Tag Archives: book

Revelation leads to a new nuno felt top!!!

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OK, WordPress is behaving extremely funnily at the moment so forgive me if this the pictures in this post are not where I wanted them and they don’t have any captions. This morning I had a revelation, you all know by now how much I avoid sewing if at all possible, sometimes I like to add a few judicious hand stitches (I know stitching enhances felt wonderfully) but in general I avoid sewing like the plague!!!

Anyway, I ADORE the simplicity of Japanese design and one of the most read textile books in my library is ‘SAORI Self-discovery through Free Weaving’ by Misao jo and Kenzo Jo. My good friend Cristina lent me a few books last weekend and one of them is an absolutely wonderful book by Rutsuko Sakata, written in Japanese so unfortunately I can’t even give you the title here but believe me, I need to get a copy NOW! The pictures of Rutsuko’s work are beautiful and the line drawings inspirational. I was browsing through the book one more time at breakfast when suddenly I had a revelation! Last year I felted a beautiful piece of hand dyed silk with the intention of cutting and reassembling it into a kind of fitted sleeveless top (based on a well worn one from my wardrobe) prior to throwing it to hide the stitches and shrink it to fit. The silk was dyed by friend and master textile artist Lyda Rump and once I had incorporated a really fine layer of merino overlaid with silk fibres and felted them together the resultant nuno felt rectangle was so beautiful I baulked at cutting into it at all! Armed with a diagram from Rutsuko’s book I pulled out the nuno felt from my studio, folded it at the edges (a bit like origami but simpler!), pinned it and then tried it on, incredible, I now had the bones of a jacket/shrug that I know I will wear, fantastic!!! Anyway, I then found some perfectly matched thread (a Christmas present from Carmen!), added a couple of stitches to each side and voila, the top is completed. It’s raining horribly this morning so no pictures of the finished piece on the manequin, as soon as it stops I’ll take a few, for now off to felt and document another bag design for the book!

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Felting workshops for Michigan uploaded at last, lock down and Irish and International Sheep Shearing and Wool Handling Championships!

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Finally, at last I have managed to upload details about the two 1 day workshops I will be facilitating in Michigan this May to the workshop page and amazingly this time they have not caused everything else to hop all over the place or disappear altogether!!!  Our venue is now confirmed as the Presbyterian Church in Plainwell, a wonderfully welcoming space and only about 15 minutes drive from Kalamazoo.  I am so looking forward to staying with Dawn again and meeting up with some of you who participated in the workshops at the KIA last Fall or attended the Weaver’s Guild talk on my last evening.  This trip I will be offering 2 one day workshops, on Friday 20th May we will work on ‘simple vessels, purses and other three dimensional objects’, on Saturday 21st the title will be ‘nuno mosaic’.  Participants attending both days will have the option of felting more complex projects, check out the full listing at the bottom of the workshop page to get all the details!

I’m in a bit of a lock down situation at the moment, felting hard, writing and working for as long as possible each day on projects for the book which Chrissie and I are trying to put to bed.  Deciding not to turn on the television until after 9pm each night (if at all!) has definitely helped, I NEVER wanted a ‘box’ here at all but Alan really needed to keep up to date with the progress during the last local election campaign and once it arrived it was like a virus!  Today I have been working on some accessories using a combination of short fibred merino and hand dyed silk fabric.  Thanks Heather for the silk, you may remember it was that stretchy funny stuff you gave me a present of in October and although I found it really didn’t give me the result I was seeking when nuno felting (the stretch I think) it is combining wonderfully with the wool in this different sort of project, wait ’till the book is out!  PS Heather has a give away running on her blog at the moment so if you hurry you might be the lucky winner of one of her latest new scarves!!!

Lastly I urge you to check out the Irish and International Sheep Shearing and Wool Handling Championships which are taking place about 40 minutes drive from my house the first weekend in June!  More about this exciting event anon …..

Brilliant new felting book, wonderful swap package and new Clasheen swap news!!

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Wow, I got some GREAT packages in the post last night!!  Check out Lizzie Houghton’s new book ‘Felting Fashion’, it is brilliant but especially if you are interested in creating wonderful nuno felt wearables!

Felting Fashion by Lizzie Houghton

Felting Fashion by Lizzie Houghton

I first read about this book approximately a month ago (it was pre-publication at that stage) and then members of Feltmakers Ireland who attended the International Feltmakers Association AGM raved about it when they saw a copy.  I was delighted to see that it was available through the English Amazon site although I think that it might be October before our American counterparts get it on the other side of the world.  Anyway, do try and get your hands on a copy if you are at all interested in felting clothes, the images alone make it worth the small investment, my copy cost less than E20 incl p & p from ‘The Book Depository’. 

Nuno felt berets and hats

Nuno felt berets and hats

Just a quick tip re Amazon, I always check out the used books first.  Although it sounds strange they are nearly always new and a fraction of the price of the actual ‘new’ ones!!  Two other textile related books that I had ordered arrived yesterday as well as did my amazing ‘Felted Purse (Bag) Exchange’ swap package from Darlene.  This exchange was organised through Ravelry and using my colour preferences my swap buddy Darlene (Ktoggal on Ravelry) made me a gorgeous knitted bag in reds, orange and plum which was then fulled in the washing machine. 

My gorgeous bag from Darlene

My gorgeous bag from Darlene

I LOVE the bag thanks Darlene and all the extra little goodies are gorgeous, I particularly love the scent of the blackcurrant mineral bath soak!!  Would you like to participate in the new Clasheen swap???

NEW CLASHEEN SWAP  For this next swap I thought that it would be a nice idea to exchange something small, handmade and wearable such as a corsage, piece of jewellery, scarf or a clutch bag.  Please sign up via the Clasheen Crafty Swap group on Flickr, it would be great to have participants again from all around the world!!