Ryedale Open

I submitted a piece of felt work to this years Open Exhibition for the first time, today I received a letter to say it was accepted. I forgot to take a picture of it, I may have to go and take one when its hung, if I can.

Anyway, putting aside my happy event, this is an Exhibition I visit annually, Ryedale has so many talented creative people and the display always covers a wide spectrum of work.

I am stewarding next Tuesday and really looking forward to it. The print is a bit small on the image but the exhibition runs 25 Jul 2009 until 1 Aug 2009 at the Milton Rooms, Malton
Time: 10am - 4pm.

Interviewed

Last week I had a phone call and was interviewed on line. An unusual experience as the caller made me feel so at ease it was just like chatting to a friend. Next day the interview was on line, you can read it here

http://www.thetextiledirectory.com/newsarticle/Jenny-Pepper---an-interview/

The Textile Directory is a great on line resource and well worth a look, I think originally there used to be an annual paper directory of textile resources, which was great, but with the progress of the web, is now purely on line. I think the advantage there is that additions and amendments are instant so you almost have a real time resource.

I still find it surreal reading words I have spoken, I guess that's also my unease with blogs. One slightly misphrased sentence or tone and the reader may mis interpret the words, but you are not there to clarify. I think I'm from an earlier generation on the cusp of the Web, whereas my son has grown up with it and its a way of life.

Sunday at the workshop started as warm, but dull, followed by short bursts of rain, so no drying felt in the sunshine today.
I was working with three colours of dyed Norwegian batts. There was a natural carded, which was bits of light/dark brown and white. I used this as a base as it wasn't going to be visible. I then layered the red and then the black with resists between layers. I love the way this wool felts, it is so firm. The original colours changed as the felting process took place with fibres migrating through and giving a flecked effect. The brightnes of the red was subdued by the black.


I havn't finished the piece yet as I'm adding and embellishing and need to wait for it to dry, but here is a close up of the surface which shows the very "hairy" surface of this particular Norwegian. The surface is tight and firm. I'm still working on the ongoing theme started 3 years ago but the work is evolving and changing.

Hopefully it will be dry tomorrow and I can finish working on this piece.

First day

Today was the first Saturday that I had my workshop open to view, its still a bit sparse but I'm working on filling it. I now have my name on the door, that's a strange feeling facing it each day as I unlock.

The sun was shining and the forest was busy. I met some lovely people and had two sales, so I felt encouraged. Its a big step moving into your own space.

There are lots of activities taking place at weekends and holidays. A lot centres around mountain biking, there are some new bike routes and challenges. There is also a "Go Ape" which my son loves, lots of zip wires and other daring rope things, I think I'm too old for this now.

The sun was just perfect to dry my felt work in. There was a little, but welcome breeze. We found this old clothes horse abandoned near where I live quite some time ago and I think its just perfect for the job. I laid out a really big piece of felt on my new worktable, just because I could. I used Norwegian and had a play with some pattern. I was pleased with the result and have a few ideas for adding more when it is dry. As always my colours are quite muted but there is a hint of lime just catch the eye.

It may be a wall hanging or possibly a runner, but either way I like the result and firmness of the Norwegian.

Last weeks workshop

Last weekend I held a Cobweb felt workshop in our village hall. It was a gloriously sunny day which helped dry our sample scarf in the breeze and go home with dry felt for a change. The day was spent sampling a variety of natural undyed wools. We assembled and joined them into a scarf to take home. I thought we all had enough sample pieces stored away and this time although sampling we could take away something finished whilst seeing the test results of the wools.
The wools sampled were, Norwegian, Jacob Humbug blend, Black Jacob, Wensleydale and Blue Faced Leicester Humbug blend. Wensleydale results were most popular for appearance but BFL for softness.

Moving in ...slowly

Today I woke up with a streaming cold, I think I caught it off my boy who had it last week. Share and share alike!
It was an effort to go and start packing and unpacking but I'm glad I did. I now have more out of the house and I can begin to see a room appearing where it was once drowning in wool. I have decided only to take what I actually have storage to put it in, that way I will start as I mean to go on. I'm not known for my tidyness, but I do try.

More furniture will arrive this week and some shelving will go up. I am ordering a new floor covering, but not sure of arrival date yet. I didn't get any felting done today but did manage some carding of a bag of wool I forgot I had.

Tomorrow I plan on making felt, lets hope the sun shines to dry it. One lovely thing is when I am in the workshop I can hear the sheep calling from a nearby field, seems rather appropriate.

Moving in and moving on....

This week I moved into the new workshop, it feels kind of unreal. I still have to move my materials and equipment in, but did manage to get the storage and table installed. Today I needed to make something, it feels like I have been doing everything but making felt for a few weeks.

After a whole day on my own I finished one vessel and one scarf, so felt quite satisfied with myself. I need a rest tonight but will carry on with the move tomorrow and hopefully fit in some more feltmaking.

No pictures, forgot the camera, but will post some soon. The next thing on the long list of things to do is arrange some dates for workshops. I had thought if I left it open people would tell me the dates they would like, but I am getting asked for dates, so dates it is.