New book!!! "Profiles in Felt" and I'm in; so exciting!!

Last Friday evening was the launch of ‘Profiles in Felt", the first Feltmakers Ireland book.

 It is a collection of the work and stories of 44 feltmakers in Ireland. Each work is different, reflecting the wide flexibility of feltmaking

I'm in page 77 & 78. The two pieces that I choose for the book are my kinitting giraffe and a pixi sitting in a branch with two mushrooms. The two of them needle felted, of course!

It is a beautiful and inspiring publication.

Here you have my story:

" I work as a Scientist but textile crafts have always been my passion. My love of handmade craft goes back to my childhood in Barcelona, where my first teachers were my wonderfully talented grandmother and mother. They taught me sewing, embroidery, knitting, crocheting and macramé. In 2007 I moved to Ireland, a lot of things changed in my life. Ireland offer me the opportunity to invest seriosly in craft. In 2008 I opened my on-line shop on the selling plataform Dawanda. At that time my work was crochet or sewn pieces, I sell gifts and accessories for adults and kids, at the beginning they were crocheted or sewed. It was thanks to some German craftmakers from the same selling platformthat I discovered  felting; this was new for me and I was amazed. I am a self-taught felt maker. I took to needle felting from the beginning.

Detail, colour, simplicity and texture define my style. I concentrate on sculpting small, detailed three dimensional figures. My products are fun  and childlike.My inspiration comes from the materials themselves, my admiration for Nature and my childhood memories. For me it is essential to work with natural materials like wool. In a society constantly running against the clock, I like to invest all the necessary time to make individual and unique pieces to a very high level. I like the playful side of wet felting and the intuitive side of needle felting. Needle felting is a fun art with a wide range of applications, that suits my lifestyle. It is natural and ecofriendly; very little is needed, just few tools, a small table and lot of imagination.
I feel that I’m just at the beginning. There is so much to do that I will need a life-time to achieve it. In 2010 I joined Feltmakers IReland and then started teaching needle felting which I really enjoy. I do wish to keep teaching, especially in other countries as I speak French and Spanish. I would like to do larger pieces and submit to exhibitions. And maybe one day I will be able to live from my carft; my boyfriend and I have a dream to live suistanibly from our garden and craft in his house in the French country side."

Nuno felted dresses with Charity Van der Meer!

I'm so proud of my nuno felted dress!!

I made this dress in a three days workshop organised by FeltmakersIreland. The teacher was Charity Van der Meer, an amazing fashion design from Zambia but living in Holland.

She works with just one layer of extrafine Merino on silk ponge or chiffon. (I used red chiffon).

She has up to 50 % of shrinkage and lays the fibres on the direction that she wants the shrinkage happening. That's how she shapes the dress. (It's hard to belive that you can get a dress from that, isn't it?)

From the same pattern we got many different dresses and jackets.

Mine is pure colour madness! I had a very busy time recently and I planned to buy my wool the week before the workshop, but plans changed at last minute and instead of been in Wicklow buying my wool and silk I finished in Connemara hillwalking and kayaking against the wind!! So, for my dress I just took all the wool and fabrics that I had at home: three different greens, reds, whites and blacks!!

I paniked a litlle bite, I didn't know how to put all together without looking like a clown. Thanks to Clodagh who carded all the wool together for the tops, bringing all the colours together beatufully and thanks to Charity who helped me with the surface embellishment.

I'm very pleased with the result, but I hope that it's the last time that I left the shopping for last minute!!

The dresses are so nice to wear, they adapt to your body, just showing the best of you!! And moreover they are reversible!! What else can you ask to a dress?

Check here and here to see more of Charity's work. It's just faboulous!!

Great workshop with Birgitte Krag in Denmark

In September I was in Denmark to attend a 2 days workshop with master needle feltmaker Birgitte Krag.

 We work on the human figure. This is my doll.

This figure is flexible because has a body made with pipe cleaners.

 All what you do is to wrap the  wire skeleton with a 1st thin layer of wool, and after you keep adding more layers and wool to create the body volumes. Like that, the head, the belly, the breast and the bottom are made by felting extra balls of wool to the body.

 The face has a lot of detail but it's made in the same way, by adding wool in specific spots (cheeks, nose, ...)

Always it fascinates me how in the same class, after following the same instructions, the finished items can look so different. I think they have their own personality!

