2018

HAPPY FELTING IN 2018 

2018 - a fabulous year for our members with an exciting programme, workshops & felt designers. 

Beginning with the Improving Skills workshop on the 13th. A felt-in on the 20th led by Elaine when she will be exploring prefelt & prefelting with you. This is followed by a free-felting afternoon. A busy opening month. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to ewes ⛄️🎄🎅🏼

A few more pics from Saturday

FELT IN 16th December

What a festive felt in with Christmas music, jumpers, earrings, hats, glasses and even antlers.

To begin with Gail reminded all of the great workshops arranged for the new year. In January "Improving skills" should not be missed particularly if you have not been felting long. This will introduce & review many techniques required to produce even more beautiful felt work. There are only a couple of places left so send forms to Jayne asap.

The next felt session is 20/01/2018 & will be looking at pre-felts. This will be followed by a felting afternoon. As always, this provides an opportunity to work on a larger piece or even just finish a current project.

In the New Year Jayne will email application forms for the March workshop with Gabriella Kovacs & Gabi McGrath joining her to assist. Two well known and amazingly talented felters, we are so lucky.

Over the coming months we are reminded to think about pieces to submit for the next exhibition with a working title of 'Felt Alive'. The committee have worked hard to put an exciting programme on for 2018 so please avail of the sessions to support the group and improve your skills.

Committee work never ends

Jane manning the busy sales table.

Mandy & Dorothy managing the very successful Bring & Buy table

At our felt in this morning Sara talked about natural fleeces from sheep found around the UK. Advising which felted well or otherwise. In addition Sara brought samples of various fleeces. Indeed the only thing missing was Sara's sheep 🐑 (Baaaaad girl). Sara talked through the process from shearing to forming batts, roving, pencil roving and how to 'ping' a single lock to determine if the sheep was healthy. 

Sara continued with laying and felting the basis of a name badge & instructing our feltees which can be seen below. 

Then we went on to enjoy a delicious Christmas lunch supplied by Feltmakers North. Thank you Ann for collecting this and to those helping to set up including our tea ladies which keeps us all caffeinated. 

This is our last felt in of the year so a Merry Christmas to you & yours & best wishes for 2018. To paraphrase the late great Brucie ......... keeeeeeeeeep felting! 

SOOOOPER SEASONAL SATURDAY 🐏🎄🐏🎄🐏🎄

What a treat this Saturday will be. So much happening.

First we have Sara Foster Jardin taking the Felt-in with a focus on creating name badges, so needed by both new & longstanding members. In advance, thank you Sara as I am dreadful at remembering names!

So get out your kit & some extra bits to adorn & spice up your work.

The sales table will of course be managed by Jane who again has some great wintery colours in the stash. 

In addition, there will be the opportunity for everyone to sell/purchase some items. If you have any felty items you wish to sell please mark clearly with your name & price and give to either Mandy or Helen who will be managing this table after the felt-in. Items can be anything associated with felting whether it is a piece of your work, roving, silks, yarns, equipment, books etc. This is a great opportunity to clear out your drawers leaving room for your new year stash :)

Our annual Christmas lunch will follow with lots of goodies & more time to chat & browse the sales. 

& finally don't forget to dig out those christmas hats, glitzy jumpers & sparkly earrings.

A ''SACK' of SANTAs

Some super Santa gnomes to begin the countdown to Christmas. Dympna led this felt-in beginning with reminders regarding health & safety whilst needle felting & some handy hints & tips such as storing broken needles in plastic bottles and not swapping felting needles in order to prevent cross infection. An excellent reminder of the hazards that may be encountered.

Following a short demonstration of rolling, needling and shaping techniques it was down to the risky business of needling a gnome. Using a short stapled core wool & red merino, & with Dympna's advice some Santa-like shapes started to take form. Some more rolling, poking & piercing before a variety of beards, eyes, noses & scarves were added. 

Ouch! Norma stabbed finger. Thankfully no plaster required!

Sarah & Margaret comparing!

