours! It just seemed a good idea to set myself an extra challenge to make this bag using nothing except what was in my cupboard. After laying down two layers of Blue faced Leicester wool I searched around for texture I could hide between the layers.

The felt cord had been hanging around for several years but I knew it would come in handy sometime and imagine my delight when it did! There was also discs of pref-felt and felt balls I could use. How is it that it’s absolutely ages since I made any felt balls and yet I always seem to have some hanging about.

Having found my texture and discovered just how many pre-felt pieces I had in the cupboard I decided that the outer layers of wool would be pre-felt. This has the added advantage of helping to trap the texture without the fibres slipping and revealing what’s beneath. We begin with a view of the back.

You can see the odd shaped pre-felt pieces, I rather like them. The felt cord handle was made separately and then stitched on afterwards with yarn. I wanted the stitches to be seen and form part of the texture of the bag. Now we have the front.

I know it’s busy and it shouldn’t work but I think it does and somehow this bag has snook ito my affections.

All pre-felts on the front too. The handle curls around a pre-felt which is hiding a felt ball and you can clearly see how large a texture using the sturdy cords between the layers has created.

There’s another felt ball for a fastening, this time passing through a cut in the felt. There are two inner pockets and the flower decoration was also found in my pre-felt bag. I believe someone started it at a workshop, fell out of love with it and I squirrelled it away for later. Just loving the extra dimension it adds.

I wonder if anyone has spotted that this bag and the one I showed yesterday were actually created on the same resist. It just goes to show that how you remove your felt from the resist has a huge impact on the shape.

Hidden texture handbag

September 15, 2014March 28, 2019

This is one of my samples for the workshop I’m teaching this coming Friday – hidden textures. You could use the technique to make any items like cushions, pictures and scarves and of course, bags. I love texture and usually add it to the outside of items but in this instance it’s created by adding it in the middle of the layers.

After covering the resist with two layers of fibre I briefly worked it until it became a soft pre-felt. Then I’ve added the texture, in this instance wool cord and wool balls chopped in half. Then the whole lot was covered with two further layers of fibre before felting and fulling.

This bag is made from Blue Faced Leicester wool with an interior pocket and a long strap which I felted seperately and fastened through a tiny cut hole after felting. The knot in the strap adds to the texture. The next photo is my favourite.

It was quite hard to get a good photo of the texture for you.

The fastening is made from a felt ball and a handmade wool cord. I left the ends of the cord open and needle felted them onto the flap of the bag before refelting to ensure it’s absolutely secure. I should have a second bag up for you to see tomorrow.

Textured pictures

November 14, 2013January 24, 2014

Another really lovely workshop with lots of chatter and some wonderful work from the participants. We were exploring how to add texture to pictures.

Anne put a rope of felt between layers that created the strong raised heart outline. Texture on top from a further felt rope, dyed Teeswater fleece, nepps and fabric.

Sue also tried out a felt rope between layers to create this lovely tree silhouette.

Jane’s moonlight picture worked well. A little noil under the fabric of the moon raised it up and the second fabric piece on the sea crinkled in a way that suggests waves.

Another way to create texture is to cut sections away to give different depth and in this case to reveal a second colour.

Sue’s picture has gentle texture through additions of wool nepps, dyed BFL fleece and short pieces of yarn.

It was inspired by a magazine photo and is a lovely interpretation.

Jane did exceptionally well creating this high relief picture of a lilly.

Ttexture was created on the background by the addition of crystal organza.

Nicky’s piece was inspired by a holiday photograph.

The lighthouse was created with a piece of pre-felt, some beige fabric, black wool and a piece of black netting.

Lots of texture in the foreground with rock shapes between layers of wool, fabric, yarn, nepps and parts of an old scarf on the top. It works very well

Textile Art Pool workshop

May 27, 2010June 20, 2010

This is the final one of my three workshops for Textile Art Pool a cheerful creative bunch of ladies dedicated to textiles. Their main activity is quilting but they like to broaden their work and incorporate new skills where they can. Our focus for the day was texture although some preferred to focus on pictoral work.

We used; net vegetable bags, throwsters silk waste, cotton wool, recycled plastic fibres, crystal organza, muslin, hessian and ropes from old blinds to create the textures. As usual, the ladies were enthusiastic, creative and supplied me with a fbaulous lunch. My thanks to you all.