New arrivals

These are a couple of new needle felted animals that have found their way out of my wool bag. The rabbit has a lovely white fluffy tail and a very large carrot. The other is a Private Eye mouse keeping an eye on the felt toy box, making sure that all the creatures are behaving themselves.

I really must stop this obsession with mice!

Country Crafts at Hever Castle

I spent Saturday in the lovely surroundings of Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. What a beautiful place. I expected to see the Red Queen from Alice bursting out from the amazing topiary. There were Tudor dancers and singers and a recorder group playing. Very Elizabethan! The castle was used for location for the making of 'The other Boleyn girl'. I was there to demonstrate feltmaking and I had decided to do some needle felting. Difficult to talk to visitors and needle felt at the same time, could do some horrible damage to myself. Luckily I only stuck the needle in my finger once.

When I got home after a smashing supper at Annie Hawkins' house I found that the film was on the TV so of course I had to watch it.

Glove workshop with Cathy Unwin

I had a fab day yesterday at the glove workshop that Cathy Unwin gave for Region 4. I cannot believe that the enormous templates that we used would ever shrink down to fit my hand snugly but it did. I was using my own special dyed wool which felts like a dream. I now have to think about what additions I should make to the gloves. Should I sew on beads, do some embroidery or what? Such decisions.

Workshop at Urban Yarns, Vancouver

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year in Vancouver. This was the day planned for the Creatures Workshop at Urban Yarns.
We had three air conditioners going and it was still hot!
There were twelve participants, most of whom had never made felt before except by knitting and then throwing it into a washing machine. They all did brilliantly and we even managed to squeeze in a lovely high tea at a very posh teashop a couple of doors down from the yarn store. Urban Yarns has the most delicious yarns, most of which I had never seen before. A mouth watering selection of the softest wools, mohairs, cashmeres and fine cottons. I wanted to try out everything but there aren't enough hours in the day to do the things that I am trying to finish at the moment.
Here are some pictures from the day. Everyone had a good time and the birds all flew home.

Beautiful Vancouver

Beautiful Vancouver. At her best in the summer sunshine. Here are some images taken from an exceptionally nice restaurant on Granville Island. This is an exciting area of Vancouver with many artist and crafts galleries, a wonderful food market and eclectic clothes shops surrounded by a marina of fancy boats. Here also is another image from the city.

Wooly Canadians

By a serendipitous chance of fate I happened to stumble over a store in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver that got my senses buzzing. Just walking into Cara Birkland's store Birkland Bros. Wool Ltd had me sniffing the air recognising all those lovely sheepy smells that Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow used to smell of.
Cara is the 3rd generation owner of this historic store from 1939. She welcomed me with open arms and proudly took me to see her fantastically large carding machine that was brought out from the UK.
I had come to buy some felting needles for the workshop that I am giving on Sunday 21st at Urban Yarns in Vancouver. Why wasn't I doing a workshop for Cara's store she wanted to know. When I told her I hadn't known of it she made me promise to come back another time to run some workshops for her. So Vancouver, you had better watch out, I will felt the city.
Here are some pictures of the store with Cara and Eri and one of Cara with the carding machine.
Her website is www.VancouverWoolShop.com and has all wooly needs including spinning wheels and looms and everything in between.

The amazing Mary Ellen Frank

Strolling through Juneau on an a mid August afternoon I happened upon a sign for a doll museum. This was on the first floor of a building tucked away in a side street.

I climbed the stairs and followed the sign and found myself in the workshop of Mary Ellen Frank who is a doll-maker extraordinaire. Mary Ellen makes dolls, but not just ordinary dolls, these are perfect representations of Northern Native Americans. She makes to commission, portrait dolls which are now in numerous private collections and museums worldwide. Everything she makes is perfect in detail and scale and her people are correct to the smallest detail including any physical differences there may be.
Here are some of her dolls and clothes made for the dolls.
Please visit her website www.auntclaudiasdolls.com www.maryellenfrank.com and http://www.juneauartists.com/MEF/