Beautiful Bumps and Lovely Lumps!!

 Our October Felt-in saw everyone beavering away making yet more little pieces to be added to the Community Arts Project hanging.  Deirdre updated us about the project and how it has emerged from a crystallise of an idea to fast becoming an amazing butterfly!!

The sample prefelts are rolling in and a big thank you to all those who left bundles into the Village Centre over the last while. 

the ideas keep on rolling in!

Deirdre, Helen and Deborah have been meeting regularly to work on the project in preparation for the community workshops in November at the Island Art Centre as part of the Island's 'Festival of Felting'.  

Deborah there in spirit! 

We've all been encouraged to consider various ways of depicting the essential and meaningful aspects of life in the Borough and yesterday saw yet more super ideas with members taking responsibility for developing various aspects of the hanging.

Helen and Deirdre demonstrated yet more techniques to add texture and surface embellishment together with 3d effects.

There's been great inspiration around and we all think this is a super way to work together learning and developing ideas together.

There was still time in our morning session to do a little Show n Tell when we saw some lovely pieces created by members.  Mandy had perfected two little bowls which were incredibly smooth and even.  Jane shared a book of sample wools which she is making as part of her IFA accredited feltmaking course and we saw Patricia's wonderful cobweb scarf.

Lots of us had been at Jenny Pepper's workshop a fortnight ago and our creatures were definitely holding their own!

Do please continue making little prefelts for the project and if you can't make our November Felt-in, drop them off at the Village Centre. 

Finally don't forget that alongside the Community Arts Project, there will be a small exhibition of pieces made by Feltmakers North, so get your thinking caps on for what you would like to contribute.

Bye for now guys!

SUPER SPIKY VESSELS !!

Jenny Pepper's Amazing Workshop

One of Jenny's fabulous samples

Last weekend members of Feltmakers North had a great weekend learning some of Jenny's techniques to create amazing 3D shapes.  Jenny presented a number of techniques and we were able to choose which ones we'd like to incorporate into our vessels.  From spikes and craters to bumps and hollows, we had such fun learning and then making the vessels.

sample showing a two in one technique

options for spikes

Craters galore from Jenny

Jenny took us through each stage of our creations so that we were all working in harmony and by the end of the first day, things had begun to look very weird!  Then when we returned on Sunday morning the hard work began as we spent lots of time rubbing away to secure each of the additions to our base.

By late afternoon the  vessels were finally born and lots of great pieces began to emerge.

Some of our creations before drying

Our thanks to Jenny for travelling from Scarborough to share her skills with Feltmakers North and to our super workshop secretary Pleasuance for organizing everything.

Jenny's sample using native wools

hanging to dry

Had to get a good angle for the shot!

It'll be so good to see all the creations finally dry and shaped at our Show n Tell  bit of next week's Felt-in on the 19th.  A wee reminder please to bring all your prefelts from last month so we can continue to build the collection for the Community Arts Project.

Don't forget,  coffee at 10.00 and 10.15 the fun begins!!  See you all then.

Strictly Felting!!

A great start to our new Felting Year

A great session on Saturday got us off to the best start possible for our new season and in the run up to our celebrations for our 10th anniversary.

Our Felt-in focused on preparing for the Community Arts Project with the Island Art's Centre in Lisburn.  Deirdre, Helen and Deborah are leading this project - from designing, planning and delivering. They took today's session explaining the aim of the project and how it would be achieved with the support of all the group.

Lots of fun and plenty of work!

The Committee has been working hard to devise an interesting and enjoyable way to celebrate our 10th anniversary.  We will be working in partnership with the Island Arts Centre to deliver a community arts project.  There are plans for pop up felting events, community engagement events, a specially designed project working with a local special needs school, and workshops all culminating in a major exhibition in 2020.

This will lead us into our 10th year of Feltmaking, our 'TIN' year. Sharon's obviously been thinking about this and shared an idea of incorporating can pull openers into a little felted bowl! 

Great idea Sharon!

Of course before the CAP (Community Arts Project) team got going, there was plenty to talk about for the year ahead.

Jenny Pepper's workshop on Saturday 5 October still has some places up for grabs, so if you don't want to miss this very creative opportunity, get cracking and contact our workshop secretary Pleasuance

pleasuancemperry@me.com

Lyda Rump a very talented feltmaker from the Netherlands will be teaching with us in March next year and there's also lots of plans to bring some very exciting local and international tutors over the next year, so watch this space.


Back to the CAP team and their very creative ideas for this project which will involve community groups working together with Feltmakers North to create some wall art which reflects their thoughts and feelings about living in the Lisburn and Castlereagh Council area.

Deidre explains some of the ideas so far

Splitting into three groups, Deirdre, Helen and Deborah each worked on a specific technique to maximise the number of small pieces that would be used in the community hanging.

Helen's upwolffing group

Deborah's group using ropes to design trees!

Deirdre's group on walls and stones effects

Lots of wonderful pieces created, amazing colour combinations, textures to die for and most importantly lots of prefelts for our project at the Island Arts Centre in November.

