Something old, something new..

The old scissors come from a very old house dear friends of us are rebuilding in Sweden. The felt is new. The wool comes from a shepherd on the Veluwe.

I made a big piece of it and it is one of those really nice ones I am not in a hurry to sell. I think because it looks like its not yet felted. Wonderful stuff wool.

Monumental and land art exhibits and a but.. 2010

News about exhibits for next year;

I have been invited to do an exhibit in the New church in Middelburg. As an artist you are asked to make a monumental piece or a collection of pieces for one of the ‘feet’ of the church. (Its an old big church, the name ‘new’ is old..)I will have to go there to have a look but there is an idea brewing in my brain for a long time now and I hope I can use it here.  The exhibit will probably be in May, but I will keep you updated on it.

The proposal for a landart exhibit in Belgium (Lochristi) next summer has been accepted. The exhibit will be from june untill september, so plenty of time for people in the area if they want to have a look. I will have to work hard on this one, a big piece. We will go to Belgium next sunday to take a look at the park and surroundings. 

In the months, March, June and July I will be doing a duo exhibit with Ollo Veenstra in the court of law and a simultaneous exhibit at Ollo her studio. The court of law is a weird building, big, it feels a bit as a highly guarded hospital and the architact made a ‘closed’ building, as in that making art for it is difficult. So my brain was making funny noices. Nothing I had planned was possible. It sounds like a bad thing but its actually a good thing, my brain has to do some serious work on this one. The vernissage will be in the studio where we will talk a bit about our work and have a party. I will keep you updated on that too.

But (always a but..)  it takes so much time and effort and material to make monumental pieces and the chance you can sell them is small. So you invest all and does this make any sense or am I mad to do this kind of work? Needless to say I am looking for grants to buy the materials and as the pieces are for public places that should be doable.

Below; These pictures are from an exhibit in the Historic greenhouses near Amsterdam last year.  The piece is called; They that watch 2.  Its about our expectations and longings,  about the things we are waiting for, but also about the things already happening and which might still be hidden from our eyes.

Alltime favorite youtube link

I simply love the work of Thomas Saraceno and there are some beautiful movies on Youtube about his work but this is my favorite youtube link

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=NL&hl=nl&v=OW1BJXIyMtE&feature=related

(..sigh..)

Bought a piece made by Han Koster

This entry is not about my own work, but about a piece I bought nearly two months ago.

I went to the exhibit of an installation made by a Dutch artist Han Koster. ( http://www.hnk.nu/) The installation was made in, or became part of a small church. It is difficult to explain how it moved me, so I won’t try to, but I was looking forward to collect the piece and today was the day!

Photo’s been made.

A brandnew photographer came by and I am really pleased with the photographs he made on a crispy clear day in the woods of Oost-Kapelle. The model is bautiful, (her name is Mim), and my hats looked great on her.

I will have more of the pictures on my website soon, but for now…

 

(photo credits; Richard Krijgsman)

 

 

 

 

The feltunited exhibit is online!!

The feltunited exhibit is online!!

The feltunited exhibit is online!!

The feltunited exhibit is online!!

www.Feltunited.com

Taide Magazine.

 There is a piece about me and my work in the new issue (4) of the Taide & Design Magazine.  Really nice.

Taide & Design

Taide & Design is a new Finnish magazine that focuses on a broad spectrum of International creation around Art and Design, covering in-depth the phenomena, events, places and works as well as people behind them.

Taide & Design is published eight times a year and the language of the printed edition is Finnish with English summary. The first edition came out in May.

Welcome to the world according to Taide & Design!

http://taidedesign.com/en

Working big

Sometimes my husband says nice things to me like; ‘You must be mad woman!’ and although we are married for decades now and you would expect him to be used to the things I do or make, today was one of those times. He came into my studio, said ‘You must be mad!’  gave me a hug and asked if I needed coffee and if he was the one who made dinner today.. ( a bit of a rhetorical question..) but if I am honest, most times I agree with his question, asking myself the same one once in a while (probably on the same days he does..)

