Just joined nuMonday and opened my Feltissimo shop.

Well with one thing and another, this year so far has been rather traumatic. Mum went down hill rapidly since Christmas with lots of falls, numerous A&E admissions and the final stages of vascular dementia. She had to be moved from her care home to a nursing home, it was heartbreaking. My mother died in April and as the only child and executor of her will I've had a lot to sort out. Everything has now been sorted out and I've been able to get myself together by starting to felt again.

I'm going to try to spend more time adding more items to nuMONDAY. I've been hanging on to most of my felt work because I had visions of standing at craft fairs in the future. Whether that willl happen I don't know but in the meantime I need some creations on so that other people can enjoy them.

YOU CAN FIND MY SHOP HERE.

I will be adding more items during the next week.

The following image is of a felted and embroidered brooch. It is from a garden inspired collection.

 I will be posting regularly now so do pop by and perhaps comment s I wil love to make this blog more open. Till next time ......... Sandie

Felted wall hanging, no. 8 from the Florence collection.

You can see the 'Florence collection' on my etsy site -  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/feltissimo

This is an original felted miniature wall hanging of a lady who is able to transform herself, clothing and surroundings depending on how I see the felt developing after working. There will be 9 wall hangings in the 'Florence' collection.

This is 'Florence no. 8'.

She has a pretty vintage lace dress pink silk ribbon arms, plaited vintage embroidery thread hair and an embroidered hat.
Florence has been placed on a felted heart which was made by the wet felting method in shades of white, lilac and turquoise merino wool fibres with a silk addition.

The white background on which Florence is mounted has been made using white merino wool fibres which have been wet felted.

The reverse side has the addition of double sided bondaweb to adhere the felt to the pretty vintage French fabric. This makes the felt stronger and ideal for hanging.

A vintage brass ring has been sewn at the top for hanging on the wall. However if you prefer to frame it, this ring can easily be removed.

The heart measures approx. 10.5cms x 7.5cms ( 4.1" x 3") with the addition of a 3.5cms/1.4" tail.
The outer white background measures approx.16.5cms x 9cms ( 6.5" x 3.5" )

Why not have a look at the other miniature wall hangings in the 'Florence' collection.

All priced at £19.95

Feltissimo on Etsy

An ideal gift for Valentines Day or Mothering Sunday or to add to your collection.

#feltissimo #feltedwallhanging #feltart #fibreart #wetfelting #embellisherfelt #feltedwallart #vintagelace #antiquelace #embroidery #Florencecollection #antiquesilkfabric #merinowoolfibres #bondaweb #Frenchvintagefabric #pinksilkribbon #plaitedembroiderythreads

Another beautiful felted wall hanging - Florence no. 5

This is 'Florence no. 5'.

She has a dress of beautiful vintage lace  which has a collar of antique lace. She also wears a hat made from a lace flower. Her hair is now a beautiful shiny pink made from antique pure silk embroidery thread, embroidered in French knots. 

 Florence has been placed on a felted heart which was made on the embellisher machine using merino wool fibres in shades of pink and antique silk fabric in greens and white. The heart also has the addition of antique hat felt at the top of the heart.

The white background on which Florence is mounted has been made using white merino wool fibres which have been wet felted.

The reverse side has the addition of double sided bondaweb to adhere the felt to the pretty vintage French fabric. This makes the felt stronger and ideal for hanging.

A vintage brass ring has been sewn at the top for hanging on the wall. However if you prefer to frame it, this ring can easily be removed.

The heart measures approx. 10.5cms x 7.5cms  ( 4.1" x 2.8")
The outer white background measures approx.13cms x 9cms ( 5.1" x 3.5" )

Why not have a look at the other miniature wall hangings in the 'Florence' collection. you can buy them on my etsy shop

HERE

An ideal gift for Valentines Day or Mothering Sunday or to add to your collection.

#feltissimo #feltedwallhanging #feltart #fibreart #wetfelting #embellisherfelt #feltedwallart #vintagelace #antiquelace #embroidery #Florencecollection #antiquesilkfabric #merinowoolfibres #bondaweb #hatnetting

How a rainbow was formed.

