Work in progress: My next installation "Adaptability"

Since April 2014, and after a long brake trying to adapt to my new home in Switzerland, I have been working in my new installation "Adaptability".

"ADAPTABILITY is about multicultural cities and its challenges.

The paradox of Globalization is that in one side is bringing us closer: standardizing quotidian objects and habits, disseminating knowledge and languages, universalizing cultures and ideologies… On the other side, it is facilitating the migration flows, what is pushing us to cohabit with other cultures and confront differences.

What a priory could bring us to a common ground, smooth differences and promote understanding; in fact it is making our cities more diverse than ever, rising cultural tensions and becoming integration a daily challenge.

Globalization, free movement policies, economic crisis… More than ever our cities are receiving people from around the world. A new model of society that integrates all this diversity is needed.

This installation is about flexibility and adaptation to space and context. The installation consist in the repetition of many small pieces to create together a bigger and more significant piece.

Although, each piece has been conceived to share a common goal and their impact on the viewer it is magnifier when unified, they also have been made to be sure that each piece can stand alone and individually produce a reaction in the observer.

Each location evokes a different arrangement, resulting each time in a unique installation with endless possibilities.

The installation pretends to awake spectator’s curiosity, moving from a first general group view to the individuality of each item, all with a touch of humour.

The pieces are abstract and loosely inspired by flowers, their seeds, fruits, buds and reproductive organs."

For this installation I have chosen to work with needle felting, because of its flexibility, and detail capacity.

The installation will be shown to the public for first time as part of the "Common Ground" exhibition.
It will be displayed from the 25th September to the 12th October in Farmleigh gallery, in Phoenix Park, my favourite craft gallery in Dublin. I will post more information soon.

Needle felting recession session

Last Saturday 16^th of June, we met at the Feltmakers Ireland studio for a needle felting recession session. We were highly motivated and after a quick introduction about wool, needles and technical basics, we started jabbing our pieces.

After struggling with colour choice, tough decisions needed to be taken, Fabienne started a cute orange and purple teddy bear. Susan worked at the speed of the light to be able to finish her doll and collect her son at 4pm. Mary made a clever looking giraffe, she is still deciding if she keeps it for herself or give it to her granddaughter (I understand after so much hard work...). Yvonne made a doll with a bad hair day. And we were all impressed by Luke, 11 years old, who followed his own design, a sitting bunny with a carrot.

There were no major accidents, we only needed three plasters, that's very good!

Every body worked very hard. All the pieces were finished and looked fantastic, definitely it was not a beginner job.

I had a great time, thank you Yvonne, Luke, Mary, Fabienne and Susan for this fantastic day. I think that we all enjoyed it and I hope this is the beginning of many others needle felted creatures!

Full day needle felting workshop with Feltmakers Ireland: 3 places left!

The Needle felting class will take place the 16th of June from 10am to 4.30 pm at Feltmakers Ireland Studio, in Phoenix Park. We'll make a figure of about 15 cm. This class is suitable for beginners, I'll cover all the basics in Needle felting. The cost is 40 EUR, you pay the same day, and includes written instructions, 2 needles and wool for the day. If you have needles and wool, bring them with you and I can help you to understand how to use different needles and wool. You´ll need to bring a lunch box, too. I´ll provide tea and biscuits.

If you are interested, email me at tortuebcn@gmail.com

See you there!

Natural Colours: The idea behind

"NATURAL COLOURS" is about CHEMISTRY, COLOUR and NATURAL SOURCES.

 

All the little creatures that form Natural colours installation has been needle felted...

...with white wool. Here a picture of an Irish sheep from Donegal.

And they have been dyed afterwards with common vegetables. Vegetables that can be found in your kitchen or back garden.

As a yellow dye, I used the skin from the onion. Because I am Spanish and my boyfriend is French, at home there is a lot of cooking that involve onion. For the last two month, I had a shoe box in my kitchen where I kept the skin of the onion. Then I just added them to a pot with hot water, I added my woolly creatures, and after 1 hour, all was yellow!

Red cabbage is my favorite dye. By changing the pH (adding acid or basic substances) you can change the colour.
Just chopped red cabbage and hot water gives a nice purple dye. The woolly pieces need top stay overnight.

By adding a basic substance as hand soap or soda, the purple dye will change to green!

But by adding an acid as lemon or vinegar, the purple dye change to pink. Almost magic!

Teas are great dyers, too. Raspberry and cranberry tea give a lovely red.

Natural colours can be used as water colours (if working with very concentrated and thick solutions); or as a dyers for yarn, felt, cotton, fabric... (just remember to rinse well at the end); or to colour your natural play dough!

Finally, Natural dyeing is about experimenting, transforming, creating and most important: about fun and excitement! 

Natural Colours

Natural colours is one of the installations that I made for The ARK.

It consists in a serie of colourful hanging pieces.

The pieces has been distributed between two wood walls at the entrance of The ARK.

They consist in cute creatures...

...created from the repetition of balls, different sizes and colours.

The installation is aimed to a young public, children from 2 and 12 years.

The pieces are needle felted with wool and dyed with natural colours from vegetables.

The installation focus on number, shape, size and colour for the youngest ones...

...and pattern and chemist for the eldest ones; as natural dyeing is a pure chemist process were acids and bases play an important role.

"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!!!

What's needle felting?

            Felting is a non-woven process where woollen fibres are matted, condensed and pressed.

There are two felting processes: wet felting, with warm water and soap, or needle felting, with a barbed needle.

Needle felting or dry felting is when wool fleece is interlocked and compacted by using pointed, barbed needles to sculpt a shape.

This technique is used to make all types of items such as bags, slippers, teddy bears, jewellery… But it is especially good at sculpting small items in 3D with fine detail.

Needle felting is a fun fibre-art suitable for every body: the technique is simple, the material is cheap, just few tools are needed, the working surface is small and the process is clean and tidy.

Because of its wide range of applications and how simple is to work with it, Needle felting is the perfect craft option for all craft lovers.