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.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just a very quick note to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone reading this blog. Lets hope that we all have a peaceful and productive new year.

The mystery of the disappearing chicken

A few weeks ago we bought some ex battery hens. For those of you who don't know, battery hens spend their whole lives in cages and can't do any of the things that chickens like to do. They are basically egg laying machines. At quite a young age ( I'm not sure exactly what age but inbetween two and three years I think) they are slaughtered as their peak production years are deemed to be over. I assume they are then used as dog and cat food. A chicken can live to be ten or more.
In our area, every now and then an ex battery hen sale is held. The hens are sold very cheaply and avoid slaughter. As our light sussex hens were only producing eggs very sporadically we decided to buy a few ex battery hens. At first we kept them in an ark so they could go in and out as they pleased but not stray. At first they were too frightened to go outside but eventually did. Chickens are naturally inquisitive creatures and will peck at anything. They began to peck at the grass and discovered how tasty it was. Our other chickens spent quite a lot of time 'talking' to them through the netting and after about ten days the big occasion of letting them roam free came.
Malcolm, our cockerel took charge of them straight away and showed them around. After a couple of days I was lucky enough to see him teach them how to  bathe. Chickens love to dust bathe. They make an indentation in a dry piece of ground and roll around in it, even stretching out their wings to do underneath. They then spend a long time preening. This helps to get rid of parasites and is obviously very pleasurable. The next day Malcolm bought them to the back door knowing that I would give them some bread or seeds as a treat. They have become very confident over the last few weeks and mob me for treats as soon as I walk out of the door. In fact, if I leave the door open for a short while they are in! I spend quite a lot of time chasing them out of the kitchen.
Usually, when it starts to get dark they all go to their house and wait to be fed before settling down for the night. It is very important to lock them in at dusk as there are lots of foxes in our area who are quick to grab any stray chickens for their dinner.
One day last week I went to feed them and put them to bed as usual and one was missing. I checked in their house but she was not there. After feeding the other animals I went round checking the polytunnels in case she had managed to squeeze in and not get out. I checked the feed store and the outbuilding where we store logs. The chickens often like to hang out there in bad weather.  I checked under hedges and every where else I could think of but there was no sign of her. Not even a few feathers to show that the fox had come early and carried her off.
The next day I still could not find her. The others were all wandering around as usual but she was not there. I assumed that she had been eaten by something and felt quite sad.That night I fed the chickens and ducks then went in to the field to feed the sheep and pigs. Just as I was shutting the gate, along sauntered the missing chicken. I opened the gate and she came out of the field and casually walked over to her house, looking at me to let her in.

I still have no idea where she went or how she survived a night outside but am pleased that she is back and safe.