I never felt like this before

You know you're in the company of a good friend when she comes for the weekend and brings an excessive volume of craft supplies for you to be creative together.

Lesley is a gifted painter and textile artist from the Borders, a chemistry teacher by day, who I've been fortunate enough to call a friend for over 20 years.  I blogged here about last year's visit to her studio in Peebles.  Lesley's family were visiting for an enduro mountain bike racing competition being staged in Aberdeenshire.  Husband Pete, and their teenage boys, left early in the morning leaving us free to spend the day felting, punctuated by walking both our dogs and a steady supply of refreshments outside in the sun!  Did someone say 'walk'?

Star (left) is my rescue dog and Clova is Lesley's labrador

Felting is just one of the artistic areas in which Lesley excels and her confidence boosted mine.

Inspired by Lesley's fabulous work which was featured in The Scotsman magazine a few years ago, I decided I'd make myself a felted tea cosy.

Lesley set to work creating a piece of wall art for a forthcoming exhibition.  Both of us were wet felting, a craft in which colourful merino wool is made into a sturdy decorative fabric using soapy water, agitation and elbow grease.  Lesley was inspired to make a picture of Bennachie and she liked this photo I'd taken in May with the oil seed rape in full bloom.

Her picture was soon taking shape.

Meanwhile, I was drawn to the bright colours in my Julie Dumbarton calendar and was guided gently by Lesley working alongside me.

My piece was two sided so was formed around a resist, or piece of material which withstands the felting process by not allowing the woolly fibres to stick to it.  Flexible packaging material works a treat.  After cutting out a shape, I covered it in white merino tufts and rubbed the wet soapy wool till it stuck together, then repeated the process on the other side.

 Here's the fun part - creating a design using all the colours!  First one side...

...which then gets wet, rubbed with soapy water under a light cloth to keep the fibres in place, then flipped over to apply a design to the other side.

More wetting and rubbing - must have the cleanest hands ever!

Time to take stock, enjoy a summery cocktail and chat about what still needs to be added.  Lesley has included the tiniest wisp of turquoise to her stormy sky - really brings it to life.

I incorporated trees into my designs and blame the delicious gin cocktail for not taking any photos at this stage!  Both our pieces were thoroughly rinsed in cold water.



Not all my fibres were sticking so the soapy process was repeated and I used Lesley's felting roller to encourage a bit more adhesion.  Final cold water rinsing gets rid of the suds and the wool is 'shocked' by having several kettles of boiling water poured over it.  Felting is brutal!

The cooled felt gets wrapped in a raffia mat (or bamboo window blind for Lesley's picture) surrounded with an old bath towel and rolled over and over in both directions to encourage the felt to shrink.  The resist has to be flexible to be able to accommodate this shrinkage.  Only then can the bottom edge of the tea cosy be cut and the resist removed.  Time for an overnight stint in the airing cupboard to dry off both our pieces.

Here's each side of my dry tea cosy.  They're a bit wrinkly and the lower edge is a bit wobbly.  Lesley irons her work at this point but I opted for the natural look.

We both used a felting needle to add detail and definition.  I trimmed my wobbly bottom (ooh err), edged it with magenta blanket stitch and embroidered a few rocks and grasses into the woodland foreground.

The finishing touch was a felted wool bobble.  Ooh - which colour to choose? 💚

Too pretty to be confined to a drawer, my tea cosy is on display in the kitchen to remind me of our friendship and a very happy weekend of felting and chat - few topics were off limits.  I'm really pleased with my work and know I've never felted like this before!  Having an experienced artist at my side really enabled me to produce a unique piece rather than simply copying someone else's work.

Lesley's creations can be seen in Ross Dougal Fish Merchant, 32 High Street, Peebles from 23rd to 31st August 2019 and you can keep up with her latest art exploits here.