Surprisingly there is no term for a collection of Santa Claus's so I had to get the thinking cap on....... a  jingle of; a kringle of; a presence of; etc etc. Following an in depth investigation & interviews (I asked the kids!) it was decided that it had to be a 'sack' of Santas & thus below is Feltmakers North sack of Santa's.

A sack of Santas!!!

Saturday, 18th November

What a busy morning. Gail had lots to cover but began by welcoming all to our felt-in. So great to see lots of fellow feltees with our membership up to 30+ enthusiasts and some other regular non-member attendees.

Gail highlighted some of our exciting programme for next year including workshops by Gabriella Kovacs, Mandy Nash & a Skill Building workshop in January. The Diary of Events can be found on the relevant blog page. Applications for each workshop will be sent out nearer the time.

Gail reminded everyone of the importance of accident prevention when felting & advised that this is one of the policies that will soon be available on our blog page. In addition, there are some recommendations regarding hand care with back care to follow shortly.

Next month's felt-in (16th December) will be taken by our fabulously creative felter Sarah, who will be using native wools whilst simultaneously creating name badges. A great idea now that we have so many new members. 

Afterwards we will be having our Christmas lunch provided by Feltmakers North. There will also be a 'bring & buy' table - which allows everyone to sell off some of their work, books, wools, curls, etc.

Finally, 'show & tell'. What wonderful work on show this month. Well done everyone.

Gail talking through the making of her scarf which matched her coat perfectly.
A great eye for colour.

Sandy finished her scarf by adding curls and some beading. Lovely.

Ann's  finished bag from Gabi's workshop. Love the leather trim & handle.

Elaine created this sampler & now has a private commission for the same for a upcoming film production. The textures on this piece are beautiful as is her 'cobweb' effect sample. Well done, Elaine. 🙌

Peek-a-boo Norma :)

Following on from Gail's felt-in in October Helen incorporated lots of antique lace, tatting, beading and embroidery to create this wall hanging.

Some of the finished hares from Dorothy's needle felting workshop together with Dorothy's hand felted acorns. Mounting these on some oak really adds to the finished piece.

And, finally, Tina has really taken to needle felting. Following Dorothy's workshop she went on to create this really cute little mouse. She even made the skirt and knitted the jumper & scarf. But no knicks! 😱

Santa is coming!

Dympna shall be showing us how to needle-felt this real cute Christmas decoration 🎅🏼. And santa has arrived early because materials shall be supplied by Feltmakers North 😁

SATURDAY FELT-IN 18/11/17

Heyho fellow felters - Just a reminder of our felt-in on Saturday. 

Beginning at 10.15, Dympna Curran is going to start the festive season by demonstrating a felted decoration or two. So dig out your festive colours, accessorise perhaps some bells or tinsel & there is nothing more classy than faux fur or lustrous locks to enhance a Santa 🎅🏼.

Please remember 'Show & Tell' for all the creations from Gail's felt-in in October when we really thought outside the box to incorporate some very unusual materials. And, of course for those folks who attended Dorothy's workshop on Saturday please bring along your hoppy hare.

HARE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW!

HARE WORKSHOP with Dorothy Dinsmore

If you missed this, you missed a great day!

Ten of us gathered around a couple of tables creating a really comfortable informal group. As usual lots of catching up with each other before we started. And, then it was down to work.

After a brief overview Dorothy took us through each step of needle-felting. Manx Loaghtan wool was used. This is a naturally brown wool from a rare old breed of sheep unsurprisingly found in the Isle of Man. This wool is approximately 29-31mics with a staple length of 75-80mm making it ideal for needle-felting.

Beginning with the main body of the hare we began 'stabbing' to create bulk and shape before moving on to the head. Limbs long and short were carefully attached.

A few yelps and squeaks! Ouch.

Our chairperson, Gail 'hopped' along in a fabulous hare-print dress. Yes, a hare-print dress. So amazingly apt.

After lunch we concentrated on the finer aspects such as ears, tail, eyes and whiskers. This really finished the hare and gave it character

.

For those who managed to finish their hare Dorothy demonstrated how to create a small bear or in Karen's case a ducky-looking fox 🦊. 

A massive thanks to Dorothy for a great workshop. Undoubtedly there will be some needle-felting  converts.