Interview with Felicity Hall…

by Caroline

Today we have a Spotlight Interview with Felicity Hall.

You can visit her lovely website HERE..

Read more to see interview questions and projects!

Questions:

-  Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I’ve always been creative for as long as I can remember, my parents are both artistic so I’ve had influences from them- along with growing up in the middle of nowhere, so I had to amuse myself - usually by making things! I studied textiles and then Fine Art painting at university, since then I  have done numerous things, including creating a jewellery line, releasing an album (I was a professional singer for a couple of years!) and worked freelance for a number of craft magazines and most recently I’ve launched a needlepoint company selling kits that I have designed and manufactured.

-  Can you show us some of your favourite projects and tell us about them?

The first is a project that I created for Crafts Beautiful magazine, it was originally for a set of Easter cards, but they actually ended up being in a later issue. I’m very interested by vintage textile prints, so I took inspiration from a number of russian textile designs.

I’m always interested in pushing the boundaries of card-making so I decided to use a layered effect using an oval (egg-shaped!) aperture. I love painting so I really enjoyed creating these.

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The second is a set of flower cocktail rings that I designed for Make Jewellery magazine. One of my favourite mediums to use is shrink plastic so I had great fun coming up with different techniques for each flower.

I tried to give each one a theme- for instance the yellow flower was a more realistic approach, and the black and white one was very stylised- I like to give a few examples of the same technique, especially for jewellery as everyone has different tastes- especially with what we wear.

-  Any crafty hints or tips?

My favourite craft tip at the moment is if you are using synthetic ribbon (most ribbon is) then an easy way to stop the ends from fraying is to gently melt each one with a candle- it gives a really professional finish and works much better than clear nail varnish or having to stitch over the ends.

-  What makes you smile?

Anything that inspires me! music, the arts in general really. I’m contantly smiling when I visit the V&A museum! I’ve been so many times but always see something new when I visit!

-  What is on your craft desk at the moment?

Nothing much actually as I’ve just had a tidy up! Usually I have scraps of images that I’ve pulled from magazines that inspire me, lots of wool colours, sketches and doodles of designs and the all important mug of coffee!

-  Favourite song, film, book?

I have loads of favourite songs, but my two favourites are Songbird by the legendary Eva Cassidy and Maggie May by Rod Stewart!

-  If you could be invisible where would you go and what would you do?

Oooh difficult question- If I was invisible and invincible I think I would like to go to the jungle and see orangutangs in thier own environment acting naturally without knowing I was there! I’d also like to see a grizzly bear up close!

-  What is your favourite time of year?

I love the Spring, when everything starts to shoot- I love those cold days when the sun is shining and you can really start to feel the warmth of the sun on your face.

-  What are your plans for the future?

I’m going to continue to develop my needlepoint brand, I’m working on some needlepoint handbag kits that I’m hoping to launch next year. I’d also really like to write a crafts book and have an exhibition of my paintings!- so not much!!

- Anything else?

I’d love to hear from any of your readers if they’d like to drop me an e-mail they can contact me at info@felicityhall.co.uk.

I’ve also just launched my own blog at www.elicit-felicityhall.blogspot.com which features anything and everything that inspires me- please take a look!