Working on bigger pieces is for some (so I’ve heard.) easy peasy, but although I love it and its a big part of my work, I need  a bit of courage to begin work on a bigger piece. You have all these thoughts building up inside your head, what you want to make or want to tell, what materials you are going to use, how you are going to use them.  And starting to work on a piece is a bit of working towards the vanguard and its exciting but can also be scary. A lot of things can go wrong in making any piece, but especially a bigger piece, not just mistakes with your felt, laying of your wool, holes, slow felting process, stupid mistakes and such, but  it has also got to be a ‘good’ day. You have to feel okay, be strong enough, no headaches or (too much) pain,  no major worries or distractions. The last thing that can go wrong is that you can ruin your whole piece in the dyeing process at the end, but that is the last of your obstacles . (I normally dye my bigger pieces after felting) But as I am more of a Tigger than an Eeyore I decided this week would be a ‘good week’ to do some serious work and so my husband made coffee and dinner and I hope he has time to do that again tomorrow because I am not nearly done…

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taking my time

Sorry for being a bit silent, but we are working hard on the last bit of Feltunited; the photo gallery. If you want to keep updated about FU, just take a look at the blog at www.feltunited.com.

The only thing for now is a link to youtube. short, goofy and orange…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXmJU1ZQ-LE 

Talk to you soon, elis

something about me and my work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Felt making started when I wanted to make my own textile for children’s clothing, I found a small booklet with some simple instructions, went to a farm nearby and bought myself a whole Texelaar fleece for 2.50.  As some of you will know, Texelaar wool is not the normal or the easiest wool to learn how to felt, but in those days there was limited information or I did not know any better.

Working with Texelaar made me cry, made me tired, made me strong!  and made me more and more convinced I needed to work hard to learn to be a good felter. It paid of in the end in that it gave me a good basis and that I still like working with the courser fibers and fleeces. When a textile artist introduced me to Merino later on I was already hooked on rougher wool and I still buy a couple of Texelaar fleeces (among others) each year to work with.

 I make installation art,  land art ,and although felt is not commonly known in these artforms it works so well. I love making larger pieces, work you can lean to, can put your hands in or feel overwhelmed by.

There are limitations in what you can do though, not just physically but also in workspace. As I do not have a Feltingmachine and do the laying, rubbing, rolling and fulling by hand I need a lot of stamina, :) a good physiotherapist and room to work. Especially working with raw fleeces takes a lot of energy. But I need that sometimes, need the hard work it involves, need the smell. When I do not work with the raw material for some time I lose a bit of myself and the joy of my work. I get disconnected.

My husband sometimes says to me when we drive past a field with sheep ‘Darling, you look at these creatures like a fox looks at chickens.’  And he is right, I see sheep and love their fleeces and sometimes cannot wait for the shearer to call and tell me he has some beautiful fleeces waiting.

During these past years I learned I am not good in following trodden paths.  I am working hard on using my materials my way  or making the objects I design. Although I had lessons of very good teachers who taught me things that would not come naturally to me. You need the insight of others to pull yourself out of your comfort zone and you use their knowledge, but in the end I have to say, I am very stubborn in finding my own way and doing things my way. And I think that is part of the strength in me and my work.

And so I keep learning and working, felting, sweating and sometimes fighting with the things I do; Taking the time to think and rethink and work on the installations or designs.

Hats, I find, are wonderful small objects, to have fun with and for learning how to work with certain kinds of wool, or to better yourself in sculpting your materials or working on ideas.  Making flat pieces of felt to keep yourself going, or to understand your material better, to get things imprinted in the automatism of how you lay your wool, or rub or just because you are tired of your other work.

Working with Norwegian artist Cynthia Reynolds on the worldwide feltproject FeltUnited is a whole different game. We spend much more time on organizing and sending emails or talking on the phone than anticipated for a wonderful dream, ´We felt united.´ She taught me a lot of things I would otherwise not have seen or done and Feltunited would not have worked without this Canadian/Norwegian artist. Found a good friend in her.

Lastly three things dear friends thaught me were; ‘Never ever give up’, and; ‘If you dream, dream  big.’ and ‘Life is good.’

