A Special Day and some new work

Allendale Forge Studios held its official opening last Thursday when HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex came to visit.  It was a lovely day - here are a few of us waiting to be presented.

It was very busy in the run up to the opening as we all wanted to have our pitches well stocked and looking good.  I have just started a new series of locally inspired pictures which are developments of the technique I described a couple of months ago.

These are approx A4 size but I Have decided I like this technique enough to try some larger pieces now.  I really love using the fibres to build up landscapes - so much easier blending them than mixing paint!  These two and a seascape are for sale in the Forge shop.

A Day to myself

Yesterday I had the whole day to myself - well apart from all the animals.  Once they had been walked, fed etc I settled down to play.  Since reading an article by Erin  Partridge in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine which described combining a drawing on artists vellum with felt and stitch I had fancied trying something similiar albeit in my own way.  Erin used overdyed commercial felt with hand needle felted accents as a background.  I decided to use transfer paints to create an impression of a landscape on white felt.

This is the felt after ironing the transfer painted paper onto it.

The next step was to embellish wool tops and felt fibres to create my landscape.  This came out of my head but was inspired by the wonderful landscape here in Allendale.

I drew the sheep on artists vellum using a permanent drawing pen

The next step was to cut him out and apply him to the background with Acrylic Medium

I also tried two more using images of moorland birds

I think I like the birds best but they all need some stitching to finish them.  These are approx A4 size but I think I will also try some larger ones as I really enjoyed building up the landscapes with the fibres and also being able to get really fine detailed drawings.   All I need now is another free day............