Christmas orders

Happy New Year! Just a little eye candy for my first post for 2014, here are some of the guys I made up for Christmas orders, hopefully they made their way into the stockings of a few good children...

Foxy Samples

Just a quick post...working on some new patterns, here is my new fox design. This guy stands proud and he's on the run just like the foxes I've always spotted.

These are the first versions. I'm quite happy with him and his foxiness. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of these guys on Etsy soon although my haul of gorgeous wool blanket scraps is coming to an end...

I've also been making samples for a beautiful organic baby shop that I met with last week. These are two first versions of the polar bear and elephant using their gorgeous organic cotton and cashmere/wool blend fabrics... Filled with wool and embroidered with silk thread that I have dyed with rusty iron...

Woven blankets and blanket stitches

A friend collects old woven woollen blankets and makes hot water bottle covers from them. I was lucky enough to receive a bag of the scraps. I'm often too precious with bigger pieces of textiles that I collect and find it difficult to settle on a worthy project for them. So I love finding little scraps because you can be sure whatever you do with them it's going to be more worthwhile than sending them to the tip!

The blanket scraps were just big enough to make into a skulk of foxes. There is something very foxy about plaid, maybe it's the story book illustrations of foxes dressed in tweed. Anyway I think these guys look pretty dashing...

The blanket stitched edging around these blankets is just too special to discard and thankfully my friend had not been able to bring herself to throw them away.  Rolling the edging into little scrolls makes gorgeous coloured rounds that I have been stitching together into interesting brooches. 

Christmas is just around the corner now and I have my work cut out if I'm to complete all the projects I've started in time. For a maker Christmas always brings with it a sense of urgency and pressure as if the world stops buying handmade for another year. But like this little scroll below the world still goes around and around, as does the desire to continue to make and mend.

Reclaiming the Nights

Gosh, this year has flown by. It's terrible, I haven't posted since my February wet felted chair fiasco for a number of reasons. One being that said chair is like a thorn in my side, sitting there unfinished, slowly un-felting itself and unravelling into a ball of fluff. This was an experiment that needed a little more time than I currently have what with a wild one year old in tow.

 

Said one-year-old is the other reason I haven't posted in a while. Above is a portrait of him by the 4 year old and that is the child himself. You can kind of see what I mean can't you.

So I have reclaimed the nights for creative expression and moved my studio into the living room where I currently work by night after baby is asleep. I'm loving my view from the window which I rarely get to enjoy since it's usually dark out by the time I get to my desk.

This is a little Christmas needle felted Angel that I've started working on. She hangs by the window and I love how the sunlight glows through the wool and mohair and catches in the gold beaded halo.

Because Christmas is approaching I've been working on more woolly polar bears. I've started tailoring clothes for the bears too.

This guy is listed on Etsy already and there will be more joining him soon

Now this is a curious device that I can't wait to try out. I found it on the shelves of a charity shop in one of my favourite English towns Hebden Bridge, North Yorkshire. It has the original post label on the box which reads "Scotia Wools Ltd, 158 New Bridge Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1. Mrs Gardner, 32 Hodgkin Park Road, Newcastle upon Tyne. Date 10/11/1948. " It has a 9 pence stamp on the box.

I'll take more photos of the thing itself soon. I'm looking forward to trying it out. Who knows maybe I'll start making rugs next. Has anyone ever come across one of these? 

Wet Felting a Bent Wood Chair

I'm working on a little experiment at the moment, covering found furniture with wool. On top of a smooth wet felted surface I then plan to add texture with knitting, needlefelt and other needlework techniques. To begin with I have removed the wooden seat round and entirely wrapped the chair with wool rug selvedge yarn. The seat is surprisingly comfortable and stable with just a figure of eight wrapping around the seat circumference.

The chair looks surprising good as it is but I would like to create a very durable and smooth felted surface that I can then embellish with other textures. The seat pad I plan to work separately with wet and dry felting and then attach to the seat and felt it in. 

So far I've started by wrapping the covered chair in fibre that I have prefelt with dry felting and wound wool around it to keep it in place and then started the wet soaping felting process. I'm just experimenting at the moment to see what problems might come up. So far it has been difficult keeping the fibres from separating when shrinking and the prefelt has been helping with that. 

After the chair, I intend to felt a small coffee table that I found and a very sweet little foot stool with worn patches of tapestry that I intend to "restore" with needlefelting. Stay tuned. Any tips or suggestions welcome! 

A spot of dyeing

I confess, it's been a while since my last post. So much creating has happened, no less a little baby boy called Emrys being one of the most delightful of them. It's been a busy time with no time for blog posts, but this is something I hope to correct in 2013. Is it too early for resolutions. Christmas hasn't even passed yet.

Anyway, before the baby wakes here is a spot of dyeing that I did recently on a silk shirt that I chanced upon at the Melbourne Suitcase Rummage. I finally got those Silver Dollar Eucalyptus leaves to pay out their red orange tones and I love the result.

