Feltmakers Ireland guild member Annika Berglund is one of the participants at an artists’ talk that is part of the Dublin Gallery Weekend. The talk, ‘Craft in Contemporary Art Practices’, will take place at 6:30 PM on Friday, 8 November, with the Olivier Cornet Gallery artists, who will be in conversation with the art historian Jean Ryan.
Jean Ryan will present on the ‘materiality, function, and crafts’ relationship with the body’, and the panel will discuss materiality in their practice.
This talk is part of Dublin Gallery Weekend 2024, presented by the Contemporary Art Gallery Association.
Attendees will be able to see Yanny Petters’s current show ‘Fieldwork with Mainie and Albrecht’, which ends on the 10th of November 2024.
For more information on this and other events scheduled during Dublin Gallery Weekend , visit the Contemporary Art Gallery Association‘s website – https://caga.ie/dublingalleryweekend/
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Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.
Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.
We will make a wet-felted Holiday Star for window decoration – perfect for Christmas or year-round!
There will be a choice of three finished models using wool yarn, Merino wool, and, for one version, Wensleydale locks.
What to bring:
One large and one small towel.
Sewing pins
Small sharp scissors
Bubble wrap – approximately sized at 25 by 50cm
Soap and water bowl
Ball brause or sprinkler
A plastic bag
Bio of Annika Berglund
Portrait of Annika Berglund
Annika Berglund, a graduate of NCAD, has shown work in solo and group exhibitions nationally and abroad and has won several awards, including the Crafts Council’s price for Best Craft in the Garden 2008 and the NUI Art and Design Prize 2010.
Moving from ceramics, glass, and bronze to felt in 2020, one of her earliest felt pieces depicting the COVID-19 virus was acquired by the National Museum of Ireland. Having had one solo show and many group shows featuring Felt, Annika was a primary contributor to Feltmakers Ireland’s research project around Irish wool and the resulting book,Exploring Irish Wool for Feltmaking. She is currently Treasurer of Feltmakers Ireland.
Annika’s upcoming solo exhibition, Tapestry, opens on the 17th of November at 15:00 in the Olivier Cornet Gallery (after the Sunday session). She would like to welcome you all to attend if you have the opportunity.
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.
Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.
Success and Failure are the products of the same process.
I enjoy the magical process of felting. Experimenting with different colours, mixing and blending of natural little fibres that are joined together into an inseparable fabric gives a feeling of mindfulness and satisfaction.
Karena Ryan
Karena Ryan – ‘Eclipsed’
‘Eclipsed’ represents a time to bask in the glow – be luminous.
Over 5000 years ago our ancient Irish astronomers were predicting solar eclipses and welcomed this festival of light with the world’s oldest known solar eclipse carved on stone megaliths at Loughcrew Cairn, County Meath. What may have been important has been overshadowed by what actually matters and what now radiates are new opportunities and fresh beginnings.
Annika Berglund
Annika Berglund – ‘Getting to know the other’
In life, between birth and death, we experience many ups and downs; we feel joy and despair.
However much we would like to only have the good times, they would not be the same if things were never bad. Achievement is not as satisfying without the risk of failure.
Focussing on the positive but accepting the balance of opposing forces in our lives might be a path to harmony and growth.
Marie Dunne
Marie Dunne – ‘Lava flow’
The volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland in March 2024 was the inspiration for my piece ‘Lava Flow’. Hot and Cold. Fire and Ice.
Elaine Peden
Elaine Peden – ‘Formations in Colour’
“A life lived in colour where there is “”no opposite””. I am currently investigating the abstraction of the idea of ‘Opposite’, looking at the absence of colour.
How colour can create an emotional response and when colour is blended.
‘Opposite’ becomes ‘One'”
Marika Miklosi Manning
Marika Miklosi Manning – ‘Felted study, untitled’
The challenge here was to combine felt work with another material of opposing characteristics and create a harmonious piece of work. I chose nylon string 0.50mm thick/ 12kg, usually used for suspending objects or fishing, etc. I see this piece as a study to see how the two materials can be combined to complement each other. The soft felt as a background to the qualities of the unyielding nylon string, which, through that combination, creates patterns of transparent 3D circles.
We hope that you enjoyed learning about what inspires these artists. ‘Opposites Attract’ is at the Phoenix Park Visitors Centre until the 26th of May.
The gallery is open from 10 AM to 4 PM daily. On Sunday, the 26th the show closes at 2 PM.
Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.
Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.
On Saturday, the 4th of May, Feltmakers Ireland opened their group art exhibition, ‘Opposites Attract,’ at the Phonix Park Visitors’ Centre. Friends, family, and other supporters kindly came to cheer us on!
A Few Photos from the Gallery
Above photos by Fiona Leech
Tom Watts from the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (the DCCI) inaugurated our opening by speaking about the importance of wool as a sustainable material and how craft and design are interwoven. He added that he was impressed with the qualities, techniques, and ideas of the exhibited pieces.
Tom Watts spoke at the opening.
Interestingly, he wore a pair of vintage Nike Air Footscape Woven Trainers that contained felt!
