New book! Exhibition and book launch!

Very excited to announce this!

Make Creatures with Felt Mistress: 12 Couture Characters to Sew

Say hello to Fringle, Rokpok and Grunch! These loveable creatures are a few of the cast of characters dreamed up by Louise Evans, aka Felt Mistress, for you to make. Each creature is beautifully illustrated by Jonathan Edwards and specially photographed for the book.

Clear step-by-step instructions, accompanied by line drawings, guide you through the making process, and an introductory chapter helps you tackle working with fake fur, using toy joints and more. At the back of the book you'll find full-size patterns for all the creatures (and their clothes) ready to use.

Paperback
250 illustrations
112 pages
250 x 190 mm
ISBN 9781780678276
Published August 2016

Making Creatures with Felt Mistress from Laurence King Publishing on Vimeo.

Scroll down for more pictures from the book.

To celebrate the launch we have an exhbition and launch party at Colours May Vary in Leeds. Here's the details from their blog -



"We are SUPER excited to be welcoming Felt Mistress back to the shop on August 19th!

Felt Mistress aka Louise Evans was our very first book signing WAY back in February 2013! Since then our space has grown and we are very, very excited to host an exhibition of her work to celebrate the release of her new book “Make Creatures With Felt Mistress”!

There will be a launch party on Friday 19th….Details to follow but you know we always look after you on the refreshment front so don’t worry about that. On Saturday 20th there will be a book signing and when she returns from her travels Felt Mistress will hopefully be holding a workshop too! (TBC)"

We'll be exhibiting over 25 characters and Jonathan will be on hand at the signing to personalise your copy with a monster drawing. See you on the 19th of August from 6pm! We'll also be instore signing more books the following morning (Saturday 20th).



You can buy it from Colours May Vary and all other good bookshops!

Power Up! Simmer Down! Tokyo

This is a very late blog post about our show, Power Up! Simmer Down!, at Cafe Zenon in Kichijoji in Tokyo.





"Power Up! Simmer Down" is a collection of work specially produced for Cafe Zenon. Inspired by sunshine, 1980s exercise videos, leisure wear, 1970s pool parties, ice cream, low-impact workouts and Sony Walkmans. It included one off fabric sculpture dolls and original brush and ink drawings.



Niles likes sunshine and low-impact workouts.



Myles like sunshine and FM radio.



Hank likes sunshine and pool parties.



Marlon likes sunshine and 1980s exercise videos.



Roscoe likes sunshine and leisure wear.

Blip and The Sugarhill Gang

I first met Blip in Tokyo. He was breakdancing in Yoyogi park on a flattened cardboard box. When I was asked to produce a poster for The Sugarhill Gang's appearance at the Tramlines Festival in Sheffield I knew he would make the perfect model and thankfully he agreed. The posters will be exhibited at the Millennium Gallery from the 24th - 26th of July. The A3 posters will also be available to buy from the gallery.

Momo and the Moon Peach

I was asked by Gallery Nucleus and Nickelodeon Studios to take part in the official art exhibition paying tribute to Avatar : The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. Here's my piece, Momo and the Moon Peach, and a few making-of shots. The exhibition is open from March 7th -22nd. For more details and sales enquiries click HERE.

The Glorious Flock

This week we set up our exhibition "The Glorious Flock" at Sage Gateshead, a collection of 37 3D pieces and 27 framed pieces. We also have two display cabinets (guarded by Wilko). One contains a collection of Jonathan's original sketches and work-in-progress shots alongside other bits of FM paraphernalia and the second, to coincide with Gruff Rhys playing Gateshead in September, contains the work I recently did with Pete Fowler for Gruff's film, American Interior. Pete designed John Evans, the felt character I made for the film, and was kind enough to send some of his original working sketches and designs. These are displayed alongside work-in-progress photographs and an earlier version of John's head and arm. The show runs until the end of September. It's an amazing space to exhibit in and a great team to work with (thanks guys for all your help!). The Sage shop also has some signed copies of Creature Couture available as well as some other FM goodies. If you visit please post pics and use the hashtag #thegloriousflock I'd love to see the pics. You can also listen to The Glorious Flock playlist here
http://t.co/UyRRdxvsMJ

The Hiber-Nation

IHere is a selection of photos from our exhibition at Wales Millennium Centre, it's on until January 5th so there is still time to go visit (and give The Hugger a hug) Apart from the three oversized pieces, which now belong to the Centre (the Queen, The Hugger and the Storyteller) all artwork is for sale and can be purchased thought the Milllennium Centre (they are also elligible for the Arts Council Wales collectors plan, 0% finance) All the paintings Jonathan produced can be viewed here and his blog post about the show is here. 

