First felt of the year

I've been busy making felt for some custom orders . It been a while since I have done any felt making so I have been really enjoying myself. I have discovered that its much easier to do it in the kitchen as I can stand up, which seems to help things felt quicker and stops the back ache.

The felt shown is for a hot water bottle cover. I'll show you some pictures when its finished.

Cabbage - part two

Last night I finally got round to drawing the great cabbage I received in my veggie box this week. It has been years since I have done a drawing like this, and I must say I really enjoyed the experience. I'm fairly pleased with the result and its certainly encouraged me to do more pencil drawings.

Last week I also did a few quick sketches whilst working in Nottingham Craft Mafia Shop. Again very enjoyable. This is more the style of drawing I have been doing of the past few years. I love drawing in pen, it makes you be more certain with the marks you are making and you can make some really interesting marks and textures. Whilst at college I went through a stage of drawing with a stick and ink, I think I may try this again soon.

Cabbage

Maybe there are some things you shouldn't blog about and maybe writing a whole posting about cabbage is one of them, but here goes....

I get a veggie box and its sitting on the floor, next to my desk at work. On the top is the most beautiful savoy cabbage. It looks lovely and I really just want to sit and draw it. It would be a close up drawing I think, showing the veins and texture, it would be a pencil drawing with lots of deep shading. Its such a shame I am at work, might have to try and draw it tonight seeing as I have the urge.


On Christmas day I took some photo's of my beautiful red cabbage, not done anything with them yet, but was really loving the colours and patterns when it was chopped in half.

Valentines Shopping Evening

Just wanted to let you know about the next shopping evening at Get Made, Nottingham on Monday 1st February and show you Jo Want's latest shopping evening poster. (I think this is one of my favourites).

Little Miss Messy

Well so much for making some felt as starting ideas for new projects yesterday. By the time I finished cleaning the house and then giving my work space a well needed sort out I had ran out of time.

I'm a tidy and organised person who seems to be really messy too!! Not sure how I manage it. I love things being organised and planned and live in quite a tidy house. But I just don't have the ability to work in a tidy way. So I often find myself having to have a big tidy up and sort out (normally when I run out of space on the table). I think it would be much better if I could do this as I go along, but I just never seem to manage it. When I was really busy before Christmas things were in such a mess that I started using the ironing board!

According to Jon I'm a very messy cook too! I must try harder!

Commissions and Sales

So far January has been a pretty good month. I was expecting things to be really slow, but I have had several sales in my Folksy and Etsy shops. I have also had a commission from someone I work with for two felt hot water bottle covers. And yesterday whilst working in the Nottingham Craft Mafia shop I got a commission for a felt lampshade. So its been a great start to the year.

I was going spend the day working on some ideas for a new project, which hopefully is going to lead to something to show at Sherwood Art week. But I think I better do some felt making first.

The top photo is of some unfinished heart brooches. These are made from layering fabric and then cutting back to reveal the layers below, machine embroidery is then added. I hope to add them to my shop this week.

This lampshade is for sale in The Nottingham Craft Mafia shop, I have been asked to make a purple one.

Nottingham Craft Mafia Giveaway

Sorry, almost forgot to tell you....

Nottingham Craft Mafia does a monthly blog giveaway, and this month you have a chance to win one of my felt poppy pictures. Just follow this link for details and to enter you just need to leave a comment on the NCM site. http//www.nottinghamcraftmafia.com/2010/01/january-blog-giveaway/#comments

Each month a different maker donates something for the giveaway, so its a good thing to keep an eye on, as there has been some great prizes so far.