I had great time in Denmark, my doll still need to be finished, but I came back with plenty of technical tips...

 ...and few felting goodies as these beautiful crafted wood handles for needels and this natural coloured wool, perfect for needle felting.

The wool is from NewZeland bought in http://www.henrichsens-uldspinderi.dk/

 Birgitte (the one with the green foulard) is a very good teacher. I was amazed to see how she got 12 people progressing at the same pace in a relax and friendly environment. 

Birgitte is a very good artist with  a very good knwoledge of the human figure, she gaves us a lot of tips to make our dolls a more real look.

It was a plesure to see her work in life. 

I like this owl. Very often she is inspired by the wool themself, she works a lot with raw wool.

If you want to learn how to needle felted a human like figure, I advise you Birgitte's book "New felt", you can get it directly from her, on her web www.feltmaking.com, she'll write a llittle word for you! or you can attend one of her workshops in Copenhagen. They are in Danish, but even not speaking  a Danish word, I could followed the class without any problem. It is a practical course, with very visual demonstrations. And every body was very nice, the others students helped translating, specially Lena from Sweden, she even baked a cake for the last day, delicious!! And Birgitte was very generous with her attentions towards me!!  

I really enjoyed my stay in Copenhagen, I loved the city, their colours, their architecture, their design, their craft, their love for vintage, their bikes!!!

"handmAid" Craft classes in aid of relief the famine in the Horn of Africa

‘handmAid‘ is a craft day in aid of relief for the famine currently happening in the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, and neighbouring countries).

On Saturday 3rd September 2011, in Damer Hall on Stephen’s Green. All proceeds are going to the Oxfam appeal.

There is three crafty ways to help!
1. Take part in a class! There will be classes in different crafts going on all day. (Classes and demonstrations are one to two hours long, and cost just €10 per person (materials provided)!
2. Go shopping! The market stall table will have lots of lovely handmade items to buy, or craft supplies to stock up on.
3. Stitch n bitch! Come and sit in on a big stitch n bitch, buy some bake-sale cake, and drink some donated coffee.

I will volunteer teaching needle felting and Nessa will be teaching wet felting.
It is an excellent opportunity to learn a new craft. Good teachers, good ambiance, very good value and all for a good cause. Be there!!
Want to know more, or to volunteer for any part of ‘handmAid’? check here: http://handmaidcraftday.com/

See you there!!!

Nuno felted scarf

It is a reversible nuno felted scarf. This scarf can be wear both ways, on the fabric side or the fibre side.

On the fibre side you can appreciate the brights colours used.

It is a coral reef scarf inspired by the underwater world.

I´ve been recently working on two projects for a textile exhibition. The submission brief asked to be inspired by the sea and the underwater world; its colour, textures, pattern and forces...

And when planning the design for my scarf, I unconsciously picked up these coral reef colours.

I used 5 different colours of extrafine merino wool. I blended pink, violet and orange for the accent colour and aquamarina and turquoise for the background.

 As embellishment a used Mulberry silk in pink and turquoise; and silk fibres in aquamarina.

My favourite side is the fabric one.

As a fabric a I used silk ponge.

I used very little amount of wool to have a shrink of 50 % and achieve this texture.

I felted until the fibres crossed the fabric and the colours could be seen from both sides.

I made this scarf with tutor Nicola Brown in The yarn Room. Nicola is a very good teacher, I really enjoyed all the process and I'm very happy with the result, thank you Nicola!

CEAD 2011 exposition in NCAD and I WON A PRIZE!!!

My broche "COSMOS" has been awarded with the Philip J. Dix Jewellery Prize in the CEAD EXHIBITION 2011, at NCAD. I am thrilled!

I submitted two pieces, a broche ("COSMOS") and a necklace ("BOTANICAL")

There was one more Jewellery price. It was for Laoise Craig and her Spiral Chain .

I was surprised and delighted to be awarded. There were beautiful jewellery, made with semiprecious stones, gold and silver. From a technical point of view they were much better than mine, but what appeal to the judges was the originality. My pieces really stand out from the rest thanks to the felting.

The annual CEAD Art Exhibition at NCAD features work by the College’s evening students is in the Design for Industry Building. Started on July 1st.

