First solo exhibition in CC St. Andreu, Barcelona, from the 23rd June to the 25th July

This is my first solo exhibition, and I am very happy that it is happening in my home town, Barcelona.

 The exhibition is in CC St. Andreu, a small cultural centre, with an exhibition program focused in contemporary art. And it will be running from the 23rd of June until the 25th of July.
The Centre is in charge of all the advertisement, that means: edition and printing of 600 postcards wich are distributed all over Barcelona. The exhibition is also listed in the official summer agenda from the council .

The exhibition room was really spacious, with really tall roofs. Therefore I decided not to crowd the walls and leave them light, and give to every single piece the deserved attention.

The exhibition consists in 16 felted pieces made between 2012 and 2014.

All the pieces were made with the wet felting technique.

the inspiration was still my loved lichens, and endless source of inspiration.  

There was also a more interactive corner, where the visitor, could touch and play with samples. A TV displayed the pictures that I used as inspiration. Finally, a small information point for lichens with definition and curious facts was set up too. 

All the picture were taken professionally by Roberto Ruiz 

So you know, if you are planing a city break in Barcelona, do not missed my expo! More information, here.

Exhibition 2013: "Origins: Felt in the Natural World", Dublin

 "Origins: Felt in the Natural World" was a really special exhibition for me. There were two reasons, the location and the judges. The exhibition took place in one of my favourites places in Dublin, the National Botanic Gardens. While living in Ireland we used to spend many Sundays afternoons there, we loved to see how the seasons changed the garden, it was a really inspiring place for us.

The exhibition was curated by Gabriella McGrath, the judges were Carmel Creaner and Caroline Scofield. Caroline is a fantastic Textile artist I find fascinating her needle felted pieces. It was an honour to be selected by her.

The two selected pieces were an up-cycling of "Lichens pieces", a shelf and a frame.

The pictures were taken professionally by Joana Sieczkowska

If you want to check the full exhibition, check here

Exhibition 2013: Suave 5 - Spain and Portugal

2013 was a quiet year from a felting and posting point of view, but I was very pleased with my participation in two international exhibitions, the first was "Suave 5".

"Suave 5" is an international triennial exhibition about fashion textile accessories and it is organised by ACTM (textile creative association of Madrid). 

Previous "Suave" editions displayed pieces from feltmakers of the size of Dagmar Binder (Suave 2 and 4) and Annette Quentin-Stoll (Suave 3 and 4). So as you can imagine, I was totally thrilled, when I knew that my scarf "Barcelona" was selected.

More exciting was to see my piece in the Official poster.

"Suave 5" was shown, first time in Spain from the 30th May to the 30th June 2013 in the "Museo Nacional de las Artes Decoartivas", in the historical center of Madrid. The exhibition received a total of 3,552 visitants, and it was the temporal exhibition with more visitants that the Museum had, it was a real success. 

You can check a review of the Madrid Television, here.

Afterwards, the exhibition traveled to Portugal, it was in display as part of the contemporary art exhibition "Peninsulares" in the "Instituto do Design" in Guimaräes, from the 20th July to the 30th August. 

The exhibition was supposed to travel to Medellín, Colombia to participate to the VII  Biennial of Textile Art and Design on March 2014,  but unfortunately, this was cancelled.

You can have a virtual tour to the exhibition here, and check about this edition artists, here.

Felting classes in Barcelona

After 5 happy years living in Ireland, we are moving to Switzerland; but between the two countries, I'll spend more than one month in Barcelona, my hometown! I'm happy to be here spending time with my family and friends, enjoying a real Mediterranean summer and teaching felting.

I'll be teaching in All you knit is love, the coolest yarn shop in Barcelona. they are in the trendy neighborhood of el Born. The shop is owned by a lovely couple, Miquel and Jennifer, he is Catalan and she is from US.(have a look to their video)

I'll be teaching needle felting and wet felting (shibori and others textures for felting). Have a look to my workshop page and.... Why not to combine a Barcelona trip with felting classes?!

To encourage peolpe to sign for the courses, my dress has been placed on the main window.

Lichens: the idea behind

Last autumn I started a visual note book, I was looking for patterns and textures in Nature. During my research I came a cross with Lichens. I was fascinated from the beginning, they are not just beautiful to look, moreover they are a vital part in our environment. They can be used as environmental indicators, they don't damage the trees, and they are used in toothpaste and deodorants.


I love hill walking. Usually in our walks, we carry a camera to take picture of the landscapes. Since last autumn I started taking pictures of Lichens. "Lichens" installation has been inspired for those pictures from around Ireland.

Lichen found on a stone bridge in Wicklow mountains.

Lichen found on a stone wall in Aran Islands

Lichen found on a branch in Ardgillan Castle.

Lichen found on a tree bark in Wicklow mountains.

Lichen found on a stone wall in Wicklow Mountains

Lichen found on a tree bark in Dublin.

To achieve these effects I used shibori, nuno and others surface embellishment techniques. If you are interested in shibori techniques, I will sugest you Filz experiment from Anette Quentin-Stoll.

Lichen

"Lichen" is the second installation commissioned by the ARK. It is an artsicence installation about texture, colour and environment. The installation include an illustrated book with information, facts and curiosities about Lichens; and three large handcrafted tactile wall placed around 3 columns, made from felted wool, silk and other textiles. The pieces are inspired by Lichen's colours and textures. Nature, Our Environment, Sciences and Art converge in "Lichen", blending the four elements in one and smoothing the borders between them. From an artistic perspective the installation focus on colour and texture, stimulating sight and touch. From a scientific perspective, the visitor is introduced to the fascinating world of Lichens. The installation aim to help the visitor to recognise and identify Lichens; to encourage the visitor to look for them in trunks and branches and use them as environmental indicators.

Enjoy the video!



Video Filmed and edited by Riccardo Cereser (www.rikishere.com)
Music:"Robot Anthem Part II" by Learning Music (http://www.learningmusicmonthly.com/)

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!!

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!!