Two for the price of one.

Doreen Grey has so kindly trebled my collection of ATC's by sending me two examples of her needlefelting, I am just so grateful to her, they are beautiful, it really does show what is possible with one of those lovely embellishers. I so o o want one now.


Here is the first one she sent to me:
I love the fine muslin that is added in two different colours in this. I would love to know how this fabric is felted to the background so firmly, but I suppose that's the difference between the embellisher and needlefelting by hand.

As well as the Atc Doreen has very kindly sent me another example that I can use as a book mark, it's beautiful.




Thank you so much Doreen, I won't post my swap here until I know that you have received it, I don't want to spoil the surprise, it's on it's way, let me know when you get it. I think I am now going to get rather addicted to all this swapping, I'm sure I am going to get to know my postman rather well, lol.

New Textile Challenge Site

Hi there all, well, you might already be aware that I have started a new challenge site, it is called Tricia's Textile Challenge. We have 15 members to date and we're doing fine, there are some very talented people already on this site so it's quite exciting, go take a look and if you'd like to join let us know.


Well, I said I would blog about the piece I made for the first challenge.


The first challenge will last till the end of June and then we plan to do a swap with the results. It is entitled Ancient Symbols. I asked everyone to make a postcard sized piece based upon an ancient symbol, could be a hieroglyph or a rock carving, infact anything from any culture, religious or otherwise. We've had some very interesting results already.

Well, here's how I did mine,
I have a little book all about ancient rock carvings mainly from the North of England. I am fascinated by what they might mean. Having done a little study about symbolism including universal symbolism I think that the one I chose has probably got something to do with the sun and seasons.
Some of the symbol has obviously worn away but you can gather what it did look like originally.
Well, I cheated, not having seen the rock and only having a picture of the symbol I decided to find a nice stone amongst my collection of stones and so I drew a picture of it and then drew the symbol on top, superimposing it as it were. Here is the drawing below:


The finished piece here below is 6 inches x 4 inches (postcard size) and is needlefelted. The symbol was embroidered on to the felt exactly as it looks in the book. The edging is also sewn as are the little line stitches on the background. The edging I hand dyed myself using a rust technique which worked remarkably well, this picture doesn't do it justice, the thread of the edging is two toned as it almost carries the imprint of the rusted metal it was wrapped around when it was dyed.


Last but not least here is a close up of the piece.

I Hope the person I swap with likes it.

Speak soon Tricia

Tif Challenge - What do I call myself

Ok, so I've been thinking about this for quite a few years so I am probably ahead of this Challenge. The way to portray it may sound a little cryptic but it isn't really.
I call myself a textile artist, not only because that is what I earned as a title when I studied for my honours degree but also because that is very much how I feel. I studied art before I chose my specialist area. I did a two year pre foundation and a years foundation course. It is from this art background that I look mostly for my inspiration. Yes I dabble in all sorts of crafts but I do believe that this dabbling informs my more serious work, not to denegrate the craft aspect in any way but I often see it as a way to experiment, this is only my point of view.
The visual means of this challenge has inspired me to think and look at a great artist that I am sure many people know, his name is Seurat. I am going to analyse ( an important word here, which I will come back to.) one of his best known paintings: Please look at the following link: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/seurat/jatte.jpg.html
Seurat used scientific principles to paint this picture, does this make him a scientist or an artist? I use this question to help in understanding what it is I actually do. Now, back to that word analyse. I think that on the whole this is what generally helps me to see myself as an artist. Like Seurat I tend to analyse what it is I do. I also use research in much of my work, for instance I have read a considerable amount about symbolism and also about Celtic Art amongst others subjects. It is this research and interest in my subject that I believe tells me I am an artist.
Well, on to the image, I am almost finished but I will not post it until it is properly presented. The image I have chosen is of course the one that can be found at the link above: Sunday Afternoon at the Grande Jatte.
I am taking a small section of this and I have turned it to Grayscale. My intention was to analyse Seurat's picture not in colour as he has but to analyse it in tone, form, shape. I was quite surprised how many of the shapes of the figures seem to be repeated throughout this work. I have been fascinated by the outline of the figures and by the costumes of the time. These seem more obvious when the colour has gone.
Well, I will post my finished work soon. I have only just discovered this new way of working with needlefelt, that is to work in monochrome, I found this when working the last challenge and felt it was quite an appropriate transition for this next challenge. Same materials different subject. Well, I hope all will become clear when you see the finished work. Till then, feel free to ask questions if you are unsure what I actually mean in this post. Good luck to everyone else in your challenge.

