Needle Felting Workshop - 31st July

Had a lovely day with my students last Sunday. During the beginners workshop my ladies made a variety of felted shapes, from blended petals to textured leaves and fuzzy spherical centres. As you can see their finished pieces were fantastic, they should all be very proud!

 

 

     

 

To join the next workshop on Wednesday 9th November, click this link to book your place www.vitreus-art.co.uk/classes/needle-felting.html

Newsletter: Summer Update

My latest newsletter is out now! Find out my latest news on all things art and crafty! http://eepurl.com/b_if4D

My First Online Newsletter!

Find out about the latest creative projects I've been involved over the last couple of months - read my first online newsletter!
Click the link http://goo.gl/KyfApC 

Fuzzy Fun at my Needle Felting workshop - Sunday 15th November

I had a lovely group of students at today's workshop, themed around the upcoming festive season.
All students were new to the craft and in only a day, they had made some really beautiful pieces that they could all be proud of; from leaves and flowers, to gnomes and animals! ‪

Jenny loves her sunflower brooch!

Tommy the dog taking shape!

To join a future workshop visit the Vitreus Art website and select your preferred date:
  http://vitreus-art.co.uk/classes/needle-felting.html
If you're ready to book, select your preferred date and make your booking online - debit / credit cards and PayPal are all accepted. Personal bookings can also be taken in person at the Vitreus Art gallery or over the phone by calling 01327 810320.

Great Scott!

Great to return to the studio after a long weekend spent fund raising for charity.

I've made this little felt scotty dog brooch today and attached it to a 'Great Scott!' greeting card for my grandma's 90th birthday.

Needle Felting for Beginners

This evening I tutored a needle felting workshop with a group of ladies at my local sewing group.
After showing everyone examples of my needle felt work, the ladies were soon inspired to create their own lovely pieces.

Leather finger protectors for the hand near to the needle!

All being new to the craft of needle felting, the ladies first gained confidence with techniques used to make simple 2d shapes. We used layers of soft Merino wool and attached them onto flat felt using the special barbed needles.

Felt ladybird on leaf and hanging 3d heart

We then moved onto creating 3d forms using handy templates that can be found in most kitchens - yes pastry cutters. Hearts and teddy bears were the favourite choices! Everyone thoroughly enjoyed learning a new craft and are eager to have another session soon.

Felted hanging hearts and a pretty floral
felt piece in progress

Now on display at Vitreus Art Gallery!

It's been a busy preparing work for delivery to Vitreus Art - a gallery and craft workshop at the Wakefield Country Courtyard in Potterspury, Northants. 

My collection of fuzzy floral felt original pieces and limited edition prints are now on display in the gallery and are available to purchase. The gallery also displays inspiring work by other local artists. 

If you are local or are passing through the area, then why not pop in and take a look! 

Wakefield Country Courtyard is just off the A5, two miles North of Milton Keynes. Vitreus Art is nestled between courtyard shops The Bead Scene Studio and Home & Gift Trading. The nearby ARTea Room serves a selection of tempting refreshments so it's well worth a visit!

The gallery at Vitreus Art is open 10-5pm from Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11-5pm on Sundays

www.vitreus-art.co.uk

Westbury Arts Centre Summer Fair

Brilliant day as stall holder at Westbury Arts Centre Summer Fair! 

My acrylic demonstration gave me the chance to discuss my painting technique with new visitors and old friends of Westbury. A great surprise to see my Aunt & Uncle visit the Art Centre today too.
To all those who joined the fun today, a big thank you for coming!

Beautifully colourful Summer Fair banner made by textile artist Helen den Dulk,
isn't it fabulous!

  

My art & crafts stall set up in the Drawing Room

And for the winner of Hilary's raffle, the solar lamp goes to
...yours truly!

Warning - artist at work! My live painting demonstration of a pet portrait, acrylic on canvas

Here are step-by-step pet portrait photos taken during stages of my acrylic painting demonstration.

1: Transpose my sketch onto the canvas.
Starting to fill in indicative areas of colour.

2: With the first wash of colour in place, start to add definition.

3: Adding tone, features and detail.

The next stages will be to add two more layers of paint, one to define shadows/highlights and then the final layer of dry brushing to bring out the texture of the fur.

