Sale on etsy

Just a quick post to let you know I have reduced some of my pictures on etsy. I'm having a bit of a sale to make room for Christmas stock. Here are 2 which have already been reduced - more on the way.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/95546530/wet-felted-wall-art-contemporary
https://www.etsy.com/listing/100886301/wet-felted-abstract-wall-art

Aberglasney and art trail

Last week was a busy one! The Celf Canolbarth Cymru exhibition at Aberglasney gardens was up and running. There were some beautiful pieces of art work there using many different mediums from ceramics to textiles, to oil paintings. One of my favourites was an acrylic painting by local artist, Anthony Cain. It depicts a couple sitting on a beach with their overcoats on and a packed lunch. It reminds me of childhood holidays.If you were on holiday you WOULD sit on the beach despite our unpredictable weather.
The Ceredigion art trail is also now open. About 100 artist from all over our county are opening their studios to the public so that people can see what goes on ' behind the scenes'. We are also having exhibitions in unlikely places, workshops and other activities. This will continue until the 16th of September so anyone visiting the area can pick up a booklet from the tourist office or check out our website for more information.
http://ceredigionarttrail.org.uk/

Here is the art work by Anthony Cain.

Firstly I must apologise for neglecting my blog. A lot has been happening one of them that I fractured my arm. It is now healing and I am catching up with things. I thought I would show you one of my recent  felt pictures and the inspiration behind it . The photographs were taken by the small lake on our land which is rich with wild flowers. My favourite is the purple 'ragged robin'. When making a felt things have to be simplified but I tried to capture the essence of the scene in the felt shown. To see more of my latest work and details of progress on it you can now follow me on face book 

needle felting and ravens

I had a busy day in Lampeter on Saturday demonstrating how to needle felt. The only problem was I had to sit in the window so that people outside would see and come in. Luckily there were no red lights around but I did feel silly. I started a picture called Contented cat and finished it yesterday. It has now been wet felted.
I also discovered a fantastic jewellery shop on etsy at the weekend. The jewellery is really unusual and I especially liked this raven pendant
http://www.etsy.com/listing/99282208/steampunk-raven-necklace-gothic-crow
have a look and see what you think.

Wonder wool Wales

On Sunday I went to one of my favourite places, Wonderwool Wales. It is a yearly festival of wool and all things related to it. There is plenty of opportunity to buy supplies and get ideas as well as meet interesting, creative people. The night before it had been a little windy but we decided that we would go over the mountains as that is the most direct route.As we got nearer we began to see small branches and leaves on the road where the wind had blown but still carried on. We got about 5 miles along the mountain road only to be confronted with a whole tree blocking the road. We tried to move it but couldn't and it is a very narrow road so had to reverse about half a mile then turn around and go the long way around. However when we finally got there it was worth the effort. I spent far too much on supplies but will have a lovely time using them. Last week I made a scarf from recycled sari silk so I bought some more in different colours to make more scarves to put on etsy. Here is a picture of the tree and the scarf which I had already made.

How to create an Etsy treasury

Today I thought I would initiate those who have never done it in to the fun of creating a treasury. It sounds complicated but take it step by step and it is easy.
1. Go to the etsy homepage and think of a theme. It can be anything, a colour, a flower you like or a particular medium are just a few examples.
2. Type your theme in to the search and see what comes up.
3. Pick items that you want to include in your treasury and click on them.
4. Make a note of the listing number in the box at the top of the page. You need 16 items.
5.go to etsy home page and scroll down. You will find treasury listed on the left hand side - click on it.
6. Now you click on create treasury and write the listing numbers in the boxes provided.
7. Click on publish and you are done. Anyone can have a look at your choice and those whom you feature will get some extra publicity.
Here is a link to one which I made.
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjAwOTEwNzB8MjU2NTQ3Nzk3OQ/mystical-trees?index=10

I have also been featured in a few
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94653528/heralds-of-spring

This picture of mine has been in 3 treasuries.

perfect day

I thought I would share with you my lovely Sunday. It started well when I checked my Etsy stats and discovered that I had sold  two items in two days. One to Australia and one to the United States.
It was a beautiful spring day and my family and I decided to take the dogs for a walk along a footpath in a small strip of woodland near our home.As we entered the gate and turned a corner we came upon a scene that could have been from a fairy tale book. There were yellow celandines covering the banks and sprawled across the path, great clumps of,  pure white, wood anenomies , violets hugging the ground and a few early bluebells standing tall amongst the other flowers. The blackthorn was also in blossom.It was breathtaking. On the way back we had to pass through a field which had a carpet of delicate, pink, ladies smock and to top it all we saw a hedgehog trundling along the hedgerow!

This is one of the pictures which I sold. 

Etsy Ireland treasury list

Just a quickie to let you know I have been honoured to feature in the Etsy Ireland treasury!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTcyOTg0MTh8MjY3Nzg5Mjc5NQ/stroll-in-the-tangerine-prairie

thinking of summer and chickens

The warmer weather has had me thinking of summer and summer clothing so I've started to make some lightweight, summer shawls in nuno felt.The picture above is one of them and was made by making several large pieces of nuno felt then cutting them up, rearranging them and joining together with crochet panels.You can see more pictures of it in my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/SueForeyfibreart?ref=si_shop
  I am now working on a blue one.
The warm weather has also given me chicken problems. Every time I leave a door open the battery hens which I rescued wander indoors! They have grown in confidence and have gotten very cheeky. They seem to find it inconceivable that I do not always want to give them treats. It is not too bad if I see them but at the weekend one wandered in without my knowledge and pooed on the kitchen floor-good job it's tiled and not carpeted.

