Tag Archives: felt

Contemporary Dancer Online Workshop

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My new 5 week online workshop

Contemporary Dancer – A Unique Felt Sculpture

Friday 17th January till Friday 21st February 2020

Registration for the course is open!

 

This is an exciting online workshop where you will make a free standing figure 20″/50cm tall. You will learn a new, energetic wet felted process that has similarities to clay sculpting and can be easily adapted to make any shape or form. 

The course is suitable for intermediate felt makers and will include simple hand sewing techniques. 

The online classroom is hosted on RUZUKU – each lesson contains multiple videos, presentations and downloadable course information and worksheets to show you, step-by-step, exactly what to do in a simple, clear format.

I am so excited to have developed this course and hope you will join me in January!!

Be on the first course……

Head over to my workshop page for more information:

My 30 Day Challenge 2019

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A 30 Day creative challenge for myself starting Friday 31st May 2019.

  1. Create a new piece of art every day
  2. 30 minutes minimum
  3. Drawing, painting, sculpture
  4. Try new materials – recycled, acrylic and oil paint, fabrics, wood, metal, concrete, paverpol, plaster, collage, 2D and 3D.
  5. Log daily with images and text
  6. Daily instagram and FB

Day 1- 31 May

Decorative felt for a bag.

Added a lot of fabric and wool and then finished with free machine embroidery – this was for a bag however the felt was too thick to attach to the purse fixing and will use it to make a pouch bag with a clip closure.

The Mollies – large felt sculptures

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Life size (in height) felted sculptures in their beautiful new home in Colorado.

The first  Molly, ‘Tall Molly’, took 6 months to develop and has been followed by two more and there is another  in the planning to fill this amazing space.

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Commissions welcomed!

 

Felt Bowl

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Shades of Time

White, natural Blue Faced Leicester wool bowl, Lino printed with a figurative motif. This small bowl looks wonderful against the contrasting, polished dark wood.

This is an example of a new line of sculptures that I am working on for my Etsy shop. More images and information soon about new products and shop opening.

 

 

Full size sculpture

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It has taken me about 6 months to develop a full size felt figure and there have been plenty of problems to overcome along the way when upsizing from a 40cm tall figure to one that is 4 times bigger!

From these small figures…

 

…to this one – 164cm high

The problems I encountered were due to the scale of the figure and they began with the wire.

I tried heavy fencing wire however this just wasn’t strong enough to hold the figure up right one leg so I had a length of steel tubing  bent to follow the line of the spine down to the toe of the standing leg and built the rest of the body around this structure.

The musculature was added beginning with a layer of knitted woollen strips to cover the wire to form a base for the wool fibres. I used Blue Faced Leicester wool, wet felted in layers, to build the shape of the body and a steamer and sander to aid with the felting and fulling.

The final layer or ‘skin’ was felted separately and then stitched onto the the figure.

As you can see from the variety of figures in this post I have made several more! I am now going to experiment with adding the colour and texture straight onto the figures to cut out the rather lengthy processes of making the felt skin, stitching it in place and fulling with steam and sander. So watch this space!

Prism 2018 Hoxton Arches Gallery

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One of the best Prism exhibitions!

‘TRANSIENT’

A selection of artworks from the exhibition

My submissions

Life dance

Comprised of 28 small figurative felt sculptures.

I use the wet felt method to create these little figures

Exploring the Senses

Two large figurative sculptures suspended

Both pieces together in the gallery

My art work is for sale and I also welcome commissions.

Please contact me for further information.

Molly

New felt sculptures

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I am working on four new felt sculptures in the form of Modern Dance.

ECHOTEK

The movement and emotion in this art form is wonderful and I use images of dancers to create the sculptures.

Starting with a wire I make a skeleton and then cover it lightly with knitted fabric to give me a soft layer to attach the wool fibres. I then build up the musculature with layers of wool fibre using soap and water to felt so that the final shape is firm and well sculpted.

 

The decorative skin is a piece of handmade felt that I hand stitch onto the body of the sculpture – this is the most time consuming part of the process.

Three dancers ready to be mounted on wood

I love the contrast between the rough felt and smooth polished wood – both are natural and compliment each other.

People often ask me how to look after their felt sculptures – and it is very simple!

Just wipe gently with a damp cloth to remove dust. Moths are the main concern especially in the summer. You can buy moth killer to spray on the felt or periodically put the felt sculpture in the freezer over night – this will kill any moth eggs.

I will be posting the dance sculptures in my shop in the near future and if you are interested in ordering a sculpture or would like me to notify you when new sculptures are ready – please contact me.