the dying of the sun - a meditation on fire

although there's still plenty of time before the exhibition, if you would like to participate please send in a photo of your work as soon as possible.

we've had some fab entries so far but would love to have a diverse range of work from talented folk around the world so we have extended the deadline to send photos until the end of august.

the duration of the exhibition has also been extended, it will run from 5th until 15th october so that visitors have two weekends to visit and enjoy the work.

we have also started a website for the exhibition at www.thedyingofthesun.com, it is still a work in progress but we're hoping this will become a great place to show teasers of the exhibits and for you to promote yourself and your work.

we are a little short of flames/smoke/sparks for the collaborative piece so if you know of any willing helpers please let us know, otherwise angela and i will be making nothing but flames for the next two months!

if you have any questions, need an extension to the deadline or if there's anything i can do to assist you to participate in the exhibition, please let me know.

looking forward to hearing from you.

exhibition and collaborative opportunity

well, i am very excited to be able to let you know that i am organising an exhibition with my lovely friend angela barrow, we'd love to have as many people as possible participating so here's everything you need to know ...

Call for submissions:

the dying of the sun - a meditation on fire

To celebrate the fourth annual International Day of Felt, Tracy Markey and Angela Barrow invite you to participate in their exhibition to be held at The Barn Gallery, Perthshire. The exhibition will run from 5th to 12th October 2012.

There are two opportunities available and artists are welcome to submit work for one or both of them.

Main Exhibition: Artwork can be 2D or 3D and must contain an element of felt. However, mixed/multi media pieces are encouraged. Artists can submit up to three pieces for consideration. Please be as creative as you wish with your interpretation of the theme!

Collaborative piece: With your help, we are going to create a huge fire inspired piece to form part of the exhibition.

We are seeking pieces for inclusion … think flames; smoke; sparks; embers ... these will then be assembled in situ to create one large piece of work.

Your piece(s) can be any size, shape and combination of colours, as long as they are made from felt (other textiles can be included but should not be the main material).

To register your interest, and receive further details, please send an email to Tracy Markey, narkeymarkey@hotmail.co.uk, by Thursday 28th June 2012.

If you wish to be considered for the main exhibition please include three images of your previous work along with a description of the piece(s) you propose to submit for the exhibition.

* Image taken from an original by Morgan Downie

looking forward to hearing from you!

oh and please feel free to share with anyone else you think might be interested - let's make this an exhibition to remember :)

international day of felt gallery now online!

so, there has been a distinct lack of photos on my little blog recently and to try to redress this - here's the link to the international day of felt gallery ... lots of lovely photos of blue, red and purple feltyness!

congrats to everyone who has their work featured, such an amazing range of work from talented feltmakers.

felt united 2011

international day of felt 2011

this year's colour scheme was red, blue and purple. and here's my offering ...

it didn't quite turn out as it looked in my imagination but it was the first time i had tried making a pod shape so i'm not too discouraged. just makes me want to try again!

if you'd like to take part next year, you can find more info., here felt united

i'll let you know when the gallery is published, i'm really looking forward to seeing all this year's entries.

international day of felt

ok, so, better late than never right ... ?

i'm a 'little' behind in posting these but hopefully it'll be a welcome relief from all of the snowy scenes i've been putting up recently!

in case you haven't come across IDF before, here's a handy link that'll tell you all about it, so you can get involved for 1st october, next year: felt united

i really love this coming together of feltmakers from around the world and also the creativity that it inspires. the first year i took part, i met angela who was organising a felt trail in ilkley and the felt mobile i made was something i wouldn't normally have attempted and became one of my favourite pieces.

this year i wanted to try something new so one of the things i made, i hung in the local forest, right on the edge of a walking path so that people who wouldn't normally encounter felt would have the chance to see something a little different. i was a bit nervous about it, what if someone saw me putting it up and told me off?! what if people didn't like it and ripped it down?! i was really relieved and quite surprised when i went back to take it down two weeks later to find it, not only still in place, but it looked like a few of the pieces had become detached and folk had carefully put them back in place :) i used velcro at one end of each strip to wrap it around the branch so as not to damage the tree, but it possibly wasn't strong enough for the perthshire weather!

anyway, enough blethering, here's the pics ...

laying out ... the blue
... the yellow
... the green
these interlocking foam tiles have been great - saves my feet when standing and my knees when kneeling (didn't have a big enough table for this size of felt!) but one word of caution - if they get a little wet they get exceptionally slippy against a laminate floor so that any attempt to stand on them results in lots of arm flailing, squealing, sploshing about of water and results in a fit of giggles when you realise how funny you must have looked as you did the 'must retain my balance' dance! not dignified :)

after much rubbing comes much rolling
ready for cutting
all cut and ready to be shaped and washed
i also made some felt balls to hang in our new gage tree
and some hollow ones that i cut to reveal different layers
but this was my favourite piece
roll on next year, when the colour theme is red, purple and blue!

felt united exhibition is now online

i received an email from elis vermeulen & cynthia reynolds to let us know that the gallery is now up and running for the first international day of felt which was held in october. if you have a spare half hour, check it out! it's well worth it. i think this has to be the largest collection of felt i have seen and it's great to see such a wide variety of pieces made by felters around the world.

thanks must go to elis and cynthia for all of their hard work in pulling this together. roll on next year and the second international day of felt!

After 8 months of hard (and we mean hard!) work ... including computer malfunctions, a ton of phone calls, some great talks and the occasional visit. After taking some days off, a lot of sunny and rainy days ... After 1000's of emails (and no, that is not an exaggeration!), press releases and people working on lifelong global friendships ... not to mention a lot of laughter - laughing until you cry kind of laughter! ... After a spectacular 1st FeltUnited Day which was celebrated all over the world and ... After saying ‘Thank you’ to all for participating in this art project and to the visitors who will enjoy it...
(building up to the point here.. are you starting to hear the drums??)

We are proud to announce that ... The Feltunited exhibit is online!!

Instructions for viewing the exhibit:

Make yourself a nice drink - make sure you have no distractions - put on your favorite music ... we deliberately did not include music in the slideshow, such that you could choose your own;)
get into a comfy chair and go to FeltUnited.com there is a link at the top of the page called '2009 exhibit'

You can view the exhibit in a variety of ways:
at the bottom of the page, you can select grid, mosaic, carousel or slideshow you decide. It may take a while to load, please be patient, there are well over 400 images.

Our best regards,
Elis Vermeulen & Cynthia Reynolds

ilkley felt trail for international day of felt

here as promised are pics of the work i had on show as part of the ilkley felt trail.

brooches, key-rings, necklaces, ear-rings, bag charms...



i really loved making the falling leaf mobile and wall hanging. i loved mixing the colours to get just the right feel of autumn leaves. by the time i finished i must have felted, cut and washed about 100 leaves. this was the first time i had attempted anything like this, and while there are things i would do differently next time, i'm pretty pleased with the end results! although, it was really difficult to get a decent image.