Experimental Textiles - 4th weekend - felt, knit and weave

 
Rachel's torn, printed and stitched papers

I had a great weekend with my ExTex group. I had missed them. I am very much enjoying teaching an ongoing course again. To see the progression of each student is very exciting and rewarding. It reminds me why I trained to be a teacher.

 The fifth weekend of the course is a mixture of weave, knit and felt. It is always great fun teaching basic processes. When you work with basic, simple processes, your brain has a chance to get involved and excited -  making it's own connections between materials and techniques. 

 We started the weekend with looking at homework - the group had been asked to stitch into their torn and printed papers. There was some fabulous work.
 
A detail of Rachel's piece showing her beautiful stitch.
 
    Val's collage . . .
 
 . . . and a detail of some of her very sensitive stitch.

 Once we had discussed the homework we got on with feltmaking. We started with basic hand rubbed and rolled felt, just small samples to start with.
 
The group laying up their wool tops.

The group also had a go on an embellishing machine. This machine has five needle felting needles in place of a machine foot, the barbed needles felt fibres together. It's great fun and you can achieve great results quite fast.
Val revving up on the embellishing machine.

 After the group had a go with flat felt they made bowls -
Mary.

Rachel.

 Some of the flat felt samples -
 
 
 
 

  . . . and the bowls.
 

 On Sunday we got on with looking at knitting processes, one of the techniques I showed the group was finger knitting - the girls really got on with it, Barbara in particular . . . 
Barbabra get to grips with knitting . . . 

We also had a look at basic weaving processes and what kind of yarns and fibres can be used.
 
Part of Barbara's stash.

 The girls are finishing their woven samples as part of their homework.
Kat's . . .

Rachel's . . 

Val's . . 

Barbara's . . .

 . . and Mary's.

The group worked hard and produced some fabulous samples, the next time we meet we will be dyeing and transfer printing.
*

I am getting ready to leave tomorrow for Exeter and the show at Westpoint Centre - my stand no is B03 - Hot Textiles/Vilene. It will be great to see some of the ladies that I met in July in Devon and Cornwall.

if you do get to the show - make sure you come and say Hello!

*

Diana - See you Sunday night!!! Yeehaa!!
Jill - hope you are feeling better baby.

x x x

Comments

  1. jill25 September 2013 at 09:09

    Have fun in Exeter, safe journey. Looks like another week off, boo. xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carli The Quilter2 October 2013 at 17:16

    Interesting blog, I'm going to start following you. I've been trying to find someone local, but I'm living in the boonies. Thanks for being to expressive!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kim Thittichai2 October 2013 at 19:48

      Hi Caroline - I hope you continue to enjoy the blog. Kim x

      Delete

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