However, it wasn’t long before any idea of this task being rushed was left at the farm gate as I began walking the field edges in the summer sunshine.

My walking pace reduced to a dawdle as I began scanning for ripe berries, and I felt my shoulders relax and drop slightly; I gave a big exhale. I began to tune in to the tiny wonders around me; sounds, movements and colours that I thought I’d share with you.

The wild mewing call of the buzzard circling overhead.

The constant frantic buzzing of so many flies as they sped along invisible superhighways.

The more sedate hum of bees, bumbling around the flowering brambles and clover.

The rasping of grasshoppers, the ripening sloes, the cracked, concrete-like earth beneath my feet from weeks of drought.

Did my eyes deceive me or was that a tiny froglet that jumped into the hedge from the long grass? There’s a stream on the other side, so it’s very possible!

Steadily, between my ‘noticings’, my bowl gradually filled with plump blackberries - there were more than I anticipated and I lost all concept of time as I paused repeatedly to watch a butterfly or marvel at the shield bugs perched on the ripest of berries, along with the gangly harvestman spider with legs so fine and delicate they were hardly visible.

I disturbed a wren who then issued its continued warning ‘rattle’ whilst posturing at me from a nearby branch.

All the while the rhythmic, sombre cooing of a wood pigeon played on repeat.

Bindweed, cursed in my own garden, looked resplendent with its white trumpets heralding it’s spreading dominance of the hedge. Late foxgloves gave a pop of vibrant pink. Elderberries hung like gothic chandeliers.

I’m unsure how much time had passed, maybe a couple of hours, but at that point it no longer seemed to matter. Whilst hugging the hedgerow in search of treasure I had thought of nothing in particular which is a rare and wonderful thing when life is so busy.

The quietening of the mind and the sharpening of the senses - nature provides the perfect therapy you didn’t know you needed if you allow yourself to be distracted by it.

I returned home with purple-stained fingers, a few bramble scratches and skin tingling from the occasional tickle of a nettle; not forgetting my bowl full to the brim with beautifully plump blackberries. But perhaps most importantly I left nature with a clearer head, uplifted and with no regret for idling away more time than intended in the wilds of the hedgerow.

In the studio…

Life and a property renovation have kept me from my art practice more than I would like, but I have tried hard to have as many ‘art snacks’ as I can fit in! However at this time of year, when I do have spare time I just want to be outside in the sunshine catching up with the garden, allotment…and blackberry picking of course!

I’m glad I don’t have any commitments to create work for the rest of the year - it’s given me the freedom, whilst I’m short on time, for stress-free studio sessions.

I felted for the first time in ages recently - I’m probably a bit rusty but it was very enjoyable to get the fibres out, choosing colours and laying out a design.

After felting…lovely textures!

It’s not finished yet; I need to add some needle felting and stitch before a final wet felt. It’s just sitting on my work table patiently waiting for me to get back to it.

I’ve kept up my sketchbook as often as I can - not all efforts are share-worthy! However, it’s been nice drawing memories of a recent visit to Dartmoor. We escaped there for a few days to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in June. I may do a separate post about that to share the walks and photos.

So it’s short and sweet art sessions for the time being, but I’m at peace with that - it’s all there to be picked up when the time is right. The creative juices are still there, bubbling away quietly; I’m subconsciously gathering inspiration in the every day things and jotting down ideas as they come. I’m an avid gatherer of things and thoughts and I love this poem which I relate to very much…do you?

We are gatherers,
the ones who pick up sticks and stones
and old wasp's nests fallen by the door of the barn,
walnuts with holes that look like
eyes of owls,
bits of shells not whole but lovely 
in their brokeness,
we are the ones who bring home
empty eggs of birds
and place them on a small glass shelf
to keep for what? How long?
It matters not. What matters
Is the gathering,
the pockets filled with remnants
of a day evaporated, the traces of 
certain memory, a lingering smell,
a smile that came with the shell.
(Nina Bagley)

Until next time…

Thanks for reading if you got this far! I hope to post here a little more often, as I miss writing and recording things and I seem to have fallen out of the habit - even if no one ever reads my posts it’s like a diary for me to look back on.

Best wishes and hope you find some time to be creative in your day…

Tanya x

Changes…

Since my last post there have been a few changes - sadly the little gallery that stocked my felted landscapes has closed in St Ives. Blue Bramble Gallery has had a presence in town for many years so it’s always a shame to see yet another small, local business supporting many local artists, feel unable to continue in the current financial climate. I will miss that thrill of walking through the town and seeing my work in a gallery window. This means I have no physical outlet for my work at the moment…but after the initial feeling of disappointment I’ve realised that maybe that’s okay for this year.

We’ve just started a renovation project on our farm cottages which are the holiday letting side of our business - they were starting to show their age, they needed bringing up to date and we made the mad, MAD decision to knock the two of them into one. We are currently in the depths of knocking down walls, creating huge amounts of mess and rubble and ultimately we have now progressed too far to change our minds!

As we are doing much of the work ourselves this is inevitably going to take up a larger chunk of our working hours this year which is in addition to all the other day to day jobs that need doing around the farm/house/garden/allotment. Bearing that in mind, maybe it’s a strange sort of fate that I now don’t need to think about creating and supplying work to a gallery.

Embrace…

I’ve been giving a bit of thought to what might be my ‘word of 2026’ and there are a few that I’ve been considering but I guess ‘EMBRACE’ embodies them all. Other contenders were ‘acceptance’, ‘joy’, ‘ease’, ‘pause’ and ‘possibility’.

Embracing the change, accepting what can’t be controlled and treating any creative time as an opportunity to have fun and not worry as much about outcomes.

I have a little list of gallery Open Calls I will submit work for if I have some available and I am taking part in a Textile Art exhibition with the Prime Women Artists Group in November this year. That’s enough deadlines for me to ‘embrace’ for 2026…

Studio Notes…

I am currently working on a felted landscape, based on my beloved moorland and whilst it’s taken me a couple of attempts I think I can now get this one over the finish line with a bit more tweaking. Here are some of the close up snippets of it - I love these clips that show how the threads wiggle as they embed themselves in the wool fibres as they mesh together during felting.

I have been a little more challenged with this piece, as I tend to look for strong patterns in the landscape as a basis for a design. This particular scene didn’t have that, but I wanted to portray the ‘hidden’ elements of where ancient settlements have scarred the land and the shapes that they have made when viewed from above. I’m not sure I’ve completely achieved that, but I think there’s a hint of it.

I’m still adding to my ‘field studies’ sketchbook - more recently to do with a neighbouring field full of daffodils which glow gold even on the dullest of days (and we’ve certainly had our fair share of those!) There is a definite pattern there which keeps drawing my eye - the double rows of blooms, the wider earth strips and the grass field that disrupts on the right hand side. There are tall Monterey pines on the top hedge. All these elements are great fun to play with to create different compositions, thinking about differences to make it interesting; thick and thin lines, small and large shapes, flat and textured.

On the recent night of the full ‘Snow Moon’, it rose right up behind the daffodil field and that has now inspired a different set of ideas.

This sketchbook is all about compositions, it’s neither pretty nor particularly tidy, but it’s a really useful resource and a way to record ideas. I do seem to like that ‘design’ element to landscapes, rather than worrying about making it too representational and getting hung up on perspective. Plenty of felting fodder in there for future projects!

Looking back to move forward…

I was reminded recently, by another artist sharing her processes, of all the things I used to do to scratch that creative itch. Things like eco-printing, solar dying (that will have to wait for brighter, longer days!), quilting, stitching, printing…

With a slightly more relaxed approach to my art this year, I’m looking forward to hopefully trying some of these things again when time allows. They are all disciplines that can lead back into felting…but I think it will be nice to have a dabble just for fun! I already have a stitch/art quilt idea in mind, so I’m going to get that set up so that I can work on it in the evenings by the fire when it’s too cold to go into the studio.

Colour…

Another concept I want to try and fully ‘embrace’ is colour! I tend to reach for the same earthy palette when working, so I want to be braver and experiment with some brighter, contrasting colours. I am going to start a new sketchbook just for my abstract colour explorations; I have quite a collection of blank sketchbooks that I keep buying but never use - anyone else relate?? The colour project will be a bit out of my comfort zone, but I’m reminded how much fun I had making this semi-abstracted coastal piece and though it took a while for the finished work to grow on me because it was so different to my usual style, it now brings me a lot of joy when I look at it.

And finally…

I thought I’d leave you with a quote I heard recently which has stayed with me. With the world in which we currently live it seems more important than ever to continue to look for the good and never lose hope.

‘You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming’ (Pablo Neruda)

So, I’m ready to EMBRACE whatever this year has in store for me - if I make a little less art because life is more busy, I’m going to make sure I enjoy doing it and make it more about the process rather than the outcome. Who knows what that might be a springboard for in the future?

Do you have a ‘word of the year’? Do you find it useful?

Until next time, best wishes and stay curious…

Tanya xx

ps: I’m a little later publishing this than I planned as my 4g connection is super slow here whilst we’re without internet, so it’s taken longer than I thought to get pictures uploaded etc! I planned to have it out at the beginning of February…better late than never! Fingers crossed we’re reconnected soon! 🤞🏻

We have a couple of holiday cottages on our farm, so our Summers often drift past on a continual tide of laundry and cleaning. We’ve had an exceptionally dry Summer this year which has been great for our guests and also great for the turning around of all of bedlinen - there is something most satisfying about seeing the multiple loads of sheets and duvet covers blowing out on the washing line in the garden. It’s the simple things! As for the chore of ironing - a good podcast sees me through the pain of that one and I’ve shared a few that I listen to at the end of this post.

September has arrived in a flurry of rain showers, which are much needed after weeks of crisping lawns and wilting hydrangeas. There’s a definite change in the air, the leaves are already fluttering down from the trees and collecting in little drifts by the back door - and dare I say it but I have reached for some cosy knitwear and warmer socks!

Despite a busy working summer it’s been great to get out and enjoy the sunny weather. I’ve gathered some fabulous inspiration for my felting out walking along the coast and across the moor. The long spell of fine weather has meant dry footpaths which is always a bonus, especially up on the moorland.

