Wonderful Workshop!

 The twelve lucky members of Feltmakers North that got their names pulled out of the hat for Elizabeth Bonnar Nuno workshop, had the most fantastic day! Before I tell you all about the workshop, I would like to thank Liz Nicholls Dorothy Dinsmore and Barbara Finlay, for the help they gave everyone throughout the day.

   Elizabeth started the day by demonstrating laying fibres in different directions so we would learn the direction the fabric would shrink in, we then all set about making our own samples.
                                                                             

                                                    Lesley making her sample.
Feltmakers North had sourced the Wool tops Silk fabric and silk fibre from Nancy at Treetops in Australia, the colours and quality of the wool and silk was tremendous and made for a very colourful and varied workshop! www.treetopscolours.com.au
The website is well worth a visit and if you can resist sending for something you have better will power then me!!

                                          Eating our lunch outside in the warm sunshine!!!!!        
Elizabeth inspired us with her great array of sample pieces and techniques, then we had the hard decision to make as to which technique to try out! Below she is showing how to build up the pattern on the silk using different wool, small pieces of silk fabric, silk ribbon and knitting wool.

   There was a great buzz in the room, everyone was very energised and keen to start.                                                                       

                                                  Ann's beautiful lattice nuno!

                                                                           
I thought this was a very interesting photo, its the same colour combination of wool used with three different colours of silk fabric, one pink, one purple and one blue!

                            Elizabeth Bonnar and six of the happy partiscipants modelling their scarves!

                                           Six more fabulous scarves!
I am including some of the comments from the evaluation sheets so you can hear exactly what the girls thought of the workshop!!

"Wonderful, excellent workshop, learned so much about the nuno technique!"

"Loved every minute!"

"Fabulous course, very enjoyable day, well organised, plenty of samples and help given"

  " Please Please bring Elizabeth back"

"Teaching was outstanding, learning was in depth, wonderful workshop"

So for those of you who are members we are bringing Elizabeth back for the AGM when we will have a very short AGM then Elizabeth is giving a talk on silk and in the afternoon we have a surprise lined up, more details to follow soon. This day will be free for members so pencil the date in your diaries  19th May!! Later in the week I will put more photos up in the gallery but now I am away out to enjoy the sun while its here!!  
                           
 **** Feltmakers North will be at the Creative Stitch Show in the Kings Hall in April, we hope to see you there so come along and say Hello.****
                                                                                                              

Felting on St Patrick's Day!

Liz really got into the spirit of the day and started our felt in with a great example of a pre felt, in the shape of a Shamrock! The enthusiasm was terrific, with everyone producing a variety of prefelts to experiment with.

                                            Fibres being laid out for a prefelt.

Liz showed us examples of prefelts and variety of ways they could be used, even weaving them together. We were all very inspired and kept our heads down working to create our own pieces using this technique.

                         Therese dressed in green for St Patricks day, cutting out pattern.   

                                           Prefelts have been cut up and added to final piece.

                                                      Some of the finished designs.

  
The range of colours used was diverse, and above is an example of the weaving technique!
                                                                               

Prefelts made using the wool from Tree Tops colour harmonies! www.treetopscolours.com.au

If you have never visited this web site or purchased wool from them, you dont know what you are missing! We are lucky enough to have ordered a tremendous amount of wool from Tree tops for our workshop next saturday, and the colour combinations are amazing! So watch this space for photos of the nuno wraps we will be making! The lucky partiscipants have been notified that they got a place as we were over subscribed, for the nuno workshop with Elizabeth Bonnar.                                                                                                                                                                            

February's Frolic with Felt.

Some examples of lattice work Gail Cooke brought along to show us, which were very inspiring! This was a great morning packed with instruction and handy tips, plus terrific fun as Lesley Blacklock will now tell you.
The session was taken By Gail Cooke and she inspired and instructed us on how to create lattice work with felt to make a sample of a scarf. We discovered that natural wool is good to use to learn the technique as dyes can change the  characteristic of the wool making it harder to work with.
                                                                            

 We started by marking a template with a permanent marker on our bubble wrap to aid us laying out the wool design. Our wool tops were then split into three lenghts, two were set  aside and the first lot was then split into three lengths. The wool was teased out to lengthen it and we laid three horizontal lines on the bubble wrap, the second of the three pieces was split into three and laid vertically making sure the squares were equal sizes.

