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 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 :)

The Hiber-Nation at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff

At last I can reveal what we have been working on for the last few months. Our biggest show to date and our first in Wales - The Hiber-Nation at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. The show opens on Friday the 6th of December with the launch night on Thursday the 5th (6-8pm). Everybody's welcome! We have produced over 50 new pieces for the show including some giant oversized characters (over 8ft tall!) one of which you can get a furry hug from. I'm really excited to announce that the musical guests for the launch night are Gulp!

Here's the official press release -

Mystical Welsh creatures to take up winter residence at Wales Millennium Centre

Seeking refuge from the harsh Welsh winter, The Hiber-Nation will be descending on Wales Millennium Centre this December. Hand-crafted by the inimitable Felt Mistress out of new and vintage fabrics including tweed, wool and flannel from Welsh mills, the band of quirky, colourful creatures are soon to be found huddled in stairwells and suspended from ceilings around the Centre.

Louise Evans, alias Felt Mistress, has crafted over 20 x 3D pieces for the exhibition, including 3 x 8-10ft works: a snow queen, a huggable yeti and a woodland guru.

The inspiration behind the 3D creatures lies in the striking illustrations created by Jonathan Edwards, Louise’s partner and a regular illustrator for the Guardian newspaper. Around 30 of Jonathan’s original works, – a collection of watercolours, acrylics and ink drawings - depicting the characters and the landscape they inhabit,will also be on display during the exhibition. Video content introducing the characters will also be presented on the Centre’s projection wall.

From her studio in North Wales, Felt Mistress has created a legion of felt characters for the best part of a decade. While both her work and Jonathan’s has been exhibited all over the world in cities including Osaka, Los Angeles, Berlin and London, The Hiber-Nation exhibition is to be the Welsh-born couple’s first in their homeland. In 2010, the couple presented a Christmas window display at Selfridge’s iconic Oxford Street store.

Louise Evans originally trained in fashion design and millinery and has brought many of the skills learnt through years of work as a couture dress maker to the world of character design. As well as original Felt Mistresscharacters, Louise has collaborated with a variety of artists including Jon Burgerman, Ben Newman and PeteFowler. A 400 page retrospective of her work, "Creature Couture - the Art of Felt Mistress" was published in December 2012.

Along with providing illustrations for the Guardian, Jonathan Edwards has produced illustrations and comic strips for magazines and publishers around the world. His artwork also appears on the covers of records by artists such as The Black Eyed Peas and The Jungle Brothers.

Louise Miles-Crust, Head of Programming, said: 'We're very excited to be bringing the work of Felt Mistressand Jonathan Edwards to the Centre this Christmas. Their work is both visually stunning and fun, so we hope that art lovers and families alike will enjoy the exhibition. It’s also great that we can host the homecoming exhibition for the talented Welsh duo and display some of the truly unique and exciting art and design work to be coming out of Wales.'

Felt Mistress will also be offering a free workshop on Saturday 14 December from 2.45pm to 4.45pm where participants will be able to make their own felt creatures - the perfect Christmas gifts. Booking is required as spaces are limited.

The exhibition will open on Friday 6 December, with an open-to-all launch party on Thursday 5 December 6pm-8pm, with live music from the band Gulp. The exhibition closes on Sunday 5 January 2014.