Felt Bag Workshop

Just wanted to share some photos from a felt bag-making session yesterday with Vickie, a local lady who was keen to learn felt-making.  She was a great student and made a fantastic shoulder bag - here are some before and after pics!

'Pine Needles' Nuno Felting

I spent an enjoyable (but hard work!) 2 days last week on a fantastic feltmaking course with Leiko Uchiyama as part of the International Feltmakers Association annual get-together at The Friars, Aylesbury. We used her 'pine needles' technique to make nuno-felted wraps and scarves.  It took about a day and a half to lay out the fleece (or 'pine needles' as Leiko calls it) in an intricate design, then half a day to do the wet-felting.  It was great to learn a new technique - it always amazes me how much variety there is in felting.  Here are a few photos of my work in progress and my finished scarf.

January Jewellery Workshop

Just spent an enjoyable day making felt beads with 3 talented ladies.  We wet-felted beads in a variety of colours and sizes, then threaded them on cord to make necklaces and bracelets.    Here are the attendees modelling their jewellery sets at the end of the day - well done to all!

Feltmaking Demonstrations, Hever Castle, 12-14 Sept 2014

I'm back at Hever Castle in Kent this coming weekend, 12-14 September 2014, demonstrating feltmaking at the annual 'Country Life at the Castle' and quilt show event (along with other craft demonstrations and art and craft for sale).  I've been busy using Norwegian fleece and the 'felting on a ball' method to make felt bags and bowls.  The photos give you an idea how it's done but to find out more come along 1030-1700 daily!

Christmas Felting

Well it's been all about Xmas since November, so I thought I'd share what I've been up.  I ran a Xmas workshop for the ladies of the Tandridge Handicraft Society in November, making sparkly felt and hanging decorations.  One of the talented ladies then made a lovely hanging decoration and a bag from her felt, which she showed me at the Oxted Craft Fair on 30 November (so obviously I took photos of her creations!).  It was great to see everyone who popped in to visit the fair above Oxted Library, and I think we all enjoyed a busy day.  Then as well as submitting my latest project article for Sewing World magazine in December, I've been making Xmas bunting for friends.  As usual I had more grand plans for things to make, but lack of time meant that was all I managed.  Anyway, hope you all have a relaxing Christmas!

 

Hever Castle - Feltmaking Fun (despite the weather!)

Just had a very busy (and at times very wet!) weekend demonstrating feltmaking at Hever Castle.  Lots of fun, and thankfully the weather didn't seem to put off the visitors.  Thank you to everyone who visited - and particularly to my team of helpers.  Here are some photos of us in action - including us 'birthing' the felt bag from the ball and the finished bag (which in the end we decided would make a rather lovely basket instead)!

Afghanistan Inspiration: 2010-2013

Back in April 2010 I posted about a challenge I'd got involved with for European artists to create an art piece around small embroideries stitched by women in Afghanistan, which would then travel around either the UK or Europe as part of a bigger exhibition (raising money for the Afghan women in the process).  For the past 3 years my felted piece has been travelling around Europe, and it finally came back to the UK into an exhibition at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the ExCeL in London last week.  So I decided to go along and see if I could remember what it looked like!  Here are a couple of pictures, I thought this small exhibition looked really good.  There's also a new challenge, in reverse this time, for European artists to start off an art piece, which then goes to women in Afghanistan to complete.  Time's a bit short for me at the moment to get involved, but watch this space...(and click on the one earth textiles link if you're interested in getting involved)!

Tandridge Handicraft Society Exhibition - Update

Well despite the snow on Saturday, the 3 days of the Tandridge Handicraft Society exhibition were well attended.  I went along to the preview evening and was amazed by the variety and expertise of craft on show by the 60 society members, from a modern take on lacemaking to intricate beading, patchwork and quilting, jewellery, knitted cupcakes...and there was even some felt!  Here are a couple of photos, including the society's group wallhanging of embroidered fruit, along with my felt dress and other items.  I'm running a workshop for the society in November, so will be meeting up with them again soon.

Exhibiting with Tandridge Handicraft Society, March 2013

Well it's already March, and apart from the odd commission and some presents for friends, I've been gearing up for an exhibition this week in Oxted organised by the Tandridge Handicraft Society.  They hold an exhibition every 2 years, and I was invited to join them, having given a felting demonstration to the group a couple of years ago, plus I'm organising a Christmas felting workshops for them this November.  I didn't have time to make all new items, but decided to exhibit a felt dress I made for my college course and a couple of other items.  I still wanted to make something new though, so made a bejewelled necklace to go with the dress.  Of course, it took me much longer to finish than I anticipated, what with making 63 felt beads of different sizes and then stitching them all together with crystal beads...you can just imagine!  Anyway, I enjoyed making it and it makes quite a statement piece.  So if you're interested in coming along to see it, along with all the other work on display, the exhibition is taking place at the United Reformed Church, Bluehouse Lane in Oxted, Surrey, from Thursday 21-Saturday 23 March, 1000-1600, with free entry.  Hope to see you there!

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!

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).

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!