Textiel Plus Festival

Just for the readers in the Netherlands ...

Yesterday I brought my felt work

for the exhibition,

but today I had an extra day in Den Bosch

at the Textiel Plus Festival !

We had a felting demonstration,

and looked around at the festival

at the various stalls with materials ...

I met old and new friends

and saw some awesome textile artwork

in the exhibition !

I had seen pictures of all the work

but

pictures of textile art work

NEVER  EVER

do justice to the real thing !!!

(ahhhhh ... looked a lot ...

but forgot to take pictures of the ones I liked best)

If you live in Holland :

go visit the festival !!!

(I'll be there again on Saturday)

My felted work :

"birth of colours"

"The Moon Swan looked at the earth that was dull and gray.
She spread her wings and hovered through the starry night to the earth.
There she laid an egg, cold as ice.
She cherished the egg every night,
and every morning, the sun kissed it.
Until ...
one morning ...
the colours were born !"

*

a curl, a spike, a bead ...

In fact 

I should have been visiting a blogging-friend Yvette today ...

But, as there were some minor problems, 

we postponed the visit for a week

;-)

 looking forward to it !

So here are some other little "rainbow pots"

It's a lot of fun to think about the combination of colours.

Though a lot of it disappears,

some of the previous colours blend with the colour of the outer layer.

Then there's the choice 

what to put on top or the sides of the little pot

This one turned out to look like a starfish I think.

(I really like how the gradient on those tiny points turned out)

A bead on top or at the sides, a curl,

or a big bead on top ...

Every choice requires a different approach.

Oh yes : can't get enough of it !

This long spike will turn into a 

...

snail ?

*

And when daughter visits with her youngest

(and stays for dinner)

I get the best help there is !!!

;-)

late and early

After all the beautiful sunshine days

you could say the weather today was 

disappointing.

In fact it rained alllllll day long.

What better way to use such a day

than to do someting that you should have done

a long time ago

Ha,  ofcourse there are a lot of such things ...

(like cleaning up the room I'm sitting in right now)

but in this case I mean

making this month's felting-exchange piece.

The theme was "parts" and "uniting"

The idea for it was long in my head,

but every time I wanted to get started

something else happened.

Four parts in dark lilac and three shades of turqoise,

at the side the colour of one part runs along the side of the next.

Four spikes in the same colours, put into opposite coloured parts.

Then I cut open the top layer.

I liked it this way, but ... as I have to send it in the mail 

I opted for this version.

HA ! then onto the next !

The theme for next month was a bit awkward :

"autumn colours"

(well, the exchange goes on for a whole year ....

and some people do love autumn best)

So, in the middle of the green spring : autumn !

First some different coloured spikes, then, they were covered with "autumn"

All felting by hand, otherwise the veins would have disappeared.

And then :

cutting into the surface of the veins 

to reveal the colours inside

;-)

Later in the afternoon

I sewed some seed beads and stitches 

on the "parts" one

Tomorrow both pieces will be in the mail

and I hope each one of the receivers likes her piece.

felt additions

 

Last Sunday we, students,

received the fifth part of Fiona's online class

but I didn't do my "homework"  on that part yet.

 

When the computer was s l o w

I had plenty of time to do the work on part 4 :

felt additions.

I put some of the techniques in one piece

and called it

 

SPRING

 

 

I started with the "normal" sample square (25 x 25 cm)

 

and prepared all the little bits and pieces that I needed first

 

Then came the long and careful felting ...

 

It was a lot of work but I looooove those spikes !

Though I wasn't too pleased that one of the little balls

leaked dye to the green surface,

grrrrrrrrr 

a warning to make my own felted balls, instead of buying them !

(the green looks a bit muddy in this photo because

there was no day light at that moment)

*

 

There were also two dear ladies

who wanted to renew their encounter with felt :

one cushion and one hat were made

 

 

This is ALWAYS the best part of making a hat :

trying it on before fulling !!!

 

(a rare bird ... or Pinocchio ... ?)

 

 



Still a lot to be done

but time was up, so she took it home to finish

.....

The three of us had a wonderful day !