Inbetweeners - Barking up the wrong tree

Abi is the first to send me her update from last week's workshop with Sandra Wallace. She says, I may add a few beads, as Sandra taught us how to string tiny beads. The white puffy bits are made by painting Xpandaprint onto my scrim base. There are lots of layers, which don't all show on the photo."

The second photo shows the picture of bark that Abi used for inspiration.

February Workshop - Fabulous Felt and Brilliant Beads

Following on from our February meeting, Sandra returned to run a workshop with members, making felt and teaching beading techniques. They also worked on making some textured background fabrics.
Here are our members hard at work! 

It's amazing what you have to bring to a workshop, "just in case"...

 Some beading samples...

 Sue L

Sue H

Sue K (I promise, not all our members are called Sue!)

Rona

Janice

Catherine

Abigail

Margaret (I'm very intrigued about that red bead!)

Felt AND beads! That's just showing off...

It's a shame our "Small World" challenge has finished!

Davina's added another continent to hers

A group shot

The start of a lovely muted collage

A colourful piece by Jo

Rachael's interpretation of rock strata

I think Jane's hoping for some freebies for her product placement...

A close-up of Jane's lovely Lucky Bag piece

There wasn't mushroom to fit in this photo of Catherine's work

A very textured felt piece with added fibres, by Janice

I feel like I'm actually in Scotland, looking at this beaded, felted piece by Sue L 

Felt, needle felt and Tyvek are the basis of Sue H's collage

I love the piece of seaweed in the foreground of this painted fabric by Margaret

It's going to be interesting to see how these pieces develop! 

February Meeting - Sandra Wallace - Fabulous Felt and a Mixture of Media

For our February meeting, we had a talk by Sandra Wallace, who as well as being a successful artist, tutor and author, is a member of our Branch! We are so lucky to have such talented members to inspire the rest of us! Sandra surprisingly started off as a teacher of maths and science, however it soon became clear that her interests lay in more artistic subjects. 
Her work is inspired by topics that have interested her - Sea and waterfalls, Native Americans, and all aspects of the natural world, all feature heavily in Sandra's work. 
Although her main interest is in felt making, along the way she has specialised in beadwork and her use of colour led to her being asked to write a book on this subject. 
Sandra also likes to work in mixed media and has incorporated more contemporary textures into her felted work, such as Tyvek and Expandaprint. 
Here are some photographs of the beautiful work that Sandra brought to show us. 

The works above and below are on the theme of "Fire and Ice"

These two pieces depict lichen and tree bark, 

using silk cocoons and beads along side felted backgrounds

This piece depicts the stunning show of lupins which can be seen in Iceland in springtime. They were planted to try to stop soil erosion but 

have started to take over, as you can see from the below photo.

You can practically hear the water rushing over the stones in this piece 

(which is actually a waterfall, but I can't turn the photo round!)

A vessel made by using wire alongside beading thread on the loom

Beautiful beaded bracelets

A stunning peacock feather, again made on a beading loom.

As well as Sandra's lovely work, another highlight of the meeting was our colour-themed raffle, which really seems to have caught the imagination of members. Big thanks to Elizabeth who organises us every month, and also special thanks to Judy who brought in lots of turned wood pieces that she'd made - they weren't all black (this month's scheme) but we were very happy to have them!

Finally, *someone* had finished their lovely little house from last month but I can't remember who it was! 

Please let me know if it was you and I'll make sure you receive the due credit! 

(If any other members have finished theirs, please send me a photo!) 

PS - You can still get hold of Sandra's book on Amazon!

Inbetweeners - Janice's Gift

One of our members, Janice, has a twin sister. 
To celebrate their 60th birthday this year, Janice made her sister a stitched "photograph album" of special occasions and memories which she gave to her sister as a birthday gift. 

This is part of the album cover, embellished with buttons and a key

A photo of their parents' wedding day

Janice and her sister as babies

All of the pages are decorated with Janice's beautiful hand-stitching. 

I'm sure that Janice's sister appreciated this fantastic labour of love, 

which contains many hours of planning and meticulous work.

January Meeting - A House - and something to put in it...

For our January meeting, we had a practical session, making little felt houses. All of the materials and instructions were brought by our chairman, Wyn, who must have spent HOURS cutting out little windows and doors, and pieces of thread in corresponding colours. 
The houses were embellished first, then stitched together, and by the end of the meeting we were all at various stages of construction, on our way to stuffing them with lavender or scented stuffing. 
As you can see, as usual they are all different!

Gripped by Little House Fever, some members have already finished theirs!

This is Liz's little hanging number

And this is Rachael's free-standing bijou residence, all ready to move into!

Here is Abi's, with a tricky bit of cut work in the roof

Sue M took some photos of a woodland-themed patchwork quilt she'd made for her little grandson, Alfie, for Christmas. It's covered with lovely appliquéd animals.