Capability Brown - Wallingham

After Eco dyeing a range of natural threads and fabrics I used them in this needle felting landscape to celebrate the anniversary of Capability Browns birthday as part of the nationwide Embroiderers Guild exhibitions. Macclesfield and Glossop EGs came together to display a full range of techniques which is on display at Macclesfield Silk Museum.

This is the view that Lancelot saw each day on his walk to school, no wonder he was inspired to transform the nations landscapes.

NUNO FELT WORKSHOP

Thoroughly enjoyed this workshop last Saturday. For full details of the whole day's events go to the Silk-n-Threads Blog. Here are my finished results.

Two pieces of white silk chiffon trapped white and green wool rovings in a grid pattern. In between the gaps in the grid pattern circles of green wool and pink silk tops. The ends of the rovings used for the grid can be seen at the edges of the four sides. If you click on the picture you can clearly see the crinkly effect achieved when the wool shrinks and is pushed through the chiffon.
The finished result is strong and has a great tactile appeal. Cushion or Wall Hanging, can't make my mind up!

In these two pieces a predyed piece of silk chiffon had wool rovings and silk tops arranged on top before felting using a traditional wet method. I feel an embroidery or two coming on!






FUSHIA

OCEAN

EMBELLISHER - FIRST ATTEMPT

JUST GOT MY HANDS ON MY NEW TOY!
My Janome Xpression has just arrived and I couldn't wait to try it out. I went to the NEC at Birmingham last week to the Stitching for Pleasure exhibition and tried out as many embellishers as I could whilst there. Came home with lots of samplers. I had done research beforehand as to cost, delivery and guarantees over the internet, as well as ask as many bloggers as possible as to which they would recommend based on their usage of the machines. I decided on the Janome as it has an easy to reach separate compartment for the large amounts of fluff. It has five needles which can be removed separately with pliers to replace, I was assured, and I have already tried to do this successfully. So my first attempt was to create a motif for a denim bag that I have had for many years, my daughter was going to throw it out! I used a grey felt as the base and wool rovings, net, silk tops and novelty knitting wool for the design which evolved as I worked on it. After completing the motif I then needle felted it to the denim, it was so much easier than I thought it would be.

This closeup shows the variety of threads and fibres used and how they felt so well together. I learnt a lot from my first attempt and the potential for creating new fabrics and embellishing with embroidery seems endless. Watch this space for more creations.

More Needle Felting and Tyvek

This embroidery is a combination of needle felting, Tyvek and beads and entitled 'Metallic Fantasy'. It is mounted on a piece of silk. I used wool for the needle felting and the Tyvek was painted before being distressed with iron and heat gun. My husband says it looks like a drunken man staggering home and a friend can see a sorcerer! What can you see?

In this closeup the distressed tyvek is clearly visible in the foreground and the Christmas glitter fabric pulled until it looked interesting.

Needle Felting sample

This is in response to Doreen who also posted a piece of needle felting she completed a while ago. Mine is a mixture of wool and silk fibres. A word of warning if you haven't yet tried silk fibres in needle felting by hand be very careful as I broke five needles the first time I attempted this technique. As silk is a very strong fibre you have to use them very sparingly and ensure that the needles are at 90 degrees to the fabric. I learnt to use wool as the base and then intermix silk along with the wool on the surface. The shiny more lilac sections are the silk fibres. I have started to machine embroider the piece but it is a WIP (work in progress) as many of my other LWOA (little works of art) are. It needs some more embellishment, hand embroidery and beads I think.
All I need to do now is to decide what to do with it, the current front runner is an evening bag.
Must go and complete my TAST sample for this week