A Walk Amongst the Heather…

About 20 minutes in the car from home will take you to a place far removed from the summer madness of St Ives town which can get overwhelmingly busy with visitors; so come with me to Penwith moor on one of our walks.

I’ve held no secret of the fact that I’m repeatedly drawn to the moors and there are times I question why when it is often featureless and bleak depending on the season.

I think there’s just something about the widening of the sky, the uncluttered view and the peacefulness of it. Space to breathe, think or even not to think; a place to feel grounded and return to yourself. Sometimes it’s misty, boggy and eerie and other times it is fine, colourful and alive with wildlife - you never quite know what you’re going to get until you get there!

Our August walk on a clear day found the moor in a gentle mood - softly clad in the pinks and mauves of heather, highlighted with sparks of gold from the gorse with the soothing, constant hum of bees working the sweet smelling flowers. The distant call of choughs could be heard, now a common sound in this part of the county thankfully.

‘Nut-smell of gorse and honey-smell of ling
Waft out to sea the freshness of the spring
On sunny shallows, green and whispering’   (John Betjeman)

Our route took us to Watchcroft, the highest point on Penwith moors, where you could see for miles and miles the mix of scrubland, granite outcrops, Cornish hedges, the patchwork of small agricultural fields, remote farmsteads and a tantalising glimpse of the sea.

We wandered from the high point down to the coast path which revealed a stunning stretch of cliffs, coves and turquoise waters. The path wound up and down until eventually reaching Portheras Cove which used to be more of a ‘secret beach’ before social media gave all the spoilers! It’s good to share I guess…

We enjoyed our packed lunch down on the sand watching the waves rolling in before retreating back inland, just as it was starting to get busy. As we climbed the valley away from the coast, it wasn’t long before it was utterly quiet once again and we didn’t see another soul for the rest of our walk.

The route then took us through farmland to eventually emerge back onto the moor at Chun Downs Nature Reserve. We walked past Chun Quoit which is a chambered barrow possibly dating back to 3500BC - how amazing is that, to lay your hands on something so ancient? It’s in a somewhat lonely location which makes it even more impressive and it sits just below the remains of an Iron Age hill fort (Chun Castle).

This 7 mile walk was a real tonic and I took so many photos of pathways and tracks through the heather which will provide some great art inspiration. Nature does it best of course, but I’m looking forward to gathering my wool fibres in all of those beautiful colours to try and capture a sense of the landscape we walked through on that day.

I’ve already made a little start with a bit of sketchbook play and a rough layout of fibres on my table…we’ll see how it goes!

I also have a little pile of pieces to finish, including the one below…I really mustn’t let that pile get too big but I’m always excited to start the next thing if you know what I mean?! I know I’m not alone in that, right?

Upcoming Exhibition…

September brings around a Prime Women Artists’ exhibition which I’m pleased to be involved with. I have three pieces showing, alongside work from 30 other artists, at a lovely gallery space at Truro High School for Girls. This is part of an ongoing collaboration with the school, hopefully helping to inspire female artists and creatives of the future.

The Prime exhibitions are always a feast for the eyes - we have some members of the group who are very talented at curating art on the walls of a gallery and this promises to be a varied and colourful show!

If you’re in the area, it would be great to see you there - different artists will be present each day and will always be happy to have an arty chat with visitors!

You can follow the Prime group on Instagram here or visit their website here.

Allotment news…

Despite such a dry summer, our allotment has not let us down with providing us with a steady supply of fruit, salads and vegetables. Embracing the ‘no dig’ way of growing has worked really well for us and I suspect has helped our crops over the summer drought period.

We’ve had a bumper crop of plums this year and our raspberries are just coming to an end but we are now busy harvesting the apples, which seem to be dropping early, as well as scouring the hedgerows for juicy blackberries.

Things I’ve Listened to…

I do love a podcast and I’ve enjoyed listening to the following - usually when ironing all that bedlinen I mentioned earlier!

An Art to It

Art Chatter

My Crafting Life

Textile Talk

Zuzu’s Haus of Cats Presents

Dig It

There are many more I dip in and out of, but that will do!

Something lovely I recently watched was an interview with super-talented Cornish artist Lou Tonkin - always interesting to hear an artist’s story and Lou’s art encapsulates our landscape so beautifully.

Until next time…

I should probably publish shorter posts more regularly, as I’m sure I’ve rambled on for too long, but I hope you enjoyed revisiting one of our walks with me and seeing the landscape that I’m so lucky to have on my doorstep.

Where do you get your art inspiration from? Do you have any Podcast/YouTube recommendations? Do leave a comment and let me know.

If you’re on Instagram, you can follow me here to see more of my feltmaking.

Best wishes

Tanya xx

Well, what can I say…May was, overall, rather marvellous! Sunshine, blue skies, turquoise seas, flowering hedgerows and flourishing gardens, all topped off with the constant buzzing of insects and trilling of birdsong.

The welcome warmth of the days seems to have shifted everything up a gear from the allotment and garden to the general ‘aliveness’ of nature. The garden has been a busy hive of activity for birds - we have wagtails, wrens, sparrows, blackbirds, woodpeckers, goldfinches…the list goes on and on. We have nesting robins in the flower border under an acer tree which is just so lovely - I didn’t realise until I was doing a bit of weeding and noticed a parent on the wall with a beak full of food eyeing me suspiciously. I quietly moved away and watched as it swooped down to an unseen nest and the unmistakable ‘peeping’ of baby birds. I’ve tried to stay clear of that area of the garden since, but have to pass the tree to get down to the garden gate and just a couple of days ago spotted a fledgling perched having a preen…I zoomed in as much as my camera phone would allow to capture that precious moment. Fingers crossed this little bird survives and flourishes.

During May, we picked a perfect day for a walk along the South West Coastpath from St Buryan to Penberth here in West Cornwall. Everything was in full colour - from bluebells and red clover to foxgloves and thrift against the turquoise waters in a cove.

No filters required…everything was already in High Definition. Nature does it best, that’s for sure!

Studio news…

We’ve been super busy outside and making the most of the fine weather, so felting opportunities have been sporadic. However, I did sign up for another Fiona Duthie online workshop to get my creative juices flowing again and learnt some new techniques. The idea of the course was to incorporate the surface designs into a vessel, but as my time was limited I decided to make a piece of sample felt to demonstrate some of the different methods.

Felting is so versatile, and the things that can be achieved never fail to amaze and inspire me. Just look at what you can do! Those textures and sculptural elements are so interesting and whilst not all of them would be used in my felted landscapes so boldly, subtle variations of them could certainly be utilised to great effect. I will be revisiting this course and maybe I’ll get around to making the vessel at some point this year!

Open Call Exhibition success!

At the end of April, I submitted three pieces to an Open Call Exhibition at the Mariners Gallery (St Ives Society of Artists). You had to physically hand the pieces in for consideration and I can remember now the drizzly morning of going down town to the gallery with my pictures wrapped up in a big Sports Direct Bag, clutching my entry form and waiting outside for it to open in a rapidly increasing queue of artists.

I’ll be honest, I almost bailed; I almost turned tail and scuttled away because I suddenly really doubted myself and my inner critic was literally saying:

“Who do you think you are? Do you honestly think they’re going to choose some felted pictures to hang in this amazing gallery space???”

Anyway, I was saved by the kindness of an artist in front of me in the queue - we started a conversation and she gave me the encouragement I needed to stay. I don’t think she realised that she did that for me, but the gentle act of a smile and a few words went a long way. So I did shuffle in, hand over my work and my money and made a hasty retreat before someone called me out for not being a ‘real artist’.

I’ve decided to name that nagging, negative voice Nora, so that I can tell her to be quiet and go away…

I submitted work to this open call with absolutely no expectation of being accepted - I even kept my Sports Direct bag by the back door ready to go and collect my rejected work a couple of days later. Why did I apply in the first place? It was on my list of things to try for this year and the gallery that usually has my work to sell has been closed for some time for a refurbishment, so even with nagging Nora in my ear, what did I have to lose, right?

I’m so glad I entered my work, because amazingly all three got accepted - up yours Nora! You could have knocked me down with a feather (or a Sports Direct bag)! I was happy with the pieces I submitted but I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea (but that’s the same for any art isn’t it?) so it was great to have the opportunity to have them hang in a fabulous space alongside such a diverse and exciting array of art. The exhibition has been on throughout May and will finish on 13th June - what a wonderful thing to be a part of.

This is me looking slightly awkward at the Private View (anyone else hate posing for photos??) - the picture, interestingly enough, was taken by the artist who spoke to me in the queue on submission day! We had another, lovely conversation at the opening and the artist is Stephanie Sandercock; you can find her on Instagram or her website - she uses fascinating processes in her work, so do go and check her out.

So, a happy ending…and the moral of this story? JUST DO THE THING!!

More felting…

Returning to the walk I did along the coast path, the colours of the foxgloves and the turquoise water inspired me to make a piece of felt - it was fun to make and is a bit different for me. It’s not a realistic scene; I did some sketchbook play first remembering the cove, the stones below the surface of the clear water and the many steps we went down to reach it - so it ended up quite abstract but I went with it…

Using wool fibres, silks and fabrics and then wet felting them all together it’s created a really bright and, I hope, joyful piece which reflects some of the memories of my walk; a sense of place.

Other than that, I’ve continued with my observations of the landscape around the farm and my sketchbook is slowly filling with different composition ideas. As a result I created this piece ‘Field Day’:

…and I have another piece on my table waiting to be finished with needle felting and stitch to add some more detail, depth and interest. The earthy tones are back!!

So May has come and gone…I can’t seem to keep up with the months. It’s a cliche I know, but this year is truly flying by. I guess that is what happens when you’re busy, but it would be nice to press pause occasionally just so that my mind can catch up!

If you’ve got this far, thank you for reading - it would be great if you would subscribe and leave a comment; it’s always lovely to connect and have a chat. Maybe you can relate to things in this post - it would be lovely to hear your stories.

Best wishes

Tanya x

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Sunday 9th March was a beautiful bright day following a much welcomed dry spell after a very wet, Cornish winter. On this day, as I looked out of our landing window, I noticed that the plough had made its first tentative lengths of the field behind our house. It was a perfect ‘weather window’ to get things done. It kind of marked a feeling that a season of change was just beginning and reminded me of how much of our married life was spent working around these ‘weather windows’ when we were farming this land.

