November 2015 - Jane Mercer Felt Artist

Packing up

In late 2010 having decided that I needed somewhere to felt , my husband did a makeover on our seldom used spare room in the attic. For Christmas that year I cut the ribbon on my felting and fitness studio with its new lights , tables and because I was trying to keep fit a stepper. It did not take long before the stepper had to go to make room for the growing stash of fibres and fabrics. This week we are relocating back to the UK and so I been packing up my felt studio. Here's my small fibre collection. Thank goodness for Ikea boxes. My equipment all boxed up. I shall miss this lovely studio ? I don't know when I will have another felting studio , and unpacking is going to take me weeks! . So I am not sure when I will be able to felt again,…

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29/11/2015

machine stitching / Wet felting

Ripples

I am fascinated by light and water and I am always taking photographs of streams. Here is one series that I took , a few miles walk up Far Easedale, in the Lake District , UK. I decided after numerous attempts to draw this photograph which were really unsuccessful to try felting using prefelts incorporating various fibres using just yellow and black merino . First step , so far so good , but it needed more Here I am testing the idea of couching some yellow wool onto the piece. I choose not to go down this route but to machine embroider with some variegated yellow thread and then hand stitch in black. Finally I added some orange highlights. To me the finished piece contains some elements of my sunny stream and I think looks great in a black IKEA frame but the glass is so reflective it does not make a…

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08/11/2015

Artybird Carnforth / British wool fibres / Wet felting

Memories of Artybird

Over the last weeks I have been doing a lot of sorting out and clearing out the mountains of felting I have accumulated. Some things have headed to the recycling but I have also come across some treasured pieces from my first Artybird felting course. Sunsets featured prominently in my first course and here are my beginners attempts at dyeing with some very tentative sunset stitching. One of the great things about the courses was the design work , but there was felting as well Two different techniques to felt a sunset ! My first experience of natural fibres , using Shetland , which I have really grown to love. Making an embroidered piece, again all hand dyed which if I remember correctly I was told to go back and stitch some more . All these pieces are a wonderful reminder of the journey I embarked upon about 5 years ago. I…

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01/11/2015