More monochrome but this time with pre-felts

Its been a while since I used any prefelts but I just finished making a glasses case in grey and white using some black pre-felted merino to get a sharper outline to a pair of glasses on the front...and here's the result!

Making in monochrome ...

I have been making a series of necklaces concentrating on the potential to exploit texture and combine contrasting materials...here are some works in progress. A couple of items from the series have made it onto my etsy shop - I am still grappling with the rest...

Saturday shopping...

Here is a photograph of what I am working on at the moment...

...these necklaces combine crochet, felt and beads with pieces of clay pipe foraged for on the banks of the Thames. I like to wonder who smoked them and when - the manufacture of these pipes dates back to the end of the 16th century ...

The Seven Sisters Sheep Centre opens for the season this weekend!

We don't see many sheep here in London...not surprisingly I guess. Its true there are some good city farms and we do get an occasional ceremonial droving where historic tradition allows Freemen of the City of London to herd sheep over London Bridge, amongst other things. Last year following HRH Prince of Wales launch of the Campaign for Wool there was a flurry of fleece with Selfridges exhibiting 15 yellow sheep on Oxford Street and another herd grazing on a temporarily turfed Saville Row which I noticed on the Visit London Blog .

Sadly I missed seeing these events which were organised as part of a programme to promote the benefits of all things woolly but we did however get to The Seven Sister Sheep Centre down in East Sussex to witness the wonderful business of lambing with the wonderfully enthusiastic Terry who runs this fantastic place, home to 40 different kinds of sheep including many beautiful rare breeds and a wealth of knowledge of all things to do with sheep...and plenty more, like the incredible fact that for most farmers the value of the wool scarcely

covers the cost of shearing. I mention all this now as the Centre has just reopened for lambing season and is well worth a trip if you find yourself in the area. We took the kids to a late night event organised by Terry's daughter Becks, last year where we got to help out with the lambing which was an amazing experience - highly recommended!

At last got round to setting up a blog about my foray into felt! Currently working on necklaces inspired by the fantastic Japanese plum blossom that is in flower where I live....