WOYWW - Needle felted daisies, sheep and mixed media explorations

Hello there! Welcome to my round up of my fabric art activities. Firstly, can I say Happy 7th What's on your Workdesk Wednesday!! For those who don't knnow, WOYWW is a weekly round up of artist's workdesks and has been running now for seven years!

Here's my workdesk this morning...

You can see a needle felted card I've just finished for a customer who wanted something a bit special for her daughter's wedding anniversary.

Also on the desk is a handful of sheepy sunset needle felted pictures, some sheep poppy fields and some bluebell and daisy pictures all ready to mount.

If you visited me last week you'd have seen I was preparing for a fair. Well it went brilliantly! The event had been organised to raise funds for the Harry Johnson Trust, a local children's cancer charity set up in memory of Harry, who died aged seven in 2014. The event included a Boden party and lots of lovely craft and gift stalls. Hopefully the brilliant turnout meant lots of funds were raised for the charity. Here was my stall...

After a busy week, what better way to relax than by participating in a workshop. On Saturday I spent a brilliant day on a mixed media course run by Tina Gilmore, mixed media artist at her studio in Montgomery. I learnt lots of new techniques and loved pouring over Tina's marvelous stash of vintage and antique papers and ephemera. I decided to make some pieces of artwork for Ben's bedroom. Here are the results...

Here's a snapshot of the process...

Ben certainly appreciated them and took no time at all in deciding where they should be displayed!

That's all this week folks! Thanks for stopping by. Catch up with other WOYWWers at Lunch Lady Jan's blog.

Happy crafting!

Max x

WOYWW - Felting video star

Hello dear reader! Welcome to my weekly blog, a whistle-stop tour of my workdesk and my week's work.

So here's my workdesk this morning...

Ok, so it's actually the sofa today. I've got a stall at a local fair tomorrow so I'm frantically finishing off a few last bits and bobs. The workdesk is covered in boxes and bags to take with me.Today I'll be working on mounting these daisies which incorporate all my favourite processes - wet felting, needle felting, machine embroidery and hand embroidery.

On that note - this week I completed a project I've been planning for a while. I often get asked about the various processes that go into my work so I decided to take a series of photos while I produced a piece. Click here to see how I take a pile of wool, fibres, silk and thread and turn it into this...

When I wasn't preparing for the fair I was card making. A friend of mine is expecting twins so I made a quick little card for her baby shower at the weekend...

Meanwhile, my not-so-little baby has been busy this week too, supervising his Grandad in the building of a garden step.

Right, that's me for this week, thanks for stopping by! You can read about the work of many other artists and craftspeople by visiting WOYWW (What's on your Workdesk Wednesday) this week hosted by the lovely Lunch Lady Jan!

Happy crafting,

Max x

WOYWW - It's raining felt...hallelujah!

Hello there, dear reader!

Welcome to my regular ramble about the life of a textile artist. Here's a snap of my workdesk to mark 'What's on your Workdesk Wednesday' (WOYWW) a weekly global gathering of fab craftsfolk.

Here's my workdesk today...

I'm mounting and finishing some pieces of embroidery which I initially envisaged as bookmarks but having finished them I've decided they're destined for more than being tucked between the pages of a book.

I've had a busy and productive week of needle felting to replenish my stocks at the three outlets selling my work in Shropshire. I started the week with a load of part-finished work and (thanks to lots of help from mum) finished the week with 35 framed pieces of work.

Yesterday I drove round the county dropping work off so now I'm starting from scratch again!

My little sheepy collages are proving popular so I made sure I made several of those.

I made a few tiny sheep landscapes too, then found some great little frames in Ikea which fit them perfectly.

When I dropped off my work yesterday I was told a touching story which I'd love to share with you.

Two of my needle-felted poppy pictures sold at The Bog Visitors Centre, Stiperstones, last week. The lady who sold them was also there yesterday when I dropped of new stock and she told me this...

A lady and her husband came into the Visitors Centre a few weeks ago and she really loved the needle-felted poppies. This weekend her husband returned to the Visitors Centre. Sadly, the lady had passed away. As she'd loved the picture so much, he bought it to remind him of her love of poppies. Later, her daughter had visited the centre to buy a different needle-felted poppy picture I had there.

It's always great to here that people appreciate my work, but touching stories like this mean the world to me! I really hope those two pictures bring comfort at a time of sadness.

On a cheerful note, it hasn't just been 'all work no play' this week. We've had lovely sunny weather in Shrewsbury so Ben and I got out and about in the local park. Every parent worries about shading their little ones from the sun so it was with great relief I discovered Ben wanted to be a 'cool dude' in both sunglasses and hat!

Here's to many more sunny days!

That's all folks, thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting,

Max x

WOYWW - Woolfest!

Hello all! Welcome to my blog, where I share a sneak peek of my desk to mark 'Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday'.