                                                                          
The third piece of wool was split and used to finish the lattice design. Some people laid silk or other colours onto the lay, for added interest. The wool was wetted and a piece of polythene was placed over the lay and it was carefully felted in only one direction to ensure the fibres did not move.
 We waited with eager anticipation to see our end results and were all very pleased and cant wait to make a full length scarf we can wear!!
Thank you Gail it was a very enjoyable morning.
Lesley Blackstock                                                   

 Gail modelling one of her own designs a lovely lattice scarf suitable for summer.

Mary Nugent also wrote another great Saturday was spent with Feltmakers North learning lattice work technique under the professional guidance of Gail who showered us with an abundance of knowledge and patience. I learned several new and handy tips and am delighted with my finished piece. I intend to experiment at home and look forward to showing off my new creations at next months felt in.


The draw will take place soon for the Elizabeth Bonnar Nuno workshop, and the lucky people will be notified. The great thing about these workshops all the materials are supplied all the patiscipants have to bring is their felting kit and a packed lunch. We have another surprise for the lucky felters but that will be revealed at the workshop and I will tell you in the post about the workshop!!
I would love people to send me some photos of their felting which I can add to the gallery, its very inspirational seeing other felters work, so dont be shy and send me a photo to feltmakersnorth@gmail.com
Fiona Harvey
                                                                                                   

The Mad Hatters!

Saturday 4th February Feltmakers North held a hat workshop, the tutors were Gail Cooke and Fiona Harvey (me) Gail had ordered lots of lovely wool tops in a great variety of colours also some silk fibres! We started with a wee cup of coffee to make sure everyone was awake and raring to go.

                                   Gail discussing the variety of hats we had brought with us. 
Everyone selected a pattern, and set to create their hat. The workshop was full so there was plenty of chat, but everyone worked hard to produce their hat reflecting their own style.

                                          There was great concentration and attention to detail.

                                                                                           
Like most times when a crowd of ladies get together there were lots of laughs, especially when Denise first tried on her hat! (below)

The day passed very quickly and Gail and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being with a group of very creative and keen feltmakers. Everyone went home with a finished hat and the variety of hats was tremendous. I am putting more photos in the gallery for you to look at!

 This is what Cherri Conlon wrote about the day; Have just finished my first hat workshop. it was a great day and coming home with a completed hat was a thrill and a wonderful sense of achievement. Many thanks to Gail and Fiona who obviously had put in a lot of preparation.

                                                The Mad Hatters
Dorothy Dinsmore wrote; thank you both for a great day. I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop, it was very much a hands on day.
Don't forget to check out the gallery for close ups of some of the hats! Looking forward to seeing you at the felt in in February, I know its going to be great fun learning how to make lattice felting!   
Fiona Harvey                     

Flying start to 2012

Our first meeting of the year got off to a flying start, with a tremendous turnout of familar faces and also some new faces, which was great to see. Denise Phipps was kindly taking the felt in and showed us how to make a flower using a polystyrene egg! Unfortunately I was unable to stay for the felt in so here is an overview from Maria, who joined in the fun!

Our intention was to make a flower. previously we had made a flower with a flat piece of felt, on this occasion we used a polystyrene egg along with our basic felting kit, wool tops and silk fibres. The importance of planning for the finished item was brought home to us during the felt in, we had to think which colour for the outside and which colour for the inside of the flower.
We began by laying down the fibre;
Tip; a fine lay is best.
The fibre was laid extending over the ends of the egg, this would create the stems.

We rolled the egg and wetted the wool inside the bubble wrap. then we were off in our individual directions- squeezing and rolling the flower stem between our hands and gently rubbing the fibres over the egg to shrink the wool.
Tip: when rolling the stems, work from the outside inwards to prevent the egg from moving.
An odd hole appeared as we rubbed the egg. our choice was to add some fibres or not and far from a felting disaster, the holes produced some lovely filigree type work in the felt.

                                                   Happy Felters having fun!
After shrinking the wool, we snipped and cut around the middle of our egg- whether in half or two thirds and one third- to give two flowers. As we reflected on the technique we had just used, the possibilities for future work began to flow. we could cut petal shapes, create passion flowers, seed pods, colombian cup fungi-even!! We could embroider, bead, add spikes- soo many ideas, so little time.... the felting devils were unleashed. We're making our plans. Thanks Denise.
Maria Geoghegan-White

That certainly sounds like a very inspiring felt in and tremendous fun!
Gail Cooke and myself are looking forward to taking the hat workshop on the 4th February, Gail has ordered in fabulous colour combinations of wool and looking out the window now I think its the definitely the weather for a hat!!
Fiona Harvey

Happy New Year!!

