Felt Purses & More...

Felt Hot Water bottles & Felt Purses

It was an absolutely lovely day in Pateley Bridge today with the sun shining straight into my workshop as I made some more felt purses! This recent good weather has got me thinking about spring and all of the animals that we start to see (I’ve already seen some cute little lambs in the country fields!). I’ve been making felt hot water bottle covers for many years, but have just started a new range of felt purses.

I thought I’d share the new products I’ve been making in the gorgeous spring colours.

I love the owl hot water bottle cover as he looks very naughty and I may just keep him for myself! I want to try him in some different colour-ways too. The bunny, seen below, is gorgeous in the pinks and lilacs,  but would also be very nice in pale blues.

I’ve also started a new product in the form of felt purses! Polka dots, cupcakes, doggies, hearts are all available now and many more designs are in the pipeline! All in this style of stripes and a picture in the fantastically pretty spring colours.

These are such fun to make and I’m loving thinking up designs to go on them.  One thing I love about my job is the colours and how tactile & soft the wool is. These felt purses are ideal as a gift as they can be personalized in the form of the colours and picture.

The above is currently on display & for sale in my studio/shop. Felt hot water bottle covers are £12 (& include the bottle small size), Felt purses are £6.50.

Do you fancy making a felt purse or hot water bottle cover to your own design?

Get in touch and book a course:

kirsty@kirstyhopkins.co.uk

http://www.kirstyhopkins.co.uk/day-courses/

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2013 Textile Art & Craft Courses

All art & craft courses are held in my open studio at Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire, postcode: HG3 5LE 

“a beautiful place to come to” “I’m bringing everyone I know back!”

Felt Making— A fun course that teaches the felt basics, and a little extra!

Go home with three pieces, and plenty of inspiration from this tantalising, tactile, technique.

Nuno Felt Scarf— A fun and useful felt making course where you will learn how to create a beautiful nuno felt scarf to match an outfit, as a gift or just for the pleasure.

Mixed Media Textiles— Learn the techniques to create a mixed media textile picture. From painting fabric, to adding silks, fibers, and textures. A fun informative course with exciting and rewarding results.

Batik— Find out about wax pots, tjantings, and stamps. An experimental day with access to tools of this fascinating Indonesian trade, and plenty of inspiration to give you ideas.

Linocut Printmaking— learn the techniques to create your own fabulous prints for art, cards, scrapbooks and textiles.

Mixed Media Notebook— a follow on course to mixed media textiles where you will further your skills and learn even more exciting techniques and use them to create a notebook.

Felt Handbag— a rewarding course where you will learn how to make a new addition to your wardrobe from felt. You will also learn different ways of finishing your beautiful design.

3D & 2D silk paper—Learn how to make delicate vessels out of silk paper and silk waste. Also learn various ways of making your own beautiful paper. Once you know the technique the possibilities are endless.

Freehand Machine Embroidery—Lower those feed dogs on your machine & learn this fantastic technique that opens up a whole new crafting world. Pictures, writing, machine freedom! Bring your own machine or use ours (recommended to bring own if you have suitable one).

Indigo Dyeing Course— Particularly interesting for patch-workers but thoroughly enjoyable for all. Learn how to create various resists & folds to create fascinating fabrics in this instantly recognizable colour. Create lots of fat quarters or even your own scarf!

New For 2013!

Introduction to Silk Painting— Introduction day to this lovely, relaxing technique. It really is magical to watch the paints expand on the silk.

Felt Tea Cosy & Egg Cosy— Make your breakfast table handmade & fabulous with this day course where you get to design and make a hand felted tea & egg cosy.

Large Mixed Media Picture—Bring together all of the techniques learnt on the mixed media course to make a picture.

Marbling—Learn new ways of creating amazing patterns with this wonderful craft. Create fabulous  papers for wrapping, cards or scrapbooks.

Felted Hot Water Bottle Cover—A great course to make a present for someone or even keep for yourself. Design to match a room or personality… the choice is yours!

Free-Machine Decorated Apron & Card— If you’ve always wanted to design your own apron then this is the course for you. We provide an apron, fabrics & plenty of inspiration. Why not make it to match your kitchen or as a gift for a friend?

Experimental Free-Machine Embroidery— Want to take your free-motion embroidery further? This is the course for you…learn about dissolvable papers to create lace effects and plenty more fabulous ways of using your machine. An inspirational & experimental day

 2013 Course Dates

January

Wednesday 2nd: Marbling—FULLY BOOKED!

Saturday 5th: Hand Felted Hot Water Bottle Cover

Monday 7th: Indigo Dyeing—FULLY BOOKED!

Saturday 12th: Felt Tea Cosy & Egg Cosy

Tuesday 15th: Feltmaking—FULLY BOOKED!

Friday 18th: Marbling

Saturday 26th:Feltmaking

 February

Saturday 9th: Experimental Free Machine Embroidery - FULLY BOOKED!

Friday 15th: Mixed Media Picture – FULLY BOOKED!

