We have just got back from our holiday in Ireland. Beautiful scenery!! I have taken a huge amount of photographs to use as inspiration in the studio. So many idea's and not enough time!!! I'm hoping to make a series of felted bags and scarves (incorporating the landscapes into the design).

Here is another seascape, not so bright this time. It is inspired by a photograph I took looking out to sea from the top of the cliff at Robin Hoods Bay. We stayed at Staithes last year in a lovely fisherman's cottage for a week. I took tons of photographs of the sea and all the rock pools thinking I would go home and produce masses of work. I'm afraid to say this is the first piece I've done and it's been nearly a year!!!! I made it for some friends of mine who have just turned 30. I added some hand dyed tussah silk top to the sea to create a reflective sheen and some viscose nepps to the cliff edge for texture, I think they worked really well.
This is another piece I'm working on from the same set of photographs. I bought the peg loom at woolfest last month, I've been wanting one for ages!!! I'm blending my colours on the drum carder, then splitting the batts to produce narrow rovings. As I weave I put a slight twist into the roving. The plan is to slightly felt the hanging when it's finished, giving it more strength.

I was searching for a felting blog and didn't have much luck, so I thought I'd start my own. I call myself a fibre and textile artist / designer. Which basically means I dable with anything remotely connected to fibre. Craft ventures of the past and present include: weaving, knitting; silk painting; silk paper making; dyeing; crochet...... to name a few. But it's felt making that's really grabbed me. I am quite impatient so I like the fact that you get quick results. I recently invested in a drum carder and have been busy blending colours to felt. Here's a felted, psychadelic seascape. The background is dyed merino wool (blended on carder). Then I placed hand dyed silk hankies (mawata squares) on top - slightly stretched to give a cobweb effect. The pink lines are actually a felted scarf that went a bit wrong, so I cut it up and added it to the picture. Since taking this photograph my husband informed me that he really didn't like the lines, and I started to agree with him, so I have removed them. The picture is now waiting to be refelted!!!
Well here it is with the lines missing. I do think it looks better. If you look closely you can see where they were, but I quite like this.