Roomy and Stylish Felted Handbags that you'll use every day!

Bryony models one of my spotty big bags- notice the mauve colour that I used for the inside.

I have often seen bag making felting workshops advertised but when I have checked the dimensions of the bag I have realised that it is a very small bag; and even some felting kits that are available online are for tiny bags, the kind of bag that I call a ‘wedding handbag’. 

So I decided that if I was going to run hand felted bag making workshops it would be to make a practical and roomy handbag; the type of bag that I would like to use everyday. 

I made my first All SensesArt 'big bag’ back in Summer of 2011 and I have been using it everyday since. Over the months it seems to have softened and moulded to my body shape...a bit like an old Harris Tweed jacket, so it has actually improved with age!

I have run several day long AllSensesArt Felted Big Bag workshops since making my own so I thought it was time to share some of my creative process. 

This is how much it will shrink in size!

I used a favourite bag as a guide for the shape and proportions that I wanted my bag to be. From experience I know how much shrinkage to expect so I scaled my outline up and then cut a template from plastic. I like to use the builders' roofing plastic that is easily available (and very cheap) from builders merchants like Wickes and B&Q.

Laying out the wool takes time but is worth the effort.

To get a good finish and to help reduce the chances of the surface of the finished bag pilling I laid out twelve very thin layers of wool fibres (six layers on either side of the plastic). 

This is much better than laying out fewer thick layers.

I love Cate's choice of rich colours and flamboyant design. 

Even in a day long workshop there isn’t really lots of time to lay out a very complex  design. At the beginning of the session we make our own two sided pre-felt i.e. with two different colours of wool fibres so that it can be used either way up. I often keep my decoration simple by cutting circles, but simple flower shapes, leaf shapes and other geometric shapes are all possible.

Extra decoration can be added using whisps of other coloured wool tops or fluffy knitting yarns such as mohair. 

Cate. These projects can seem enormous at this point!

As we are working on a large scale I have kept the size of workshops quite small- with just four participants per workshop. This means that everyone can have a table to themselves and also that there is enough room when we need access to the kitchen sinks (the hall that I have used has two stainless steel sinks which is great). 

Cutting open to remove the template and further work the handle strap.

It is always an exciting moment when the fibres are felted together enough to cut the template out. But not the time to get too relaxed as there is still quite a bit of felting to be done to further shrink the bag! 

Getting smaller but not quite there yet.

Trish with her finished bag.  For her design she needs to sew on her orange and red felted handles.

Some people like to add a magnetic closure but I have opted to sew a gusset of heavy duty satin lining in with a zip closure. I really like this as it isn’t visible from outside, doesn’t spoil the way that the bag hangs and makes sure that everything is secure inside. 

Cate's completed bag; it is fantastic!

If you would like to make your own felted big bag with me then just get together a group of friends or work colleagues and I can run a full day workshop for you. I need just four people to be able to run these full day classes for only £69 per person. These classes are usually held at Martin Heath Hall, Christchurch Lane, Lichfield, Staffordshire. WS13 8AY but if you prefer I can come to a venue of your choice. 

Cost: £69 (this includes all wool fibres, use of equipment and tea coffee and biscuits).

Even more Felting Fun with Art Nation in Wolverhampton

Here I am back in The Art Shop in the Mander Centre, Wolverhampton.

This Art Nation project is going well and at the end of the first week we have had a good range of people who want to find out more about the arts in the Midlands and also to actually make some art themselves.

Dave is a musician with the Midland Music Network. He usually plays the mandolin but that didn't stop him having a go at feltmaking and making his own unique felted Christmas bauble for his Christmas tree.

Dave came to visit the Art Shop in the Mander centre because he had heard about the previous Art Shop in Sandwell but hadn't been able to get along to it.

Here are some more of the felted angels that were made during the sessions. Using uncombed dip dyed Wensleydale wool tops is a great way to get curly hair for your angel.

I was delighted that Rhii came back to The Art Shop.

She had visited on the first day with her friend Kirsty and had had really enjoyed making her own felted jewellery.

On this visit she made Felted Baubles, a Mini Felted Santa Stocking and a really cool Snake (that she's giving to her brother).

Rhii was really comfortable working with wool fibres.

She remembered what she had learnt on her first felting session and before I knew it she was sharing her knowledge of felting with new visitors to the Art Shop i.e. teaching them!

Rhii with her selection of hand felted Christmas booty.

Andrea's cute little pink felted stocking.

More felted treasure: Christmas baubles, a felted snake and felted flower brooch.

These were made by one of the Art Shop helpers. She is from Kathmandu in Nepal.

I mentioned how the felted items that are on sale on several of the stalls on the German Christmas Market in Birmingham are imported from Nepal but my Art Shop Helper (I can't remember her name!) although coming from Kathmandu had never heard of Felting. I was really happy to teach her!

The Art Shop will be open Tuesday - Sat 10.30am - 5pm and runs until 18th December 2010.

Everyday there will be art activities to get involved in. These include storytelling, mask making, puppet making, printing, animation and even some sound recording.