I didn’t come from a farming background (I didn’t even own a pair of wellies) and I was perhaps a little naive to what I had in store, but it’s true that farming is definitely a way of life rather than a job. Looking back I would like to think that I transitioned readily and enthusiastically from town mouse to country mouse. I would have a go at anything and over the years my ‘CV’ built up to include roles ranging from accountant/secretary through to herdswoman and everything in between. Mind reading was also a skill required being married to a Farmer and one I had to develop quickly! We’re still happily married nearly 29 years later so I guess we must have made a good team! We still work together on managing the farm and we’re still very much in tune with the farming calendar…and still check the forecast at least twice a day out of habit!

The weather forecast was like an extra member of our family - constantly checking in with it before making family plans that didn’t clash with the perfect ‘weather window’ to plough, drill corn, start the harvest or turn out cattle. We didn’t do anything without first consulting with the weather forecast and it often caused stress and woe. We could be waiting weeks sometimes for the weather to dry up to get started in the fields, or there could be a crop of perfectly ripe barley standing ready to be harvested, only to be subjected to a bashing from an untimely spell of heavy rain and strong winds, knocking the grains off onto the ground - much to the delight of an ever present pack of pigeons poised in the trees ready to swoop in and peck away at our profit margin!

Of course, the farming ideal would be for some rain in one field, but not the other! Alas, the weather was always in charge of our working life.

However, when the ‘weather window’ came right it was full steam ahead, the mood would lighten and the forecast became our friend once again. From first to last light, my husband would grab every viable farming minute of a day - I would pack up food and walk out to the field with the children so we could all spend a short spell together to have a quick bite of lunch before he drove on. If ever our children needed to see what a work ethic was, they would only need to look at their dad, even if it was a little extreme at some points of the year. I think they were lucky to grow up here on the farm though it was probably lost on them at the time - they had a certain freedom and a simple outdoor life - I don’t think they missed out too much not going away on holidays as in my mind they had things money couldn’t buy. Of course, they may view it very differently!

Anyway, I have digressed slightly - I could probably write a book about the ups and downs of our farming life!

Back to that recent March day when I spotted the plough in our field reminding me of the importance of ‘weather windows’ within the farming calendar.

Now, looking through the eyes of an artist rather than just a farmer’s wife, I notice the wonderful contrasts in the field between the freshly ploughed earth and the fallow ground. The bright white of the huge flock of seagulls following in the wake of the tractor, quite literally having a ‘field day’ on the snacks being brought up to the surface of the land.

Agriculture shapes much of the land around us, and the tractor creates interesting shapes and patterns as they work - whether it be the plough, or the rows of cut silage or straw - and that design element of the landscape really appeals to me.

My usual muse for artwork is up on the moor and though it would be so lovely to be wafting around amongst the wild heather and gorse with my camera and sketchbook every day, that is mostly neither feasible or practical alongside the day job.

So I’m looking closer to home - I am so lucky to be surrounded by countryside and I’m hoping to come up with some felted landscape ideas based around the changes in the fields around me during the seasons. The colours, patterns, textures will be a great starting point for interesting compositions. I’ve been searching through my photos that I’ve taken over recent years around the farm, some of which I’ve shared in this post.

I have previously used some farm views as inspiration and I’ve always been pleased with the outcomes. It also fits in quite well with how my work has been changing more towards a ‘design’ style where the landscape has been slightly abstracted and simplified.

So, I’m taking more photos and the sketchbook is out on the table to get some basic ideas down, playing with composition and contrast. Maybe it will be an interesting record of the farming calendar and all of those ‘weather windows’ of activity. It’s just good to have a focus for the moment after a period of feeling a little lost with my art…maybe that’s a seasonal thing too. Everything I’ve been making lately seems to have ‘failed’ somewhat - but of course it’s not failure, it’s a lesson and with every lesson hopefully improvements will be made. It’s just telling yourself that isn’t it? However, the process is so enjoyable even if the outcome isn’t something you particularly want to share or sell. The act of making the art is so therapeutic, it’s a really wonderful way to switch off and disappear for a while. I won’t be giving that up any time soon!

So the ‘weather window’ theme will rumble on throughout the year… with an occasional smattering of moorland joy which I doubt I will be able to resist!

The plough is out again today…in a few weeks I wonder if the first cut of silage will happen creating all those dynamic green stripes in the field?

I will have to keep an eye on the forecast…

Thanks for reading - I will be leaning on farm gates on a regular basis this year to really take notice and hopefully some art will come out of it!

Over the last few weeks, I have noticed the first skylark song, the more persistent drumming of the greater spotted woodpeckers as well as the unmistakable laughing ‘yaffle’ of the green woodpecker as they feed on ants on the grassy banks. It really does feel like a season of change for more than just the farmer and my art practice!

What are you being inspired by at the moment? Are you coming out of an ‘art hibernation’? Do you get inspired by what’s on your doorstep?

Until next time…

Tanya

I’m sure any creatives out there find themselves regularly in a state of total chaos in their workspace. Whilst the time I have to do my beloved felting is limited around the day job, when I do get around to it it has sometimes been a struggle to set up efficiently in my studio (aka the spare room) amongst all the ‘stuff’. I had everything in that one room from my felting supplies, to my collection of books, to my paints, sketchbooks, sewing machine etc etc etc. At times when I was trying to do felting and work on sketchbooks simultaneously, the room would look like a creative bomb had exploded and it would feel a very claustrophobic space in which to work. Consequently, I found it difficult to do anything without being distracted - or tripping over something!

This spare room was a huge improvement to where I began many years ago ensconced in the shoe cupboard under the stairs with a tiny table and a few needle felting supplies. Wet felting would be done on the kitchen table and have to be cleared away in time for meal times - such a faff and wool fibres everywhere, even in the dinner!! After a while I did then promote myself to a small box room upstairs, and then once our children had grown and flown the nest I moved into a slightly larger bedroom where I could keep my wools and do my felting in one area. Like most artists, I craved a bigger space in which I could felt and lay out my materials.

We live in an old, family farmhouse and there is a room that is closed off from the main house that hasn’t been touched for decades. There is peeling wallpaper from the 50’s or earlier, walls and a ceiling in need of serious attention, no heating and it was full of inherited ‘junk’. We’ve lived here for over 25 years and have done a few things to update the interior of the house on a budget, but couldn’t justify the cost of doing up this long neglected room which doesn’t really flow from the main house (we call the room ‘in next-door’) despite us often thinking it would make an amazing bedroom. However, we did replace its large decaying window with double glazing and there doesn’t appear to be any recent damp issues.

I’ve been visiting this room recently, and seeing it as a potential space to set up as a dedicated felting area. I don’t feel the need to decorate it; the walls and plasterwork give it a somewhat ‘wabi-sabi’ feel and the large window gives some good natural light in which to work.

After a bit of procrastination I have re-arranged and sorted the ‘junk’ in the room and created a space centrally in which to put a new felting table. I have moved in my shelves which house all my wool fibres, silks and yarns as well as my original, small felting table to utilise as a surface to lay out materials. I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to have the space and a table that I can walk all the way around - heck I can dance around it if I felt like it! Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty chilly in there at the moment and can’t justify heating the space, so I may need to wear an extra layer or two, but that’s a small price to pay to have a dedicated felting area.

Excuse the decor!!

My only expense was buying a new table which is 6 feet long and has adjustable height. The height of the table will make a huge difference to the physical aspect of felting, and as someone with a dodgy shoulder that alone is a real positive. The length of the table will also enable me to work larger or on multiples and as I now have space all the way around to walk (or skip 😁) this will make laying out fibres much easier.

This means my original spare room feels much calmer with a desk for writing and a space to work on sketchbooks or sewing…and you can see the floor!!

My head has also cleared along with the clutter it would seem!

I’ve rearranged my ‘room’ countless times to try to make it work better for me and whilst I’m fortunate to have ‘in next door’ available to shift my felting into, I will no doubt rearrange some more in the future!

Are you currently trying to make your creative space work better for you or are you trying to overcome creative blocks? I wonder if it’s the approaching Spring that’s making me feel like sorting out, decluttering and rearranging…I’ve been the same with the rest of the house, wanting to change and freshen up areas. One step at a time…I’ll settle for my dedicated felting space for the moment!

Work in Progress…

I’m not usually one that spends a lot of time in sketchbooks, but whilst I have been sorting out the new felting space I have really enjoyed working on a concertina sketchbook and subsequently different sized papers.

Predictably, my inspiration came from my walks on the Cornish moors, looking back on photos and using them as a starting point; then adding in some of my own walking memories. I always seem to be drawn back to the pathways and shapes within the landscape - I’m slightly obsessed by the swoop of bright green which seems to keep featuring in my sketches! Can you spot it in one of my photos below?

It was actually lovely to sit down and do some collage, splash around some inks and paint and completely lose myself to the process without worrying too much about the outcome. The upside is that the outcome has in fact provided inspiration to get felting.

Note to self: do more sketchbooking for fun!

I want to use some of these page spreads as a springboard to felting, so now that my table is set up I’ve made a start laying out my ‘blank canvas’ of wool. I want to try and limit my colour palette and create more quiet areas in the composition - I am aware that I can easily get carried away whilst felting and throw too much of everything at it, so I’m going to have to exercise some self control!! And I know I’ve mentioned it already, but it’s so lovely to now have space around the table to work more freely - having this dedicated area is really helping to focus my attention!

I’m currently sorting through fibres, fabrics and yarns as well as trialling with blending some new colours and getting a firm idea of how to proceed.

Will I exercise self control and stick to my limited palette and composition? Will I lose my mind and throw all techniques known to man at one picture and end up with a piece that looks like I tried too hard? Time will tell…hopefully I can share my progress with you soon.

So, that’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing creatively…not much felting going on, but a project is now on my new table so that’s a good start to what I’m hoping will be a much more enjoyable process ‘in next door’, even though I’ll need an extra jumper, thicker socks and maybe a bobble hat to keep warm!

