Moorit Fleece

Teasing and Carding

Moorit: a lovely warm brown with sun-bleached tips that occurs naturally in some sheep breads. This is my chosen colour to work with for felting a shelter cover.

I am buying my fleeces from the Evanton depot of the Scottish Wool Growers: first visit was really exciting, all those huge trolleys full to overflowing with wonderful raw fleeces and the freedom to rummage through and select what I like. Very heady!

The feel of lanolin-rich wool and the smell of sheep are strongly reminiscent of my childhood: my family had sheep and I helped tend them and shear them from a very young age.

Each fleece has to be teased out by hand and then carded on my drum carder before I can start the felting process.

One Week Left

Just one week left before all my work has to be spick and span ready for marking for the end of year three. I've spent most of this week sorting out and tidying up, cleaning the space and making final decisions about positions of everything in relation to everything else and sorting out technical problems with light and projector and film sound.

My studio is looking a bit empty in these photos. I've got so used to all the clutter of excess branches, baskets of wool, work table, wood shavings and scraps of fleece. Today I had to get everything possible off the floor so it could be washed. I want my white silk warp to drape and drizzle on the floor and I want it to STAY white!

I still have to get something up to block the sunlight out so that my film projection is visible.... Just as well there's still one week before hand in.

Rethinking and reinventing

It's been a long time since I last blogged, somehow more than a year has slipped past! I am having a rethink about what I do, my business name and way of working, how it's been affected now I'm studying full time and what changes I may or may not want to make. I have decided to rename my blog as the name "A' Manner O' Things" was a stop-gap name until I knew how I wanted it to be! I have also been questioning the name of my mother and I's business Diva Designs - it just doesn't say anything about what we do, what we are about! I had an eureka moment last night; driving home through the fragrant summer dusk I suddenly knew that I want to call my business Fibre Alchemy! It says it all for me - what else is felting but a magic alchemical-like process of transformation? Turning piles of fluff into a firm but flexible fabric through lavish applications of soapy water and elbow grease!

My local organic flock of Gotlands, a 15 min walk from my front door.

Cap felted with Gotland fleece (from the above flock) and some silk tops

Magic huh? What better name for this process than Fibre Alchemy :)
This is how I want to work: using local, organic materials sourced from within walking distance of my studio and making one of a kind creations that feed the soul of the wearer. I want to work in a way that is truly sustainable and ethical, using only hight quality materials and clean processes and making beautiful, practical and affordable art to wear. I am not all the way there yet, but it's something to aim for!