For more details visit the website www.findmeswapme.co.uk

Family Arts and Crafts fun at The Art Shop in Wolverhampton

It has been noticed that we, as a nation, see a trip to the shops as an activity. An activity that many of us seem to enjoy even when we aren't really looking to buy anything. Find Me Swap Me is a project that has been devised to make a trip to the shops even more rewarding.

Various shops in shopping centres are being transformed into temporary art galleries and art workshop spaces. Popping into one of the Art Shops you can have a cup of tea, hot chocolate etc, nibble on some biscuits, view an art exhibition and take part in an art activity.

The Art Shop that I am currently working in is in the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton.

We have only been open a few days but already we have attracted a good range of visitors; Young mums with babies, teenagers with an afternoon off college, couples out doing some midweek shopping and older people too.

We have had visitors who simply wanted a hot drink, others who were interested in viewing the exhibition (especially as it’s a photographic show of local Midlanders and the subject is the sea). Being in the very centre of England people here often yearn for the sea. We do definitely get excited about a trip to the it!

There is also currently an exhibition by the Wolverhampton Society of Artists in another empty shop across the way so we have had other local artists in to visit us too.

Yesterday I chatted to a lady who told me how she has continued to sculpt using air drying clay now that she doesn’t have any access to a kiln. She showed me photos of her work and it was lovely to hear the passion in her voice.

While at the Art Shop I have been showing people how to make various hand felted items. The ancient art of feltmaking using only sheep’s wool, soap and water.

This is Alexander's totally unique Christmas decoration complete with lots of jingly bells!

Gwen was interested especially when I showed her photos of the beautiful felted portraits made by the ladies in the St Chad’s Arts and Crafts group.

I also had a couple of visitors who made a bee line for the Art Shop when they saw our sign saying, “Free Felting Workshops”.

One lady said, “ I’ve wanted to make felt for ages” can anyone do it? The answer.... “Yes!” I was really pleased when she enthusiastically sat down and got started! While she was rubbing the wool fibres a lady called Jean arrived. She is a spinner who is also a felting enthusiast. She had actually attended some of felting workshops in the States.

Gwen's finished flower (she will add beads later). Jean and I both agreed that she should be very proud of herself. This is her very first piece of hand felting!

Gwen enjoys art and craft activities with her twin 14 year old granddaughters and now she has another activity that she can share with them.

I have been felting for 14 years now. I first learnt when my daughter was 2. It’s a wonderful craft especially for parents with young children.

Some projects can be made very quickly so even if you only have 10 minutes to spare you can make a hand felted Christmas bauble.

Kirsty and Rhii had such a lot of fun. Rhii’s earrings and bracelet are the perfect colour scheme matching her headphones perfectly!

We shared lots of stories while making our hand felted Christmas Decorations and Jewellery in The Art Shop.

Only when you make your own handmade jewellery can you make something that is absolutely perfect for you!

On the first day in the Art Shop we made a lovely range of felted Christmas tree and Santa Helper decorations; here are a few of them.

The Art Shop will be open Tuesday - Sat 10.30am - 5pm and runs until 18th December 2010.

Everyday there will be art activities to get involved in. These include storytelling, mask making, puppet making, printing, animation and even some sound recording.

For more details visit the website www.findmeswapme.co.uk

If you would like to have a go at feltmaking then I will be back in the Art Shop on Friday 10th December.

Hand Felted Portraits and Stitched Photographs go on show in Wolverhampton

The Threads of Our Lives: What Shaped Us.

What an exciting project this was!

I was asked by Wolverhampton Art Gallery if I’d like to be the artist working on one of their outreach projects. Like many art galleries Wolverhampton Art Gallery is keen to be involved with groups in the community.

St Chad’s Art and Craft Group were the perfect group for this project.

These ladies (about 18 members at present) have been meeting once a week for 8 years. They work on projects together, share ideas and encourage each other. Most of the members are retired and most of them had working careers where their artistic ambitions had to take second place; they had jobs and families to look after.

One of the things that is so interesting about the members of this group is their commitment and professionalism. Although they have lots of fun, these ladies are keen to learn and progress their skills so they have worked out ways of raising money to pay for room hire and tuition from Wolverhampton Adult Education Service.

One successful way that they have found to raise money is by designing and printing their own calendar..... featuring their own art of course!

This entrepreneurial sprit wasn’t the only thing that I fell in love with about these ladies. I especially loved their warmth, friendship and enthusiasm. Working with St Chad’s Arts and Crafts Group was one of my best experiences of 2010.

As a starting point for What Shaped Us the group visited the Jann Haworth retrospective exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Using a group photo that was taken in the gallery and inspired by Jann Haworth’s soft sculpture they started to work with their tutor Bev Dedicoat. Here are a couple of their stitched portraits.

Iris's soft stitched portrait reminds me of Beryl Cook illustrations.

One of Molly's stitched pictures.

My brief was to introduce the ladies to some art techniques other than the more usual painting and drawing ones.

I was also able to have a session where I took in some of my own art and spoke about my own inspirations and how I have drawn on these. This was really helpful for me too as I took in some older work (going back 13 years) as well as more recent Frillip Moolog sculptures. It reminded me how far my own practice has come.

