Surface Decoration

There was a great turnout for October's Felt in with Maria who had a wonderful range of samples of surface decoration to share with us!

With cords and spikes and bubbles and spheres all competing it was hard to decide which technique to choose to sample!

We learned the basic techniques of using prefelted cords and spheres to enhance the flat surface of felt with some lovely results.

Maria showed examples of how to cut into the surface of felt which had been stitched to contrasting colours of cotton fabric. A particular favourite was adding standing up triangles which looked very impressive.

There was great chat while everyone worked hard to ensure at least one sample piece was completed before the end of the session.

Some of the lucky people who did the nuno scarf workshop in September brought along their finished pieces to the envy of the rest!!

A big thank you to Mary Larkin who very thoughtfully brought along some freshly baked chocolate buns for us all to enjoy!

Gail Cooke.

 

Using the Lovely Tree Tops Wool and Silk

I took the September Nuno workshop for Feltmakers North, using the lovely tree tops wool and silk, the colours are fabulous, so we were off to a good start! Saying as I took the workshop I cannot comment on how it went from a students point of view but I had great fun and was very pleased with the end results. Everyone went home with a very original, beautiful and colourful wrap!

I showed the girls three scarves I had made so as they would see what I was expecting of them, then they set about planning their design.

I was very grateful to Dan Corbett for coming to take photos of the workshop, I am sure you can tell they are taken by a skilled photographer! Its a pity he couldn't come more often!!

I am going to include some of the comments from the evaluation sheets to give you the response of the girls! "Clear instructions, beautiful materials and friendly atmosphere"

"Well run, informative, friendly tutoring, lots of support and great fun."

"Great venue, with free parking and easy to find!"

"Harder than most workshops which was great for the felters who have been felting for a while."

"An excellent topic with great discussion!"

Having a wee chat with some people that dropped in to see what was going on!

"More of this standard of workshop aiming at the intermediate felters!"

I will post more of Dan's excellent photos in the next week, and I would like to thank him again for giving up some of his free time on a Saturday. Also I would like to thank Gail Cooke who was a great help and also kept a constant supply of tea and coffee throughout the day!

 

In October we are having Maria White taking the felt in and extended felt in on bumps and textures, more details on workshop section. The lucky participants for the Catherine O'Leary workshop have been selected and notified, and I hope they are all very excited and delighted that they got on the workshop!

 

September Start

What a great start we had with Gail Cooke as out tutor for our first Autumn felt in! Gail brought some beautiful inspirational pieces made with Blue faced Leister wool in its three natural colours.

We started making prefelts in BFL to make a mat similar to the one above!

The turn out was terrific and it was really good to catch up with familar faces and also meet new ones! Here they are all listening carefully to the advice given by Gail.

I had to take a photo of these nails, that were busy felting!

Some of the fabulous work produced during the morning!

Sorry this one has gone in sideways! It was a great morning and we also decided instead of a show and tell to just tell each other helpful tips!Three best tips from the morning were;

When using bulb sprayer, spray round edge first to avoid wool travelling.

Stand straight think of your back and have one foot in front of the other.

Have a face cloth handy to dry your hands(this avoids wet trousers as I always rub my hands on them!)

Some of the girls had brought their bags from Nicola Brown workshop and I didnt get a chance to take photos so I hope they will bring them next month so I can include them in the blog. On saturday we have our nuno felting workshop so there will be another post soon! Forms are available for extended felt in in October 19th, email Ann address in workshop felt in section!
Bye from me, it is great to be back felting I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!
Fiona Harvey

Update!

Here is a fab photo I found on Facebook its one of Catherine O'Leary fantastic garments! I thought I would use this as the deadline for applications for her workshop is drawing close. The date is Thursday 26th September and the draw for places will be made the next day! This is great value as it works out as £40 a day which includes the needlefelt (felbi) which comes from Australia. This year we changed the plan to enable people to stay where ever they want although rooms are available in The Bayview Hotel, Portballintrae. I am so excited about the workshop, as it is such a good opportunity, to work with the great Catherine O'Leary!

This Saturday 21st is a felt in taken by Gail Cooke who will be using Blue Faced Leister wool, and we will have a supply for people to buy on the morning! all you need to bring is your usual felting kit! Look forward to seeing you all, and having fun felting together!
See you Saturday 10.15 Hillsborough Village Centre, Hillsborough!
Fiona Harvey

Catherine O'Leary

Great News we have been awarded a very generous grant from The Arts Council for Northern Ireland and we are set to go for a wonderful three day workshop up on the north coast! The cost of the workshop for the three days is £120, incredible value. For the £120 pounds you get three days workshop with lunch included, and some materials ie Felbi (which is prefelt from Australia) this is an expensive material, so its even better to get it included in the price!