Thanks for reading - feel free to drop a comment, it’s always lovely to chat x

Tanya x

We had a lovely Christmas - the first one we’ve had away from home and the first when I haven’t had to cook the Christmas Day lunch! We were invited to spend a few days with our daughter and her boyfriend in Gloucestershire; we were very spoiled and they made sure we didn’t lift a finger whilst we were there. Lots of delicious home cooked food, great company, lots of laughs and a misty Boxing Day walk in the Forest of Dean to work off some of that turkey and cheese! We returned home to Cornwall with bulging bellies and warm hearts and feeling very loved; just what was needed after what’s been a funny sort of year with one thing and another.

It felt like a real break for Christmas and I subsequently heard the phrase ‘Power in the Pause’ in a podcast I was listening to the other day which made me take note. The interview was one of many you can find where an expert shares their wisdom on ways to make your life better/easier/calmer blah blah blah. They kind of all blend into one, but I do quite like to have them on in the background with the hope that some of the advice might rub off on me! That phrase did strike a chord with me though, especially after saying yes to time away from the farm to spend such precious time with family.

There is indeed power in a pause - there’s power in taking a breath and relishing time in a moment which might otherwise be lost if you didn’t pay attention. I don’t know what your head is like, but mine is usually operating with ‘too many tabs open’. The past year had unavoidable, periodic pauses in my art practice…and I have to say it wasn’t always a bad thing. Once I’d got over the frustration, I became better at the acceptance of things that are out of my control and also improved my ability to switch off from external noise and pressures, although that one took much longer and is still a work in progress. Pressing pause on social media on a regular basis really helped with that, particularly when I wasn’t able to get to my felting table for a long time with a shoulder injury. It’s too easy to feel like you’re failing when you see what everyone else is doing.

The pause over Christmas also gave me an opportunity to rediscover some other creative outlets…

UFO’s

Whilst doing a bit of a sort out and tidy up of my creative space, I came upon a number of long discarded, unfinished projects. These UFO’s (unfinished objects) included a quilt, a wall hanging and some dress making patterns cut out. The quilt had been put to one side because I made a mistake and felt annoyed with it and myself; the wall hanging wasn’t finished because I hadn’t planned HOW I’d finish it and couldn’t make a decision and the dress making just never really got going, maybe for the fear that my lack of experience would result in a failure.

Whenever I’ve had time to be creative over the last few years, I have always focussed on my felting but looking at these other projects reminded me how much I used to love quilting and making little wall hangings and how much I’d always wanted to be able to make my own clothes. Felting is quite a time-consuming affair - it’s difficult to just do a little bit and then leave it for a few days if I only have short windows of time available. I used to to do all sorts of things alongside my felting ventures when I first started out; eco printing, quilting, gelli plate printing, fabric collage, solar dyeing and sewing. Most of these can be picked up and put down as and when you have time, particularly the hand stitching and quilting.

Dedicating time and practice to felting has been invaluable in improving my skill level, but I think I need to come back to some of these other things to re-introduce variety into my creative time.

I have already ironed out my discarded quilt top, figured out and corrected the mistake I made two years ago (!) and I’m determined to finish it so that it can be used and enjoyed in its intended place on the spare bed. As I’ve been piecing this together it has made me wonder whether quilting could be incorporated into my felting…*ping* already another tab has opened in my brain! Maybe I could use some of that eco-dyed fabric I have in my stash??!! I find quilting relaxing and hand stitching can be quite meditative and whilst in the flow of doing that all sorts of ideas can pop up that may not have done otherwise. Perhaps a gentle pause from felting and revisiting some of these projects and processes will act as a springboard for new, exciting ideas for my feltwork. I already have a list of ‘what ifs’ for felting - I think that might start to expand!

The unfinished wall hanging has now been completed except for a hanger of some sort - I’m thinking of a natural twig to thread through the top slot if I can find the right one. This was made using an ‘art tea towel’ with a design by Angela Harding. It’s not the first time I’ve been creative with a tea towel - if you’ve followed me for a while, you might remember this hare wall hanging I made using a tea towel designed by Mrs Bertimus. I cut out and appliquéd the hare onto a vintage french tea towel and then used some eco printed fabrics for the hexagon quilted area. I made this during the first COVID lockdown in 2020 and I was so happy with how it turned out - did you have a creative lockdown project?

As for the dress making, I am going to have a go. I have a couple of ‘easy’ patterns, but maybe I’ll do a trial with an old bedsheet to practice! I’ve seen some amazing clothes made using second hand duvet covers, table cloths and curtains - maybe that’s what I should try rather than using precious and expensive new fabrics! I did make myself a dress many years ago when I was heavily pregnant and couldn’t find anything nice to wear to a wedding, so I know I can do it really, but for some reason the fear factor is well and truly there!

The idea of combining quilting and felting made a little appearance in a piece I made over the weekend…I used some paper hexagons within the design. This isn’t finished yet, it still needs tidying up and finessing; I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with the result so far. However, I’m keen to try subtly incorporating quilted cottons into felt somehow so I’m looking forward to experimenting with that idea. I might discard this piece and try again…or maybe I can try improving this piece first so that it doesn’t become yet another unfinished object!

So taking a pause from felting to work on some other creative projects has been really nice and has indeed inspired some new ideas to try.

Taking a pause can be useful in all aspects of life…whether it’s for a heartbeat before you say something or for a day, month or even a year from whatever is negatively impacting your wellbeing. I guess a pause is needed in the first place to give you space to recognise what you need a break from.

Mind full vs Mindful

I think I’m rambling, but in a world where we’re constantly bombarded with so much information, advice, news and views, I think it can only be a good thing to occasionally press the pause button and take a moment to reflect on what is going on in our own life, mind and body.

What about you…?

So, do you have any unfinished projects festering in a drawer somewhere? Let me know in the comments - I know I can’t be alone in having a pile of lost intentions!

It feels good to have got some of my UFO’s completed and it’s been a positive start to my New Year. I’m looking forward to not only more felting exploration, but also to making time to do other creative projects - variety is supposed to be the spice of life after all?!

Thanks for reading.

Tanya xx

Not so this year with family and health taking priority and saying ‘no’ to things I was afraid to commit to…but that’s life isn’t it? A constant rollercoaster of ups and downs and round and rounds; keeps us on our toes I guess!! It’s easy to get a bit giddy about the ‘good year’ but of course not all years can be the same. As self employed farmers, I ought to have this ingrained in me!

I can either view this year as a failure in my art practice, or I can look at what I set out to do at the beginning of this year and acknowledge that the few creative endeavours I have managed have been completely in line with my intention of spending time exploring and experimenting with my felting. So it’s not all bad!

Every picture and sample made has incorporated ‘trying something new or different’; whether that has been implementing the new skills acquired via an online course or experimenting using my list of ‘What if…’ ideas to try. Below is one of my favourite samples made during the Fiona Duthie online course back in January…there are so many surface design elements that could be incorporated into a landscape felting. It’s been good to look back over these and remind myself of their potential in my work.

I’ve also been sampling different papers and ink within felting…I’m really liking the idea of taking this a bit further.

So, as the winter months arrive I am gathering my thoughts (and materials!) and continuing with the idea of exploration; there is still so much more to try, the list will never end! One of my ‘what ifs’ is to dig out my Gelli printing plate to see whether I can use that to create interesting marks that can be incorporated into the felt. Complete disasters or successes may ensue, but you don’t know until you try!

Looking at the new work I’ve managed to complete this year, I can see that I am subtly veering towards a more design/semi-abstract way of felting. I have moved away from trying to recreate a scene representationally and I am often noticing shapes within the landscape and using those as stronger design elements within a composition. This is in contrast to trying to get all the details and often getting too tight with my work which took some of the joy away from the process for me.

‘Noticing what you are noticing’ when out and about has been a bit of a lightbulb moment for me - stopping and spending time to really look at a landscape until something catches your eye. It could be the directional pattern of fencing across the fields, or subtle shapes within the land where bracken meets granite, or a swoop of acid green grass against a darkening sky. All of these individual ‘snapshots’ of the landscape can then be used to create an interesting composition of shapes, colours and lines. I’m not sure I’ll ever be entirely abstract, I think there will always be a strong sense of landscape, but there are no rules as to how you rearrange reality to make a pleasing piece of art. I have work to do on this, but it’s given me a direction to move forward in to hone things down, simplify and try to project a sense of a complete journey I have walked rather than one realistic viewpoint.

One particular shape that I love is the holed stone at Men an Tol. It has cropped up before in some of my older felted landscapes, but I can feel it creeping in again, like in the one above. There’s something very pleasing about a circular shape and I feel sure that this will appear subtly in future pieces as a nod towards the ancient standing stones on the Penwith Moors.

The Cornish landscape is still the biggest pull for inspiration, although I also have a few still life ideas swirling around too, just to shake things up a bit. Taking my own photos of flowers from the garden in some of my favourite pots and jugs as a starting point, I’m already wondering how I can use some of the new ideas and techniques I have experimented with to create interesting surface design and texture.

So, I shall not dwell on what I didn’t do in 2024 and instead I will continue to take little steps forward, working my way through the many ideas I have. I may not be a prolific maker but I’m feeling much more relaxed about that fact. It may be that that will not change greatly in the future but as long as I answer the call to be creative whenever I can around family and work, then that will be enough. I don’t need to keep up with anyone else, I’m resisting the compare and despair mindset - I’m meeting myself where I am at.

So, here’s to getting back to the work table whenever I can and continuing to gradually tick off some of those things on my list of ‘What ifs’. Staying curious is the theme…who knows where things might lead?

I hope this year has been kind to you and I offer up my best wishes for the Christmas season to anyone that has read this far - have you got your tree up yet? As I type this the wind is picking up outside and Storm Darragh is on its way with predicted gales of up to 70mph tomorrow - so once we’ve done our outdoor jobs first thing with the animals, I think tomorrow will be the perfect day to stay in, stay warm, put some Christmas music on (cue Mariah!) and get the decorations up.

See you in 2025!

Tanya

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Our week away in wonderful Wales already seems an age ago, but it was a much needed break away that we weren’t sure was even going to happen a few weeks back.

It all turned out ok in the end and we had a really restorative time away. I took a sketchbook away with me, but I didn’t even take it out of my bag…I was happy to just ‘be’ for a week.

I’d love to share our walks with you, so read on if you’d like to experience a bit of Wales!

