From Field to Fashion, Derby Museum of Making

 

I've had it in mind for a while to hop on a train to Derby and visit the Museum of Making which features many, many different items that were made locally from motorbikes to ceramics and the fact that this exhibition was on made it a possibility. Honestly, anything with a sheep in the picture will make me glance twice.

Fortunately the museum is a pleasant walk from the train station with a footpath/cyclepath hugging the River Derwent and even at my slow pace only took twenty minutes or so.

The museum is housed in an old silk mill sat by the side of the river and easy to spot. The mural of Falcons by the entrance was commissioned by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and design and painted by Sarah Yates in 2022

The exhibition is on the third floor with its own shop showcasing local fibre crafts, craft kits, handspun yarn etc.

The exhibits aim to show different uses for wool ranging from clothing to seating along with reusing and recycling. 

I particularly liked the signage at the beginning giving details of the characteristics of different breed and the explanation of words that I use regularly but probably confound many people. There were also several sacks of raw fleece, labelled with the breed, that you could dive you hands into ( and the all important notice also there to wash hands ) along with examples of processed fleece so that you could feel the difference between washed, carded and and combed fibres.

I could happily taken this grey mule fleece home with me, it would soon be on the wheel !

As usual, put accessible fleece near almost anyone and they will instinctively rub it on their cheek to check the softness and a surreptitious glance across the room a couple of times confirmed that this is still the case.

A rainbow of hand dyed yarns by Carrie Warr on Bleatingbecka Derbyshire Gritstone yarn. This is one breed that I have yet to spin, it's on the list in case I spot a fleece being sold.

From the traditional use of fleece to the more obscure, I hadn't envisaged furniture being on display but if you mix fleece and bio resin then this is what happens.

Black and white welsh mountain fleece , chair by Solid Wool and Roger Oates Design.

 

The art of Felting wool was represented by several pieces by Valerie Wartelle which reminded me of a cross between Turner and Monet.

Amongst other exhibits I spotted this community project

and these amazing lightshades by Janie knitted textiles.

All in all , worth a visit and the exhibition is on until 4 October and a quick look at the website shows a number of workshops also relating to fibre and thread. In fact there is one in October on Sashiko embroidery which is tempting me.

The main museum also holds examples of textiles etc so look out for another post from myself soon and I nearly forgot, there is a cafe so I had a coffee and ciabatta, both very good !!

Early morning thoughts

Hi, I've been awake since the early hours (it's 7.20 now) because my brain seems really overactive with ideas plus my eyes are itchy which is either early hayfever or the anisthetic drops from the optician yesterday.

The urge to sort out my workroom continues, yesterday I refound 30 or so coloured and water soluble pencils and some nice gel pens so I've ordered a large pencil case to house them all together. My paintbrushes have a new home and today I will go through my paint supplies.

I think this is all part of what turned my brain on as when I re find something, I want to use it and start to think of ideas and techniques etc. I'm really not sure what will happen when I start to sort out my sketchbooks! I suspect that my brain may simply explode!

The band of ukulele ladies has grown to 17, here are some of them, I have a couple of straps to finish over the next few days as well.

I'm also still enjoying the colouring books, it's giving me practise with  colour and technique although I have a long way to go. I've not really played around with paints and pens for quite some times and I'm quite rusty and sort of lazy when it comes to drawing something for myself.

However,  I am having lots of fun !!!!

Times now for coffee, have a great Sunday, will speak soon x

Ukulele ladies

Hi

Thanks for your comments, I made some more ladies and ended up with a ukulele group! I will be taking these to the festival but im not sure at the moment how to price them.

,

In the meantime I have to scrub off the paint from the latest session at the youth club as I managed to get black pain up my arms!

Ukulele lady #1

Hi, sorry that the photo is a bit poor but I've had to use my tablet to take the photo. This is ukulele lady #1 ,needle felt made on my embellished with a commercial felt backing and stuffing. I even got her to stand up which is quite impressive !

I'm playing around with small items based on  the ukulele for a festival in a couple of months the times where I will be hopefully selling my ukulele straps along with uke themed earing and key rings etc.

What do you think?

Crafting with young people

Just over a year ago I started working with young people who attend a youth group local to where I work, mainly I do some random craft work or play favourite games such as hedgehogs where you have balance wooden hedgehogs on top of each other until they fall down.

I though I'd share one or two of the items that have been made recently.

Felt pumpkins for Halloween 

Group jigsaw colouring, just get everyone to colour a piece with random colours. 

Scary monsters

Worry dolls

And puppets 

If anyone has any ideas to add to my list, I would appreciate it :-) we have touched on knitting, spinning,making felt brooches/key rings, bobbin lace, simple books over the last few months.

Still playing

I'm starting to collect a list of simple craft ideas for young people to have fun with. At the moment I'm concentrating on handmade felt but would welcome any other suggestions.

Yesterday I experimented with felt purses and made some more beads which are now drying out...just thought, maybe  phone cases may be an option. I'm really looking for anything that involves fabric/fibre etc and hopefully exercising my embroidery skills which are getting very rusty these days.

Hey Sue, do you know how to make felt?

This question was asked as we watched the lancaster taxi up the runway a couple of weeks or so ago. Of course I answered, wet, needle or knitted which totally confused her. So this week I introduced a ukulele player to the joys of wet felting with a bit of dyeing thrown in.

We made flat felt.

we made felted bowls using the balloon method

We made felt beads

and we dyed some handspun romney

we eventually ran out of time so a second session will be held on needle felting soon :-)

I also grabbed a few mins this week to unwrap a fleece gifted to me last month....its HUGE!!

I am going to be so busy!

Fibre dabble day

Hi

At our recent Guild ( Guild of weavers, spinners and dyers) meeting we had a Dabble Day and were joined by members of the Ashfield and Hallam Guilds. Mini workshops were set up around the room for people to try out new techniques and crafts.  My camera battery decided to fade away but not until I had grabbed one or two shots of the work produced.

On offer as workshops were Tunisian Crochet

 woven baskets

 felted vessels

 tablet weaving sheep

 Japanese bag tying..Furoshiki.

 felted bangles

 Dorset buttons

and scrumbles in knitting and crochet but at that point my camera was playing up so huge appologies to that group.

Take a stitch Tuesday...week one... fly stitch

OK, so its been quite some time since I stitched but hopefully this challenge will get things moving again. Anyone who knows me will be aware that I'm not a big fan of stitching on plain fabric or even weave so for the first stitch I have stayed with my spinning fibres that were dyed last weekend.

As for format, I've stuck with ATC size (3.5 inch x 2.5 inch )  which is handy and fits in with previous samples. Also I managed to find plastic wallets at our local supermarket so I can easily file and display them.

The background was made on my embellisher  using selected small amounts of the dyed fibres.

Sorry about the weird lighting in the photo but my workroom is not brilliant in the winter time.

I then spun small amounts of thread on a drop spindle.

and used them to stitch the sample.

So , here it is, Fly Stitch.

more scary decorations

Hi, just a quick post as I have some photos to sort out still from last weekend ......here's the rest of the anti xmas crowd seem in a group shot shortly before being re homed with many of my friends.