So here's my workdesk this morning...

It's a busy old desk this week as I'm trying to fulfil a growing order book while also trying to fit in a dabble with the fabulous new fibres I picked up at Woolfest this weekend.

"What's Woolfest?" I hear you say. Well, it's the nickname for Wonderwool Wales, a festival of Welsh wool and fibres held annually in Builth Wells. Mum and I took Ben along on Sunday and a brilliant day was had indeed. Three halls full of wool, silk, felt and fuzz provided a great opportunity to spend my birthday pennies and was a feast for a textile artist's eyes! Benjamin enjoyed his first encounter with rare breed sheep - Black Wensleydale and Blue Leicester I'm reliably informed - and some lovely angora rabbits.

Here are all the goodies I brought back...

I'm very pleased with my haul and am looking forward to being able to find time to try out some new designs to incorporate some of it.

Also this week I squeezed in another photography session, this time to turn some of my latest work into prints. Here are the ones I chose...

Well that's all for today folks, hope you've enjoyed hearing all about my week.

Happy crafting,

Max x

WOYWW -

Hello lovely reader, welcome to my 'What's on your Workdesk Wednesday' blog post - a place where I share with you a piccie of my workdesk and a recap of what I've been up to in my world of textile art.

Here it is; the desk today...

There's a few bits for a commissioned piece I'm working on, a couple of finished pieces ready to mount and then loads of part-finished hand-embroidered bookmarks. I think I might need a finishing day! I also have a growing pile called 'not sure this idea worked' - attempts at new ideas which I really don't love. Does anyone else suffer with this when trying new ideas?

My desk hasn't seen any action today, however, as it's my birthday and I was determined to get out there and enjoy the sunshine with my little man. We had lunch with mum (Twiglet) and when 'im indoors' got home from work we went out for tea at our favourite tapas place. There...no room for needlefelting today!

But I have been a busy bee this week so can spare myself a day off. This week I've had a photo shoot for my pansy brooch project, which I am making into a step-by-step guide for my courses and an article for an online publication later in the year. I produced the brooch in real time while my in-house photographer  (a.k.a Dad) took some brilliant close-up photos of each stage of the process.

The shoot set up

My snap of the finished brooch

Right, that's all from me today. There's a pile of birthday brownies with my name on it!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting,

Max x

WOYWW - working on new designs

Hello dear reader!

Apologies for my absence last week, I was snowed under. More about that later. You're here to see my workdesk aren't you. Here you go then...

Among all the clobber on the desk you can see my nice pieces of wet felting from a few weeks ago and some linen with little needlefelted landscapes.

I've been slowly working my way through the pieces of wet felting to create new designs. I'm guilty of being a bit hooked on the same designs, so for the last fortnight I've been trying out a few new ideas. Still within my comfort zone of fields, gardens and hedgerows but a bit different. Whadda ya think?

Delphinium

Bluebells and daisies 

This said, I've also had to step up production of my existing sheepy and floral designs by popular demand. My work is now in four shops and galleries and three of these contacted me last week to say my work was going...going...gone and could they have some more?! Chuffed to bits, I started dumfing away and this was how I spent most of last week. Here's the collection I pulled together...

After all the hard work, Ben and I had a well-earned day off to see my friend and her lambs at the farm in mid Wales which was the original inspiration for my sheepy landscapes. We had a fab day!

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. I hope to stop by a few desks later. If you're visiting here for the first time, hop on over to Julia's Stamping Ground to meet lots of other lovely artists and crafters!

Happy crafting

Max x

WOYWW - wet felted backgrounds

Hello lovely reader! It's Wednesday once again, so time to share with you what's on my workdesk today.

Yesterday I was a very busy bee and wet felted several pieces of background felt for my larger 'dumflings' (that's needlefelted pictures for the uninitiated!)

This supply of wet felted backgrounds should be enough for ten pictures, which I'll probably free-machine embroider.

You can also see a peek of my large sheepy picture which I've been working on for several weeks now. Yesterday I free-machined the foreground and lightly felted some pinky purple detail to suggest foxgloves. I'm now at that dangerous stage where I may be tempted to add too much detail so I'm going to leave it for a while.

Here are some of the fabulous pieces of work that the lovely ladies of Teme Valley Embroidery Guild produced on my workshop at the weekend.

The Guild members gave me such a warm welcome and, with all their enthusiasm and skill, made the workshop a joy to run.

I've got a bit of a breather now until my next workshop on 25 June so I'm working on some new pieces. I'm stocking four shops now so I am totally out of stock! On Monday I set up my pitch at the latest outlet - The Bog Visitors Centre by the Stiperstones - a beautiful rugged landscape in south Shropshire.

Well that's all for today, I have a sleeping toddler so must make the most of the time and get cracking with these new background pieces.

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy crafting

Max x