Blog - Page 10 of 12 - 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

Natural dyeing / Wet felting

Remembering my first felting lesson

In 2008 when I moved to Rotterdam I joined the local Stitch and Bitch group of knitters. There I found lots of knitting friends and I also found felters, weavers and spinners. I am not sure exactly when it was but I remember being giving the options of learning to spin or to felt. I chose felting. Looking back that was a pretty momentous decision. The lady that taught me to felt , Els , has become a really wonderful friend. In a few weeks I will leave the Netherlands and move back to the UK , although I am really looking forward to this move, there are things I will miss and seeing Els on a regular basis is one of them. As my move approached I felt (no pun intended) that I should give Els a piece of felt as a thankyou for changing my life in so many ways.…

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25/10/2015

British wool fibres / Felt Workshop / Wet felting

A Radical Decision

Back in June at a workshop with Jeanette Appleton I made a reasonably large piece of felt inspired by lichen covered rocks. Ever since then I have looked at this piece , thinking what an earth should I do now with you ???? I eventually decided that something about it did not really work and maybe I should just use parts of it! Eventually I made a mask out of brown paper thinking maybe make it into a three part piece. I liked the effect even though it was not choosing my favorite parts with this simple mask. So I thought how about choose three parts , and make them into a large felt piece. The more I thought about this the more I liked it . So a made the radical decision to cut my favorite parts out of this large felt piece and reconstruct it. I faffed around…

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18/10/2015

Artybird Carnforth / Box of beautiful things / Uncategorized

Leyburn Exhibition

I belong to a cooperative called 'Box of Beatiful things ' made up from the students and staff of ArtyBird Carnforth and yesterday we set up our latest exhibition in Leyburn , Yorkshire. It's at TOSH , The Old School House and our exhibition is in a lovely airy room on the first floor. It was the first time I had ever helped set up an exhibition and Chris, Jo, Chris and I had great fun choosing what pieces went well together and which walls to put them on. We had a hanging system which was great but there was lots of climbing up and down stepladders trying to position the pieces and make sure they were level. In addition to all the pictures and wall hangings we had bowls and cushions , lamp shades and cards , lit pictures and brooches , a feast of wonderful work .…

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09/10/2015

Textiellink / Wet felting

Felt passion

Felt passion is a felt collection all made by German speakers collated by Ellen Bakker of Textiellink. It is currently exhibing at Meervilt in Haarlem. The book Felt Passion is amazing and the exhibition interestingly contains some of the artists from the book , but features different work. Last week I tried to visit with my good friend Els , but due to a suspect terrorist alert in Rotterdam staton , which cancelled all the trains for the whole morning we never made it . This week I made it , but sadly had to go on my own. It was wonderful to see the variety of felt , large and small, 2D and 3D on display, such a huge amount of inspiration. As usual with such event a picture cannot really capture the tiny special details or the real feel of the pieces but here are some of my favorites. …

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27/09/2015

Natural dyeing / Wet felting

DIY

Most of my natural dyed felted vessels are quite small , about 5cm in diameter and only weigh about 10 grams, as such they are so light they are likely to be blown over unless fastened down in some way. I have thought about how to make a base in keeping with the natural nature of the pieces for quite a long time , and eventually decided to give small pieces of weathered slate a try. Small pieces of slate are readily available in the spoil heaps from old slate mines. I like the idea that the wool , the dye and the base were all originating in the countryside. But how to attached the two together ? Here is the solution. Not my normal felting equipment but very well used for other things as you can see by its battered case. I needed a small training course before I could use…

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20/09/2015

Wet felting

Talking about felting

A number of months ago I was asked to speak about felting at the Pickwick club (International Women's Club Rotterdam ). This seems like a good thing to do so I agreed. As time got nearer I began to think about the logistics . First I needed to work out how to make a presentation with just an iPad ! I needn't have worried, there is of course an Ap for everything in this case Keynote which works very well. Then there was the content of the talk , just felting ideas or some information on were felting sits historically and how it fits into the world of wool. I decided on the later as I think part of the magic of felt is how old it is as a craft and art , and I am also keen that felting is seen as one element in the whole context…

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13/09/2015

British wool fibres / Wet felting

Slow stitching

I have a small felt piece made with masham and merino fibres and lots of other fabrics that needs the addition of some stitches. My usual working mode is fast , but in this case I have deliberately gone slow, to add some stitches and then put it to one side , wait a while then look again before adding another stitch. First some simple neutral running stitches Add in some bright green cross stitches Think for a while then add some rust coloured French Knots Is this enough , no ! A final touch is needed of with some delicate bright green stitching. Enough I think . Do you agree?

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06/09/2015