FELTMAKERS IRELAND

Felt Supplies

felters — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:40:48 +0000

It’s always great to hear about new sources for felt materials and recently Alex from a new shop in Galway got in touch to tell us about her shop Feanor in Galway – a real treat for anyone living in the West. There’s a link to the shop on the right hand side of this page.

Drop In Sessions

felters — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:32:56 +0000

Shibori "flowers" by Elizabeth Bonnar

The next three drop in sessions for February will talk place in Blanchardstown (upstairs in the library) on Feb 17th, in Lucan (Church of Ireland hall in the village centre) on Feb 21st and in Bray (The Fabric Gallery) on Feb 22nd. The sessions are free and everyone is welcome. Don’t forget to bring along a basic felt making kit (soap, piece of bubble wrap, small bottles with holes for sprinkling water, a towel, some wool fibre and a few scraps of fabric to make your nuno piece). The topic for theses very popular sessions will be Nuno Felt and will be a perfect introduction for anyone interested in participating in our next Workshop with Elizabeth Bonnar which will explore nuno felt in much greater detail.

Nuno Felt Workshop

felters — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:10:13 +0000

We are delighted to announce a Nuno Felt workshop on March 27th & 28th 2010 with Elizabeth Bonnar in Lucan, Co. Dublin. Elizabeth is the founder of Feltmakers Ireland and makes the most beautiful delicate nuno felt using a huge range of textiles – from humble cotton skrim to fine silks. The workshop will be a fantastic opportunity to work with Elizabeth and learn some of the skills she has developed over the past few years. Please click on the following link for an application form

Nuno Felt workshop 2010

Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Other Workshops page for events around the country that some of our members are holding.

Beyond the Basics

felters — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:32:28 +0000

Last Saturday we held our annual “Basic & Beyond” workshop in Lucan with a packed attendance list and a busy schedule for the day. To keep energy levels up there was lots of home baked goodies and a display of felt work to keep the inspirational juices flowing. The feedback from participants was extremely positive with most people demanding more learning opportunities.

The next workshops will be in March with Elizabeth Bonnar teaching nuno techniques and Jeanette Sendler from Germany/Scotland at the end of June exploring how nostalgia and memory can play a part in feltmaking. Keep an eye on this site for more details.

Innovation in Needle Felting

felters — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:14:58 +0000

One of or members, Kate Lennon, sent in this video from the Netherlands showing how to darn by needle felting. You should check out their site and have a look at some of their other needle felting projects.

www.woolfiller.com

Busy Times

felters — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:55:50 +0000

There is a lot of felt activity going on about the place at the moment. Yesterday (18th) there was a large group of enthuastic feltmakes attend the Drop In session in the Fabric Gallery in Bray. The three hours just flew by and everyone made finger puppets- which was just a scaled down way to learn how to add spikes (tails) and flaps (ears) to a hollow form piece of felt – et voila a mouse! The Drop In day tomorrow (20th) in Blanchardstown with explore the same theme.

We have our annual Basic & Beyond workshop next Saturday and it is now booked out with 36 eager participants and 3 eager tutors. So we are all busy making goody bags, gathering pieces for the display table and putting all the finishing touches to making this the best day possible for all who attend.

The Dutch felt makers Lyda Rump is coming to Ireland and there are two workshops being held in Carlow, this is a great opportunity and you can find more details on our “Other Felt Workshops” page.

The Big Thaw

felters — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:58:04 +0000

We hope you are all well and making lots of beautiful felt. I must say I was very impressed by one of our members, Nicola Brown (you should check out her terrific blog – clasheen) , who lives in Carlow and when faced with water cuts she had to melt snow to be able to make felt. That the spirit! We have just added a list of felt classes that are being run around the country in next few weeks – see Other Felt Workshops. So you have no excuse – get felting.

Hyperbolic Coral Reef

felters — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:09:03 +0000

Cochet Coral by Sue Bamford. Photograph – Chris Knowles

The Science Gallery in Dublin is holding an exhibition of crochet which is all made to a specific mathamatical principal – the hyperbolic plane. It is a fascinating idea and exhibitions have held in locations in the US, Australia and London. There has been a lot of interest and excitement from Irish crochet, knitting and felttmaking groups.

The patterns are easy to follow and the Wolly Way has a link to download patterns.

There is great potential to include felt into the project particularly to give structure to some of the pieces.

Have a look at the link below – a very inspirational presentation from one of the creators of the project Margaret Wertheim, who will be curating the exhibition in Dublin.

The next workshop is being held in the Science Gallery on Sunday 24th January from 1.00 – 3.30. Many thanks to Irene Lundgaard for all her help.

http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_wertheim_crochets_the_coral_reef.html

Perfect Weather for Feltmaking

felters — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:38:31 +0000

Happy New Year!

Just looking out at the frost and snow makes me think of all things warm and wooly. If your New Years resolution is to dig out your stash of fibre and get down to making some beautiful felt we have a few dates for your diary – Monday 18th January we are holding our first Drop In day of 2010 in Bray when we are going to explore making tubes, spikes and pockets – this will be followed up in Wednesday 20th January in Blanchardstown library with the same theme. We were lucky enough to have Annette Quentin Stoll visit Ireland last March and she showed us some techniques adding spikes and bumps to felt and we are planning to share what we learnt with Annette at the Drop In sessions. On Saturday 23rd of January we are holding our annual Basic & Beyond workshop. This a great day not just for people new to felt but also for those who want to brush up on their skills. There are still a few places left and we are going to extend the deadline for applications until the course is full. Application forms are available on the link below, if you are interested please give Maureen a call and post off your application as soon as possible. It is always a very productive and fun day.

Just a tip for anyone who wants to put a slip resistant soles on to felt slippers. I recently made some slippers and painted on liquid latex. It comes as a white liquid which when dry looks quite yucky. The next time I made a pair of blue slippers and I added some blue food colouring (just the cheapy stuff you get in the supermarket) to the latex before I painted it onto the felt and it worked really well. (Sheila)

Happy Christmas

felters — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:52:39 +0000

: Christmas Trees made by Susan Walsh

Feltmakers Ireland would like to wish all our members and fellow felters a very Happy Christmas. Thanks to all who made 2009 such a wonderful year and for taking part in all the events throughout the year. Our final Newsletter of the year has been posted out to you all today so I hope you enjoy reading it. We are looking forward to a busy and exciting year ahead kicking off with our drop in days in Bray (January 18th), Blanchardstown (Jan 20th) and our annual and very popular Basic & Beyond workshop on Saturday January 23rd.

Warm hugs and congratulations to our wonderful colleague Gina who gave birth to a beautiful little boy recently – he was the first male we have ever had attend a full committee meeting, and he slept for the whole evening.
Congratulations Gina and Aonghus and welcome Elias!