Once upon a time many many years ago, an old man lived in a straw hut at the base of a mountain range. His hut was sited near a waterfall that flowed into a river, which ran across his land. As there was plenty of water available, the soil was very good for growing and as soon as the sun warmed up the earth, flowers began to grow. For some reason, that puzzled the old man ,all of the flowers were white. Although very pretty in their shape and smell, the old man was very sad, as he would have liked a field full of pretty coloured flowers.

One day when the sun was shining brightly, the old man had an idea. He found some paint pots full of pretty coloured paint and went into the field.

The old man got out his paint brush and started to paint the flowers all different colours.

Whilst he was painting, two large birds flew down to see what he was doing.

The old man tried to shoo them away, but the birds kept flying over the wet flowers

As the birds flew over the wet flowers, their tail feathers got covered in colourful paint.

The two birds flew up into the sky everytime the old man shooed them away and as they flew across the sky they left trails of coloured paint from their tails

CREATING

A 

COLOURFUL RAINBOW

I created this picture for my five year old granddaughter Molly.

The base is wet felted and I used the embellisher to enhance it. I added additions of vintage fabric flowers that have been stuffed giving them a 3D appearance. Some of the flowers have been embroidered using vintage silks. Other flowers are vintage crochet pieces with the addition of beads.

The two birds are made from 1950's pieces of smocking with addition of vintage feathers.

If you would like to print this story with pictures for your own children, I would ask only that you contact me first. No permission is given for other purposes.

All fabrics, threads and trims are from my Rag Rescue website.

Lilac floral felted Art Card - Ready for framing.

Lilac floral felted Art Card - Ready for framing.
Originally uploaded by Feltissimo

Yet another Art card. This time it was commissioned for a special birthday. The request was for a larger card than I normally make and although I found this a little more difficult I was pleased with the result. I've used the wools I bought at the woolfest.









For those of you who haven't come across my art cards before, I would just like to explain.


These cards are made entirely from handmade felt apart from the thin central card for a message to be written on. Afterwards this card can be removed easily and after a light press the work of art can be framed.

More images from the Woolfest

This felt work was done by members of the Yorkshire Internation Felters Association.
Unfortunately the pictures don't show the whole beauty.

Therapy on the cards

No. 1
Pleasant turmoil

In a few weeks time this last six months of tearing the house down and building it up again, will seem like a dream. The builders couldn't believe how calm we have been throughout it all.
That's what they think!

No. 2 Emergence.

Emerging from the abyss.

A light at the end of the tunnel.

Happiness reigns.

Peace and quiet-----

Until tomorrow .....when the family arrive with all of their worldly goods
hmmm!

I keep telling Ludo, (the dog) enjoy today and tonight because the chaos starts again tomorrow, just in a different way. Daughter, husband and 17 month old Molly staying for a little while or possibly even longer. Still at least we are off to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire for a week of fairs next week Escape.... I'm only joking as I'm really looking forward to the next couple of years, we will all just need a little time to adjust I suppose.
All tips gratefully received.

Cards for sale at my Feltissimo shop £5.00 each.

Light relief

All I seem to have been doing for the past two weeks or more is painting, so yesterday I had a day just for me. We had a wedding invitation from our neighbours. Unfortunately we can't go to the wedding. It is next weekend and Steve will be away moving Jay, Ryan, Molly and all their worldly goods from Rugby to our house in Morecambe. I don't actually know them very well as a few weeks after we moved into our house he sold his private ambulance station and bought a dwelling in the States. He kept a flat next door but returns only occasionally. However I thought it was really sweet of them to invite us to the reception so I thought I would make them a piece of felt art to remember their big day.
Yesterday I was trawling google images to hopefully find inspiration when I came across a Russian artist named Maria Skrebtsova. As Steve's family are Russian I delved deeper and found the most amazing paintings which have influenced me in the two piece of felt work you see here.
Above you can see the flat felt I created, I just loved the movement Maria created in her paintings and I tried to copy this movement in the felt.

I have needle felted the two hearts and their initials and then framed it. I removed the glass from the 1940's frame and padded the felt behind making it curve out giving a 3D effect.
Fingers crossed that they will like it.

.
I have also had to make a thank you card for a dear old lady who was so good to me when I lived in Rugby. She was the friend of my mother in law and we discovered that she has liver cancer so they both moved into a nursing home just before my mother in law left Rugby. Out of the blue a few days ago I received a lovely card from her and inside was a really unusual packet of ancient sewing needles. The front is like an old envelope and is addressed to the shop from which it was on sale at least 100 years ago. She knew that not only do I sell haberdashery but that I also collect it myself. What a kind thought.

