October 2015 - Jane Mercer Felt Artist

Remembering my first felting lesson

In 2008 when I moved to Rotterdam I joined the local Stitch and Bitch group of knitters. There I found lots of knitting friends and I also found felters, weavers and spinners. I am not sure exactly when it was but I remember being giving the options of learning to spin or to felt. I chose felting. Looking back that was a pretty momentous decision. The lady that taught me to felt , Els , has become a really wonderful friend. In a few weeks I will leave the Netherlands and move back to the UK , although I am really looking forward to this move, there are things I will miss and seeing Els on a regular basis is one of them. As my move approached I felt (no pun intended) that I should give Els a piece of felt as a thankyou for changing my life in so many ways.…

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25/10/2015

A Radical Decision

Back in June at a workshop with Jeanette Appleton I made a reasonably large piece of felt inspired by lichen covered rocks. Ever since then I have looked at this piece , thinking what an earth should I do now with you ???? I eventually decided that something about it did not really work and maybe I should just use parts of it! Eventually I made a mask out of brown paper thinking maybe make it into a three part piece. I liked the effect even though it was not choosing my favorite parts with this simple mask. So I thought how about choose three parts , and make them into a large felt piece. The more I thought about this the more I liked it . So a made the radical decision to cut my favorite parts out of this large felt piece and reconstruct it. I faffed around…

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18/10/2015

Artybird Carnforth / Box of beautiful things / Uncategorized

Leyburn Exhibition

I belong to a cooperative called 'Box of Beatiful things ' made up from the students and staff of ArtyBird Carnforth and yesterday we set up our latest exhibition in Leyburn , Yorkshire. It's at TOSH , The Old School House and our exhibition is in a lovely airy room on the first floor. It was the first time I had ever helped set up an exhibition and Chris, Jo, Chris and I had great fun choosing what pieces went well together and which walls to put them on. We had a hanging system which was great but there was lots of climbing up and down stepladders trying to position the pieces and make sure they were level. In addition to all the pictures and wall hangings we had bowls and cushions , lamp shades and cards , lit pictures and brooches , a feast of wonderful work .…

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09/10/2015