Needle felting for market

Early August we came back from our vacation in France. Having been away for three weeks from my studio, I was very eager to get back to 'work.' 

Together with my friend Marieke from Woolwoofles, I was planning to sign up for a couple of markets to see if anyone would be interested in buying our work. So far I hadn't finished  a whole lot of dolls and wasn't sure I wanted to part with the ones I had, so I decided to start a whole new series of dolls that wouldn't take me too much time to make. Ha! I was wrong. These babies also wanted a lot of attention! But they were fun to make.

The technique I used here is called needle felting.  You basically stab wool with a very sharp barbed needle until the wool clings together. The more you work it the firmer it gets. 

For the dresses I used scraps of fabric that I have collected over the years. Embellishments are made with (vintage) lace, ribbons and buttons.

Unfortunately the market turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as nobody wanted to buy one of my girls. So I took them home and now they're happily sitting on their shelf again, watching over me as I type this blog post.

Textile collage number two in the Pink Girl series

This time I created a new image with the same fabrics I had left over from last time. It's a very fun process, to almost randomly assembling little scraps here and there, until it feels right.

I am not making a drawing before I start. Wouldn't have to patience for that. I am drawing with the fabric itself.

The girl is embroidered with silk (my grandmother's silk) with a very simple stitch. Even here I don't make a sketch. I see her face in my mind. And my hands follow that 'print.' I don't mind if she turns out differently. It's about the process, not necessarily about the result.

My girls have a mind of their own. I took the skirt apart a few times - even after working on one a whole afternoon - because my flower girl wanted to have more ribbons and an apron.

The textile collage is attached on a canvas that is ready to hang on the wall. If desired it could be framed, but I like it just the way it is.

New kind of project: the textile collage

Inspired by my friend Marieke from Woolwoofles, I also started working with scraps of fabric. It resulted in three different textile collages, of which I am listing the first one on Etsy today.

We both love to go one of the best Amsterdam markets, the Noordermarkt, where you can find vintage clothes, fabric and haberdashery. Over the years we have both accumulated huge amounts of ribbons, yarns and beads. We both never throw away any fabric that might be reused.