Wednesday 28 March 2012

Wonderful Workshop!

 The twelve lucky members of Feltmakers North that got their names pulled out of the hat for Elizabeth Bonnar Nuno workshop, had the most fantastic day! Before I tell you all about the workshop, I would like to thank Liz Nicholls Dorothy Dinsmore and Barbara Finlay, for the help they gave everyone throughout the day.
   Elizabeth started the day by demonstrating laying fibres in different directions so we would learn the direction the fabric would shrink in, we then all set about making our own samples.
                                                                             
                                                    Lesley making her sample.
Feltmakers North had sourced the Wool tops Silk fabric and silk fibre from Nancy at Treetops in Australia, the colours and quality of the wool and silk was tremendous and made for a very colourful and varied workshop! www.treetopscolours.com.au
The website is well worth a visit and if you can resist sending for something you have better will power then me!!
                                          Eating our lunch outside in the warm sunshine!!!!!        
Elizabeth inspired us with her great array of sample pieces and techniques, then we had the hard decision to make as to which technique to try out! Below she is showing how to build up the pattern on the silk using different wool, small pieces of silk fabric, silk ribbon and knitting wool.
   There was a great buzz in the room, everyone was very energised and keen to start.                                                                       
                                                  Ann's beautiful lattice nuno!

                                                                           
I thought this was a very interesting photo, its the same colour combination of wool used with three different colours of silk fabric, one pink, one purple and one blue!
                            Elizabeth Bonnar and six of the happy partiscipants modelling their scarves!
                                           Six more fabulous scarves!
I am including some of the comments from the evaluation sheets so you can hear exactly what the girls thought of the workshop!!

"Wonderful, excellent workshop, learned so much about the nuno technique!"

"Loved every minute!"

"Fabulous course, very enjoyable day, well organised, plenty of samples and help given"

  " Please Please bring Elizabeth back"

"Teaching was outstanding, learning was in depth, wonderful workshop"

So for those of you who are members we are bringing Elizabeth back for the AGM when we will have a very short AGM then Elizabeth is giving a talk on silk and in the afternoon we have a surprise lined up, more details to follow soon. This day will be free for members so pencil the date in your diaries  19th May!! Later in the week I will put more photos up in the gallery but now I am away out to enjoy the sun while its here!!  
                           
 **** Feltmakers North will be at the Creative Stitch Show in the Kings Hall in April, we hope to see you there so come along and say Hello.****
                                                                                                              

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Felting on St Patrick's Day!



Liz really got into the spirit of the day and started our felt in with a great example of a pre felt, in the shape of a Shamrock! The enthusiasm was terrific, with everyone producing a variety of prefelts to experiment with.
                                            Fibres being laid out for a prefelt.

Liz showed us examples of prefelts and variety of ways they could be used, even weaving them together. We were all very inspired and kept our heads down working to create our own pieces using this technique.
                         Therese dressed in green for St Patricks day, cutting out pattern.   
                                           Prefelts have been cut up and added to final piece.
                                                      Some of the finished designs.
  
The range of colours used was diverse, and above is an example of the weaving technique!
                                                                               
Prefelts made using the wool from Tree Tops colour harmonies! www.treetopscolours.com.au
If you have never visited this web site or purchased wool from them, you dont know what you are missing! We are lucky enough to have ordered a tremendous amount of wool from Tree tops for our workshop next saturday, and the colour combinations are amazing! So watch this space for photos of the nuno wraps we will be making! The lucky partiscipants have been notified that they got a place as we were over subscribed, for the nuno workshop with Elizabeth Bonnar.