Members Alongside Their Work
Our trusty photographer was busy chatting with other members, so she only managed to snap some of our members alongside their work.
The Phoenix Park Visitors’ Centre Gallery was open seven days a week, from 10 AM to 4 PM. Each day, a member volunteered her time to share the wonder of feltmaking and chat with the visitors. Over a thousand people visited our show!
Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.
Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.
Today is Friday, so there is only one more day until the Feltmakers Ireland group exhibition opens at the Phoenix Park Visitors’ Centre.
Here is a bevvy of felted artworks from the following members: Adrienne Dempsey, Elaine Peden, Marie Dunne, Annika Berglund, Joanne Turner, Marika Miklosi Manning, Tamzen Lundy, and Heather Byrne.
Adrienne Dempsey
Elaine Peden
Marie Dunne
Annika Berglund
Joanne Turner
Marika Miklosi Manning
Tamzen Lundy
Heather Byrne
Tomorrow is the BIG Day – our opening, is at 3 PM at the Phoenix Park Visitors’ Centre. Due to construction for the upcoming Bloom, please allow more time to travel to the gallery.
Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.
Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.
Feltmakers Ireland member Annika Berglund recently visited an exhibition in Stockholm, Sweden. Here are her impressions of the show.
By Annika Berglund
Vår Salong at Liljevalchs (Spring Salon at Liljevalch’s)
Liljevalchs is a large art gallery in Stockholm, Sweden. They have a spring salon every year, which is an open exhibition showing a wide variety of new Swedish artwork. The Spring Salon is a jury-judged exhibition. The first Spring Salon opened in 1921.
I visited the exhibition this year and was delighted to see a large number of textile entries. Work in textile media seems to have been fully accepted as fine art in Sweden, something that warmed my feltmaking heart.
There was no felt included, but many interesting pieces in woven, embroidered and mixed media.
You can find a complete list of the artists involved (all 163 of them) and an image of one work of each artist at this link: Spring Salon 2024 – Liljevalchs
It was very busy the day I visited as Mondays have free entry.
The line outside the Spring Salon.
These were some of the pieces I found interesting:
Front by Sofia Lagerquist & Anna Lindgren
Front by Sofia Lagerquist & Anna Lindgren
My absolute favourite. From a little distance, these three pieces look like boulders covered in moss and lichen that you could see in any Swedish forest, but when you get close, you see the surface is created by intricate embroidery.
SLOWART – The Knit Dive by Lina Can
SLOWART – The Knit Dive by Lina Can
What looks like an underwater scene or coral reef in white and beige yarn and twine.
Kroppen Minns (The body remembers) by Æsa Saga Ardal
Kroppen Minns (The body remembers) by Æsa Saga Ardal
Cotton wool stuffed into stockings makes a really effective piece of work.
Liv Strömquist
Liv Strömquist
Embroidery featuring social media images on a bedspread.
Stuart Mayes
Stuart Mayes
Neckties arranged in pleasing colour schemes.
The Spring Salon at Liljevalch’s runs until the 21st of April, 2024.
Editor’s Note: Thank you, Annika, for sharing your experience visiting this exhibition. If you are a member of Feltmakers Ireland and have seen an inspiring show, we would love to share this with our readers. Please contact feltmakersie@gmail.com
If you are a member of Feltmakers Ireland and have recently been featured in the press, please let us know so that we can share this news. ContactfeltmakersIE@gmail.com
On Sunday, the 11th of February, 22 students gathered around artist and Feltmakers Ireland guild member Annika Berglund to learn about Fine Feltmaking.
Annika demonstrates how to make clean edges on flat felt.
What is Fine Felt?
With this type of wet felting, the aim is to create dense, smooth felt. It is not a fast process; we didn’t toss or throw but took it slow. Annika said we might never seek this patience-requiring method again, but we would know and have the option to use it in our future felting.
Throughout the workshop, the students used only two colours: black and white. This simple limitation allowed us to experience how colours combine through the feltmaking process.
Everyone gathered around to watch the steps of the process.
Morning
In the morning, we worked two-dimensionally. We learned how to carefully lay out Merino wool roving to a specific size and then gently transform the fluff into felt. Annika explained the hows and whys of why we might want to shrink our samples more or less.
Annika shows how to adjust the corners.
Afternoon
In the afternoon session, the students concentrated on creating a three-dimensional vessel – a sphere. We used a flat resist to create this hollow form. Similar to our morning education, this felting process needed a delicate touch.
Annika shares how to remove the resist.
Students concentrate on their work.
Feedback
Many of the students were fairly new to wet felting and appreciated learning the mysteries of the process. Several enthusiastically reported they would continue felting at home with Annika’s suggestions on how to create new samples with different shrinkage rates.
Students’ Work
Top row: Margaret Ryan, Loli Cox.
Second row: Valerie O’Ceallaigh, Sandra Reynolds.
Third row: Caitriona Nolan, Suzette French.
Fourth row: Samantha Fagan.
Fifth row: Ruth Dawson, Claire Wallace.
Sixth row: Ramona Farrelly.