A massive thank you to Deirdre, Helen and Deborah for all their inspirational work. We know they have been working hard over the summer and this was evident today. Everyone left feeling part of this exciting project and Yes, we have all got some home work! We need to provide A4 pre felted pieces to be included in the wall hanging - the river, mountains, sky etc plus work on the techniques we learned at the Felt-in. so til the next Felt-in.  .....................keep felting!!

We can't finish this blog without you getting a chance to see this lovely little bird which Dorothy had given to Sandy.  We all hope you are keeping well Dorothy and look forward to seeing you in October.

y.
.

Welcome to the new season

SEPTEMBER   FELT-IN

All Welcome

   Saturday 21st  

Welcome to another exciting new season with Feltmakers North Guild!  Our first Felt-in is on Saturday, 21 September at 10.00 am in Hillsborough Village Centre.  Everyone is welcome to come and see what Feltmakers North is all about and even better it's a free session for non-members.

We will be working together to produce small pieces to be incorporated into the hangings for the Community Arts Project.  So if you've never felted before, often wondered what felting was all about or you want to improve your skills why not come along?

Feltmakers North Guild has a really exciting year ahead as late November begins the celebrations for our 10th Anniversary in 2020.  A massive thank you to all our members who have contributed lots of ideas and suggestions for our celebratory year so watch this space for what's on the agenda!!

A new year of Felting and exciting times!

1. 
   

Almost the start of our new felting year and it is going to be a busy one as we launch in to our 10th anniversary. To coincide with this, Feltmakers North have been invited by LCCC to lead on a local community arts project.

Working alongside two community groups will be Deirdre Gallagher, Deborah Woolsey and Helen O'Grady~Browne, our Design Team. Focussing on individuals thoughts and feelings of living/working in the LCCC borough the groups will create a large felted art work. It is anticipated that this piece will be initially exhibited in November at Lisburn Arts Council and subsequently as part of a touring exhibition.

To ensure everyone at Feltmakers North has a chance to contribute to the Project we will be holding our annual "open" session on 21st September @10am during which time the Design Team will update the group about the project. Furthermore, we shall be using this session for everyone to create a piece of Felt/Prefelt with your own unique design each of which will be incorporated into the final hanging. There will be some wool fibres available (free of charge) at the Felt-in but feel free to bring along any bits, bobs, materials etc to embellish and add texture creating wonderfully exclusive pieces.

This is a new direction for our art and one that has been mentioned previously by many members as giving back to LCCC and the local area. We look forward to seeing you all in September for what will be a really exciting venture.

The Design Team

Jenny Pepper workshop

                                                                                                                                                                               Feltmaker's North are delighted to host a workshop by the amazingly talented Jenny Pepper.

On Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October 2019, Jenny will be teaching us to make 'Sea life' inspired 3D vessels with spikes, craters, spike within craters, frills and layers.

Now is the time to book your place on this fabulous workshop.

To book your place download or copy the application form and return to Pleasaunce Perry.

Feltmakers North

2 Day Spikey Vessel Workshop with Jenny Pepper

During this 2 day workshop we will experiment with and explore a wide variety of techniques to add extra dimensions to a felt hollow vessel  

Saturday and Sunday, 5th & 6th October 2019

10am – 4.30 pm

Venue:      Saturday: Hillsborough Village Centre

        Sunday: Hillsborough Scout Hall

    

Cost: Members £100; Non Members: £130

(Cost of materials included)

·         Tea/coffee will be provided, please bring a packed lunch

·         Insurance conditions - applicants must be over 18 years

·         Members will be given priority up to 27th July 2019

·         For further information contact: Pleasaunce at: pleasauncemperry@me.com or 07715033550

·         Closing date:  24th August

Jenny Pepper Workshop

5th & 6th October 2019

Name………………………………………………….                              Date.....................

Tel……………………………………………………….

email.............................................

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Booking:

There are 14 places for this workshop.  Members have priority until 27th July. 

Once places are filled a waiting list will be started. 

Closing date:  24th August

Please detach and complete form above  and forward with a cheque for £100 (members) or £130 (non-members) made payable to Feltmakers North to

Pleasaunce Perry, 23 Belvedere Park, Belfast BT9 5GS

Terms and conditions:

Applications will not be accepted until full payment is received and form is fully completed.  The payment includes a non-refundable deposit of £40.

Cancellation policy:

 Cancellation received more than 21 days prior to the workshop will have money refunded minus the £40 non-refundable deposit.

Cancellation received less than 21 days prior to the workshop will only have money refunded (minus the non-refundable deposit) at the discretion of the committee and depending on whether someone from the waiting list can take their place.  

If you would like to see more of her work, here's a link to her website:

https://www.jennypepper.com

Fleeces!!!

Fleeces!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Sarah has a contact for fleeces if any of you are interested.

Here are some photos of the breeds.

Blue faced Leicester.

Hampshire Downs.

These don't felt too well.

Jacobs Shearlings

Mules or Cross bred.

Sarah's contact is based in Cushendall, but works in Mallusk, so can bring them down there.

If you are interested, please contact Sarah (spiderlingcreations@gmail.com)