Felted hanging

 Last Autumn my daughter and I went for a trip to the Curraghs Wildlife Park where we took a lot of photographs of the animals and birds. I was also struck by the wonderful colours of the foliage and trees and the quality of the late afternoon light. I particularly liked the image seen below on the left which I have subsequently used as the basis of a new felted hanging. I used several elements of the photograph which I particularly liked; the group of silver birch trees and the purple grey colour of the sky.
The majority of the work is made from plant dyed fibres including ivy and elderberry dyes as well as materials and snippets of fibre from my huge stash. I have incorporated both hand and machine stitches which allows me to introduce plenty of texture and subtle colours. The hanging is in an exhibition at present along with another work which is a framed piece with 4 miniature scenes done in machine stitch.
This hanging has now been sold.

Rushen Abbey

Our U3A herb group met at Rushen Abbey gardens, Ballasalla during May. We studied the plants which would be found in an Abbey garden. The plants were well labelled with information on their uses, some of the more unusual herbs planted there are the Gladdon Lily, Masterwort, Motherwort and Vervain. We then had a meeting in the Abbey restaurant where we had tea and cakes while discussing the history of herb gardens. We were fortunate to have access to a book in the i-museum Douglas which was written in 1919 by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde. It is called the History of herbs and has parts of it reproduced from a 1719 manuscript written by a butler. It was fascinating to discover the herbs used throughout the centuries and to learn that the use of vegetables in Britain, once common in Roman times, were not used by the majority of the population until early in the 19th century. Many flowers were used as herbs including roses, lilies, gillyflowers, periwinkle and peonies. Herbs were used in large quantities in Tudor times as stuffings and stewings for the huge quantities of meat that were eaten then.
The use of potatoes as a feed for the general population did not become common until 200 years after they were brought to England in Tudor times. Walter Raleigh's favourite cordial was strawberry wine.
Below is a photo of our U3A herb group and some of the plants in Rushen Abbey herb garden.

Norwegian artists

A group of 31 Norwegian artists visited the Isle of Man during the first week of May. Many of them were felters, spinners and knitters. They visited attractions around the Island and went to a farm to see the Manx Loaghtan sheep. I arranged a buffet for them at the Pavillion restaurant in Laxey where a group of 14 artists, dyers, spinners and weavers had a chance to network with the visitors and show some of the work that is done on the Island. The food was excellent and there was a great atmosphere as we all forged new links and friendships. I am photographed on the right wearing my plant dyed stole alongside my friend Jenny another textile artist. Below left is Heather who makes exquisite plant dyed weavings of scenes and and animals of the Island. Below this is a picture of myself with Karin who arranged the trip from Norway. She is an exceptional felter and has a gallery in Norway where she runs courses in all aspects of art and craft. She presented me with some brown Norwegian cheese which is delicious and two hanks of grey wool from the wild Norwegian sheep which at one time were facing extinction. Luckily, as with the Loaghtan sheep there has been a breeding programe so that there are now healthy numbers of each breed.

Below right is a fine specimen of the Manx Loaghtan sheep which as well as providing wool has meat which is very tasty and healthy.
The other picture shows one of the wild Norwegian sheep which come in a variety of colours.

WOSAT

WOSAT is the Western Open Studios Art Trail which was held over the last 4 days in Peel Isle of Man; an event run by the Creative Network in which 47 of its members took part. It involves work being displayed in galleries, shops, the Cathedral and open studios and demonstrations. I had the great pleasure of taking part in this event. I had two pieces of work in the Isle Gallery, one of them a block printed wallhanging called the Land of the Beaver and the Bear based on North West American Indian totems. I had a llama felted wallhanging, hand stitched and with Angelina fibres which was called Peel Cathedral Windows in the Cathedral itself. Yesterday and today I demonstrated at the Corrin hall with a group of other artists which was an amazing experience. We had hundreds of visitors and it was wonderful explaining about the felted and stitched work that I brought to show them. I have made many new friends. The top two photos on the left are from Peel Cathedral Windows llama felt. Below these are the Land of the Beaver and the Bear printed using water soluble printing inks. There is also a photo of me demonstrating in the Corrin Hall. I thought I would be able to do lots of stitching at the event but spent all of the two days talking about my work. I have started work on a white felted llama piece, another version of the Cathedral windows.