It's amazing what a few leaves, a handful of rusty nails, some string and a little water can do. I've run into two of my fellow Beautiful Silks India Flint workshop companions in the past month in Melbourne and on both occasions we have all by chance been wearing eco-dyed silk garments. Thank you India for your inspiration.

Needle felted darning

I came across a great idea for darning holes via a wonderful dutch designer Heleen Klopper and I've been actively seeking out holy woolly garments to mend ever since. You can buy her packs of wool tops and needles from the totally brilliant Third Draw Down design shop in Fitzroy, Melbourne. However since my house is brimming with the fluffy stuff I have been darning to my hearts content.

This is a little woollen top that I have had since I was about 12 years old, I still remember the shopping trip with my mum to buy it. I've almost worn it to death and the moths have tried to consume it over the years but I've managed to save it from the scrap heap. It's felted over the years and too small for me now but I might cut it up and make a little kids waistcoat with it, we'll see.

 

I like the random placement of holes, if I was embellishing it purposefully I don't think I could have come up with this pattern. There are about 32 moth holes in this. Someone's had a feast.

 

Here is another. I felted this old jumper, darned it and cut it up to make this little waistcoat for a 2-5 year old.

I'm back

Well finally the dust is settling. We have made our move to Melbourne and things are starting to find a bit of rhythm. We're expecting a new baby in July, have set up a lovely new home and have begun tapping into the creative Melbourne scene. There has been much making since my last post and I hope to find the time to post a little more regularly.

I have a new Melbourne business selling some beautiful organic Merino wool clothing from Germany alongside my handmade woolly items for babies and children. http://www.woollykins.com.au


I just love Disana clothing, they are such a wonderfully ethical company with affordable and totally natural and colourful clothing for children, I simply had to bring it to Australia because I couldn't find anything so adorable here.

It's getting cold here in Melbourne and so I've been making some additional woolly pieces for children out of some wonderful offcuts of Welsh woven wool blankets. They are small pieces but just enough for a cute but smart and warm waistcoat for a little one.

 

My winter toddler pantaloons are made from some beautiful 100% worsted wool suiting fabric that I picked up at a London carboot sale on a recent visit back to the UK. I just wish I had more time, I'd make pantaloons all day long, they are so popular on Etsy.

 

Since we're expecting a new winter baby in July there has been a bit of baby knitting going on of late so I'll post some photos of these too soon. Who doesn't love miniature knitwear!

Eco Dyeing Normandy

On a recent trip to Normandy we did a little natural dyeing, Eco-Colour style with locally sourced fabric, water, rust and plant matter. Not having yet got my hands on India Flint's beautiful book, we just experimented with the little knowledge I have picked up from the very inspiring and rapidly growing fan base of this wonderful and exhilarating method.

Being in quite idyllic surroundings in a sleepy village surrounded by flax fields called Malleville-les-Grés in Normandy, we couldn't help but photograph our experiments. Here's the (little) method in our madness...

 A trip to the local beach to collect the sea water for mordanting the fabric...

Then a walk to our local brocante to find linen and silk for dyeing...

Very pleased with our linen haul and we even found a silk scarf, most pieces only one or two euros! We also found some beautiful rusted objects that would have been wonderful for making rust prints. We got a couple of pieces of iron to add to the dye pot.

Soaking the fabric in the sea water... 

We left these soaking overnight. We didn't have enough time to dry them before wrapping the bundles so I'm not sure how effective the sea water mordanting would have been.

The next day we collected our plant matter. 

One bundle included this old rusty chain and padlock and a few Hydrangea leaves and a bunch of Rumex tops...

With little helpers we laid out hydrangea flowers on the silk scarf. 

It might have been setting oneself up for disappointment to make this look so pretty at this stage!

Wrapping the bundles in the rain. 

...all tied up

A large bolster cushion cover made from fine linen was opened out and this became a bit of a test piece where we laid out various wind fall including cherry leaves, some kind of spurge, beech, rose, rumex, a fern etc

The silk bundle and the linen test bundle were boiled in the filtered sea water in an aluminium pot...

A beautiful copper tinderbox...

The rust bundles of linen and leaves were boiled in filtered sea water in an aluminium pot separately. That lovely copper kettle was too nice to use but it made a nice prop! 

After two hours on the stove they then went outside like this to rest overnight. The water in the pot with only plant matter turned a deep red and the iron pot went a murky black.

The next day...

I wish I kept this red dyebath. I wonder which leaves mostly contributed to make this colour?

Opening the test piece. Not many of our chosen leaves did much here or were perhaps given enough time to do much anyway. 

But the fern made a vibrant green print... but sadly that soon after faded away. 

An embroidered linen cloth that was bundled with a small rusty chain and some hydrangea leaves

This was another embroidered linen cloth that had a few sprigs of the rumex in as well as a very rusty iron chain, rings and padlock. It revealed some lovely colours and patterns...

Lastly the silk scarf and the pretty hydrangeas....

Suprisingly the hydrangea all left their mark in quite a lovely blue. The orange flowers (not sure what these are called) left a very vibrant yellow print. 

The red/orange was from the dyebath and you can see the resist of the rope ties. 

We left them drying in the apple orchard...