By Adrienne Dempsey

Winner of Feltmarker’s Ireland’s Educational Bursary of 2024, Adrienne Dempsey, attended Lindsey Tyson’s online course, ‘Transfer Printing onto Felt and Other Fabrics’.

I would like to thank Feltmakers Ireland and guild member Doris Reinisch for the generous bursary prize of €250 award for 2024. Doris’s name was originally pulled from the draw at our annual AGM. However, due to her having previously won the bursary prize, Doris kindly permitted us to randomly select another name from the draw and give the prize to another member. {You can read about what Doris studied HERE on the blog.}

To my surprise and joy, I was informed I had won the bursary prize. I chose an online course, ‘Transfer Printing onto Felt and Other Fabrics’, with Lindsey Tyson. The bursary prize money contributed towards this course.

I first saw Lindsey’s printed felt products on Instagram and her website, Lindsey Tyson Art. Lindsey had a successful career in textiles, has been printing on felt for many years, and has developed her own techniques. I am amazed at her printed felt products and how she mastered such clear, precise and detailed images – especially onto felt. The course is not a felting course; it consists of How to Transfer Prints onto Felt and other Fabrics. Lindsey has produced a comprehensive pre-recorded course to share her expertise. Lindsey’s video tutorials provide hours of demonstration, which is backed up by documentation that can be printed out, which I found really useful.

I pondered for some time before signing up for this course, as I knew this printing method would involve a certain amount of equipment and software. I decided not to rush out and buy a laser printer or a heat press. I used local resources around me, as I had access to a laser printer that I could use. I had been a member of a print studio, and I arranged to use their textile heat press to get me started.

The course covers in great detail how to design and manipulate images. It includes tutorials on using free software as well as paid software like Photoshop. I had an old version of Photoshop on my desktop that I could use, and I had great fun at the start trying to remember how to use this software, as it’s been a few years since I used it. I found Lindsey’s Photoshop tutorials a great guide, and I hope to get more proficient using Photoshop.

I’ve enjoyed all the course content very much, especially the fabric design elements. I was delighted to find a way of combining my line drawings, paintings, and photographs. I learned how to design my own imagery and patterns so that I could transfer my designs onto felt. I also learnt about fabrics suitable for printing.

This course taught me the importance of choosing the right type of paper to transfer onto felt when using a laser or inkjet printer. I used Lindsey’s paper recommendations and purchased paper from her website.

I experimented a lot. I had several prints with which I was not pleased with the print quality. I discovered that the quality of your print can be down to not using the right temperature, pressure, and trimming on the heat press.  

I felted large squares of felt in white 19-micron Merino wool, and I also bought prefelt Merino wool in preparation to print. To practice printing onto felt, I used free image resources recommended in the course, my photography, line drawings, and paintings.

The First One

For my first attempt at printing, I used free images printed on 19-micron Merino wool.

Floral Experiment

Next, I worked with a flower photograph that I edited in Photoshop, ready to print and transfer onto extra-fine prefelt. I wanted to see how clear I could get this image from a photograph printed onto paper and then transferred onto felt. I hoped this image would pick up the shadows and colours that I liked about the original picture. It was interesting to see the printed results when transferred onto felt.

Repeat Patterns

Experimenting with a repeat pattern, tree images were transferred onto a 19-micron Merino.

Three-Dimensional Work

I really enjoyed making the below nature-printed pebbles and brooches using core wool and 19-micron Merino wool. I am pleased with the finished printed results.

Line drawing flower printed onto a felt pebble.

A robin painting printed on three felted pebbles, with a free robin with a holly branch image transferred onto a felted brooch.

Conclusion

I highly recommend this course if you want to learn to print onto felt and other fabrics. The beauty of the pre-recorded online course is that you can access it indefinitely, always revisit parts if you are unsure, and can take it at your own pace.

Ongoing course support is great. There is a private Facebook group where you can share your ideas, questions and any problems you may have, and Lindsey is always on hand to answer your questions and ensure you have all the information you need to succeed via email and Facebook.

Lindsey Tyson is having a Moving-On course sale on ‘Transfer Printing onto Felt and Other Fabrics’. She is moving away from feltmaking and printing to focus solely on her painting practice. NOTE: Registration for the class closes on the 30th of April. But once you purchase this course, you will have unlimited access.

To register for Lindsey Tyson’s ‘Transfer Printing onto Felt Course’ visit this page on her website – https://www.lindseytyson.art/transferprint-1

Or if you have questions, contact her directly – transferprint@lindseytyson.com

Instagram: @lindseytysonart

Feltmakers Ireland would like to thank Adrienne Dempsey for her lovely report and congratulate her on these brilliant course results.

We will hold a raffle for another Educational Bursary at our AGM in May. If you have not done so already, please renew your membership for a chance to win!

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