Festive Fun!

As it's nearly Christmas, I thought I'd share the results of my last workshop of 2012 from a couple of weeks ago, to make Chistmassy felt and decorations. My 3 talented ladies first made a heavily embellished, wet-felted piece of flat felt, using all the Christmas shine (sparkly yarms, angelina and silk fibres) they could find.  Whilst it was drying, they made long icicle ornaments to hang from the tree.  Then once the flat felt was dry,they made bunting and placemats from it as decorations for Christmas.  Here are the results of their handiwork!  And Merry Christmas to all!

Oxted Christmas Art & Craft Fair - 24 November 2012

I and 8 other local artists who are involved in the annual Open Studios event each June held a Christmas Art & Craft Fair on Saturday, in a room above Oxted library.  It was an awful day weather-wise, and we weren't quite sure what turn-out we'd get, but in the end the event was really well attended.  Plenty of interest from visitors, and the endless tea and home-made cakes kept us all going!  Thanks to everyone who came to see what we were up to, I think we're inspired to give it another go next year so watch this space!  Photos here of my stall loaded up with goodies, plus a great panoramic photo of the whole room by photographer Sarah, one of the artists involved (see her website in my links).

All about the bags...

After not making a felt bag for ages, in the last month I've ended up making nothing but bags!  In September I attended a feltmaking workshop with US artist and tutor Ruth Walker, who has developed an interesting way of making felt bags using a large ball and Norwegian fleece.  So I spent two days making two different bags, which was hard work but very enjoyable - here are some during and after photos of the brown bag I made.  I then ran two bag workshops last week to make felt bags - shoulder bags one day and clutch bags the next, using a flat plastic template rather than a ball.  Here are the participants and their very successful finished bags!  So now I'm all fired up to have another go with the ball when I next get a spare day!  

Felting Workshops - New Dates

Here are the latest dates for forthcoming workshops, and some photos to give you an idea of the type of thing you can make at a workshop (but have a look at my flickr site for more ideas!).  All courses are £55 per person, for a full day (c0930-1630).  If you'd like further details or to book a place (or explore dates for different courses), just email me at: natashasmartdesign@yahoo.co.uk.

 

Felt Bag Workshop - Sunday 21 October 2012 - 2 places left!

Felt Bead Jewellery Workshop – Sunday 18 November 2012 – 3 places

Christmas Sparkle Felt Workshop – Sunday 9 December 2012 – 3 places

Feltmaking at Hever Castle

Had a busy weekend feltmaking on 15 and 16 September, when I was invited to demonstrate feltmaking at the Country Life at the Castle event at Hever Castle in Kent.  I managed to get a team of helpers together (thanks everyone!), and we had a very enjoyable (if exhausting!) time talking to visitors and demonstrating the different parts of the feltmaking process.  Here are a few photos of us in action!

2012 Festival of Quilts

I visited the Festival of Quilts at the NEC on Friday, where I'd entered a quilt (based on rock layers) - see photos.  I wasn't as pleased with my quilt this year (only leaving a month to make it didn't help!), but am inspired for a new quilt for next year.  So as well as looking at all the quilts on display, I used the opportunity to stock up on threads, silk fibres and yarns for my next one.  And I'm determined to start earlier next time..!

Quilt Diary - Weeks 3 & 4

The last 2 weeks have been all about sewing the quilt - firstly sewing some wavy quilting lines with embroidery thread, and then sewing lots and lots of crystal beads on top.  My deadline for getting the quilt to the post office was today, and to be honest I would liked to have sewn a few more lines of beads on (as well as more quilting lines), but I ran out of time and had to stop (I was also running out of beads, despite making 2 orders!).  Still, I guess I should be pleased that I managed to make a quilt in such a relatively short time.  The next time I see it will be at the Festival of Quilts in August, so the final quilt will be revealed then!

Quilt Diary - Week 2

Week 2 of the quilt was all about sewing the main piece and borders together to make the quilt top.  Then I sewed the 3 quilt layers together (top, wadding and backing fabric) and added the hanging sleeve on the back.  I also sewed together off-cuts from the quilt to make a notebook cover for my friend's birthday!

Quilt Diary - Week 1

My new felt quilt  (based on rock layers) has been in the planning (well in my mind at least) since I made my quilt for last year's Festival of Quilt show at the NEC (see my blog back in August 2011).  For this year's quilt I thought I'd try and blog my progress on the different stages of making the quilt - with about a month to finish before the deadline to send it to the NEC for this year's exhibition.  Nothing like cutting it fine!

