A study in felt: Robert Morris at the Tate Modern

Untitled, Robert Morris. 1967-8 remade 2008.

On a recent visit to the Tate Modern I happened upon the above work by Robert Morris. I really like the simplicity of this artwork. As the felt tumbles from the hook the straight lines mingle to create interesting patterns. I also like the fact that the work is never static. Each time it is moved and displayed it changes. The felt never tumbles in the same way.


In 1967 Morris bought sheets of industrial felt and cut a series of straight lines into them. When hung the strips of felt fell to the floor under their own weight, changing each time they were exhibited. The Tate Modern says that Morris "wanted to question the fixed geometric shapes of Minimalist sculpture and the way Minimalism imposed order on materials".

It's left me wondering where I can buy industrial felt from. I wonder....

A mixed media book cover

Opium Dreams

This was so much fun to make! It involved glue, paint and acrylic wax. Three of my favourite messy components. It was fairly messy. Luckily I for once remembered to put down newspaper before beginning - hello flat deposit, I will see you again.

This technique was recommended to me by my mother based on the work of the fabulous Beryl Taylor. Beryl Taylor is a mixed media artist. This means she uses a variety of materials to create her work, including fabric, paints, dyes, glue, paper, etc.. The list goes on and on.

Her work is so beautiful:

Wings, Beryl Taylor

Go to her website and have a good nose at her work. It is inspiring. She also runs classes which I'm sure must be great fun to attend.

Anyway, back to my modest book cover...

I made it by getting a piece of calico, coating it in a mixture of PVA glue and water then sticking down pieces of paper napkin (pick one with a pretty pattern).

Next I placed a sheet of tissue paper on top and paint-brushed PVA glue/water over the top to keep it in place.

Then I had to wait a long time for it to dry as it was quite sodden. Speed this step up by using a hair dryer to dry it.

Once it was dry I whipped out my water colour dyes (I used Koh I Noor Travel Sketch Set) and started painting on details.

Once I was satisfied, and the paint had dried, I painted over the whole thing with acrylic wax. This made the whole effect nice and glossy. Then I trimmed the whole thing to size and sewed it onto my nominated notebook.  

The yellow piece to the right above is one I experimented on at the same time but have yet to make into anything. The process was the same except that for this one I also stuck down scraps from wrapping paper, stamped it with my initial and sewed metallic thread lines onto it. The metallic thread didn't work so well as it kept snapping in the machine. 

Patchwork Baubles

This is a really cute way to use up those pesky small scraps of fabric whilst making Christmas (or anytime!) decorations. I read about patchwork baubles on the Guardian website about a week before Christmas. Despite having a billion things to do I abandoned them all in favour of getting messy with some PVA glue.

One of the things I like most about this project is that it is really quick, easy and gives a nice effect. And it involves glue.

What you need:

• Some cheap baubles, shiny or mat
• PVA glue
• Scraps of fabric

Make sure the scraps are quite small. At first I used big pieces which created a rather lumpy, unwell looking bauble. Once I trimmed them it worked much better. 

Add the PVA glue to some water in a bowl and mix well. Dip the fabric pieces into the glue, squeeze out excess water and then place on the bauble. Repeat until the bauble is covered then hang to dry. 

Easy!

Book Review: Creepy Cute Crochet by Christen Haden

This, as the title suggests, is a very cute book. It provides patterns for making a variety of amigurumi creatures. Amigurami is Japanese art where you make small stuffed animals or creatures using knitting or crochet. This book is all crochet.

The creatures within the book are all very imaginative and fun. You can make a vampire, a ninja, a zombie, a Spartan and many others. The photographs in the book of the creatures are all adorable and inspiring.

Haden provides clear lists of material needed to make each creature. My only criticism of this book is that it can be difficult to follow the instructions. This is not a book for those who are new to crochet. Also, you really should invest in some crochet markers (like pins to mark your place in the crochet) because I kept losing how many stitches I'd done.

Skeleton bride and groom from Creepy Cute Crochet

I made the above skeletal bride and groom from the book as a wedding gift for a friend. Well, I made the bride and my mother helped me keep to time restraints by making the groom. The stitching on the groom was not pulled quite so tight which is why he is far larger than the bride. This was no veiled comment on the groom himself. It was a little difficult to get started but once started easy to complete.