Walking for miles…

We chased waterfalls, meandered along beautiful rivers, strode out across moorland and climbed hills and ridges.

The weather was mixed, but we went prepared with waterpoofs and didn’t let a bit of rain stop us from exploring the wonderful landscape.

We stayed in a ‘perfect for two’ cottage on a remote sheep farm in the Brecon Beacons, or Bannau Brycheiniog as it should be referred to now.

Our first day we walked across moorland from Ystradfellte. It was an atmospheric landscape, littered with limestone boulders and interestingly part of the walk followed a well preserved old Roman road, Sarn Helen, which linked South and North Wales.

When the rain and mist cleared there were wonderful views across the valley of the River Neath…we even came across a Standing stone (Maen Madoc).

We didn’t see another soul for the entirety of this walk…but we were thrilled to have the company of circling red kites. I couldn’t really capture them with the phone camera, but we were happy to just stand quietly and observe them in their natural environment.

Our second day we ventured on a 10 mile waterfalls walk. It was quite strenuous but was quite wonderful at the same time. The first part of the walk was part of the more popular tourist trail, although not too busy thankfully, to see the 4 main waterfalls, but the second part was a much quieter riverside walk. We had to walk behind the impressive Sgwd yr Eira waterfall to continue with our circular walk which was a bit of a thrill! Lots of up and down paths, rather a lot of mud and stream crossing and we ended the day with tired legs but full hearts…and grateful for a hot cup of tea when we got back to our cottage!

Our third day was a ‘good weather’ day, so we went to Llyn y Fan Fach to do a circular walk up high for some views…and wow, what a walk! Possibly my favourite from the week with a steep climb to the top of a ridge which rewarded us with amazing views along the sweeping, craggy escarpments and beyond. The steep slopes were dotted with death-defying sheep (see if you can spot them in the photos!) and there were plenty of red kite sightings.

It was a vertiginous hike along the ridge and the breeze had a cold bite to it - luck would have it there was a stone circular shelter on top that we hunkered down behind to have our packed lunch with a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside. We couldn’t have picked a better day for this walk - and it was a bonus that we didn’t need to wear waterproof trousers!

Our fourth day and the forecast was for heavy rain in the afternoon, so we set off in good time in the morning for an 8 mile walk across Mynydd Illtud and Cefn Llechid. This took us across common land, farmland and wooded valleys; along sunken paths lined with rowan trees dripping in red berries and old, grassy drove roads. Once again, we didn’t see anyone else on this walk…maybe it was a quieter time of year, or maybe we were wise in our choice of walks!

One section cut across marshland near a farm and I was pleasantly surprised at how many swallows there were, swooping and diving like daredevil stunt planes feeding on the wing. The swallows at home on our farm in West Cornwall had already left on their migratory travels before our trip to Wales so it was lovely to have an extended chance to watch them perform their impressive aerial acrobatics - such incredible birds.

A bow across the sky
Another in the river,
Whence swallows upward fly,
Like arrows from a quiver.

(Archery
by John B. Tabb)

Across the common, bracken had been cut into rows, possibly ready for baling. There were sheep around every corner, as you might imagine and we saw more red kites at closer quarters on this day, circling silently with their distinctive forked tail constantly adjusting their trajectory like a rudder - fabulous! We walked by many remote farms with views out across the valley - we imagined how challenging it must be living in some of these places in the midst of winter.

We were within a mile of finishing our walk when the heavy rain arrived - and of course we were on high ground with little shelter; great timing! However, we quickly whipped on our waterproof trousers and marched on, heads into the wind and rain along the final stretch.

What’s the saying? There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing?

Our fifth day and the weather forecast had changed from bright to pretty bad so we decided to postpone our final walk and have a quieter day. We drove into Brecon town and had a mooch…and no trip away is complete without me purchasing some pottery which I bought from the Found Gallery. I do have a bit of a weakness for jugs and may need to put up some more shelving at home to accommodate my growing collection, but I’m very happy with my Nick Membery vessel (though I’m sure I saw my hubby raise his eyebrows when I picked it out as if to say…”Another jug??”). I could have a worse addiction!

Our final day and the weather played ball so we could do a circular walk taking in the Brecon Beacons Horseshoe which includes the three main peaks of Cribyn, Pen y Fan and Corn Du.

The drive to our starting point was along a long, winding, narrow single track road with high hedges and with literally no passing places - I think I held my breath all the way!! Luckily, we got away without meeting another vehicle!

We began the walk in sunshine and the steady climb up gave us wonderful views of the peaks ahead. However, just as we neared the top of Pen y Fan, the mist rolled in with drizzle and the wind picked up…we could hardly see 20 feet ahead of us. We pushed on to the summit where it was blowing a hooley with a biting wind…but determined to get ‘the view’ we waited around for 5 minutes to see if the mist would clear. It did clear momentarily…just long enough to see the amazing vista before us before the fog shrouded us once again. It was so windy as we walked between Pen y Fan and Corn Du; I was sure I was going to get blown off the hillside like an empty crisp packet!

As the path dropped down below the level of mist, the fine weather gradually returned and we had a very enjoyable walk down the valley to pass a lake nestled within its own natural amphitheater where there were a group of ponies stood like stone statues, backs to the wind. Further down we found a most agreeable picnic spot on a fallen tree with views back up toward the peaks with a couple of waterfalls and again, circling red kites to watch. Our walk continued riverside…very peaceful and a wonderful end to our week of walking in Wales.

Although it wasn’t quite the end of our break - we made a diversion on the way home to visit our daughter and her boyfriend, which was quite fortuitous as she had just heard on our final day in Wales that she had been successful with a job interview! Hooray! It’s been a long summer of applying for jobs after finishing her Masters degree in Physiotherapy but all that hard work and interview experience has led to a role as a Paediatric Physiotherapist which is a job she’s really looking forward to starting.

It was so lovely to be there with them to help celebrate.

Well done Jenna; so well deserved and we’re so proud…and relieved!!

Grounding and gratitude

Momentarily back to Wales, there is something about these big open landscapes that not only never fail to inspire me but to also ground me. It struck me stood on top of a mountain, looking out across this beautiful landscape, that this is really what it’s all about. We are, after all, part of nature and it’s so important to make efforts to stay connected with the natural world. A mountain, or vast moorland, makes you feel like a speck of dust, insignificant, which of course in reality is what we are!

I kind of despair of us humans as a species sometimes…but in a world tainted with turmoil and horror, I am wholly grateful that I live where I live and that we have the freedom to take a little holiday to Wales and appreciate this fabulous place. It’s easy to take it all for granted. How lucky are we?

I’d also like to take a moment to show gratitude to my 52 year old body - it’s been 15 years since we last walked in the Brecon Beacons and despite carrying a little extra weight now and having numerous body image hang-ups as I get older, my body served me well walking for miles day after day, climbing up, climbing down and climbing over without complaint. I should give my body more credit than I do; maybe concentrate more on what it can do for me rather than what it looks like!

Practicing gratitude is so important…I’m generally a very ‘cup half full’ sort of person but there are always times when you have to stop, acknowledge and remind yourself of the positive things you have in your life.

Our trip to Wales certainly gave us the time and headspace to do exactly that after what’s been a bit of a whirlwind of a summer.

Do you practice gratitude? What are you most grateful for today?

If you got this far, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed reliving some of my recent journey through Wales!

Best wishes

Tanya xx

I want to start with a note about the passing of time. I last posted here in April, and I’m genuinely so surprised at how long it’s been…is it just me or are the months passing by like weeks? And now it’s September - Summer’s long farewell.

Life has been busy over recent months. Life is rarely linear is it, but rather than bore you with all the ups and downs of my summer, I think this diagram sums it up quite well!!

However, just because I haven’t made much art doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about art. It’s a constant and I’m looking forward to working on some ideas very soon!

As we’re moving through September, I’m reminded of how much I love this time of year…the change in the air, the shifting colours and textures of the landscape. This is the season that really captures my imagination.

Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul... but I must confess that I love you only because you are a prelude to my beloved October.
                  
(Peggy Toney Horton)

Visiting my muse…

The moor; it’s been on my mind recently. It’s like a gnawing feeling that I can’t shake off; I’ve needed to visit…I’ve needed a fix.

At the weekend I grabbed the chance to take off on a solo walk up on Penwith Moor (Cornwall). I love the occasional walk on my own…I can meander, pause, notice, take photos (many photos!) and think quietly.

I thought I’d share my walk with you along with just a few of the photos I took as a nice way to restart my blog here on Substack.

Some might argue that I could have picked a better day to go…it had been raining and there was a thick sea mist which had crept inland to envelop the landscape in a damp, grey cloak.

It was like a church to me.
I entered it on soft foot,
Breath held like a cap in the hand.
It was quiet.

(Excerpt from ‘The Moor’ by R S Thomas)

The usual landmarks were invisible to me as I walked the paths amongst the bracken, heather and gorse…it was wonderfully eerie and atmospheric. Where I would normally look out over far reaching vistas of moorland and a patchwork of fields towards the sea, my field of vision was limited to 20 feet ahead. The imposing granite outcrop of Carn Galver and the minehouse at Ding Dong were close by and yet they hid, silently, in the mist.

Sounds and colours had been dampened and muted by the shroud of fog and looking out at the landscape there was no horizon, just a fade to grey. The occasional mournful bellow of unseen cattle added to the overall ominous mood. I felt totally enveloped - everything had closed in around me. It was very beautiful in its own way and at the same time quite disconcerting.

Every time I visit the moor, it offers up something different and I never tire of it nor fail to be inspired.

There were close encounters with ponies grazing along the footpath and conversations with strangers as I chatted to a couple of other walkers who spookily appeared like shadows through the gloom. The scene and atmosphere would have more suited a tale of ghouls and ghosts and there was definitely a momentary tension of wondering whose footsteps were coming towards me - but the gradual appearance of brightly coloured pack-a-macs, smiles and a friendly little dog calmed my imagination somewhat! No headless horsemen thankfully!!

It would have been easy to take the wrong path without the usual landmarks to go by, but thankfully I reached my destination; the standing stones, Nine Maidens, looked magnificently mysterious veiled in mist. Likewise, the hulk of the old minehouse took on a whole new, more foreboding, persona on that day.

