FELTMAKERS IRELAND

Two of our members, Liz Brown and Jane Locke,  have come together to collaborate on a very interesting exhibition of felt and fine art. Click on the link for an invitation.

A Seed of Truth

Venue: Gallery space at the Phoenix Park visitor centre

A Seed of Truth: an exhibition inspired by the life and work of Ernest Douglas” takes place from 14^th to 29^th of November inclusive in the gallery space at the Phoenix Park visitor centre.  The exhibition is the work of Scottish-based textile artist Liz Brown and Irish-based visual artist Jane Locke.

The inspiration for the exhibition resulted from a chance find by Liz in 2007 of an old book wrapped in felt when helping clear a friend’s attic.  Further research revealed that the book contained the records of unusual botanical experiments carried out by Scotsman Ernest Douglas over a century ago.

The show is a collaboration between Liz, who specialises in felt making, and Jane Locke an artist and scientist whose work investigates the relationship between science and nature through drawings, paintings and installation pieces.  The show promises to be a fascinating exploration of Ernest Douglas’ experiments through felt and mixed media.

The Opening – to which you are all invited – takes place from 2-4pm on Saturday 14th November and the exhibition runs until the 29th November.

For anyone who missed the Knitting & Stitching Show there was a report on last night’s Nationwide which features some of our members. The programme filmed in Craftspun Yarn in Johnstown includes Kathrina Hughes giving a feltmaking class and Liadain Butler who is a designer specialising in felt and knitwear. Click on the link below to have a look:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1102/nationwide_av.html?2640435,null,228

For everyone involved in making craft in Ireland it is well worth registering with the Crafts Council of Ireland.

http://www.ccoi.ie/content/view/143/250/ is the link to the Registration form. Registration only takes a few minutes, the more people who register the stronger the Council’s voice will be.
Registration is currently free and the benefits are;

• Receive notification on participation on CCoI projects and programmes, eg. Enterprise Development & Training, Retail,Collector and Gallery Programmes.
• Receive discounts and special rates for events, publications etc.
• Receive the CCoI Newsletter Stopress and e-bulletins which are packed with information of interest to all craftspeople.

Feltmakers Ireland has benefitted greatly from membership over the past five years with training, funding for specific projects and sharing in a community of other craft guilds. For more information you can contact Feltmakers Ireland Secretary  at sheila.ahern@ireland.com

The Knitting & Stitching Show starts this Thursday October 29th in the RDS in Dublin. Please come along and visit our stand. This year the stand will be decorated with blue felt pieces on the theme “Felt Away the Blues”. There will be ongoing felt making demonstrations, fibre and kits for sale and an abundance of information for visitors. The show runs until Sunday November 1st.

We are very conscious that people are experiencing financial difficulties at the moment and so we are planning a series of workshops at  absolute rock boton cost.  The OPW are providing us with a venue free of charge in the Visitors Centre of the Phoenix Park so this will really help with pricing. We are kicking off with a needle felt workshop with Cristina Garcia on Sunday 29^th November 2009 from 10am to 4.30pm.  Cost €40 including all materials.  There is a café in the Visitors Centre for tea, coffee and refreshments or you can bring a packed lunch. For further information contact Cristina Garcia ( 0868272422 or cgfelt@gmail.com) Click on the link below for an application form. Applications must be returned by November 20th 2009

Needle Felt Application

Here  is a picture of one of Cristina’s recent needle felted pieces – “Carolina the Princess”

Carolina the Princess

We had the third in the Drop In days this month in Lucan making cuffs and fingerless gloves in preparation for the “Learning Curve”  at the Knitting & Stitching  Show in the RDS. On Sunday last we had four brand new felters from Northern Ireland who did a fantastic job – under the guidance of Maureen Cromer. Here is what they made…

The cuffs at the centre of the photo were made earlier by Maureen and show the huge variety of designs that are possible. Below is a pair made by Sheila on Sunday with the one on the left  fully felted and the other still in the pre felt stage.

I thought Feltmkers Ireland came up with some crazy ideas until I saw Extreme Shepherding on You Tube – have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qniwI2hNhDs&feature=related

Also…..this is for all our members who ahve their own sheep. Holly send us some great images from an Exhibition in the Museum of Communication in Frankfurt

Aren’t they beautiful? I love their feet.

The evenings are getting darker earlier and Halloween is in the air which must mean it’s time for the annual Knitting & Stitching show in the RDS. The event is always a very busy time for Feltmakers Ireland. We have a stand on the balcony for the duration of the four day show with ongoing feltmaking demonstrations, an exhibition of work and sale of fibre and feltmaking kits. We also teach at the Learning Curve workshops each day. The stand is successful as a result of the numbers of memebrs who volunteer to do a three hour stint – so if you are available any of the days and would like to get involved (it really is great fun) please give Colleen a shout at florey@eircom.net. We would also love if members would participate in the exhibition of work at the stand. This year all the felt pieces on display will be all shades of blue. We thought that “Felting Away the Blues” would be a good motto t get us through the recession. If you would like to participate please contact Suzanne to arrange the collection/delivery of your work, her number is 0851146391. The show runs from Thursday 29th october until Sunday 1st November.

Anna Gunnarsdottir's sea shells

We were proud to have guest tutor Anna Gunnarsdottir with us for a two day workshop on the 3/4th October. Anna is an internationally renowned flet sculptor fanour for her beautiful felt pods. We worked on making sculptural hats using beautiful Icelandic wool and fish skins/sea leather.

Close up of fish leather

We were very luck to have received a grant from the Crafts Council of Ireland to help with the cost of running the workshop. it was a very productive and inspirational week-end. Anna encouraged all the participants to let their imagination take over and she was extremely gnerous with her time and sharing her knowledge. She is heading off to Paris to take up a two month residency in preparation for an exhibition which will take place in India next year.

Louise & Gabi wearing the beautiful hats

Some of the rare breed samples

We have just finished the first round of Drop In Days and they were  a great success. Everyone who attended made samples from a huge variety of different wools. The samples came from the Wool Initiative and from Liz Brown in Scotland (some members of the committee attended a workshop given by Liz earlier in the year and she very generously gave us some very unusual fibres to try out).  We attached labels to all the samples identifying them and describing  how easy/hard it was to felt them.  Maureen has offered to make a  bunting style display with the samples which will be a permanent record and a terrific resource to have.

The next round of Drop In days we will be making winter warmer cuffs. Please remember to bring along your own fletmaking kit and fibre. Details of dates and venues are on our Drop In page. The sessions are free and open to all (except for the Lucan venue where we need to collect a €5 donation towards the rent)

Our newest member, Marie Dunne, attended the Blanchardstown and Lucan Drop In sessions and showed us some of her beautiful work. Above is a piece made with wool rovings using an embellishing machine.