I couldn't resist making this thank you card for her. It another piece of felt inspired by Maria Skrebtsova. I know that she will treasure it and probably show it to all of her friends in the nursing home.

















Well I'd better get back to the painting, just once around the skirting boards, window and door frame and hooray that's me finished. All ready for the family to move in.

Mollys first attempt at wet felting.

My granddaughter Molly is staying with me at the moment and although she is only 16 months old, she made this wonderful piece of wet felting. I gave her the pink pre-felt and she chose the other colours. She giggled all the way through the process thoroughly enjoying the whole experience and infact screamed when we stopped and was taken out of her high chair. My daughter is going to frame it and it will take pride of place in her new bedroom which we have just decorated together.

I hope to be listing a little more frequently now as we have decorated 4 bedrooms and have only one to go. I don't want to see another paint brush for a long time, well not until we start on the lounge.

Getting ready for the family invasion.

I find fungi fascinating and I couldn't resist trying to make one in felt. This was a while back and I still haven't done anything with it. Perhaps a picture?

I thought I'd keep with the felting theme as I long to get back to my creative felting but as you will see below, things are rather hectic at the moment. I have just over one week to go before all of the decorating upstairs has to be complete. Just the skirting boards to paint today and then hubby will paint the floors at the weekend. Next week will see the big removal ( and I mean BIG) of all of our stock and office upstairs into the two rooms. This will leave the two rooms downstairs empty for my daughter Jay, hubby Ryan and my beautiful 1 yr old grand-daughter Molly to move into next month. Artist's University courses are so expensive these days so they need to pay off their student loans to get on the housing ladder, hence mum to the rescue.

At the moment I'm trying to juggle the business and decorating and don't have much time for anything else. I've put my name down to exhibit at a new textile and fashion fair in Lincoln University on Saturday 26th May and am so busy sorting two boxes of 1920's costume I bought on Wednesday. There is a superb black and white shawl with a pattern of velvet roses and long tassels. In a way I hope it doesn't sell as I would love to felt the centre which has a few pinprick holes in it. Perhaps this will put the dealers off it ---fingers crossed.

Ashley Hall Vintage Textiles & Fashion Fair

No excuse

Now I have no excuse to say that I've lost my keys. That's one less thing to worry about. It is amazing how many things have gone missing in our house since the start of the restoration last October. We are in a big mess again as we've been having the kitchen floor tiled. I must say though, the new tiles make a good background for photography.

I've spent the morning felting, it calms me down. I'm making a new bag using the technique of adding antique lace so it's new ground again, a huge learning curve, but that's what I like.


I made the felt rather thicker than I normally do when adding lace so it was much harder to get the fibres to come through. However the texture is reasonable
as it was a pretty lace you can still see most of the pattern. I shall use this for the fold over of the bag so I have now got to work out how to attach it to the main body. Another challenge, I think I'll sleep on it.

Another birthday card.

Another one of my creations. I made it yesterday on my 'me - mothers -day'. It is mostly wet felted but I did a little needle felting to place the various layers together.
I think mum will like this. As these cards are really art cards I will tell mum that I will frame the front for her as a little extra present.

My first bag

This didn't start off as a bag but more an experimentation in surface texture. I was so pleased with the effect that the ideas just developed. I'd never used a resist before and because this wasn't planned I just cut a shape out of cardboard. It worked well as you can see. I've added some of my vintage wooden beads for added texture and used a large Victorian press stud to keep it closed.
I also like the fact that it is really two bags in one as either side can be used as the front depending on the occasion

Experimenting with surface texture.

I just can't resist fabric that has an interesting texture and so I decided to experiment with felt textures. I wanted to get a 3D effect so I used an antique lace piece. As I sell antique lace I have plenty of oddments to use so I wondered what effect felting would give. I used just two layers of Merino wool and placed the lace on top. It took a long time for the fibres to come through the lace and even longer to full. I ended up throwing it in the sink many times to shock the fibres into shrinking and pulling the lace together. I think you will agree that the result is very pleasing. It looks like barnacles on a rock and although the scanner does not show the 3D effect very well it is very bumpy.

The reverse is plain and very thick so has many uses, I've just got to think of one so it will go in my box awaiting an idea. All suggestions gratefully received.