Although subdued by the mist, the colour pops of heather and gorse brought life and light to an otherwise bleak outlook and the bracken is slowly starting to change hue from green to bronze.

I walked on the moor for over two hours, drinking it all in and my cup of inspiration has been filled. I’m so glad I visited my beloved moor despite the weather and I returned to my car with muddy boots, wet hair and damp clothes but with a clear head and a heart full of gratitude.

I’d love to try and capture some of what I felt and saw on this walk in my work - I’m already sorting out some fibres that I might use. It will be great to get back to my felting table…although there is that little fear of whether I can remember what to do after a prolonged break away from it! All I need to do is start and hopefully the rest will follow. I guess I should also start posting on social media again, as I gave that a bit of a rest over recent weeks…although I have to say, it’s been rather nice to have a break from it, I’d highly recommend!

So here’s hoping I can find my rhythm again over the coming days and weeks to use my moorland walk as a starting point for some new work.

Do you have a place that regularly calls you? A place you go for peace and inspiration? Let me know in the comments. Isn’t it amazing what time in the landscape can do for us…I mustn’t leave it so long next time.

Best wishes

Tanya x

I recently completed this felted picture which came from some very random inspirations. I was a bit stuck a few weeks back, short of time but had a creative itch to scratch and I hadn’t had the right opportunities to go out and explore the landscape as I normally would in order to gather new ideas.

As a keen gardener (keen in enthusiasm rather than skill!) and allotment keeper, I was looking through our seed packets to see what we had left over from last year and what we might need to buy. It was a rainy day, one of many rainy days that we have had recently, and subconciously I was probably yearning for sunnier and warmer times when we could sow seeds, plant potatoes and make a real start on growing our food once again.

A tatty, opened packet of Billy Button seeds caught my eye and I remembered these amazing plants from last summer that I had brought on from seed. They’re super cute little golden globes on tall thin stems - their official name being ‘Craspedia Globosa’ , although I much prefer their nickname!

The picture of these jolly little plants, like sunshine on sticks, gave me a little jolt of inspiration. This, together with admiring the wonderful pottery of Laura Lane on instagram during an evening scroll, began the formation of a picture in my mind.

The fresh colours of yellow and blue just sang ‘summer’ to me, and yellow always looks great beside purple so that became a part of the palette too.

So where did the blueberries come from? Honestly? I was thinking of a catchy title for the picture before I started felting it and I made some composition sketches and thought ‘Billy Buttons and……’

well,

‘…the Blueberries’ just tripped off my tongue! The bonus being that blueberries would tie in nicely with the colour palette…so why not!?

‘Billy Buttons and the Blueberries’ may well sound like the name of an unknown band from the 60’s, but it made me smile and so it stuck.

Here are a few photos of the process of making this piece. I made prefelts for the more defined shapes, I included other fibres besides wool like viscose and sari silk and I used wool yarn for the stripes. I also decided to add french knots - many french knots - to the golden globes to give that bit of extra surface texture. Yes, that was a great idea which took way too long, but never mind, I think it was worthwhile! This piece was an opportunity to test a few techniques at the same time as creating a finished picture, so I also learnt along the way too.

So the point of this post is…?

Well, I guess it’s just to acknowledge that creative inspiration can literally be found anywhere, even from a packet of seeds, and that art/creativity doesn’t have to be anything deep or meaningful and it doesn’t have to say anything particularly important…it can just be playful. If it gives you a bit of joy then it’s completely valid to take that little spark and create some art. Likewise, if the art you produce gives someone else a bit of joy, well that’s a win win!

I feel like the finished piece is light and airy, reminiscent of summer days and there’s also lots of quiet interest in the background that make you look a little bit closer. It wasn’t created from ‘real life’ - I didn’t set up that composition in front of me to work from (although I’d love to own one of Laura’s vases one day!), I just took elements of real inspiration and used my imagination to put them together in my own way. That’s what they call artistic licence isn’t it? I’m pretty happy with the end result, I think it’s successful in its simplicity and I love the ever so slightly wonky, jaunty effect the felting process has given to the vase - just need to frame it up now.

So while you’re out walking, or even if you’re rummaging in your cupboards, don’t forget to notice. It could be the colour or shape of a label on a jar or the curve of a country lane or lichen on a fencepost. If it makes you go ‘Ooh’, make a note or take a photo…it might lead to something else creatively.

I recently had an ‘ooh’ moment when I found this little pot at home. It’s something which must have been left behind from a previous generation that lived in the farmhouse and I love it…and I feel sure that this will feature in something in the future. ‘Forget me nots in a Little Mustard Pot’… or perhaps I should think of another unknown band name as a picture title - ‘Mustard Pot and the Marigolds’ maybe?!! If you have any suggestions, do let me know in the comments!

Sunnier Days at last…

Thankfully, the weather has finally turned a corner here in Cornwall and the sun has been shining. A trip ‘downtown’ to St Ives this week was a real joy…the sea looked beautiful sparkling in the sunlight.

With the drier weather, we now have planted our potatoes and sown some seeds…there is much to look forward to in the coming months. Gardening is a very optimistic past time!

Everything feels a little better and more positive with some sunshine don’t you think?

Until next time, keep noticing, stay curious and take care 💕

Thanks for reading

Tanya x

As mentioned in my last post, a timely newsletter from Fiona Duthie, felter extraordinaire, informed me that there were only limited spaces left on one of her online courses for ‘Surface Design’. I, perhaps impulsively, signed up straight away - having done an online course with Fiona previously I knew it would be a worthwhile investment of time and money. This is also proof that newsletter marketing does work when it’s received by the right person at the right time!

I haven’t completed all of the modules yet, but it has been just what I needed. Fiona is a great teacher and very generous with her knowledge and expertise…it’s like someone has taken me gently by the hand and encouraged me to slow down, pay attention and re-engage with the wonder of wool and felting.

Wool felting really is an amazing process, and there seems to be endless techniques and possibilities with this versatile medium.

The variety of textures that can be created is exciting, and I can see myself using a number of these techniques in future work. Some of these methods I’ve guessed at how to create in the past, but this course is giving me the tools to be able to execute them much more proficiently and to better effect. The guidance of an expert can be invaluable in unlocking the door to new possibilities.

These photos show just a few of the results - from silks to bumps and inclusions; creating relief and sparkle as well as surface patterns. A lot of these methods can be viewed as topographical and I’d definitely like to try and subtly incorporate some of these effects into my felted landscapes.

I’ve still got a lot more techniques to work through on this course, so I’m accumulating a good number of sample squares that I can refer to when I need some inspiration. There is always so much to learn and it’s good to ‘play’ and engage with that inner, childlike curiosity. I could just do with another day in the week!

Revisiting Needlefelting…

Do you ever get the urge to revisit something you had previously decided you weren’t going to pursue anymore? Well I used to attempt needle felting birds onto my own felted backgrounds, with varying degrees of success I might add!

I’ll back up a bit in case you would like 2D needle felting explained. It’s basically wisps of wool fibres poked by hand into a background with a very sharp, barbed needle. The fibres are locked into the background by the poking action. It can take a long time to complete, it’s quite a repetitive action and in my case can feel a little laborious!

I had a felted background I’d created using some of the techniques shared on the course I’m doing, and I did a rough sketch of a wren using photographs as reference.

You can just see the barbed needles at the top of the above photo…that’s what I use to poke the wisps of wool fibres down repeatedly into the background. I got off to a fairly good start, but it was making me feel a bit uptight…my shoulders were up around my ears! I had to give it a rest; I was getting caught up in all the details - so much for my original thought to keep it ‘sketchy’!

I came back to it in short bursts of poking over a number of days until I felt I’d gone as far as I could without over working it.

Despite my angst, I’m really happy with the final result…BUT I think revisiting this type of work has reaffirmed the fact that it isn’t something I’d want to do a lot of. It felt like a real challenge, which isn’t a bad thing, so maybe I’ll come back to doing another bird again sometime, but not any time soon!

I still have a yearning to try a little more abstraction in my art, but I haven’t found the right approach to it yet. Maybe the new techniques I have learned over recent weeks will inspire something new.

It’s a conflict sometimes isn’t it…do you stick with what you know or do you keep experimenting with new styles? I would say that, for me, enjoyment is key so I intend to just follow whatever gives me joy (rather than what gives me neck tension!!).

Best wishes and stay curious

Tanya x

We’ve spent special times with the ones we love over the Christmas period; we’ve read books, completed a 1000 piece jigsaw - that feeling when you put the last piece in! We’ve walked in the rain and wind, eaten too much cheese and generally savoured a period of slowing down and switching off. I’m very grateful that we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do that - I think we both needed it.

Of course that can’t last forever and we start work once more tomorrow…time to reconnect with reality, dip my toe back into the delights of social media and make a start on that lengthy ‘to do’ list.

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On a creative note, I’m still gathering landscape inspiration on a daily basis - our Christmas Day walk in the Cornish drizzle took us to Carn Brea. Despite the weather, we completed the 6 mile circular walk through mist, mud and wet. We ate a hunk of delicious Christmas cake each on the top of the hill beneath Carn Brea Castle. The colour of the bracken was quite startling, it seemed to just sing against the grey of the mizzly surroundings. That bronzed orange is possibly one of my favourite landscape colours.

Walk done, we returned home damp, muddy but with colour in our cheeks and an appetite for our traditional Christmas dinner…Rufus the dog had a turkey dinner too which was much deserved after his long walk!

Looking back to look forward…

Reflecting on the last year, 2023 has been great in terms of my felting…I’ve had my confidence boosted with face to face feedback on my work at exhibitions, I’ve made some good sales and also connected with fellow artists which has been a very positive experience.

With some downtime, I took the opportunity to look back over older blog posts and realised that I don’t spend as much time experimenting these days. In the past I’ve played with eco printing, quilting, stitch, gelli plate printing, natural dyeing…I had also asked the question of whether I could combine some of these techniques with my felting.

I think looking forward I’d really like to revisit some of these things with felting in mind, play some more and see what happens…ask some ‘what ifs’. Sales are not my main drive, so I’m happy to take a step back to hopefully move forward with new ideas and development in my work in the future

Only today I signed up for an online felting course on surface design with Fiona Duthie. I’ve previously done a paper felt course with Fiona which was great…she’s such a good teacher and so generous in sharing her techniques. I’m looking forward to this next course and learning new things to hopefully incorporate into my own work. Exciting!