So here's Week 1, which was all about laying out the fleece fibres and felting them.  I made 3 separate pieces of felt: the main design and 2 pieces for the borders.  Here are the photos of the dry fleece prior to felting.  And to give you an idea of the size, the main design piece started out at around 175 x 75cm (which shrank down to around 120 x 50cm after felting).

South East Open Studios 2012

South East Open Studios 2012 has arrived!  I spent last week tidying and setting up the studio, making some new bead necklaces and bracelets to display along with my flower corsage wallhanging (see earlier post), putting up posters locally and hoping for sunny weather!  The latter of course didn't happen, instead it was all rain over the Jubilee weekend.  Anyway, fingers crossed this weekend for sunnier weather to welcome visitors.  Here are the dates I'm open:

Saturday 9, Sunday 10, Monday 11 and Saturday 16 June, all 1100-1700.

I’ll again be demonstrating feltmaking and showing a range of felted and stitched textile work, including clutch bags, jewellery, flower corsages and small art pieces.  If you’d like to come along and catch up on what I’ve been doing in the past year, learn about feltmaking or even perhaps attend a workshop, you’ll be very welcome.

I'm running taster workshops during Open Studios, to make either a bead bracelet or a brooch.  So if you would like to learn more or book a place on Sunday 10 or Monday 11 June 2012 (all 0930-1100, £15 per person), please get in touch.  If those dates don't suit, just let me know and I'll be happy to agree a suitable time with you.

And if you’d like to make a day of it and are particularly interested in textiles, there are several other studios close by who are also open on the above days showing art quilts and silk painting amongst other things.  Just visit the South East Open Studios website: www.seos-art.org.  Look forward to seeing you!

2012 Jubilee Friendship Ornaments

Here's my contribution to the Jubilee festivities, with these friendship ornaments using Jubilee-coloured organza fabric (made from layering felt, yarns and organza and heavily machine embroidering on top).  These are time-consuming to make so I didn't get time to send out as many as I'd wanted, but hopefully those who received them enjoyed this little bit of Jubilee fun!

Felt Flower Wallhanging

With Open Studios coming up, I wanted to create something new for the studio, as well as to find a better way of displaying flower corsages.  So I created a wallhanging to pin the flowers to, which doubles up as something bright and decorative for the studio.  Thought I'd share some before and after photos, so you can see the process. 

Photo 1 shows the felt fleece all laid out in landscape colours, I then added some bubble mohair wool strands to act as flower stems.  Photo 2 shows the developing felt during the process - flattened with hot soapy water and rubbed to help the fibres felt together.  Photo 3 shows the finished felt (shrunk by about 30%) - I didn't worry too much about keeping neat edges as I knew I was going to cut the felt.  All in all this took about a day to make (half a day to make the felt and another to create the hanging). And we both appear on this week's front cover of our local newspaper to advertise Open Studios - link here:Oxted County Border News, 24 May 2012

 

Flower Workshop 20 May 2012

Just to let you know that I have 2 spare places on a Felt Flower Workshop on Sunday 20 May 2012 (£55 per person) - come and learn how to make felt flowers as corsages or to use for decoration. A few examples here of what you could make (also have a look at previous posts for more examples) and just get in touch if you'd like to find out more or book a place, or if you'd like to find out more about the different courses on offer.

Cupcakes!

I've been designing project articles for Beads and Beyond magazine, and through this the editor Michelle recently asked if I could produce an article for the revamped Sewing World, another Traplet Publications magazine. So a great chance to do something a bit different. Having made my sister-in-law Jess (who runs the 'La-di-da Cupcake Company', based in Surrey, she makes fantastic cupcakes to order, as well as cakes and afternoon teas) a cushion and notebook from cupcake fabric for Xmas, I thought I'd stick with the theme and made a Cupcake Kitchen Tidy (don't tell Jess, as that'll probably be this year's present!). And no felt involved, which is a departure for me. So look out for the May 2012 issue of Sewing World which is just about to hit the shops!

What happens to the felt beads I make?

Last year I made some beads for a jewellery designer called Cristina, who commissioned me to make a number of silk-covered felt beads to match some purple agate slices. She's now made her jewellery (which is for sale on her site) and she kindly shared me some photos. It's always really interesting to see what another designer does with my beads, I think the necklaces have turned out really well! To view more of her work visit: www.cristinasjewellery.co.uk.