wrap up winter
Ice structures in Edgbaston
In one of the early spells of deep mid winter I started to work on a large piece of chiffon silk.
Inspired by ice and snow I started by embellishing one side with white alpaca. Part felted this created ice-like structures across the fabric. But I’ve never worked on something so big before. Just handling the piece, let alone rolling it was a challenge. Once dry, it became apparent that the wool had not migrated properly into the silk chiffon.
And as the spells of winter cold kept returning to bite us, I lost my commitment to complete the piece.
It took an OpenTextiles Studio day at The Midlands Art Centre, large tables and the company of others to give me the stamina to finish it. I needed quite a lot of help to fold and roll it after laying out the back in merino. Numerous times I ended up completely tangled in wet fabric and bubble wrap. It took forever to ‘take’. The group awarded me top marks for effort but not wholly for skill! Thank you Oh Emma for your welcome help.
I think I must be wanting to move out of winter. This piece was supposed to be entirely white.
But here it is backed in peach pink merino with noil silk, bamboo and skeleton leaves. Except the back is now the front. The silk worked with wool creates a lovely warm textured drape. And in some ways I do still like the snowy white of the original side best. The peach merino is silky. The white alpaca soft and down-like. And even now it needs a final felting and, I think, ideally some gold stitching. But I really do now want to wrap up this winter. Perhaps I already have.
Spring oh spring – why the false starts?
Early spring in Surrey
Principally felt 