Striders

The striders stride across bringing with them the winter weather and monitoring the progress of the frost and snow. They report back to the Snow Queen. Striders grow from the feet up. Strider children can be tiny but with gigantic feet which makes Strider nurseries extremely noisy places to be. 

The Hiber-Nation Queen

Once the Striders have cleared the way the Hiber-Nation Queen travels the land bringing with her frost, ice and snow. She is accompanied on her annual journey by Ffrinton her faithful frost fox. 

Trunk & Loggins

Trunk and Loggins are the two main members of the woodland quiz team, The Tree of Knowledge. Winters are spent revising obscure trivia and testing each other's knowledge for future quiz tournaments. They are based in the countryside surrounding Cardiff as they like to be close to the Only Connect studio.

Myfi Snark

Fashion correspondent for the Hiber-Nation Times, Myfi divides her time between the frosted pathways of the Welsh woodlands and red carpets events worldwide.

The Storyteller

The storyteller is responsible for teaching the young ones the ways of the Hiber-Nation. Sometimes it's the history of prominent HIber-Nationals, sometimes it's advice on buying knitwear. Occasionally it's an anecdote about what happened to him at the post office that morning or a recipe for stew. You never know what you're going to get. 

Strider

The Twins

Frib and Drib (the Prib twins) are never apart. They appear like clockwork every winter and work their magic on the landscape. They enjoy placing frosted mittens on gateposts and shaking a snowy branch just as you're walking below it.

Mai Ffrai & Bonto Kring

Mai Frai, lead singer with all-girl rock band "The Hiber-Nations". A darling of the music press she was rocketed to worldwide stardom after the success of their single "Bringing Secsi, Bach!". 

Bonto, currently in a relationship with Mai Ffrai, is the guitarist with woodland math-rock band, Cwadratig. Recently photographed, alongside Mai, by Snapper Duvall for a spread in Cwmbran Vogue.

Striders

Fernando Mulch

Fernando enjoys reclining in piles of decomposing leaves with his feet up. His parents were Abba fans from Abermaw hence his unusual first name. His sister, Chiquitita, works in a call centre in Newport and often visits the woods for Sunday lunch.

The Poet

Inspired by the wintery weather Ferris appears ever year at the first sign of frost. Found sitting on his own in the woods he can be heard reading aloud from one of his many books of poetry. 

The Listeners

Ffrimp, Dybol, Grwblyn, Plwc and Moslyn are the current group of youngsters listening to the the Storyteller. 

Pondtificators

The Pondtificators appear from lakes and ponds during the winter months providing essential advice which ranges from household repairs to the best way to remove a red wine stain from a sheepskin rug. During the rest of the year they stay in their underwater lair watching Cadfael DVD box sets and eating waterlogged Battenburg cake.

Idris Grimp

Professor Idris Grimp is a keen entomologist  and a visiting lecturer at St Grunk's University. He travels the word collecting unusual specimens for his collection and brings them home to Wales where they're displayed in his converted Yew tree. One day he plans to launch his own signature pipe tobacco.

Mupsi 

Mupsi is the youngest of the Hiber-Nation characters appearing at the Centre. She enjoys colouring in, unicorns and colouring in unicorns. 

Myfi Snark

The Hugger

The Hugger lives to hug! If you're in the woods feeling a bit chilly just call for the Hugger and he'll be there within seconds. He's won numerous awards for his hugging skills and won Gold at the 2013 Hugolympics in Zurich.

If you visit the Centre and get a hug from The Hugger please post your photos with the hashtag #yeticwtsh It's great to see everyone's hug photos. I was a bit disturbed by how squashed his poor feet were getting but after watching some tiny toddlers just smiling at him then collapsing on top of his furry feet I think it's worth it. He's certainly loved :)