Spring has sprung!

Yesterday was the first day of spring and it is actually beginning to feel like it. We have frogs spawn in the pond, lambs in the fields around us, my seeds are germinating and my rhubarb has come up( I find the rhubarb very exciting- sorry).I found some pictures of previous springs and thought you might like to share them.

Mini felts

This week I have been making mini felts. They are made in just the same way as my usual work but on a smaller scale. It is quite fun to be able to be able to design and complete a felt in one day and if any thing does go wrong I will have not wasted too many materials. Making them has inspired me with ideas for similar, larger felts. I have  made one sea scape which has possibilities of being developed but have not photographed it yet so can not show you.I have made a whole forest of trees though.Each one is stretched on to a tiny artists canvas of 7x5 inches. Here are some pictures. They can also be seen at my etsy shop.

Just to let you know some of my products can now be bought online at http://www.etsy.com/people/sueforey

Hand made In the Hills

Hello everyone.Now my pictures have safely gone to the National Botanical Garden of Wales I am exploring other avenues and am going to try selling on-line. I have just been accepted on to a new web site called www.handmadeinthehills.co.uk . It is a co-operative of 'makers' who beaver away making wonderful things here in Ceredigion. Do try to have a look at the site as there are all sorts of lovely art and craft works there.The pictures shown here appear on the site for sale. 

Making Felt cards

Things are hotting up for the year now the tourist season is almost upon us. My pictures for exhibition at the National Botanical gardens of Wales have now been sent off and it is time to replenish local shops. Today I have been making cards. They are not prints, each one is a mini felt. I've had a request for some floral cards as mothers day is almost here and I've also made some little house in the hills cards.

tree picture complete at last

I've now completed my tree picture. Here are some photographs of it. I needle felted a very simple background and then added the tree with silk for highlights this was all wet felted together and a little stitching added when it was dry. I also took a 'photo in black and white which looks quite weird!
This piece will be in an exhibition at the Welsh Botanical Gardens at the beginning of March. I have called it Flaming Glory.

Inspiration from trees

I love trees. Each one is different and they all give me great inspiration. We live in a very windy and exposed area so our trees are literally shaped by the wind.I have been taking 'photos  in preparation for my next piece of work.
After taking the 'photos I looked at trees on my land and made a very rough sketch. When indoors I made another, more detailed sketch to capture the essence of what I had seen. I did, of course, simplify and use lots of artist licence to change bits. I do not like to try to recreate a replica of what I have seen. I can do that with a camera.

Next I will have to think about colour and how best to tackle creating the image with fibres. I sometimes think it would be much easier to paint them but nothing can compete with the textures of fibre.

summer riot

Hello Everyone. I've recently had lots of people asking how my felts are made so I thought I would tell you the stages involved in making my latest piece which is called Summer riot and shown above.
The first thing I did was create the flower shapes. I did this by needle felting each flower separately. Some of them were felted with solid colour and some had different shades in them which I had to card first. This took quite some time as there are 43 different flowers. Next I added the black centre to each one.
Afterwards I placed the flowers on a blank artists canvas and rearranged them many times until I was happy with them.
Once I knew where each colour would fall on the canvas I could make the background. I started with some semi felted fabric which acts as a blank piece of 'paper'. I wanted to graduate the colours from light at the top to very dark at the bottom and also from warm red at the right and a colder blue on the left so I carefully laid out my fleece. Where colours would meet I carded a little of each together so that there would be no hard join.As I wanted the white area to really stand out I added some silk fibres which would give that area a shine when complete. These fibres have to be arranged on top of the wool fibres and trapped with a very fine 'cobweb' of more woolen fibres.
The next stage was to place my flowers on to the base and , of course, at this stage I decided that I was not quite happy with the outcome and had to move them around some more.At last all the ground work was done!
To secure these layers the whole thing has to be wet felted, being very careful not to move the design around as once the wet felting is complete there is no going back. When the felt was dry I decided to add some stitching to add more texture and make the flowers in the centre stand out more. I machine stitched around some of the flowers and added some shading in the centre. Later I added highlights to some of the black centres by hand with a silver thread.
In all the whole process took three days!

Time to take a breath

Well, the holidays are over and it is time to start working again. This is not a busy time for me so I have time to take a breath and prepare for the tourist season. I have just been dying a new batch of yarn to include in my felts.The yarn must first be made in to skeins and then immersed in a dye bath. As I use woollen yarn, acid dyes are the best ones to use. They brighten up the kitchen when drying on the stove!

At this time of year I usually have time to experiment and try out new ideas. I would like to include figures in some of my felts in order to tell a story. I have tried this recently to depict a woman carrying heavy shopping bags home. I imagine that she has just got off of the bus and just has to walk up the track to her home. Her arms are aching and she is worn out. I have called this picture 'Nearly There' as that is what she would be thinking.