Appreciation Time
Many thanks to the volunteers who assisted the students. Lorna Cady, Deirdre Crofts, Marian Fagan, Juliane Gorman, Fiona Leech, and Clodagh McDonagh.
Special thanks to Clodagh McDonagh and Adrienne Dempsey, who refreshed everyone’s water containers with the needed water temperatures – at times lukewarm and other times hot!
Clodagh with the kettles of boiling water.
Additional appreciation to Elizabeth Redding and Valerie Nowak Oceallaigh, who helped with the morning registration process and the selling of our book, ‘Exploring Irish Wool for Feltmaking’.
Elizabeth at the entry table.
As always, special thanks to Fiona Leech for taking care of the tea, coffee, and sweet treats!
Lastly, a huge thanks to Annika Berglund for taking on this workshop for the Guild. She has a marvellous way of getting the students’ attention and also making us laugh!
Editor’s note: as more students email photos, we will add them to this blog post.
This upcoming Sunday Session Workshop, ‘Fine Felt in Wet Felting‘, is fully booked.
However, all members are welcome to come and enjoy the felting atmosphere!
Where: CIE Sports Hall
Date: 11th of February
Time: 10:30 AM – 4 PM
As it is a full day, please bring your lunch. (The CIE Sports Hall is in a residential neighbourhood, without nearby cafes).
While the heating will be turned on, please bring a jumper or cardigan as sometimes the Hall is chilly.
Other Details
If you can, please bring a home-baked treat to share.
For those not registered for the workshop or helping as volunteers, there is a member contribution of 5 euros.
This session will ~not~ be Zoomed or recorded.
Membership Renewals
Feltmakers Ireland has an annual membership fee of 25 euros. Your membership is valid for a calendar year – from January to December of each year.
At the Sunday Session, we will have printed membership forms available for 2024. {If you renew in person, can you also please fill out our online survey of members’ interests?}
‘Fine Felt in Wet Felting’ – Technical Workshop with Annika Berglund
THE CLASS IS NOW FULL – Contact Annika to be added to the waiting list.
When and Where
11th of February 10:30-16:00 in The CIE Social Centre.
The Fine Felt Technical Workshop
This year, we are doing an additional workshop focused on techniques aimed at beginner and intermediate wet felters. The course aims to look at “Fine Felt”, traditionally desired in the craft of felting.
The class has two sections: a square 2D sample and a small vessel.
The Schedule
In the morning, beginner wet feltmakers will learn how to lay out wool using a 10-inch template and how to felt, full, and shrink. We will look at the graduation of colour and shrinkage rates.
A team of helpers will be available to anybody needing support.
During the morning session, more experienced feltmakers can focus on creating a very light, even layout using 10 grams of wool for a 10-inch square. We will look at how to get the densest, finest felt possible while working on creating a perfect square sample with a shrinkage of 30%, 40%, 50% or possibly 60%, depending on our speed of felting.
This may not be how we would do felting on an everyday basis. But, this session spent truly concentrating on careful felting should improve our overall felting work.
We will break for lunch. Please bring something to eat as we will only have 30 minutes.
In the afternoon, we will apply our learnings from the morning to make the finest little vessel possible. We will use a different layout (spokes and wheel), laying out 10 grams of black and white wool around a 20 cm circular resist. The goal will be to create a very thin, fine vessel, that is well-felted and sturdy.
Supplies
We will supply wool and materials for the workshop.
We will have spares, but if you have the following items, please bring them with you:
One or two towels
A bowl
A water sprinkling brauser or similar (optional as we will have spares)
Small sharp scissors
Ruler with inches and cm
We will start at 10:30 on the dot as we have much to cover. Please try to be there a few minutes early to get settled in.
Cost
Feltmakers Ireland is keen to promote Fine Felting, and for this reason, we are offering this workshop at the low price of 25 euro for members and 35 euro for non-members.
Email annika AT annikaberglund.com to reserve your spot. (Remove change AT to @ and remove the spaces).
Payment Options
We have three options for payment for the Fine Felt Workshop:
• Electronic Transfer Lodgements (ETF) – bank tranfers • Republic of Ireland cheques • PayPal ~ we are charged a small percentage with this option* (Currently, we have technical issues installing PayPal on our website. See below for instructions.)
Bank Transfer
When making an ETF bank payment, please include your NAME and that the payment is for The Fine Felt Workshop in the reference or description field.
IBAN: IE53 BOFI 9012 3963 6087 93 BIC: BOFIIE2D BANK OF IRELAND, NAAS BRANCH.
Cheque
Cheques can be made payable to Feltmakers Ireland. If paying by cheque, please mail to: Membership Secretary, Feltmakers Ireland, 113 Seafield Road East, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 XW30
PayPal
We prefer bank transfers or cheques as no fees are involved, but we will also accept PayPal. *PayPal takes a per cent per transaction, so we receive less. If possible, please round up by adding 1.25 = €26.25. Non-members, please add 1.80 = €36.80 when paying with PayPal.
To pay via PayPal, use the following email: committeefeltmakersireland@gmail.com Make sure to include your NAME and that it is for The Fine Felt Workshop.