I just thought I would give you an update on Feltmakers North plans for 2012, which I think will prove to be an exciting year!! We are kicking off with a felt in on Saturday 21st when Denise Phipps will be showing us how to make felt flowers.
On the 4th February Gail Cooke and myself Fiona Harvey are taking a workshop where we will be making a hat. This is a great opportunity to extend your felting knowledge and thanks to Lisburn Arts Advisory Committee who has given us a helping hand finicially, the workshop is an amazing £20 for members and £35 for non members this includes all materials required to make a hat,(wool and silk fibres) all you need to bring is your felting kit, pack lunch and may be  hat block. For more details contact Ann at amccullough1949@gmail.com

                                                   Just had to add this cute little lamb!!
                         
In March 24th we have another workshop Elizabeth Bonnar is teaching the art of Nuno felting, anyone that knows Elizabeth knows she is a first class tutor with immense knowledge on nuno felting. The application forms for this will be out soon and again contact Ann for details. This is also sponsored by Lisburn Arts Advisory Council, so I have point out that this makes it such good value and again so handy in Hillsborough Village Centre.

                                                                              
The felt ins continue in February, March and April, then in May we have our Agm, where members will be in for a treat, we have invited Elizabeth Bonnar, from Dublin to come and talk on the versatility of silk in felt making, the meeting will be all day (with only the shortest time possible for AGM business) and we hope to experiment with some of Elizabeth's silk techniques in the afternoon, but more details will follow shortly!!

In the Autumn we are planning to hold an exhibition at The Island Arts Centre, in Lisburn, this will the members work that they have made since the founding of Feltmakers North. The Exhibition will be entitled " Stepping Stones" we hope all members will submitt up to 5 pieces for the exhibition the date has to be confirmed.

                                                   Charity van der Meer is coming to FN!!!

This is such a prestigious tutor for Feltmakers North to have come to teach us. She is an amazing designer and felt maker, and an excellant tutor. A couple of us were on a workshop with her recently and we both learnt such a lot, it was terrific, so we decided we would love to have her come to FN. Now I can hear you all say I wouldnt be good enough to go on that workshop, well you are wrong! Charity is a very great tutor who will teach each partiscipant individually all you need is the desire to learn and a love of felting and you will be grand. We are still in the planning stage, but we hope it will be a 2 and half day residential workshop. What fun!! The dates are Friday 2nd Nov Saturday 3rd Nov and Sunday 4th Nov, so now you have no excuse get those written in the diary and get them booked off work!! It is definately a workshop not to be missed.

                                                                                
Another one of Charity's beautiful dresses, made of silk fabric, merino wool,and wensleydale curls.
We have now a Rolling membership, so if you would like to join this can be done at anytime of the year, this will enable you to get the workshops at the reduced price and also members are drawn first for the workshop, so this increases your chance of getting a place!!

Well all that remains for me to say is I hope you all have a peaceful and healthy New Year, and I look forward to seeing you all at the Felt ins.
Fiona Harvey

O yes and please email me some photos of your work the gallery on the blog needs updated.

Christmas is coming!

I hope you all enjoyed this little video! (thanks to my daughters for putting this up for you, as it was beyond me!!)
We had our Christmas felt in, with Dorothy Dinsmore and what fun it was!! We made little needle felted stuffed robins and Dorothy inspired us with her other array of Robins! If only I had time before Christmas to try and make a few more!!

Dorothy demonstrating the technique of how to needle felt the Robin.

The morning session flew in(!!!) as we were having such fun and needless to say the chat was mighty!

The concentration was intense! Or may be they are just camera shy?

Dorothy had made up little kits for us, that Feltmakers North gave out to everyone as a Christmas present, this meant everyone had all the ingredients they needed, which meant no stress! Well except for the odd person you stabbed their finger instead of the wool, but luckily no serious injuries were incurred!

                                                    Here are the fantastic little Robins!

Just a wee reminder about the hat workshop which is February 4th the details are in the workshop section. It will be a fun relaxed day of felting, and a good way of learning another skill. If you would like an application contact Ann or email us at feltmakersnorth. Details will follow in the New year re the Nuno felting workshop in March, with a Elizabeth Bonnar.

So all that leaves me to do is to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year, and I look forward to seeing you all in 2012!
Fiona Harvey