Felted bead workshop

Hello everyone & Happy New Year! Its 2013 and everything and everyone is a little snowed under!

 Im Vicki and Im hear to tell any of you who didn't make it to the felt in on Saturday what you missed! We had a great turn out despite the snow covered roads. The workshop was taken by the lovely Dorothy who was demonstrating to us how to make swiss roll style beads for necklaces and bracelets.

This technique proved simple and really enjoyable, as I found I could gossip easily while doing it!

 

These were my beads once I cut them up into thick slices.

Dorothy's box of treasures!

 

We were also priveldged to have Marie all the way from America attending the felt in! Marie is an avid crafter and felter and brought with her this beautiul bag that she felted of an Irish landscape.
It was great hearing from her about the different techniques and ideas that she has picked up and filled us full of ideas!

 I hope everyone is staying warm in these snowy conditions and looking forward to the next felt workshop!

Vicki Harvey

Happy New Year!

                                          Shrek The Sheep!
Happy New Year everyone! I just thought I would share this lovely story of Shrek the Sheep with you. The photo is of Shrek the sheep after he was discovered hiding in a cave, he had hidden for seven years to avoid being shorn! He is a native merino sheep from New Zealand, who after being discovered became a national treasure! He was shorn live on television and his wool weighed 60lbs a normal fleece when shorn yearly weighs about 9lbs! His 60 lbs fleece was more than enough wool to make 20 men suits! After his live performance he went on to promote New Zealand wool and raise money for Charity, he even met New Zealands Prime Minister!

                                           Before his televised Shearing.

        After the Shearing! He needed the coat to keep him warm as it was quite a change once his wool was shorn.
The sheep had an amazing character and loved children and old people, he raised over £75,000 for charity. Sadly in 2011 at the age of 16years he had to be put to sleep due to age related diseases. His owner is putting a bronze statue of him in his town so all his good work will not be forgotten!

Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you on January 19th at 10.15 in Hillsborough Village Centre, Dorothy will be showing us how to make swiss roll beads!

Festive Felting!

The felters at Feltmakers North were full of the Christmas spirit this morning, starting off with mulled wine (non alcoholic) and mince pies! Maria was taking the felt in and she showed us some beautiful work that she had made using prefelts, then we all set about planning our pieces.

         Maria had cut out some shapes for us to use as templates for our designs and there were a selection of prefelts to buy.

     Here is Barbara cutting out her prefelts to add to her design, good christmasy colours!  Below is Dorothy who has woven her prefelts together, she said she was hoping to make a ring out of it when it had felted so I hope she brings it next month so we can see the final outcome.

                                      Barbara was having fun creating her design this morning!

    As you can see there was a great range of designs, and everyone was very relaxed.

Feltmakers North committee has organised what we think is a very exciting programme of events for 2013, so keep checking the blog for the latest details. We have another International Tutor organised for a weekend residential in November, plus lots of workshops in between. The exhibition of our work opens in The Island Centre on the 10th April and will run for three weeks. We will also have a stand at the Creative stitch show in Belfast which is also April.
In January Dorothy is showing us how to make swiss roll beads and I have a wee sneak preview for you, they look brilliant and I think we are in for another treat at January's felt in!

     So all that remains for me to say is to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year and we look forward to felting again in 2013!
Fiona Harvey.

                                                                                                                                                  

Bags of Fun!

This month Feltmakers North decided to change the format of the day, we started with the usual felt in, which was using a resist to make a small vessell. Then for those who had booked they took up the opportunity to put their new knowledge in to practice and use a resist to make a bag in the afternoon!

 The morning started with instruction on using a small resist, it was great to see the varieties of colours and finishes used, diverse as usual!

           There was plenty of rubbing and rolling and of course chat! By the end of the morning each person had produced a lovely little vessell, all very different and one lady produced a purse.                                                     

In the afternoon the business of making a bag started, with each person deciding on colours, type of wool and what style to make. It was a lovely relaxed and friendly day which always seems to be the case at Feltmakers North. Above is a bag made using a mixture of native wool and merino with very pleasing results!

     Another bag made using native wool and merino, here Barbara decided to make a bucket style bag, she is going to add a long handle to it and wear it over her shoulder.

