And I wish it could be Christmas...

My first Christmas sparkle felt workshop this year with 2 talented ladies new to felting. The idea was to make flat felt (for them to turn into tree hanging ornaments later) as well as some felt beads with a ribbon attached ready to hang. We did lots of experimenting with adding yarns and silk fibres to the felt, as well as adding angelina sparkly fibres with an embellisher machine after the felt was made and dry, which gave a lovely sheen. I'm loooking forward to seeing their finished decorations (if they've been able to cut the felt - often once it's made people find they don't actually want to cut it up!). Some lovely work here with added Christmas sparkle!

Autumn Leaves

My final bag workshop for autumn, so quite fitting that the end result resembled the colours of leaves on the ground on a wet autumn day. Beautiful bag, and again shows the diversity of what you can achieve with felt in terms of colour and texture. As usual, I was tempted to make an identical bag for myself straight away - why is it that every time I see someone's elses colour and design choices (and we all think so differently in this respect) that I'm instantly inspired?!

Back to School!

Well we all like to get kitted-out for the new school term, don't we, so for my first September workshop we created an embellished journal for all those important notes! OK, not really for school, as I suspect these creative ladies will actually be using them as art journals for their ideas, designs and samples - but where better to store them all than in a notebook you're created yourself?

We made long rectangles of Nuno felt (felting into dyed cotton muslin) for the covers, with added surface embellishment in the form of yarns, ribbons and silk fibres. We stitched in some handmade paper pages, and topped it all off with a felted cord to secure the book. Another enjoyable day, and I was really impressed with the results.

More Summer Nuno Bags

Another enjoyable August workshop with creative felters making nuno bags - even matching their new bags to their outfits (have a look at the black and green one which perfectly matches her hand-made skirt)!

Nuno Bag Workshop, 3 August

Had a fantastic day on Monday with 3 felters making Nuno felt bags (Nuno felt is where you felt the Merino wool fleece into fabric, eg muslin). There was an amazing variety of colours and shapes for the finished bags - they were all really pleased with their creations and gave me lots of new ideas to think about too. Photos show work in progress as well as finished pieces.

Summer Workshops

Here's a selection of the fantastic felt jewellery, accessories and flower corsages made by workshop participants so far this summer.

The Big Workshop

In March 2009 I ran a felting workshop for 21 members of the Outlook florist group, learning how to make different shapes of felt for incorporating into floristry displays. Lots of creativity and an amazing variety of shapes and colours. Thanks to Mai-Britt for the photos!

With a little help from my friends...

...photos of the first workshop I ran, in September 2008, to make embellished sparkle felt for Xmas decorations.

Bloggy Aspirations...

After many months of prevaricating (there just aren't enough hours in the day are there?), I've finally got around to setting up a blog. 'Why?', I hear you ask (when there are already so many people out there sharing their innermost thoughts). Well, I've had a flickr site for over a year now, which is great for using as a photo gallery for my textile creations - I try and post photos there of everything I make - but I also wanted a bit more space to share what else I've been doing. Commissions I'm working on or events I'm working towards, but particularly felting workshops, which I've started running this year - I thought you might be interested in learning more about these and seeing the fantastic things people create in just a day. You might also be inspired to come and learn feltmaking yourself. So that's why, do let me know what you think!