Tadpoles at last

After losing a lot of frogspawn due to the heavy frost, some sensible frogs have laid a lot more since then and I now have many tadpoles swimming around the pond. The ornamental cherry tree is in full bloom with thousands of small flowers opened. Unfortunately because of the severe weather there has only been one visiting bumble bee, albeit a very happy one! I have a good production line going in the greenhouse with very good germination rates. I am concentrating on growing herbs, vegetables including many heritage varieties and dye plants. I will keep you updated on the results and the uses I have for them. The ground where I dug in the Bokashi composted material now has a very deep and friable covering of soil. I planted garlic, shallots and onions in there during the autumn and they are growing very well. On the right is a piece of work that was entered in the Isle of Man Art Society Easter exhibition. It is based on a photograph that I took in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. I have called it Egyptian lovers and it is created by photo transfering the original image using bondaweb onto calico. I then hand stitched it using fine cotton and silver threads worked in straight stitch, seeding and french knots. I have nearly finished a large Llama felted hanging in brown fleece and have just started a second in white.

Cathedral Window

This piece of work was made from felted Llama fibres using the fleece in the original colour. The fibres are extremely light and warm and produce a felt with a beautiful sheen, lovely to work with on these snowy days! I sewed shapes for the window originally with gold metallic thread in a zigzag stitch and then cut out the desired areas. Hand stitching in coloured cottons was added followed by sewing a piece of blue metallic  organza to represent the stained glass window. I am at present working on a larger version around 3 feet in length to be displayed in the Creative Network Open weekend in Peel in early May. I have just washed some white Llama fleece to use for making a second large hanging for the same event. I will post photos of them when they are ready to hang. The work shown above has now been sold.
I had a huge quantity of frog spawn laid in my pond a couple of weeks ago, a bit later than usual. I thought that as it was so late it would be safe from frost for a change. The unexpected severe frost and snow has damaged it but I still hope to have plenty of tiny froglets to hop around my garden. MyJapanese contorted cherry tree is full of thousands of tiny flowers, usually covered in bumble bees, but it is too cold for the bees to venture out. In fact, a few weeks ago with Spring looking near, butterflies had started to emerge. It is difficult times for the wildlife. I had an old feather pillow which had burst open so I let the feathers blow onto my lawn. Today I have spotted a sparrow filling its beak with them to line a nest. I make sure that I don't hang my washed cashmere and Llama fibres outside at this time of year. I am sure that they would be most appreciated as bedding for nestlings, but it is a bit too precious for that.!

February and March U3A

Christopher gave us a spellbinding talk and slideshow about plants seen on one of his trips to South Africa. In particular the photographs were taken in the Fynbos a natural shrubland or heathland in a small area of the Western Cape.The word Fynbos means Finebush. It covers 0.08% of the world's surface but has 3% of the world's flowers. some of the plants he showed in his photographs were Proteas, Heathers and Buchu, the latter cultivated for their essential oils which have medicinal properties. Hottentot tea, the Coral bean tree and Euphorbias were also shown. The wood from Camphor trees is used to make chests to store blankets as it protects against moths.
PlantZAfrica is a useful website to learn more about the indigenous flora of that region.
In the March meeting I gave a description of plants that are perennials but which many people do not know are edible. I shall be trialing out various ones and keeping you posted on what I think of them.
Useful books on the subject are: How to Grow Perennial Vegetables and Creating a Forest Gardening both by Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust. He has an excellent website where you can purchase trees, plants and seeds. You can find it at agroforestry.co.uk