Sneak Peek (Co-Creations Exhibition)

I can't show you everything here before the opening, so is just a little sneak peak. Ceramics by Valerie Stuart, and felting by me. We both like this, and there will be more experimenting to come with this idea!

 

We need a name though...

Renewal 3

My part was very minimal in this one - not much felting at all! You can't cover these beautiful colours! I think pictures say it all:

Stitch-O-Coccus

After lots of experimenting with crochet stitches, machine (free hand) stitching, and dissolvable interfacing, I have come up with this. (Also to be part of the "Co-Creations" exhibition coming up next week.) I think its a bit growth like, a bit like bacteria - hence the name "Stitch-o-coccus". I did some research on bacteria names and found the 3 most common types are: spherical (-cocuss), rod shaped (bacillus), and spiral (spirilla). These have been mounted and framed.

 

STITCH-O-COCCUS (cotton & sewing thread)

 

Felt & ceramic sculpture

Another item for our "co-creations" exhibition coming up (21st Feb, 2015) is this:

 

The ceramic centre was hand built by Valerie Stuart. A wire was then attached to the end, which can be manipulated to easily. And then felted over. It is tricky to calculate the correct shrinkage items like this. If you start too big you will never get a good fit, but if you start too small then you will never get a good felt. Another consideration for the felter is that some of your favourite fulling techniques can't be used - a good solid throwing of your felt obviously can't be done when there is a ceramic piece inside!

3D felting - over a ceramic vase

 



Felted Ceramic Vases - Co-Creations

So this is the start of "Co-Creations" - combined mediums, two artists working together. My felting and textiles, my mums ceramics. It's the start of a beautiful relationship!

I have been very busy felting lately. I did a course on felting over 3D objects way back in Easter 2014, and I'm really putting that to the test now. My mum had some ceramic vases she made a while ago, and was getting tired of them, so we decided to try and felt over them, see what I could come up with. The above is the finished product, below are the pictures of the process. The wool I'm using is called a "ready spin", from Bendigo Mills - I know that doesn't say much! It is quite a course wool, and with my limited experience and knowledge on the many different wools, I would equate it to something like a corriedale.



The vase to be felted over

For size comparison - the wool is laid out and wet down

Design and prefelt stage

During the felting stage

The start of fitting the felt perfectly to the vase