Sarah Brookers felt hangings

sarah was displaying her felt pictures and hangings at Prema in Uley so I trotted along. She is a very gifted artist who studied fine art at Portsmouth, and shared a studio with Alice Kettle.
Her finished pieces have a painterly feel and she manages to get a real 3D effect using shade and light.

Fans.

Primavera with detailed photos below

She uses machine stitching to enhance the outlines and for shading

Such vibrant colours in this hanging

Close up of one of the leaves

Flamingo feathers such beautiful colours

I thought this one was quite a different style I found it almost aggressive.

Williams pears

This one was stunning my favourite the plates and jars looked so three dimensional , it was the largest piece.

The prices range from £150  for the smallest piece to £1100 for Primavera 

Felting workshop with Valerie Wartelle

A workshop with Valerie  on wool paintings, she has a very different approach to me so good to learn something new.Her pictures look like water colours and are delicate looking.

She talked about how to lay out the fibres to build up the colours gradually.

Laying out the first layer of coloured wool

This is the start of Sian's trees.

These two are Valerie's difficult to photograph as they are behind glass, but you can Google her to see more of her work.

This last one is mine, it was taken from a photo of sunflowers in the frost.I haven't got the watercolour effect . I also found out that I copy what I think is there not what is .

Exhibition at Croome

If you are anywhere near Croome Court in Worcestershire do go to Croome and see this beautiful exhibition.put on by the embroiderers guild  it is a joy to see.Well displayed and some superb work with embroidery and felting.This is "the river bed"

This is a stunning portrait of Capability Brown executed in applique, Croome was his first landscape commission.

The butterflies are by the young embroiderers guild.

Flowers in the grate are made from Lutrador.

 The felted rug.

felted horns

Following Gladys Paulus ' workshop I really got keen on felting horns,My grandaughter wanted large sheep horns goodness knows why.I sewed them onto a headband but they are so big they are difficult to wear.

then it was a unicorn for my daughter.

A cow horn hat and oxen horns which are of to Australia.

Masks with Gladys Paulus

Here are some of the fantastic masks that the students made.

workshop with Gladys Paulus 1

This was a brilliant workshop,Gladys is a well organised talented caring tutor.She started by telling us where we needed to be by the end of each of the 5 days.I found this a great help.The days started with her showing us how to proceed to the next stage.We were making 3D masks to our own design. I had decided to make a Griffon as they  are mythical creatures so no one would know

what it was supposed to look like! Gladys lending a helping hand with  someones dragon.

Mine didn't have horns but it was great seeing how to make them.

you do have to ensure that both sides of the mask are symmetrical.Not my strong point but we were shown how to  keep things in the right place by using a pin.

Making a felted wall hanging.

 I started by pre felting a long piece to use as the flaps.I also made the felt balls on this matting which really speeds up the felting process.It is sold as a mat for cars or doormats but its great for felting and doesn't wear out like bubble wrap.

I layed plastic under the flaps so that they would not felt into the base.I only wanted them to attach to the base in the middle. When they were attached  I removed the plastic and fully felted them.

When it was rinsed and dry, I sewed on the felt balls, and added a few embroidery stitches