Busy, busy, busy!

Yes, I am being very busy at the moment. Since joining the blogging community as well as the fiber arts site I have been spurred on to work more and more, it's great. I feel I have been trying to work in isolation for so long but now I feel part of a great textile community where I can get feedback I have a real purpose it seems to keep working.

I also would like to get enough of a body of good work together to take to a local gallery to see how my work would be received by the public.

Well I don't want to spend too much time on here so I will just add a few more of the pictures and then I shall carry on working.

The piece above is needle felted and it is designed to incorporate a theme I have been wanting to work on for some time. The idea was to make a series entitled Celtic Landscapes, this landscape is based on a drawing I made whilst visiting Robin Hood's Bay. The Celtic shape was drawn from a Celtic brooch and the idea of having it as a frame, almost like a window looking through to the view beyond has been something I have been experimenting with but until now it hadn't come to fruition. I can thank my felting needles for this one. It allows me to work very small and detailed.

This is the same theme but with a different view, the view is taken from a drawing I made when I lived on the edge of the Peninnes in Weardale, County Durham.

This was another Celtic design with a picture taken from a drawing which I made of the Wear river. These designs are still in the experimental stage and I feel that given time I will perfect the theme to do exactly as I visualise it. Well, that's enough for now. I will probably add my Large Green Man piece next time. Do come back soon.

It's been a while.

Well, I have come back, no more pictures of my work yet but it's been a difficult time. Late November last year I went in for an operation which has taken me a long time to recover from, just when I am feeling better it seems that I have been too optimistic and I need to take it easy again. Such is life, or lack of it.

I was really hoping that the New Year would have seen an end to all my inactivity.

I am hoping that I will feel more energetic soon, problem I have is that I have so many ideas buzzing about in my brain but I never seem to get any of them out there.

I am going back to needlefelting at the moment, I tried to see if I could do it when I first bought the needles and felting book, but I didn't have time at that point to take it any further than making a small ball. Well that small ball has just become the head of a little green elf like creature, Although I have been wet felting for years I have been very pleasantly surprised by the possibilities of felting with a needle. Now I have even more ideas and they really are begging me to try these out but I will have to pace myself because as usual life has to go on around my creativity.

Talking about creativity, I have rediscovered my love for home cooking. This may have been due to having to eat my husbands meals since being in hospital, no to be honest I can say his dinners are better than the hospital food, but I do prefer to cook from scratch and his dinners do tend to be limited to processed ready made pies etc... It has probably been coupled with the fact that I love home cooked veggies and after my op I had to keep things moving as it were.

We are falling into a new equilibrium of sharing roles too. I can no longer do very heavy lifting. So at last I am learning to delegate and ask for help where as once apon a time I would just dive in and struggle.

Hubby is also going to have to work very hard to get the garden well nourished with manure and other substances to lighten the heavy clay soil, we made a good attempt at this early last year, (being our first year here) but I have been told that I can't dig heavy clay anymore because of the strain it will cause me; and believe me I don't want to go through that operation again. I do however enjoy gardening so I will have to pace myself there too

I am hoping that hubby will start to encourage our 13 year old to do some of the garden as we grow our own veg now, he did try last year by buying some Giant pumpkin seeds, my husband ended up planting these and growing them, our son did however take an interest in making the pumpkin into an evil looking lantern once it had grown in time for Halloween. I managed to make a lovely curry with the flesh of the pumpkin.

We are still home educating, I did wonder if we would be nearly one year on. Talking about one year on, my 13 year old has only this week been harrased by the bullies once more over the internet and he is not sure how the so and so's managed to find out his details, I wonder if there will ever be an end to all of this. Just let anyone tell me he would be better off at school. In the short year that we have lived back down south I have realised that the state of the schools in Kent have really deteriorated. There is no real discipline or respect, I'm not just talking about the children either, the teachers down here have proved to me that they have also dropped their standards of respect towards the children too. I see no hope in the future for the next generations, not unless the parents take back responsibility for their children's education. Well, enough of that.

I am hoping to take some pictures of my work in the near future so that I can continue this blog in the way I intended originally. When I do put some more work on here I would appreciate any feedback as this is why I am writing this blog. A rather late wish to you all for a very Happy New Year.