This is a fun book and I recommend it. It is available on Amazon and probably other bookshops.

T-shirts recycled into a quilt

A couple of years ago I returned to my home country after a few years spent living abroad. My parents had patiently stored my clothes, books and other miscellaneous possessions all the time I gallivanted around with nothing but a rucksack. Upon my return I was told in no uncertain terms that now was the time to 'sort it out'. I discovered that majority of the clothes I had stored away either did not fit me or were too scratty to wear any more. 

Oh this was sad.

Many of them were clothes I'd had since college and had sentimental value. Because of this and because they were too worn to give to a charity shop I decided to cut them up and make a quilt. A good thing about old, worn clothes is that they are lovely and soft. I homed in on the softer of the clothes, t-shirts, pants (waste nothing!), and some cord trousers.

The process of making a square.

I cut some 20cm/20cm squares out of an old sheet. T-shirts are made of stretchy material and to stop them warping when sewn together I thought it best to sew them onto a non-stretchy fabric, such as this cotton sheet.

I randomly sliced up the clothes. I cut strips out of some, I carefully cut around any pictures or slogans on others. I arranged the scraps onto the sheet squares and pinned them down. Then I zig-zagged the scraps down using a sewing machine.

Altogether I made 24 squares. I cut long strips out off another sheet and sewed it to the squares as a border, gradually joining all the squares together.

The squares were so soft I decided to use a piece of fleece for the backing of the quilt, no filling. I pinned the front of the quilt (with the squares) to the fleece and then hand-quilted it with a simple running stitch before sewing up the edges using a sewing machine again.

A collage of the finished quilt with some close-ups of panels.

How to make a pom pom

It is very easy to make a pom pom. Easy but also monotonously boring. It involves a lot of winding wool. If your fingers tire easily then this may not be the project for you. It is fun at the end when you have your pom pom though. Children love it. In fact if you have access to a child I recommend using them for the more monotonous winding stage.

First, you need to cut out your template. You need to cut a donut shape out of something fairly stiff - a cereal packet works wonderfully. Here are a series of templates I have made for different sized pom poms. Cut around the outer circle, then cut out the middle circle. Use this to draw around onto cardboard. You'll need two for each pom pom. I failed to take adequate photos when making the above pom pom - sorry.

Next, place the two donut shaped pieces of card together. Pick some wool - if you alternate colours then you get stripes like on mine. Wind the wool around the rings. This is now the tedious part. Keep winding.....and winding. And winding.....until your donut looks like this:

Make a loose slip knot with the two ends of wool. Then cut along the edge of the wool - cutting between the two pieces of cardboard.

When you've cut all the way round tighten the slipknot, tie another one, pull and the cardboard and voila you're done. Nothing left but to enjoy your new pom pom.

On Zombies

'Zombie Bunny', made from pattern in Zombie Felties, Nicola Tedman & Sarah Skeate, 2010

Zombies are a phenomenon in popular culture. I would argue that they are even more popular than werewolves and vampires. This is despite vampires and werewolves being sexified in recent years. Both werewolves and vampires are romanticised and portrayed as outsiders worthy of love and even admiration. I don't think anyone has tried suggesting that a romantic attachment to a zombie is something to aspire to. It's interesting then that they are as popular as they are. Even to the extent that people regularly dress up as one and hobble through towns.

Partly this popularity could be attributed to series of successful films about zombies, and their excellence as a video game subject. But there must be more to this. The fact there are so many zombie films is because of their instant popularity which cannot be due to the films alone. I like Dan Birlow's analysis of their popularity. He accesses various theories such as that zombies reinforce paranoid belief systems, or that it is a like of being scared of turning into one that makes them popular but then comes to the conclusion that is because people like imagining themselves as survivors in an apocalyptic situation.

Somehow though zombies can also be amusing. This humour can be seen in Nicola Tedman's and Sarah Skeates excellent book Zombie Felties: How to raise 16 gruesome creatures from the undead. I have been playing with this book and used it to make the following felt zombies:

It is lots of fun and the patterns are easy to follow. I recommend it heartily to all who wish to make their own fleet of mini-zombies.