I am looking forward to an exciting year. Working on exhibits, one for bigger pieces in feb. next year, (love those), I would like more of this ’serious’ work. I am also working on doing workshops again, teaching others to do the weird stuff, free felting and making sculptural hats. So if you want me to come, give me a call or send me an email, so we can talk about the possibilities. 

Take care,

elis Vermeulen

guerilla hat

Worked on the guerilla hat I want to take to London on the 3rd. A guy living in our street was willing to model it. Had fun today.

Hat is made with merino roving, two different types, three layers. Almost rock hard. I am thinking about doing these kinds of hats in the new workshops. would be fun.

Feltunited world wide

Iam going to Londen with my husband the weekend of the 3rd of october, Feltunited day. And this morning Cynthia and I got an email from the Londen based International feltmakers Ass. They are planning a guerilla felt event outside Tate Modern. They will be wearing felt masks and attaching felt on the trees outside Tate and the ballustrading of the Thames and on sculptures. Such a wonderful idea. As I was thinking about it and seeing myself standing on the bridge and looking at this event it suddenly hit me;  Cynthia and I caused this and all kinds of other events world wide. How wonderful is that and how weird! We set out to organize an event that could ´rock the world´a bit, to show the world felt, and organize a day for people to have fun. It could just as easily have died down, but instead it has become this world wide enormous ´party´.

If you want to know about all kinds of things going on or where you can go, take a look at www.feltunited.com at the happenings page.

I do so hope you will all have bucketsfull of fun and bordercrossing joy!

´Compelled by necessity.´

´Compelled by necessity ´ are hollow shapes I made at the beginning of this summer.  I like to work with Leicester and always come back to round forms and shapes. they work well together.

I am using these in the exhibit at I.O. now.

a

Fiery.

Worked on hats this week. A lot of work these, designing, felting, shaping and dyeing.

Felting takes a lot of time to get them nice and stiff, also because of the ´spiky´ bits. They go in several dyebaths to get the colours exactly how I want it. .. not that I am a perfectionist..

This one is for Oslo.

exhibit at ´Drukkery´ Middelburg

The exhibit at the ´Drukkery´ in Middelburg was set up today. The piece we used is one of the three framed pieces of ´Speak friend and enter´. Big , impressive, and warm. this piece would do so great in a big house. I am happy with the result.

The last day of the exhibit will be on the 3rd of October, The International Feltunited day. They invite felters in (or out of) the area are to come by and show their Feltunited pieces on that day.

 

This information will be on the website of ‘The Drukkery’.

( http://www.de-drvkkery.nl/index.php/agenda/tentoonstellingen)

a lot of work

It took me the best of two days to get this one done, but I am pleased with it. The quality is perfect, it fits like a charm, looks wonderful.

Proud of my work, can ya tell?

Have to push myself back to the big stuff now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4ElZ0Qu7lI&feature=related

exhibit at i.o.

´Normal hats´

Earlier I posted the hats I’ve been doing lately. New and old techniques. Thought it to be a good idea to now post some pictures of hats from a serie I did for an exhibit earlier this year. Called them ‘Normal hats’, because this kind of work comes easy to me, they are not very practical to wear, course wool, hard felted material, but fun as an object. Love making spikes, horns and antlers stuff. Gonna make some with the softer fibers, so they will be easier on the skin and thus easier to wear.. if you have the guts..

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpHmQW83-Wo&feature=related)

So.. just for the fun of it,  new photo’s and here they are, nórmal hats.

black 1

Okay, it looks a bit strange on the block, but it looks so cool and wonderful when you wear it.

Hats

It is still warm outside but its time to get back to work. Feltunited is only a couple of weeks away, so time is pressing there. Also have to get ready for exhibits in september. They need smaller scale work and that gave me a chance to work on combining new and old techniques for hats.

 

A red hat. This model is a bit out of my line of hats, it is a bit ´correct, or proper. Working on this was very time consuming and precise work together with a lot of firm felting and hard labour but fun to do.

 

 And a nice simple looking green one. The ´earflaps´ close thight around the chin. Really nice one to wear.

 

´Hanekam´

A green one with spikes.

 

( Prices for these kind of hats are from 225€ and upwards.)