Wednesday 20th: Free-Machine Decorated Apron & Card

Thursday 28th: Feltmaking

March

March 2nd: Felt Hot Water Bottle—FULLY BOOKED!

Saturday 9th: Advanced Free Machine Embroidery

Friday 15th: Mixed Media Notebook with Silk Paper pages

Tuesday 26th: Feltmaking

Sat 30th: Free-Machine Embroidery – FULLY BOOKED!

April

Saturday 6th: Nuno Felt Scarf

Thursday 11th: Felt Handbag

Thursday 18th: Felted Hot water bottle - FULLY BOOKED!

Saturday 27th: Batik

May

Saturday 4th: Linocut Printmaking

Friday 10th: Indigo Dyeing Course

Saturday 18th: Free Machine Embroidery

If you fancy a course, but the dates given aren’t suitable, or we are fully booked, please feel free to book privately at no extra cost.

Prices

Felt making £30

Nuno Felt Scarf, Felt handbag, Felt Tea Cosy, Felt Hot Water Bottle £35

Introduction to Silk Painting £40

Freehand Machine embroidery, Free–Machine Decorated Apron, Batik, Linocut printmaking £50

Mixed Media Textiles, Mixed Media Notebook, Large Mixed Media Picture, Experimental Free-Machine Embroidery & 3D silk paper £60

Indigo Dyeing & Marbling £66

A 50% deposit is required.

Cash or cheques accepted.

Prices include tea, coffee, biscuits, cake and materials.

Courses run approx from 10-3.

Please contact me for Bookings.

Or email: kirsty@kirstyhopkins.co.uk

(Please check junk mail for a reply or add us to your contacts to ensure you receive a reply) 

Or Tel: 01423 712654

http://www.kirstyhopkins.co.uk

What people have said:

“The best day out I’ve had in ages”

“Really enjoyed the feltmaking and was surprised at what I produced, will be back for more”

“Great fun”

“A lovely day, I’ve really enjoyed myself”

“I want to book the next one now!” 

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Fabulous Textile Courses

I thought it was time to share with you some pics I've taken of courses I've run...

Made on the feltmaking course in the afternoon!

 ...I do course for individuals, like the one seen below for an art teacher... 

Making a gorgeous textured notebook/sketchbook        

 ..& courses for groups... 

Taster 2 hour course! - Chewstoke.

 ...on all of them I've had a fab time and we seem to have a good gossip and have lots of coffee & cake!

Courtesy of the up and coming 'Amo Torta'

 Fancy booking a course...go to www.kirstyhopkins.co.uk/courses/

(If you come on a course please remind me to take pictures and post them, as I am rather hopeless!)

New Textile Art Courses

I am running a selection of arty textile courses at my workshop.

To see click this link to my website:  http://www.kirstyhopkins.co.uk/courses/

The last series were very successful, and great fun, with some fantastic work produced...including Van Gogh's Starry Night in Felt!

Below is work created in just 2 hours!

Above was part of a taster session run at a church near Bath.

So why not come and try something new today!

http://www.kirstyhopkins.co.uk/courses/

Cairn

Sculpture

Recently I became excited by the possibility of creating 3D works in felt. This is something I have briefly explored in the past in the creation of felt vessels, however these were relatively small scale and I wanted to

create a large piece that would have a big impact.

I was looking at Journeys and narrative as a theme which led on to the creation of the cairn.

Cairn n 1. a pile of stones built as a memorial or landmark, e.g. At the top of  mountain.

As a child I often went to the Lake District and remember searching for stones to place on these piles that are way-markers, there to guide people on the safe path.

Now as an adult and an artist I remembered these sculptural forms. To come across one you naturally have to make a journey so it fitted with the first criteria. For the narrative concept I thought of how cairns are created — various people search out the stone that appeals to them the most and then place it where they choose on the pile. As I thought of this I realized    

    

that each person, whether they were conscious of it or not, was involved in the creation of a sculpture. One that evolved over time through weather, erosion and more “artists” adding to the piece. Consequently, each stone has a single person’s history or narrative behind it. Once I realized this I couldn’t not make a cairn, it was set in stone so to speak. 

 

I knew it was of paramount importance that my sculpture had some of the same sense of individual history behind it as the cairns in the landscape. So whilst I was making felt balls I thought about how to achieve this. I started making these balls in October but two weeks in I had a setback when I was hospitalized with pneumonia. By

December I was feeling much better and back to making balls. As it was Christmas time I had a lot of people visiting and they were all intrigued with these piles of white felt balls lying around the house and studio. 

That was when I realized I had found the individual history behind the sculpture. From then on everyone who visited the house was given some wool and shown how to make a ball.

When I had a large quantity of balls I started constructing the sculpture. I used chicken wire as the mould and tied hessian onto this so that I had the 3D structure to glue the balls onto. As I continued gluing I became aware of just how many balls the piece was going to take, I would have a basket filled with 40 balls and they would just be absorbed into the structure. It took a bag full of eight local fleeces to complete the sculpture.