Blog - Page 6 of 12 - Jane Mercer Felt Artist

How I forage for beautiful natural dye materials

The collection of natural dye materials moves with the seasons. You must harvest fruit when it is are ripe and flowers as they bloom. Harvesting opportunities arise quickly and are short-lived. It is not always possible for me and maybe for you to dye straight away. So I store the dye material away ready for a dyeing day. I have been collecting for quite a while ! In fact I can't really stop myself when the opportunity presents itself. Except I make it a rule only to harvest any natural dye plant material if there is an abundance of the plants , flowers or berries. If I can only find one if two plants , I just walk away. Harvesting lichens for natural dyeing Last week in the UK the weather was windy and wet. This week was cold and dry. As I walked in the woods on Tuesday and there…

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11/12/2016

An easy foolproof way to make a felt ball

IFA stand

IFA / Wet felting

An easy foolproof way to make a felt ball

I have a number of times over the years tried to make a felt ball. I found it boring, hard work and not worth the effort. A few weeks ago it was suggested to me that if you put a small amount of wool fibre in a small in glass jar with some water and shook it you quickly made a felt ball. In fact you could make one in less than 5 minutes. Really !! How can that work ? This week I have been at the knitting and stitching show , helping at the IFA stand . Here is how to make a felt ball the easy way. Take an old glass jar with a lid . Add approx 3 grams of fibre. Not very much . We tested Shetland and merino. Make it into a birds nest. And place it in the jar. Fill with water…

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27/11/2016

Stitches / Wet felting

Make the best use of your felting scraps

Felting scraps are overwhelming me. What can I do with them? I have all kinds of felting scraps Partially felted scraps, Scraps of full felt , Scraps of prefelts I am sure all felters are the same. As I move into my new felting studio I tell myself - you must take action on all these boxes of felting scraps. You can only keep the best ones , the most useful ones , the ones were you have very happy memories of the piece or the time that you made them. If those are my criteria I will have to keep all of my felting scraps which is not an acceptable solution. A scan of the Internet shows that felting scraps are a common problem but most of the solutions are sticking and gluing not really what I was looking for. Here is a good example. All a bit twee for me.…

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07/11/2016

fibre / Stitches / Wet felting

Here is my new method to make better FELT

I am rusher, doing everything at high speed. Is this a problem? I walk, read and talk fast and I can wet felt fast. It is a great time saving skill ! So why have I come to the conclusion that when making felt - slower is better. AS a result of this conclusion I am working on a personnel slowness re-education program. I started on my journey at a workshop with Jeanette Appleton. She makes beautiful felt pieces very slowly and thoughtfully and I greatly admire her work. But it is not easy for us naturally born rushers to slow down. Here an example of my slowing down reeducation process in action. I love the vibrant orange silk embedded in this piece of flirty felt : the shadowy hidden depths below and the sea green spirals are like thought patterns. But and its a big but this felt screamed out at…

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30/10/2016

Eco Dyeing / Wet felting

How to construct a unique wet felting studio

Choose a location Where to build my wet felting studio? The location of my studio choose me! When the builders built my house, which was on a corner, they built the garage at an angle to the house. They built a small utility room to connect the house to the garage. This left a corner which 50 years later was the ideal corner to build my wet felting studio. Well actually it was the only corner ! If ou would like more information on why I choose to build here read A little corner Design the layout So what would you need in a wet felting studio ? Which also will be used for natural dyeing ! I would need a sink a water resistant floor Good lighting Felting tables A sewing table Lots of storage This was the felt studio vision !!! Building Great builders are hard to come by…

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23/10/2016

Creative strength training / Eco Dyeing / Stitches

Never to old to learn!

With no space to felt or dye I need some alternative creative outlets. I need to learn something new. Stitching is a good calming task , one that has been recommended to me . I am slowly stitching a piece in orange and greys that's coming on well , very slowly though. I have quite a number of Eco dyed pieces , which I have looked at and wondered what next. That's actually a bit strange for me, because normal I am good at making decisions, in fact I sometimes get caught out by my snap decisions. But I think here I will wait my time until something tells me where to cut or stitch these beauties. I am also knitting, but then I am always knitting . Only one thing on the go at the moment , this beautiful sweater , but in my case in purple. Not the easiest…

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09/10/2016

Wet felting

A little corner

I am a felt artist and have nowhere to felt. How has this happened ? In 2008 I moved to live in the Netherlands and shortly afterwards got introduced to the wonderful world of felting. Thanks to Els for that first introduction. As I became more and more addicted to felting , we converted an upstairs room in our Dutch house to a small felting and fitness room as my Christmas present in 2010. It was small and perfect . Here is my certificate of ownership. Thinking about moving back to the UK the question uppermost in my mind was not where to live , but where to felt. Quite crazy really. So when having decided to move back into our old family house, I needed to work out where to have a felting room. Upstairs , maybe enough space, but there are wooden floors so my kind of felting with…

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02/10/2016

Yarndale

Today I managed to find time amidst my house rebuilding and family matters to get to Yarndale. What fun , lots of stalls, animals, and yarn. A brace of knitted road kill. A crinoline of fibres Miles of crocheted bunting . A very cute baby alpaca. Some yarn bombing. It was also great fun to see some large sheep puppets , they appeared all over the place and here they are posing with the finger puppet knitted van. All in all a great day out .

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25/09/2016

Staithes festival of arts and heritage / Yorkshire

Staithes Art and Heritage weekend

What a wonderful weekend this has been. After months of planning by me and I am a sure even more months of planning by the organisers , the sun shown and the crowds poured in. I shared a location in Trig point at the top of the village with 6 others artists. Trig Point was an old army camp and dates back to the First World War. Here some photos of our brilliant displays in the old dining room. Lots of visitors ! Everyone had a great weekend and hopefully we will be able to go back next year.

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11/09/2016

Alum / Natural dyeing / Yorkshire

The secrets at the fascinating Peak alum works

What a fascinating place Peak alum works is. ! Well worth a visit. Currently being updated. Please come back soon Alum was discovered here in 1640 and the works were build to process the calcined ore and to export the alum flour. The remains are above a beautiful bay shown here at low tide , with Robins Hood bay in the background . The invisible quarries of the Peak Alum Works Peak Alum works were built because of the locally sourced shale rock which could be quarried and then processed to make alum. Today there is virtually no sign of the of the quarries that once changed the face the of the hillsides. They have been covered by gorse and bracken and have disappeared into the landscape. The Peak Alum works were operational from 1650 to 1860 when a cheaper route to alum was discovered. The shale from the…

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21/08/2016