We got familiar with working with wool fibres by making some felted flowers.

Which I wasn’t at all surprised to see several of them wearing when they arrived at the next session!

There is a lot of talent in this group so from felted flowers we leapt straight into felted portraits!

Jean's interest in pop art showed in her approach to the felted portrait.

Even though we took two sessions to build up the portraits the pace was fast!

While I was demonstrating on my own portrait I could feel the adrenalin rushing round my body. There’s nothing like having to work in the spotlight to focus you.

Muriel's love of texture shows in her portrait.

It was lovely to show how we can paint with fibres, yarns and scraps of lace. There was so much energy in the room. It really was exciting!

Above: Molly's portrait in progress.

Below: Molly pictured with her finished portrait (second from right).

A hive of industry!

In the last two weeks of the project we took inspiration from Flore Gardner. I was very grateful to Rosie James who e mailed me the details of Flore’s exhibition at Derby Art Gallery and also thanks to Derby Art Gallery for putting together such a good resource pack.

I also showed the group Mauizio Anzeri’s stitched photograph work which was featured in the May/June 2010 Crafts Magazine. It was good to contrast these two artists’ different approaches to stitching into photographs.

Iris has very strong memories of her lovely long hair being cut off by her Nan.

Brenda getting stuck in with needle and gold lame thread.

Avril's very happy memories of this day show through.

The ladies personalities started to come out in the stitching. It wasn’t about tracing outlines with coloured threads. Rather, it was about choosing the picture, their memories associated with the picture and what story they wanted to tell.

Jan was smiling so much of the time that it is no surprise that the photo that she chose to stitch majored on a big grin and rosy cheeks.

It was a different way of working, less spontaneous than mixing wool fibres to make a portrait but this exercise really got them thinking about what they wanted to say.

Bev was delighted not only because it it was obviously going to have an impact in their approach to sketchbooks in the future but also because of her love of text in images too.

Gillian combined a school photo of herself with a photo of her as a mother taking her own son to school. She made her stitched image tell stories on several levels. Literally drawing together threads of memories from different times in her life.

I was just so delighted that the ladies had been so ‘up for it’. They were happy to have an adventure with me.

The absolute icing on the cake was when Wolverhampton Art Gallery exhibited the work that the group made during the Threads of our Lives; what shaped us project in the Art Gallery itself.

They have every right to be proud

The show has now moved to its second venue:

Wolverhampton Adult Education Service

City Learning Quarter

Old Hall Street

Wolverhampton

WV1 3AU

Tel: 01902 558164

The exhibition is open to the public and continues here until 2nd Jan 2011.

To contact the group and to buy a calendar (only £5.99 each) e mail arts-at-stchads@hotmail.co.uk

Take inspiration from these talented ladies . Try a new medium today.... Felting is always a good place to start.

Make your own Hand-Felted Bunny Glove Puppet & Easter Chick to have even more fun this Easter!

Easter is a lovely time to celebrate and definitely a time to let out your creativity.
This cute hand-felted chick was made by my son Dominic.
We really enjoy rolling our Easter Eggs. I grew up in Scotland and so this is a tradition that I have always done. Last year we were visiting my sister in Edinburgh and so went up Arthur’s Seat to roll our eggs.

My sister Sandra got really excited when she realised that we had a little helper with us. Here she is giving Bunny (one of my hand-felted bunny glove puppets) a chance to roll the eggs.

One of the cool things about felting is that you can make a seamless item like a felted handbag, a felted jacket or a glove puppet with absolutely no sewing! Here you can see me laying out the fluffy Merino wool fibres. To make seamless felt you use a resist. This stops the front of the puppet felting to the back of the puppet. I like to use this grey builders’ plastic which I buy from my local builders merchants in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

Here’s Louise and her mum with the felted puppets that they made at one of my workshops at Bilston Craft Gallery last Easter.

There are so many colours of Merino wool fibres. I was pleased that the children didn’t feel that they had to stick to “bunny colours”.
This bright pink felted bunny will have fun hiding chocolate eggs this Easter!

You can see what cute faces the children at the workshop managed to give their hand-made puppets. All these details are made using the wet felting process. That means that by carefully laying out different wool coloured fibres you can "paint" the details; shading for nose and ears and other stripes and patterns.

You can make one of these puppets yourself.
I will be running an Easter Bunny Glove Puppet session

on Thursday 8th April 2010 10.30am-12.30pm
at Walsall Museum, Lichfield Street, Walsall, West Midlands, S1 1TR.
To book phone the museum on 01922 653116

Visit the What's On in Walsall website for more details.

If you can't make it over to Walsall on 8th April you could book your very own Children's Felting Craft Party. Invite some friends to your own house and could come and teach you how to make your own Hand-Felted Easter Bunny Glove Puppet.
£95 for a two hour session for 6 children aged 8 and up. Materials included.

For more information vsit my AllSensesArt Childrens Craft Parties page on my website.

Have fun this Easter. Make your own felted Bunny Glove puppet.
Even make a cute felted chick!