Inclusions!

It was a wet and chilly February morning but 23 intrepid ladies braved the weather to learn about making inclusions in felt. But first we had our customary show and tell.

Fiona Harvey started us off with her beautiful beads, made under the tutelage of Dorothy Dinsmore at our last felt in! Elaine showed us three lovely nuno felted scarves that she had made.

Ann Fairly showed off her lovely needle felted Hare and a wet felted bag.

Tina made a beautiful needlefelted broach of a fox terrier buy sadly we didn't get a photo of it!

The session was led by the erudite Fiona Harvey, who demonstrated how incorporate inclusions into our felt, She showed us how to lay out our silk add a cut out piece of felt , which were then covered with wool.

Some of Fiona's samples

 Everyone completed a sample and each one was very different. Mary Larkin made a lovely rabbit and Dympna added sailboats on her sample.

 All the samples were colourful, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It will be interesting to see if this technique appears in any work at our next show and tell.

Some of the samples at the end of the session!

Jane Fox

I would like to thank Jane Fox for writing this piece for the blog and taking the photos!

Just beofe I go I found this picture on facebook to inspire you all! How about this for Inclusions!

The sheep photography competition is still on if any of you would like to send in more photos it would be great, as they will feature in future blog posts!

I jumped out of the car again this week to photograph these fellows, sadly they thought I was going to feed them and came running up to me! So I will have to take them down some carrots?!

Keep felting and we look forward to seeing you at the next Felt in, Dorothy Dinsmore is back and its a surprise Felt in,...... all will be revealed!!

Fiona Harvey

Meditative Beads

Our first felt in for 2016 was very enjoyable. Despite the icy, cold weather, we had a tremendous turn out of enthusiastic feltmakers, ready to learn to learn how to make Meditative beads.
But first we had our show and tell Joanne showed us her adorable needle felted gnomes, each one with its own name, also her little sheep.

Next Donna showed us her lovely triangular bowls.

Liz brought a beautiful scarf she had made using Nancy Ballestros technique using silk hankies.

 

Gail modelled her fabulous hooded vest that she made at the Katia Moyeyeva

workshop.

Deirdre brought along a beautiful mermaid that she had made for a porcelain sculpture.

The felt in was led by our very own Dorothy Dinsmore, who had a birthday during the week so before she could start with the session, she was surprised with a cake and a round of happy Birthday!

Everyone worked away on their nuno felt beads, embellishing as desired, while Dorothy walked round with work from various people to help inspire! She also gave us advice and encouraged us. 

By the end of the session, we all had a few beautiful beads to use for a necklace. The atmosphere was very relaxed and it was fun to see all of the beads in every shape and size.

Joanne modelling some of Dorothy's beads!

After the felt in session, six people stayed on to work on a variety of items, which we will hopefully see at the next show and tell!

Jane Fox.

Thanks to Jane for her account of our January meeting, it was tremendous fun and great to see so many people!

 Our next felt in is 20th February, so check out the diary dates for details! I am looking forward to getting some sheep and lamb photos soon for our competition, remember the closing date is not till the end of April so you have plenty of time still to enter!

I couldn't resist this close up of Shrek, I have shown photos of him before, he was the sheep who avoided being sheared for quite a few years!

Be careful in this frosty weather but keep felting and hopefully see you all soon!

Fiona Harvey.

Good Wishes for 2016!

 

This is the only picture I could find of a wind swept sheep, I really hope that last night all the sheep in the neighbourhood found shelter as Storm Frank was pretty wild!
Just a quick post to wish everyone who reads the blog a happy and healthy new year! I hope you will continue to follow our blog, and send in sheep photos for our competition and leave comments, we love to hear from you!
 All the photographs of our very talented membership are now up on the gallery, they are from our exhibition held in the Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, earlier in the year! So get a wee cup of tea or coffee put your feet up and take a look, the photos are really inspirational!

I will end this wee post with these lovely wee fellows! They are Baby Doll Southdown Sheep! Happy New Year!!
Fiona Harvey.

Curls at Christmas

We had a wonderful relaxing morning with Gail Cooke, learning different ways to incorporate curls into our felt! Gail had dyed the curls for us in an array of beautiful colours.

Gail gave us a very informative talk before we began on the technique we were learning, so we all felt confident to proceed!

Gail had brought along a selection of things she had made using curls, her work was very inspiring!

 Gail's nuno black and white wrap, which oozed texture!

Then it was our turn to have a go, it was great as everyone's was different, some using native wools and some using merino.

It was a very productive and colourful felt in.

After our welcome cup of coffee we had a brilliant show and tell of members work. 

Sarah showed us her recent needle felting! Impressive!

Elaine modelled her beautiful purple nuno dress! Impressive! These are just two of the great work on show at the show and tell!

When we had finished our curly samples Feltmakers North treated us all to a lovely lunch and we all sat round casually talking and catching up, in a calm non Christmas rush atmosphere!

We will be back on 16th January with the Dynamic Dorothy Dinsmore!!!

So have a great Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year!

Two photos because its Christmas! 

Fiona Harvey

Christmas Tree Workshop

Christmas tree workshop led by Fiona Harvey

A veritable forest of gorgeous felted Christmas trees adorned the village centre today.

Fourteen feltmakers worked hard all day under the expert tutorlage of Fiona Harvey.

Fiona had brought along some of her own creations to inspire. She took everyone through each step of the process from securing the pots and making the tree trunks from cinnamon sticks to making the felted covers for each pot.

Fiona and Deirdre working hard!

Sisters Deborah and Joanne spending the day felting together.

Tina and Mary!

Sharon and Wilma securing their cinnamon stick trunk.

Vicki and Debra doing some serious glueing.

Ann and Dympna !

Then came the challenge to make each cone shaped tree using a resist. Stars and hearts turned out to be the theme of the day

with some felters using curly wool locks, angelina and silk fibres as their individual finishing touches. 

As Dympna said"An excellent day thoroughly enjoyable!"

Gail Cooke

I would like to thank Gail Cooke for writing the blog post for me and also being a great helper during the workshop. I was so pleased we ended up with a forest of trees at the end of the day!

All different but all great!

A magnificent sheep I saw in Donegal!

See you all for the Christmas felt in and lunch on Saturday 19th December, for fun felting with curls under the direction of Gail Cooke.

Fiona Harvey

Weaving our way through November!

Ann McCullough was taking the November Felt in showing us how to weave pre felts, in to colourful tartan felt! However before Ann started we had our show and tell!

In the show and tell some of the girls brought along their garments form the Katia Mokeyeva workshop! The work was amazing, above is Maria modelling Dorothy's fantastic piece of work!

Dorothy's garment from the back!

Here is Ann wearing her own garment, she made hers with a collar!

Afterwards Ann gave her demonstration and had a great supply of samples, which gave us inspiration on a cold and snowy morning! she also brought along a cushion and bag she had made using the woven prefelts and they were fabulous!

Beautiful piece by Elaine McCombe.

Barbara Finlay was excelling herself using interesting variation of prefelts and some silk, I would love to see this when is was fully felted!

Bronwen weaving lime green and black into a striking piece!
We had a great morning and it was lovely to see so many inspite of the weather.

Our next felt in is on the 19th December and Gail Cooke will be working incorporating curls into our work which should be fun! It will then be followed by our lite Christmas lunch, so we hope to see you all there!

This photo shows freshly dyed sheep that run in view of the highway near Bathgate, Scotland. The farmer has been dying his sheep with Non Toxic dye since 2007 to entertain passing motorists!Hope this made you smile!
Fiona Harvey