Concertina Sketchbook

My last post touched on the collaborative sketchbook project I’m taking part in along with fellow artists.

I received my little collaged sketchbook back from Sophie Velzian which had been transformed with her gorgeous application of oil and cold wax with hints of my collage papers peeking through. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to do with it next, but rather than add layers on top, I’ve decided to scrape back to reveal colours underneath…it’s really effective and a bit addictive scratching patterns through the waxy layers of paint…I think I’d like to add some stitch too.

I have two other collaborative sketchbooks to work on as well as this one, so plenty to dip in and out of over the coming weeks!

Happy New Year

At a time where we appear to be living in a world that’s broken, it’s perhaps a good time to count our own blessings as we move into a new year. Talking of felting, sketchbooks and Christmas Day walks seems so frivolous when there is so much sadness and atrocity in the news every single day. However, I think it’s more important than ever to find the good (and there’s always good if you look hard enough), spread joy wherever and whenever you can and show kindness to yourself and others…always.

And on that note I’d like to thank you for reading my ramblings and to also wish you a very happy and creative 2024.

As I type this we’re just a few hours away from the New Year…I’ll see you on the other side!

Best wishes

Tanya x

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My last post touched on the group exhibition I was due to be involved with - that has now come and gone and I am so glad I said yes to being one of the 20 members that took part.

The above are just some of the great things I took away from being part of the exhibition which was held in the wonderful gallery space of a local girls’ school over the course of 9 days; not only open to the public but also to the students of the school who visited and gave their own responses to our work either in the form of drawings or creative writing, which was a privilege to observe.

It was lovely to see my wool paintings sitting quite comfortably next to other artists’ work. I needn’t have worried so much!

An absolute bonus was making a couple of sales during the exhibition and these are now in their new homes. That feeling of making a sale never gets old…always a ‘HaPpY dAnCe’ moment!

I’m feeling quite buoyed up from taking part and also inspired…invigilating the exhibition meant I could spend time really looking closely at the other artists’ work on the walls and admire the mark making, colour combinations and surface textures achieved with paint and mixed media. I would love to keep pushing my felting towards being more painterly, so I quite like the idea of doing some of my own responses to other artists’ work…I feel some focussed playtime coming up!

After all that socialising and talking during exhibition week, as a self confessed introvert I’m quite happy to retreat to my cave for a while to get on with some quiet work!

Another piece I completed since my October post was inspired by walks on Penwith Moors in West Cornwall…back to those big open spaces, looking for the shapes, colours and textures in the landscape. After having doubts and nearly chopping it up, I made some tweaks to it and ended up really loving it…it has since sold, though I would have quite happily lived with it a while!

Collaborative playtime…

A number of the Prime Women Artists’ Group are pairing up to create collaborative concertina sketchbooks…I’ve started a small one with oil and cold wax artist, Sophie Velzian and I’m due to begin a larger one with Sue Spence which should be interesting as we’ll be combining paper and stitch!

This is a little video of the small folded book I made by collaging random scraps of paper over an A3 piece of paper and then folding, cutting and re-folding into a little book. Sophie has since added paint to this, so I’m looking forward to getting it back to add to it once again. It’s a really fun project, and it was a good way for me to use up some of those scrap papers I appear to have stashed over the years 😁. I can see myself making more of these…

Sorting out my creative space…

I have a lot of ideas I would love to get cracking on with my felting, but I’ve actually decided to focus on sorting out my creative space (ie the spare room!). It desperately needed a lick of paint, so I’ve taken that opportunity to reorganise the furniture, storage and amount of ‘stuff’ that I have - I do seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff! Just how many old paintbrushes, coloured pencils and set squares (weirdly!) do I actually need to keep?! I seem to have kept hold of all the crafting supplies that my children had growing up and they flew the nest a number of years ago now! I don’t like throwing things away, so I’ve bundled up items to donate to a local charity shop.

My ‘studio room’ isn’t that big, so I really need to pare things down a bit so that it’s less cluttered and a more enjoyable space to use. It currently looks like there’s been an explosion in there…a bit like my brain at the moment! Tidy space, tidy mind?!!

I’ve taken some aspects of a 30 day declutter challenge that Anna Macdonald has been sharing on Instagram which has encouraged me to focus on a small area at a time so that it doesn’t feel like a massive job. The hardest area yet has been sorting through my books and magazines. I love my books, but I’m being fairly brutal about which ones I can absolutely live without and have maybe only looked at once or twice. I’ll be selling/donating these so hopefully they’ll go to good homes.

These are some of the books I couldn’t bear to part with…the ones I dip in and out of on a regular basis for either inspiration or just because they are fabulous books to read and look at.

The day job…

So this time of year on the farm is all about general maintenance - clearing fallen trees, clearing and maintaining land drains, rivers and streams and there’s a VERY long list of jobs to do in our two little holiday cottages to make sure they’re all freshened up and compliant by the time they reopen at Easter.

It’s been fairly mild weather-wise here in Cornwall, though pretty damp, but it’s good to be outside and good to tick off some of these seasonal jobs…and I’m sure Easter will whizz around before we know it, so better crack on as I can hardly believe we’re near the end of November already! Good to be busy, but goodness is it just me or does time pass more quickly as you get older??!!

Until next time…

Well, I think that’s a fair round up of my November…hopefully by the time I post my next update I’ll have a super organised work room and some felt on the table! And who knows, maybe there will be something else to say ‘Yes’ to!

Take care and stay curious

Tanya x

I love the pivot points in the seasons. I always seem ready for the change.

October marks the end of a busy summer here with the farm and holiday cottages but it also marks the beginning of a different phase. I’m already finding a better, creative rhythm and I’m felting more regularly…using those gathered ideas and inspirations from over the Summer period.

I’ve been busy making pieces for an exhibition…yes an actual exhibition! 😬 This is a totally new thing to me, but I’ve recently joined a group that has opened up that possibility…

Prime Women Artists’ Group

A few months ago I saw a call out on Instagram for Cornish female artists who might like to join together in an informal networking group. What a great idea…though I admit at first I did ask myself:

However, my fears and insecurities were quashed when I took the plunge to join…it’s been so great to connect with like-minded people and I look forward to our regular, local meet ups. What a great bunch of supportive women…it will be interesting to see what comes next!

There are nearly 100 members now, scattered throughout Cornwall, and it’s proving a great resource for ideas, recommendations, skill sharing and exhibition opportunities.

20 members, including myself, are holding an exhibition at Truro High School for Girls in November in their wonderful gallery space. This will be a collaboration with the school and students will be visiting and given the opportunity to meet the artists and discuss the work on display. Maybe it will inspire some young women to pursue an art career? And if not a career in art then maybe to develop an interest in keeping up an art practice as a valuable part of their life moving forward.

It will be open to the public every day…if you’re in the area do drop in, it would be great to see people come and have a look and a chat 🙂

Whilst preparing work to display, my inner critic has been driving me CRAZY!! How will my felted pieces sit alongside everyone else’s work? Will they be good enough? Will they be viewed as ‘Art’? I’ve had to have a word with myself on more than one occasion and tell that inner critic to clear off!!

Anyway, I think I’m nearly there…just the framing to finalise. It’s going to be a good experience and it will be exciting to see the exhibition when it’s all hung. I hope to have four pieces ready…’Windblown’ will be one of them.

If you’re interested in following what our group and its members are up to, there is an Instagram account you can follow if you click on the link below:

PRIME WOMEN ARTISTS GROUP

‘Spirit of Cornwall’

Whilst we’re on the topic of exhibitions, I had a piece accepted to an open call at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro! The theme was right up my street…work that represents our idea of the ‘Spirit of Cornwall’. Well, I like to think that my felted landscapes capture a sense of that and I’m really chuffed that my ‘Belties of Bosigran’ is hanging in the museum’s gallery alongside lots of other amazing artworks.

I was a bit last minute submitting it…again I just wasn’t sure whether to or not! I guess I’m learning that there’s absolutely nothing to lose by trying!

What’s next…?

Well it’s all hands on deck to get the November exhibition organised, so that’s the priority, but alongside that I’m hoping to continue getting that regular art practice in place. I’m realistic about this, as there will definitely be times/days/weeks when life and work will pull me in other directions, but that’s ok…it’s all about balance and I’m determined to get better at that! Art is a part-time passion alongside the day job, but I’m aiming to make it a part of my every day.

So that’s a brief catch up…next stop will be the November exhibition!

Take care

Tanya xx

The summer has felt like it has been very productive in many other ways…the garden and allotment have been in full on food and flower mode. I love it when we get to the point in the year when we are self sufficient for fruit and veg, it’s such a wonderful feeling to walk to the plot, cut some salad leaves, pick some beans or dig some potatoes and cook and serve them up within an hour or two…delicious.

A glut in courgettes has meant baking plenty of courgette cakes for the freezer, and pretty much every meal we have has them incorporated somehow, along with copious amounts of runner beans!! Yet to find a recipe for runner bean cake though!

If you’re interested in the recipe for courgette cake, I found it here on BBC Goodfood. I’ve made quite a few now and it turns out consistently well and freezes ok sliced!

We’re also enjoying mini-sweetcorn, beetroot, mangetout, onions, kale, chard, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, radish…

And then there’s the raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, currants…and now the apples and blackberries. Oh, and a big ‘hurrah’ for our plum tree that at last gave us a wonderful crop of fruit after 4 years of nothing…

The garden is hard work to keep on top of everything, but it’s so worth it. We’ve grown our own food ever since we were married (over 27 years ago 😯) carrying on traditions picked up from our own grandparents, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, what about art?

Well, although I haven’t spent much physical time felting that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it! The summer has been a time for the gathering in of, not just the crops, but ideas, inspirations and what ifs. I’ve been reading and looking at other artists’ work, being curious about techniques; walking and taking far too many photographs. I have scribbled notes and sketches of things to try and I’m looking forward to delving into my wools and fibres to see where I can take things next. I’ve already started some samples combining wool, silk chiffon and paints; I’m liking the results and the possibilities this might open up with creating felted landscapes!

