Recap: June Sunday Session with Claire Merry

Published on by Feltmakers Ireland

On Sunday, the 11th of June, Feltmakers Ireland was fortunate to learn about FI member Claire Merry’s amazing felted creations.

Claire creates felt works in numerous formats, including gossamer wearables, enormous, felted wall pieces, and whimsical three-dimensional sculptures. Impressively, she uses multiple feltmaking techniques, including needle felting, Nuno felting, wet felting, working in white and then dyeing. The list goes on – she is unafraid to explore and is a master of new techniques.

There were so many unique pieces. One of the highlights was a silk rose-covered wedding gown with a very long train. Knowing we would be interested, Claire unfurled the huge underlayment resist she used to make the dress. Someone asked if she made the garment in sections. She explained that she did not – she felted it all together. There are two resists: one for the front AND one for the back.

Claire Merry and the resist that she used to create the wedding gown on the left.

A close-up of the two wedding pieces.

The wedding gown and bridesmaid dress

A Gallery of some of the photographs from the June Sunday Session.

Claire sharing her work with the viewers – including those coming in via Zoom.
A thee-dimensional wall piece.
Several of her framed pieces.
Peacock inspired hanging with transparent netting.
Garments that were felted and then dyed afterwards.
A felted jacket and vest.
Claire with a felted wall hanging inspired by Oscar Wilde’s poem – Nightingale and the Rose.

The Guild wants to thank Claire Merry for coming to our Sunday Session and sharing her inspiring work. We have a fascinating, photo-filled interview with Claire from 2020.

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In the second half of the meeting, member Deirdre Crofts shared Mind Mapping for Creative Idea Generation. We will have this as a separate blog post.