JAYNE'S JANUARY FELT-IN

Our Felt-in on Saturday saw our own very talented Jayne sharing a myriad of fibres and tips on how to use them in felt.  Judging by the number of things she'd gathered together on her tray we were definitely in for a treat.

Our virtual Felt-in began with the usual Show n Tell 

  

These beautifully coloured little eggs were      created by Jane F using polystyrene shapes and felting over them.  Super idea for Easter!

Busy bee Jane has been felting away in her studio and was proudly wearing this lovely lightweight scarf which is secured round the neck with a large loop.  She shared the link below with everyone so now's your chance to make one for yourself!

 https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2021/01/15/interesting-new-scarf-type/

These little creations were made by me after our December Felt-in with Sandy.  As you know they are felted around stones and I gradually added more wadding as I made each one.  I liked the spongy feel of the talisman and thought that the children might also enjoy that along with the weight of the stone.  The white talisman is at prefelt stage, so a bit more work required there! 

Wilma showed us a lovely bag which she had made using techniques she'd learnt at Lyda Rump's workshop in 2020.  The bag had lots of compartments and Wilma had finished one with a zip, perfect for valuables.  Sorry no pics - maybe Wilma will share a couple later.

Once we had shared news and felting projects we settled down to watch Jayne's video together.  Jayne had searched her stash and collected a tray load full of fabric scraps, dress trimmings,  natural and synthetic fibres, wools, yarns, shiny things, glittery things and just about everything you would ever want to include in a piece of felt!

In the video we see Jayne going through each item and suggesting ways to incorporate them to create different textures and effects.  In the image below she's showing some wool nepps felted into the surface of this sample.  

Yarns of various types including acrylic and nylon are trapped here under a piece of very lightweight muslin which will be felted on to a lay of wool tops.

We spent some time looking at each of the items before moving on to see Jayne working on a small sample piece where she felted cotton fibre, heavy silk fabric, flax, knitted wool fabric and a heavily sequinned strip of fabric directly on to wool tops.  Jayne used a wet sponge to add soap through the netting and it worked very successfully which impressed many of us!

At the end of the video Jayne chatted through some of the processes and answered questions.  It really was a very informative and enjoyable session and we all learnt lots of valuable things to help us continue developing our felting skills.  Our thanks to Jayne for taking the time to share her skills and ideas with us and for making the video for us all to share.

The Community Outreach Project is progressing well with members continuing to make small sample pieces to use in the knee blankets and we are very hopeful that there'll soon be enough made to start putting them all together to present to Brookfield School in late spring.  Please continue to create little pieces for the children, I know they will be very appreciated.

This adorable little creature was created by Jane F who is the Ireland representative of the International Feltmakers Association.  Jane was reviewing a book on behalf of the IFA and thought she would try one of the techniques in the book.  What a super outcome - well done Jane!

In case anyone is interested this is the link   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterclass-needle-felting-dogs/dp/1787113833     The author is Cindy Lou Thompson

That's all for now guys.  Happy felting!

Cheers

Gail