Opening hours are:
Friday 1 July/Saturday 2 July, 10am – 5pm;
Sunday 3 July, 2-4pm.

The exhibition includes Painting, Drawing, Print, Photography, Sculpture, Ceramics, Jewellery, Textiles, Stained Glass, Multimedia and much more.

 The Starting point for my broche and necklace were two copper pieces that I made this year in a Jewellery design course at National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Metals; Dublin, Ireland.

I need to confess that the firsts weeks I was quite lost between, pliers, files, saws, soldering, polishing, stone setting... I had not at all experience in metal work, I come from a 100% textile background and all that was new for me.

Due to the economical recession the gold and silver price went crazy, so I decided to do my trials in copper. Looking for an alternative to the pinkish colour of the copper I discover the patinas. What a fascinating world! As a feltmaker, colour and texture are a constant research and the patinas in metal are all about that. I did different tests, playing with different reagents and time of exposition. At the end of the course I was very happy with two of the copper pieces.

From the beginning my goal was to make mix media jewellery with metal and felt, but it was not easy to translate the traditional metal and stone techniques in felting. Two month later when preparing my submission for the CEAD 2011 exposition in NCDA, the inspiration came and for good.

Now I need to think how I'm going to spend my 100 EUR voucher for jewellery and keep working with new projects!!

Shibori felt

These are two examples of Shibori felt. They were just a trial, but I think that they look pretty good once framed. I actually like them.

Shibori is a Japanese word describing many types of resist dyeing, which involve tying and manipulating fabric to produce various color effects. Shibori felting uses these fabric manipulation techniques to shape felt, resulting in interesting texture effects in the finished fabric.  Dimensional effects can be created by twisting, folding and stitching at the pre-felt stage (bound but not yet shrunk) as shrinkage locks the shape into the wool. 

Filz experiment by Anette Quentin-Stoll was a very inspiring book about shibori felt.

The creative Space

Hello to every body!!
There is a new space where to get creative!!! At “The Creative Space” they believe that people are creative naturally and with a little encouragement and a good atmosphere this natural creativeness can be brought out of anyone.
They have jewellery, sewing and crocheting classes and I will be teaching needle felting.
They will also run group sessions where artists, crafts people and other creative people will meet, they believe there is strength in numbers and once you get a few creative people in one room then sparks fly!

Check   here to know more about: http://www.the-creative-space.com/

New dates for needle felting workshops

These are the workshops that I will we running on the next months, so if you are interested in learning needle felting here you have few oportunities!!
-Saturday 26th February 2011, 10.30am-12.30am: 

Workshop: "Simply Felted" and "Flowers".

Venue: "The Yarn Room", Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 25 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.theyarnroom.com/

-Monday 28th February 2011, 7pm-9pm: 

Workshop: "Simply Felted"

Venue: "The Creative Space", Killiney, Co. Dublin

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 25 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.the-creative-space.com/

-Satruday 19th March 2011, 11am-1pm: 

Workshop: "Small creatures"

Venue: "The Creative Space", Killiney, Co. Dublin

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 35 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.the-creative-space.com/

-Saturday 26th March 2011, 10.30am-12.30am: 

Workshop: Easter Eggs

Venue: "The Yarn Room", Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Level: This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.
Price 25 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.theyarnroom.com/

-Sunday 10th April 2011, 10am-5pm: 

Workshop: "Needle felt a giraffe"

Venue: "The Creative Space", Killiney, Co. Dublin

Level: You need to know the basics of feltmaking. You should at least have had some experience with felting things like a compact ball, a stick shape and a flat piece or attended one of our classes for beginners.
Price 70 EUR (materials are included)

Book through http://www.the-creative-space.com/

For more information about my workshops you can contact me tortuebcn@gmail.com or check in my blog, here.

WORKSHOP: SIMPLY FELTED

This workshop is a introduction to needle felting. This course includes the basics of feltmaking. No experience is necessary.In this workshop, we make simple shapes: squares, hearts, circles, and balls. The aim of this workshop is to introduce the basis of the needle felting process and to meet the specific materials and tools.

I always like that people leave my workshops with a useful finished item.

What can you do with these felted pieces?

- A contemporary broche: Just sew a pin on the back.

- A special wishing card: pin your broche in one of my illustration templates (or create your own design). It’s the perfect gift.

- A stylish wall decoration: just frame it!!