Recap: Artists’ Creative Journeys for ‘Symbols of Ireland’ Exhibition

Published on by Feltmakers Ireland

On Sunday, the 9th of March, a dedicated group of twenty Feltmakers Ireland members attended our Sunday Session. Five members joined the rest of us via Zoom. We enjoyed learning about the processes and challenges of creating artwork for our exhibition, ‘Symbols of Ireland’.

The nine artists discussed techniques such as wet felting, needle felting, free-motion stitching, hand embroidery, stiffeners, and mixed media and shared their challenges.

In order of appearance –

Marie Hopkins

Marie Hopkins ‘An Tigín’ – detail image.

Guild member Marie Hopkins shared about creating her detailed cottage scene, ‘An Tigín’, which contains wet and needle felting techniques and even a bit of woodworking! She has a background in architectural model-making, which is clearly demonstrated in all the tiny details.

  • Marie Hopkins – March Sunday Session
  • Marie Hopkins- showing the wool collected from the Curragh plains in Co Kildare, and processed by friends.

Elizabeth Redding

Elizabeth Redding’s ‘Seaside Cottage’

Committee member Elizabeth Redding used Romney wool from her neighbour, Minister Pippa Hackett. Initially, she wanted to use the ‘cracked mud technique’, but then her design evolved, and she used a combination of wet felting for the base and needle felting for the details. She dyed her wool using instructions from the guild’s book ‘Exploring Irish Wool for Feltmaking’ instructions.

Photo of Elizabeth’s piece with a rough sketch and a version of her needlefelted cottage in the foreground.
Another sketch showing how she how she initially arranged her design. She later transformed the elements into a Shamrock arrangement.
Elizabeth holding up a needle felted cottage which is the focal point of her piece.

Annika Berglund

Annika Berglund’s piece – ‘Baile’ – Home.

In October, committee member Annika Berglund attended an in-person workshop with tutor Gladys Paulus. The students focussed on perfecting the wet-felting technique of their choice; Annika chose the ‘Cracked Mud Technique’. She said that previously, the “Edges {of her samples} were not nice”. Using knowledge gained in the workshop, she created a segment of pieces for her solo show, ‘Tapestry‘, at the Olivier Cornet Gallery, which was exhibited in November 2024.

In addition to showing us squares with the cracked mud technique, she shared a very finished-looking circular sample. She did not submit the completed version of this piece because it was slightly larger (by 2 centimetres) than the maximum width requirement for submissions.

Annika shares some earlier samples.
More ‘Cracked Mud Samples’
The sample for the piece she did not submit.

Eva Salamon

Closeup of Eva Salamon’s ‘Fairy and hare’.

Guild member Eva Salamon generously brought many sketches, partial samples, armatures, a completed sculpture, and photographs to show her process. Her piece is needle felted, with the fairy’s cloak being wet felted. It is genuinely a mixed-media artwork, which fascinated us.

She explained how she no longer needs to plan as much as did when she was still learning.
More sketches.
The ‘Shaman’ has some of the same techniques as her piece in the exhibition.
Some of her previous projects – Trolls.
Eva holding up a wire armature and a photo of her piece.
Brian and Wendy Froud’s ‘Trolls’ which has been an inspiration to Eva.

Lorna Cady

Committee member Lorna Cady had us laughing at what she didn’t finish in time to submit to the exhibition. Many of us can relate to her ‘Mislaid Plans’ for the past three years. Her current project, ‘Soft Border,’ is a piece she started while invigilating at the exhibition.

Lorna’s WIP ‘ Soft Border’
Simmel Cake Facts

Amanda Robinson Kelly

Amanda Robinson Kelly’s ‘Felted Roots’.

Guild member Amanda Robinson Kelly explained that she has previously created many pieces using free-motion stitching. For this technique, she uses dissolvable backing, fabric, and thread. For her exhibition piece, she included felting and used the wool roving on hand, fortuitously in the colours of the Irish flag.

Amanda shared about her process.

Fiona Leech

Fiona Leech’s ‘Tears of Hope’.

Guild member Fiona Leech amazed us with the scale of her resist, which was made from thin underfloor laminate. Her fibres encased it for her most ambitious project yet. Fiona’s vessel features six layers of wet-felted Galway carded wool from Cushendale Woollen Mills. The piece was so large that she had to rinse out the soap in the bathtub, and it took a whole week to dry!

Lovely wool!
Fiona’s resist – estimated shrinkage 30%.

Juliane Gorman

Juliane Gorman’s ‘Poolbeg Seaweed Witch’

Committee member Juliane Gorman shared how sometimes it is necessary to change one’s design. Because she included lots of thick felt in the bottom half of her double brim, she was unable to shrink it down. So, she had to chop it off and hand-sew in millinery wire to make it work.

Juliane shows us the resist she used is the same as the one for the hat she is wearing.

Helena Mc Guinness

Helena Mc Guinness’s ‘Round Tower’.

Guild member Helena Mc Guinness shared how she combined raw wool from Carlow with other types of wool to create her piece. She worked on her needlefelted project while she was travelling and received many curious questions!

Apologies: The photographer forgot to take photos while Helena presented her work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Sunday Session was a celebration of creativity and a rich exchange of knowledge and inspiration. From discovering new materials and techniques to learning about hidden resources like free creative spaces in local libraries, everyone left with fresh ideas and valuable connections. Special thanks to Helena McGuinness for sharing her experience creating art in the reservable rooms of Ballyfermot Library—proof that feltmaking can flourish in the most unexpected places.

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