Skip to main content

Arty Places 2011 #5

Continuing the series of  Arty Places,  last week, I visited a great  little shop, Feltfine  .  Feltfine is a wonderful resource and treasure trove of fibres at 156 Beaumont Street, Hamilton ( Newcastle NSW) . It has everything for felters, spinners and weavers and for those who just love beautiful felted art, whether it is decorative, utilitarian or wearable. Creating a visual heaven for fibre artists are fine felted items, fleece, fibres, silk, and dyes and other supplies.  It was a lovely surprise and an exciting discovery for me. Recently I have not been such a frequent visitor to  Beaumont Street, since Anne's Glory Box moved to New Lambton. However, I realise I'll be there much more often now with  both Timeless Textiles and Feltfine in the same street.

My purchase was not terribly exciting this time, but  I'll be going back. Great service by Kris and fantastic fibres made shopping at Feltfine a really enjoyable experience.  I bought some black wool tops ( roving) as I plan to create a  new doll - another of my bird women, on a Halloween theme.

I recently finished a wrapped armature doll with a "skin" of  hand dyed panne velvet ( photo below) - there are at least two interpretations of this doll .

The first  is half insect - half woman, or the second is inspired by the story of Britomaris, who trying to escape from King Minos of Crete, jumped off a cliff into the sea and was miraculously saved by fishing nets. I like the idea of half -half so I hope to make another  doll using the same technique, but with a felted "skin" using the black wool  I purchased from Feltfine and  perhaps a felted head of a black raven. Mmm .... I'm still thinking about the wings ....  perhaps some silk from Feltfine for a bit of nuno felting?
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2011 at 1:26 PM

    Oh...LOVE that felty place!!
    LOVE your doll Wilma. It's been cold and bleak here..perfect weather to get felting.Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
3 comments
Read more

Countdown to Christmas 15 - Diamonds Forever!

How much would you pay for a Christmas  fruitcake?  The world's most expensive fruit cake has been estimated at $1.65 million. Yesterday, I wrote about the less than positive term "Christmas cake as it is applied to unmarried women, so again it amazed me that  in Tokyo, this most exquisite and expensive Christmas cake was created. It took six months to design and another full month to construct. The beautiful cake is fully edible ... that is except for the 223  real diamonds  used as decoration. This cake was part of an exhibition called Diamonds: Nature's Miracle  and was one of 16 exhibits showcasing creative ways with diamonds . Apparently, the cake was auctioned, fetching $1.65 million US. While there have been other very expensive diamond encrusted cakes since this one in 2005 with estimated values of up to $75 million, this Japanese designed cake was the forerunner of the extravagant diamond studded wedding cakes in the higher price r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lilly Pilly

Today is Australia Day. I chose a photo of some Lilly Pilly berries as a celebratory image for this national day. Lilly Pilly is  a common name for a plant, Syzygium smithii which grows mostly in Eastern Australia, from the northern  rain forests of Queensland, throughout NSW to the southern Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. In New Zealand it is called "monkey apple, but other names used in Australia, besides lilly pilly, are Eungella Gum and Coast Satinash. The largest Lilly Pilly recorded was found in Dingo Creek Flora Reserve, near Tenterfield where I once lived.  The tree now growing in my garden was once a small seedling which I was gifted when I left Woolgoolga, a small coastal town in northern NSW. Its name  is said to come from the Aboriginal word 'weelgoolga' describing the lilly pilly which grows in profusion there. It is probably no surprise that the lilly pilly berries are edible as bush tucker, and make a beautiful jam or jelly. I have even seen re...
Post a Comment
Read more