Feltmakers North has reserved some rooms at The Bayview Hotel, Portballintrae which successful applicants can book, but this year we are letting the applicants arrange it themselves. We hope that we will all meet up in the evening for dinner as usual!

Application forms will be available from Tuesday 27th August from Ann McCullough so email her amccullough1949@gmail.com places are limited and they will be drawn from a hat on the closing date and successful applicants will be notified asap! We are also looking for helpers to help out over the three days, it can be one person for three days or different people, so if you would like to help contact Ann. Accommodation will be provided for one helper if they are helping over the three days!

email

It isTime to Felt!

These are the beautiful Blue Faced Leister Sheep, and in September at our felt in Gail Cooke will be using their wonderful wool, in all three of its natural shades. Do not worry if you do not have any Gail will have some for you to purchase! (These are very gentle sheep, when I was a child living on a farm we had a beautiful BFL called Barbara, who nearly always had triplets every year!)

For those of you attending our September Felt in, we would like everyone to bring with them a useful tip for felting! It can be something like bring a bar of olive soap and some grated soap to a workshop, or something completely different. It should be interesting and hopefully useful to hear everyone's ideas! If you are unable to attend the felt in you can always email you tip to us and we will read it out!
                                                                                

Here is a small sample of some of the wool we have ordered for the Nuno felting workshop in September. This wool has come from Treetops in Australia, which specialises in fabulous colours, in silk, wool fibres and silk fibres. The workshop is Saturday 28th September and starts at 10 am and runs to 5pm in Hillsborough Village Centre, applications are available from Ann email amccullough1949@gmail.com places are limited and names will be pulled out of a hat!

We hope to have some good news this week about our residential workshop with Catherine OLeary in November, so keep an eye out for when the application forms will be available again places are limited. Again contact Ann.

The committee is looking forward to seeing everyone in September for the felt in, so we hope you can make it!
Fiona Harvey

Two day summer workshop

Nicola Brown of Clasheen was out tutor for two days at the beginning of August, the topic was a complex bag! Nicola was most generous with her time and knowledge, we all learnt a tremendous amount!
                                                                          

We had a choice of styles of bags, Denise decided to make a bag for an I pad with an internal pocket for an I phone, here is Nicola discussing the size of the internal pocket!

                                                                      

                                                  
Dorothy taking care at laying her fibres, we were using cap merino which is a type of merino a lot of us hadn't used in a bag before!

 Nicola is demonstrating how to place the wool at the edges so they stay fine and are not bulky!

Above two of the bags after they have added their decoration to one side!

Bronwen and her bag with pattern laid out!

Dianne on her first workshop with Feltmakers North! She is preparing her spikes to add to her I pad case!

Jayne still smiling even though she is at the rubbing stage, which went on a long time! However the end results were well worth it!

Nicola is showing us how to attach the spikes to the I pad bag!

 Denise's colourful I pad case with flap to keep it closed.

 Bronwen's bag with her integral handle, has worked really well!

The spike are now attached to Dianne's fabulous I pad case! I think we all stretched ourselves at  this workshop under the careful guidance of Nicola.

Some of the bags at the end of the workshop, not quite finished but well on their way!

The happy but tired felters at the end of the workshop. It was a fantastic two days of fun learning, and great spending time with like minded people. Nicola was a great tutor, who made sure she circulated around the room, trying to help everyone as soon as they needed help! I would also like to thank Liz Nicholls who was Nicola's helper and did a great job. Not forgetting the ever helpful staff of Hillsborough Village Centre, I must say we are so lucky that we have the use of their venue, the staff and facilities are brilliant!

I hope that the girls will bring their finished bags to the September felt in, so we can, see them in all their glory, so watch out for more photos!

Keep checking the blog, we hope to have details of Catherine O Leary residential workshop in a week or so, again this will be a draw for places, but we will be looking for people to help. So if you don't get on the workshop, there is a possibility that you could get selected for a post as helper! The forms are now available for the nuno workshop on 28th September so email Ann, details on workshop section of Blog!

Enjoy the summer and I look forward to seeing you all in September. Fiona Harvey