The Moon Bird Bag

Hey All, it's been a while since I've posted here, a long while actually! I've been busy teaching, and being taught... and computer time has not been a great part of it.

It's some years since I've had Internet at home (I still don't) but I'm looking forward to making regular posts and connecting again with you all.

I completed the UK Waldorf Handwork Training in Wynstones Steiner School in Gloucestershire this past school year, lots to share around that soon. In our studies,we covered several different craft disciplines, as indeed we are called upon to teach in the curriculum. At times, as a craftsperson the picture can become very big indeed and I think you can end up feeling like you have some knowledge/experience in many different areas, but to specialise in one has become a great desire for me these past months, a need I suppose, both as a teacher and an artist.

So I have settled on Feltmaking... returning, having walked a wide circle, home again to my first love : )

When I'm Felting, I feel like the wool is working with me, and that I know it somehow. I seem to have a deep connection to it as a material and I strive to learn more. 

 

I jumped into Bag Making some months ago and have really found something there, of the beauty and purpose model that so resonates with me. With all the allure of spikes, craters and other surface embellishments so popular in contemporary Feltmaking, I seem to be a traditionalist in the end! I love to make practical things of everyday use and value that are beautiful to use and behold. And this is what I love to share with others, in leading them on their own 'handmade' journey.

The wish to travel teach has been simmering away in me too. That journey begins this November! A wonderful painter, the lovely ElizabethPorritt Carrington has invited me to teach some Fibre Arts workshops in Asheville, North Carolina where she now lives and works. I will be delighted to share details of this upcoming trip shortly.

In the meantime, here's some of what I've been up to...

 Mixing different fibres ( ie. wool from different species of sheep, wools that have been processed differently) is generally not recommended in the main body of a project like this. But I was on a mission to use wools I've had stored for some time, four completely different kinds... it all felted just fine.

Bit of help from my favourite star in the sky, 

which lasted at least two minutes ; )

Love the transformative process from fine wisps of soft wool to this foolhardy bag... which, if I can keep the moths away will most likely outlive me!

Thank you for reading x Mia

Blooming flower cushion

Ah the good feeling of finishing something, right to the end. And something that brightens our nest : )

I learned a lot about colour making this, always so much more to learn about colour, it amazes me...even after so many years of painting. With yarn it's different again.

 This was a project made from the scraps basket. I started out very casually, just nonchalantly putting one colour beside another that it seemed to work with, and kept going that way till I looked at it at a day later and realised I just didn't like the overall feel of the colour combination. So I did a lot of ripping back til I understood how the colours needed to flow. Some of the yarns are wool, some cotton.

 It's my variation on Lucy's pattern over at the lovely Attic 24. I wrote about it in a  previous post here.

I took this with me in my work bag when I travelled to England a few months ago to observe for a week at a Steiner school there. It was a wonderful trip, I'll be writing about it here soon. 

As I sat in each classroom each day watching and listening, I made a few rows...also one day there on the beach. When I sat in my room each night trying to absorb all I'd taken in, I made a few more. When I got home and looked with a fresh eye, I ripped back some and added some more, been a bit of a journey this one!

 I mentioned previously that I had to fashion a round cushion from a square pad. If I get to crocheting more circular cushions, I would source the right cushion forms online, there's no doubt that it makes for a better finish. 

I'm already dreaming up the next cushion, an easy, cosy project to have on the go over the Winter months.

I'm happily joining with Ginny and the gang over at Small Things today for this week's Yarn Along.

Hey, remember my knitted gnome from last week's yarn along post? Well I made him that leather bag I thought he needed, it was so fun to figure out how really do-able this is.

What do y'all think he would carry in there..?
Do tell!
And thank you for reading x

Postcards from Brittany part II

I'm also happily joining Ginny and the gang over at Small Things for this week's Yarn Along.

 It's been a while, I know. Busy times. It always strikes me as ironic that when I've got lots of work going on and much to share here, there's no time to post! But I do want to share the small  pieces I've been working on and will over these next weeks. 

But first, back in Brittany, I knitted up another gnome for school while we were roving around, stealing little moments here and there in between digging in the sand with smallie, and savouring a few small windows of quiet time when the lads went off on some adventure of their own.

One of my followers asked to see what these knitted gnomes look like when they're all knitted up, but before seaming and stuffing. Pretty funny, is the answer ; ) especially if you're using handspun wool! In as much as I can these days I'm trying to work from whatever scraps I can find left over from other projects.

And tucked into our awning on a rainy Breton day, the lads started carving. Smallie wanted to make a digging tool for the beach

We whizzed through all kinds of terrain on our bikes and one small boy showed me that alas, he is not so small anymore but big, and brave.
 I left all my deadlines and worries at home, relishing the absence of computers and mobile phones... we never knew what time it was and every now and then wondered what day it was.
I even got to draw : )

And I put the finishing touches to the gnome once we got home. Doing some leather work for him now, I want to make him a tool belt : ) or maybe a knife sheath..and want to explore what the children might be able to make for their gnomes from wool, wood and leather. I'm really having fun with this part. I keep thinking maybe they need a knitted fox friend too!

You can see the first post on our trip to France here.
And read about the first knitted gnome here.
Looking forward to catching up with what you've all been up to out there.
Thanking you for your visit x M

Postcards from Brittany

 We sailed home across the sea last night, and found ourselves finally pulled up outside our place today with a hilarious ( I mean it would really have been funny if we weren't so tired : ) amount of unpacking, washing and sorting to do after two weeks camping in France in all weathers.

Driving on the road home I just wanted to take the whole island of Ireland in an embrace. I am convinced we've got the greenest green of any land. Great to go away and great to come home right? ; ) 

If you've been following my blog awhile you might have spotted that as well as green, I'm very in love with the colour blue. The first place we stayed on our trip, the fishing village of Le Conquet seemed to share that passion. I never did find out whether there was a general concensus amongst it's villagers to paint most every shutter, window frame, door, railing and boat in varying shades of blue, or whether it was all a beautiful coincidence. Either way, it was a feast for the eyes as I pedalled through it on my trusty old bike.

Intricate lace curtains hung in most every window, the detail of which fascinated me.
And boy, do the French love their flowers.

These last four images are from other Breton areas we explored and everywhere the pride of place inspired us. 
More to come x M