Textile display at the weekly handmade markets

My stall display at the Old Bus Depot Markets has really evolved over the last year.  I started to use a marquee frame to display textiles on curtain rods, but thankfully that was short-lived.  I now have several custom-made stands to display my ever-expanding range of felted and woven textiles.

My textile stall display at the markets

A large mobile display stand, made in May last year, has been a great way to show scarves and wraps of various sizes.  Rods at three heights, close to eye level, make it easier for people to see every scarf.  Long dowelling rods, each measuring 2.4 metres/ 8 feet long, are poked through holes at various heights in the two sides.  There is also a place to store boxes and packaging in the base of the stand.

It’s quite a flexible display system as it’s now summer and I am only using two rods for a limited number of my scarves and wraps.  This allows space at the bottom of the stand to display cards and other small items on the lid of the base.

A recent addition is the stand I designed for my felt vessels, shown in the right of the image.  This table stand allows you to display various small 3D items in the round and easily packs down flat. I like the way the crossed leg structure creates little alcoves for displaying related objects together.

Besides my display stands, I have made a few more improvements.  My three female torsos on stands are no longer naked – they have skin-tight jersey sheaths in a dark blue-grey colour that seems like a good neutral colour to drape textiles of any colour on.

During last winter I used rubber-backed carpet, donated by my mother, to cover the concrete floor and give a bit of warmth.  I’ve continued to use it as I think it helps to define my stall space and it’s nice for people to walk on.

Nuno felt wrap

Kimberley, nuno felt wrap

I recently made a nuno felt wrap, the first one I’ve made for a while.

It’s simply two layers of white superfine merino carded with a small amount of a blend of black merino and flax with natural silk fibres.  Separating the two layers of wool fibre is fine white tissue silk fabric that shows very subtly in the areas between the triangles of fleece.  There’s loose silk fabric band along one edge and a fringe at one end.

Being superfine wool it feels so soft, and weighing only 80 grams (nearly 3 ounces) it’s very light and drapable.  You can wear it in different ways to feature either the fringed end or the silk band.

My inspiration came from browsing aerial images of the Australian landscape on the internet.  I found a great online album of the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand who seems to spend his time seeing the landscape from above. This is his website http://www.yannarthusbertrand2.org.  In this nuno wrap I was trying to capture the ripples in the sand of Arthus-Bertrand’s image of the Buccaneer Archipelago in the Kimberley area of coastal north-west Australia.

Although not very successfully, I was trying to create ripples in the silk fabric by laying the wool fleece vertically and rolling across the width of the wrap.  In theory it should work, but maybe it needs more rolling to get those ripples happening.

Wool felt and Christmas trees

Surprisingly, in the hot summer weather we’ve been having in Canberra my felted scarves and wraps have attracted a lot of interest at the local markets.  People must be thinking ahead to winter.  As a long time felter its really great to see a broader acceptance of felting now – a very different situation to when I first started making felt.  Most people buying my felt seem to be familiar with the felting process, or know other feltmakers. This growing enthusiasm and local knowledge of felting must be due in a large part to our very active Canberra Region Feltmakers group that was set up in the mid-nineties.

My stall at the Old Bus Depot Markets

Starting a textile business at this time of year featuring wool felt has been quite challenging.  Before the interest shown in my wearable felt, my initial ideas for new things to make for local Canberra weekend markets steered right away from wearable scarves and wraps.  My current summer stock includes more practical things such as handwoven home furnishings and tableware, as well as delicate felt lattice bells for hanging on Christmas trees.  My wearable wraps and scarves were displayed at the markets more as a backdrop to my newer woven and felted homewares.

I’ve also been developing an idea to make felt Christmas trees, based on ones I exhibited many years ago for one of the Crafts for Christmas exhibitions organised by Craft ACT.  The current tree is a scaled down version more suited for display on table tops.  With an oiled timber base and post, the Christmas tree all comes apart and stores flat for storage in a box.  Finalising the design details is proving to be rather slow, hopefully I’ll have some ready for the Old Bus Depot Markets this weekend.

My textile studio

Am busy setting up studio spaces for making my textiles.  Although I’ve just started a new business, I have been involved with textiles for a long time -mainly as a feltmaker, weaver, dyer and dressmaker – and have collected lots of wonderful yarns, fibres, fabrics and books. 

I’m really lucky to have some spare rooms in my house.  So, instead of spreading all over the house when I’m in creative mode, there are dedicated spaces for each textile activity.  A felting studio is downstairs with access to outside, with an adjacent bathroom for wet felting and dyeing of fibres, yarns and fabric.  

Floor looms in the weaving room

My various looms and a fibre preparation area occupy the family room, which has a great view across to the Brindabella mountains.  Storage and textile finishing processes now happen at the other end of the house, along with an office space for the business side of things.

It will be great to be able to have functional work spaces, so I can work on different felting and weaving projects at the same time.  But can I keep the dining table clear?

Welcome to Fibre reflections

I will be blogging about my weaving, felting, spinning, dyeing and other textile activities from time to time, once I work out how to do it.

I’m setting up my FibreStudio Design business, based in my home studio in Canberra, which should be being launched some time in October.

In the meantime, this is a woven panel from the Urban Constructions series I exhibited at M16 Artspace, Kingston, ACT in mid 2005.