                                                       A lovely bag bag where the design in silk fibres was carried through from one area to another, creating a dramatic finish.

   I hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as I did, certainly they all went home with lovely bags! 
We look forward to seeing you all next month for our Christmas felt in, we will be using prefelts so if you have some bring them along and if not we will have some you can buy from us! fiona Harvey                                                                                                        

Sensational Dresses by the Sea, with Charity van der Meer!

Feltmakers North held a fabulous workshop in the seaside village of Portballintrae, with Charity van der Meer as tutor! The lucky participants had two and half days of felting under Charitiy's instruction, and above are the results. The variety of colours and styles were very interesting, each person putting their own stamp on Charity's design.
                                          

The first day began with instruction on pattern cutting and making a pattern the correct size for each individual. Charity had great patience and spent time with each person until they had their pattern

 

            Everyone got all their materials out to look at and select which order they would be added in to the garment! The colour variety was amazing!                                                             

The first day flew in, we cut our patterns and then we laid the silk and started to lay our fibres and work on our design.

 

The work continued, and before we knew it the time was up and everyone had completed their garment, this is when we decided to go to the beach for our photo shoot!

                                                                        
We are all very grateful for the generous award we received which was supported by The National Lottery through The Arts Council of Northern Ireland this made this two and half day workshop possible! We would also like to thank Coleraine Council for letting us use the Village Hall in Portballintrae, which was the ideal venue for our workshop.

Here are some of the comments from the felters on the workshop, we asked them what was good about the workshop?
"achieving a fantastic coat"
"bright spacious working environment"
"something totally different, great workshop"
"concentrated time to felt with an international tutor"
"being with like minded people"
"more residentials, the variety of techniques explored and the companionship of other felters!"
I will put up more photos in the gallery section for you to see.

We are now on facebook so if you are on facebook go and "like " us!!

Feltmakers North never stop planning fun with felt the next felt is on Saturday !7th November when we will be using a resist and also if you would like you can apply to, stay on and make a bag in the afternoon, all the details are on the workshop page.
Fiona

Cobwebs in October.

For Feltmakers North's October Felt in we had Liz Nicholls as our tutor. She was teaching us how to make cobweb felt and had brought a great selection of samples for us to see. It was lovely to see all the different colours,  in some she had used carded wool, with some beautiful colour combinations.

The turn out was good including some new members who had attended the Basic and Beyond and were very keen to do more felting! After some instruction we set about laying out our fibres to make our cobweb!

It was another very enjoyable and creative morning!

At Feltmakers North we are now looking forward to Charity van der Meer coming for our residential week end, which is being held at Portballintrae village hall on Friday 2nd November to Sunday 3rd November so if you happen to be passing pop in and say hello and see the lovely felted garments in production!
Our next Felt In will be on November 17th and we will be using a resist. There is the option to stay on for an extended felt in and make a bag in the afternoon using a resist, however you need to fill in an application form for this which is available from Ann details in workshop section.

Basic and Beyond

 

Some of the bags and small pouches made using a resist at the Basic and Beyond.

 

 

There was a great turn out for our first Basic and Beyond workshop, where the students learnt how to make felt using shetland, jacob, wensleydale and blue faced leister wool. They found it interesting the way each wool felted in a slightly different way and they loved the natural curls that were still present in the wensleydale!

The photo above shows the four native wools being felted to make one large square, containing a smaller square, of each type of wool. The day flew in with new friendships being made and new techniques being learnt and a lot of fun being had!

A small vessell made using a resist, the wool is merino with a decoration of native wool, wensleydale and a little shetland. Although this was a basic workshop all the students showed their individual flare and produced some great felt pieces!
This workshop was a great success and a big thank you to Lisburn Arts Advisory Council for their generous sponsership, which enabled us to run it at such a brilliant price!
Saturday 20th October we are having our usual felt in and Liz will be instructing us on the art of Cobweb felting, so come along and bring your felting kit and join in. Its free for members and only £6 if you are not yet a member!! There are more details about our membership at the bottom of the workshop section or ask a committee member on saturday!!
Look forward to seeing you all then
Fiona