So as we start to see the fading away of summer, I’m going to welcome the next season with intention…time to get felting!

Stay curious!

Tanya x

How are you doing? Can you believe we are hurtling towards the end of July already? As I type this, the summer sun has deserted us here in Cornwall…hopefully only a temporary blip! Having said that, there is something about slipping into a cosy jumper on a cooler evening at the moment that’s rather lovely…in all honesty, and I always feel slightly bad for admitting it, I’m not a hot weather person. I’m a bit more of an Autumn girl…warm scarf, boots and socks is more my bag! Anyone else relate?!

Following on from my last post, I have finished my latest felted landscape which was inspired by a walk along the Cornish coastline. I have some larger frames that I wanted to use, so needed to go a bit bigger on my felting layout. The frames fit a piece of work 40 x 40 cm, so to allow for shrinkage I laid out fibres around 55 x 55cm.

I had my very sketchy sketch and my photo to use as a reference, and although initially daunted by the size of the ‘canvas’, I really enjoyed working at that slightly bigger scale.

Going bigger somehow made me much looser in my application of fibres and yarns. It was possible to leave some quiet space in the composition, even after the shrinkage that took place during the felting process.

I also, subconsiously, paid less attention to the smaller details that I often get caught up in which would make me more ‘tight’. It was more about colour and composition rather than creating an overly busy, realistic representation of the view. It was quite freeing!

I wasn’t sure about adding the mine engine house in the distance…I quite liked it without! I guess that would be using a heavy dose of artistic licence…I’ve put them in for now, but I could change my mind!

I liked the simplicity of the finished picture, even though the process is time consuming. I like the nudge away from trying to replicate the scene and just giving a sense of the place. It’s an ever lasting learning curve, but I do think I’m getting there…slowly! I still haven’t mastered photographing the finished felt…if anyone has any tips on taking good photos of textiles/fibres to do it justice I’d be very interested to hear them!

Another walk, another view…

Risking the rain, we did another fab walk from Cape Cornwall a couple of weeks ago…

Ah! Seaweed smells from sandy caves
And thyme and mist in whiffs,
In-coming tide, Atlantic waves
Slapping the sunny cliffs,
Lark song and sea sounds in the air
And splendour, splendour everywhere.  (John Betjeman)

Just a few of the many photos I took along the way! Lots of inspiration and yet it was the white cottage sitting on the top of the cliff that took my eye…

I cropped it in a bit, and this time I tried to just pick out shapes that I could see…keeping it simple, not getting bogged down with details.

Keeping the idea of going bigger, I picked out the largest paintbrush I had and did a watercolour sketch…the big brush made it easier to just be looser and play with the paint.

A few marks with a pencil and an idea had formed…now it’s just a matter of getting that idea translated into felt!

I’ve made a start, trying to keep it loose…looking at shapes and colours rather than all those pesky details; abstracting the landscape slightly and having fun with it. After all, that’s the main aim isn’t it…having fun!

Until next time

Tanya xx

It was a bit of a ‘breezy with a chance of rain’ sort of day, but I’d packed my coat along with my camera and sketchbook all prepared to get felting ideas from the seascape point of view.

It was, of course, beautiful. The heather was starting to flower, the sea was crashing in against the cliffs and at times I was surrounded by butterflies and wild flowers along the pathway. I filled my lungs with big, deep breaths of salty sea air and felt my shoulders relax and my mind empty a little. It was just what I needed on a personal level.

From a creative point of view, as amazing as the sea view, big waves and imposing cliffs were, my eyes kept turning inland. I have often shied away from felting seascapes…they’re tricky! The sea is moving, undulating and challenging in every way…it’s big and alive. Capturing that in felt successfully is a daunting task, and you’d have to really want to do it! Abstracting it could work, but it just wasn’t calling me as I thought and hoped it would on this particular walk.

So what was so interesting inland? Why didn’t the sea view give me the ‘aha’ moment I’d expected? I think, turning 180 degrees to look towards the hills or up the valley I could just see possible compositions so much easier…and there was the added bonus of some belted galloways that wandered into view!

I guess you can’t force what will inspire you…I had a calling to the sea that weekend, but maybe it was only for my own personal well-being. I was buffeted by the sea breeze and suitably humbled by the vastness and tetchy mood of the Atlantic Ocean beating against the cliffs…it was wonderful.

Happily, I did gather photos/compositions to use in my felted landscapes, even if they weren’t what I’d anticipated and have even made a start on one which I can update you on next time.

Sketchbook woes!

I would add that, as usual, I had lugged my sketchbook and materials out with me and didn’t use them! Maybe I just need to accept that my camera is my outdoor ‘sketchbook’, and then I can stop weighing myself down with gear when I go walking! Anyone else struggle with outdoor sketching?

If you got this far, thanks for reading! If you would like updates emailed to you, don’t forget to subscribe…posts will most likely be, at the most, fortnightly so I won’t bombard your inbox!

Best wishes

Tanya x

I’ve been playing…ideas, techniques…some successful and others definitely not shareable! A common theme that comes out though is that the colours, textures and shapes of the landscape are the overriding inspiration for whatever I do.

Trying different fibres has been interesting and I returned to having a go at making a felted vessel using Jacob wool, which is a coarser, hairy fibre but makes a fairly sturdy 3D piece. Without thinking, I automatically pulled out embellishing fibres in colours that you’d see around the coast and moorland of Cornwall…granite grey, heather and gorse yellow.

I kept the design simple…less is more, right?  The pot is made by felting around a resist and once the foundation layers of the Jacob wool were laid out over and around the plastic, circular template, I made a band of colour with merino fibres, silks, yarns and threads.

Below shows the point when the pot is felted enough to carefully cut a hole where you want the opening to be and remove the resist…always a bit cautious at this stage!

The photo below illustrates how much the pot shrinks during felting compared to the initial layout, ie the size of the template.

The finished pot, once dry, was pretty hairy and the vibrancy of the silks had been ‘swallowed up’ slightly by the Jacob wool.  A good shave of the pot’s surface with a razor tidied it up really well and helped the colours shine through more…I quite like the slightly muted effect the grey background has given the coloured band, a bit like a misty day on the moor.

I was really pleased with the end result.

A week or two on from making this one, I decided to do another but with a blue band this time.  I’ve been making this alongside working on a felted picture - I quite like having two things on the go at once!

Same base layer of Jacob wool, same design and shape. The photo below shows the point reached when the wool is felting together and starting to shrink. You can see it’s starting to buckle and strain against the plastic resist inside which is a sign you’re reaching the point to cut a well placed hole and remove the resist before continuing with the felting process.

So, after all the felting, fulling, shaping and shaving this is the finished pot.

I’m intrigued by the making of felted pots and vessels.  Making a pot is a lot of work from start right through to finish…it has to be able to hold its shape when finished, so needs to be felted and fulled thoroughly through rubbing, rolling, throwing, bouncing and shaping.  Despite the work involved, there’s just something so pleasing about having a finished, tactile piece that you can hold in your hands or display on a shelf where the surface textures and colours can be admired up close without being veiled behind glass like my felted pictures.

I like the way it allows for a bit more of an abstract approach which is a little different to the felted pictures I make. Abstracting the landscape is something I’d like to be better at, so perhaps the vessel making is good way of exploring that in a loose way and it’s a nice project to do ‘on the side’ without too much pressure.

I have a little collection of felted pots I’ve attempted over the years…whilst I love them, I’m not sure whether they would be sellable. The amount of time taken to make one compared to what someone would be willing to pay for one probably wouldn’t make it viable…or maybe I just need to be quicker at making them! I’ll keep practising…

At least there’s one good thing about a felted pot - if I drop one, it won’t break!!

Thanks for reading, do feel free to leave a comment or get in touch - always happy to answer questions and connect.  Otherwise, I’m making steady progress with my latest felted landscape which, after a false start, is now coming together. Trying hard to carve out a little bit of time each day to felt…if I can only manage 10 minutes around other commitments, that’s better than no time at all.

Best wishes

Tanya xx

I thought I'd document some of the process on one my latest felted pictures.  I don't consistently use the same methods - sometimes I take a long time in preparation and other times I just dive straight in to laying out fibres and seeing where it goes.  One thing I've learned is that there's no 'right' way for me to do it...a lot of it is do with the amount of time I might have, the mood I'm in (pre-menopause is hitting hard right now!) and whether it's creating to sell or just creating for me.  All I know is that creating of any sort is vital for me...call it therapy, 'me time' or whatever...and it doesn't always matter about the outcome, it's just the act of making something.  My husband's equivalent is to go swimming...the head empties, you switch off and you feel better after.  We all need something...it's just finding the thing for you.

Supermoon

Inspiration came from the recent supermoon, did you see it? It was big hanging in the sky and was the most wonderful apricot colour, and after looking at it in awe for a little while I had a spark of an idea. I had to hold onto that idea for a week or two before getting the chance to transfer it from my mind onto paper...so the starting point for this was observing the moon and then doing a sketch from my imagination.

I pre-felted and cut out the moon to get the shape even and after laying everything out and wet felting it, once it was dry I needle felted the owl and some of  the foreground. Play the video below to get snatches of the process from sketch through to the finish which hopefully explains it better than I can with words!

Some close ups of the surface texture in the finished piece

What's next?

I'm thinking of making a felted vessel/vase...I've already made a little sketch of an idea and I’ve made a small piece of flat felt to trial some fibres.  I’ve been thinking about ley lines…supposed straight line alignments between ancient sites, of which there are many in Cornwall. Ley lines were talked about on a programme I watched on the TV about Glastonbury festival, and how it’s location was along ley lines between ancient landmarks which created a special ‘energy’.  I love that idea, and I’m sure there is truth in it.

I also have a number of photos from recent walks that have potential as starting points for felted landscape pictures…possibly linked to that idea of ley lines!

Starting points…

There are many different starting points for being creative…a photograph, an observation, a conversation.  I guess the thing in common is ‘noticing’ - taking the time to make a mental note of things of interest and allowing them to settle somewhere until you’re ready to do something with them.  

I have a notebook full of scribbled thoughts and ideas and a computer file jammed up with inspirational photographs, all just waiting patiently…there is no rush.

See you here again soon(ish)!

Tanya xx