I'll post more pictures once the portrait is finished!

Use up those scraps!

Sample side 1 - Heart shapes strung around the edging

The final week of the machine embroidery course. This session we learnt how to use dissolving fabrics. I was surprised to find that dissolving fabric is much like plastic in both look and feel. Once you've gathered up a bundle of old cotton and fabric scraps - it is the perfect way to make use of the bits you'd normally thrown away. I love this idea as it's recycling at it's best: making something beautiful from something you would normally throw away.

Sample side 2 - can you spot the central heart?

I practised embroidery flowing shapes on the machine, in the form of circles with a heart centre. Once dissolved, the heart centre was without something to bind to, so next time I'll remember to cover the whole surface with embroidery.

I'm going to use this to decorate my studio clock so this is very much work in progress!

Machine embroidery over foils, velvets and organza

Working with velvets and foils this week was definitely a first. A totally new technique which has steps you should follow in the right order, otherwise you foil the base of your iron - big oops!

Foiled butterfly 'eyes'

I decided to foil the 'eyes' on my butterfly wings, which once drawn out onto Bondaweb looked rather like easter eggs! Each set of foiled eyes followed a different colour scheme and once the foil had been applied, we added a top layer of organza and embroidered patterns over the top. 

I used these to test out my pretty variegated embroidery thread, and also practice flowing patterns from the previous week.

Doodle Embroidery

The idea of doodling with the machine sounds easy, although practising on paper first was worth doing first, to plan the route the machine should take. 

Unlike when you draw a picture, the needle would not be lifted during creation of a pattern, so all lines are joined up and all patterns flow. 

After some practice on paper, I  created circular patterns and plant shapes using the machine. Some look more like scribbles than doodles, so I'll definitely need more practice to master the art of machine doodling!

Test sample using coloured embroidery thread

The wonderful world of machine embroidery

Very excited to start a new workshop today - learning the art of free machine embroidery with textile artist, Jane Charles at Community Learning MK in Bletchley. 

Today we learnt how to set up our machines and test out this new technique using a small embroidery hoop. Had fun attempting to create shapes on the machine - it's quite different from ordinary sewing on the machine and the freedom of movement is going to take some getting used to! 

We also dyed plain fabrics in rich bright colours, ready to use for our embroidery samples. We need to leave these to develop overnight, so it will be exciting to see what patterns have emerged one they are rinsed out tomorrow.

Beaded Embellishment

After starting a range of my 'Fuzzy Florals' needle felted flowers, I felt that a brush-up on my beading  skills would help to give the flowers an extra sparkle using bead work that would be just the delicate enhancement that they needed. 

I attended a local beading group at Arts Central, lead by self-confessed bead addict, Sylvia Fairhurst. 

There were a huge variety of beading projects in progress, some following very detailed patterns and needing much concentration. I learnt that it's much easier to have one's beads arranged by colour - quite a contrast to my multicolour bead box! 

Sylvia offered guidance on how to enhance my needle felting.

Taking one of my 'fuzzy florals', I used ivory beads in the centre followed by pink beading to emphasise the creases of the petals.

 I then moved on to following a floral beading pattern. 

The beaded centrepiece was perfect for my needle felted brooch

Felt-tastic Fun with Fuzzy Florals

After seeing Kirstie Allsop make a needle felt robin during her Christmas craft programmes, I felt (!) that I needed to give the popular craft of needle felting a go and purchased a basic felting kit with 20 colours, which was plenty to get me started.

Starting with basic flower petal and leaf shapes cut from felt sheets, I used the wool to build up layers. After rolling a fluffy centre out of the white wool, I then attached the leaves behind the petals to give the flower it's three dimensions. 

These Fuzzy Florals look especially fabulous mounted into a box frame and are ideal as a gift. 

The frame provides space for the flower to almost 'jump out' at the viewer.

Soft and cuddly Seasonal sock monkeys

I've just finished making the last of the Seasonal sock monkeys for this year! These cheeky brothers were unwrapped by their new owners (also a pair of cheeky brothers!) and among the squeals of delight, were promptly given the names 'Cheeky' and 'Bob'!