Sunday Session – 9th of June – Maria Mc Garry NEW LOCATION
Guild member Maria Mc Garry from Co Laois will give a show-and-tell of her experiences with working with galleries and selling at markets. She will also demonstrate how to make a ruffle felted scarf.
Fatima Community Centre Herberton Leisure 3 Reuben Plaza, Rialto, Dublin 8, D08 PV0H
Directions from the Red Line LUAS
Get off at Fatima Luas stop (Red Line) and walk to a set of traffic lights.
Google Maps directions from the Red Line LUAS Stop.
View from the LUAS
View of the LUAS Stop from across the street. Photos kindly provided by Adrienne Dempsey.
Cross at the traffic lights, walk straight ahead, and take the first right onto Reuben Plaza. You will then see the Herberton gym.
Cross at the traffic light.Photo of the Herberton Gym and the Arch Cafe on the corner.
Walk by the Herberton Gym and the Arch Cafe, then turn left. F2 Centre is located beside the green space/kids’ play area.
Where You Enter the Building
The entrance of the F2 Fatima Community Centre.
Parking
There is free street parking along St Anthony’s Road, which leads up to the F2 building. Parking is also available on Reuben Walk and Reuben Street, which surround the building.
Two disabled parking spots are at the top of St Anthony’s Road, leading onto Reuben Plaza and the F2 Centre.
Photo of the two disabled parking spots on St Anthony’s Road.
Additional Information
A Sunday Session like this will require lots of tea/ coffee/cake and chat, so there’ll be an abundance of that. Of course, homebakes are always welcome! There is the usual 5 euro fee.
On Friday, the 7th of June, the Guild will email members a Zoom Link for virtual access, and we will also include a phone number to call if they need help finding the Centre on the event day.
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.
Sunday Session – 9th of June – Maria Mc Garry NEW LOCATION
Feltmakers Ireland’s June Sunday Session features guild member Maria Mc Garry from Co Laois. Maria will give a show-and-tell of her experiences with working with galleries and selling at markets. She will also demonstrate how to make a ruffle felted scarf.
Fatima Community Centre Herberton Leisure 3 Reuben Plaza, Rialto, Dublin 8, D08 PV0H
Directions from the Red Line LUAS
Get off at Fatima Luas stop (Red Line) and walk to a set of traffic lights.
Google Maps directions from the Red Line LUAS Stop.
View from the LUAS
View of the LUAS Stop from across the street. Photos kindly provided by Adrienne Dempsey.
Cross at the traffic lights, walk straight ahead, and take the first right onto Reuben Plaza. You will then see the Herberton gym.
Cross at the traffic light.Photo of the Herberton Gym and the Arch Cafe on the corner.
Walk by the Herberton Gym and the Arch Cafe, then turn left. F2 Centre is located beside the green space/kids’ play area.
Where You Enter the Building
The entrance of the F2 Fatima Community Centre.
Parking
There is free street parking along St Anthony’s Road, which leads up to the F2 building. Parking is also available on Reuben Walk and Reuben Street, which surround the building.
Two disabled parking spots are at the top of St Anthony’s Road, leading onto Reuben Plaza and the F2 Centre.
Photo of the two disabled parking spots on St Anthony’s Road.
On Friday, the 7th of June, the Guild will email members a Zoom Link for virtual access and also include a phone number to call if they need help finding the Centre on the day of the event.
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.
This Sunday, long-time guild member Elaine Peden will share her artwork for our first session of the year.
Elaine is a mixed media, process-led artist who aims to put sustainable practice at the centre of her making.
In her previous works, she used mainly wool fibre as her medium, creating 3D sculptures, wall art, and wearables. Currently, Elaine incorporates found objects, such as timber, rust, and dead stock fabrics, with stitching to create her mixed media pieces.
Please bring a home-baked treat to share with the Sunday Session. There is a member contribution of 5 euros to cover the coffee/tea/hall rental.
Members who cannot attend in person can use the Zoom link, which will be emailed on Friday or Saturday before the session. If the tech elves cooperate, the session will be recorded and will later be uploaded to our YouTube Channel.
Annika Berglund showing us the details of her felted necklace.
On Sunday, the 8th of October, Feltmakers Ireland member Annika Berglund shared her experiences with her recent in-person classes at the seven-day Hungarian Felt Camp, with five tutors AND her many experiences with studying felting via online courses.
Initially, Annika created her artwork out of totally different materials. She worked in ceramics, bronze, and glass. Seeking a more sustainable and less energy-hungry media, she tried textiles Dublin Knitting and Stitching Show in 2019. This was where she took her first feltmaking workshop. After discovering felt, she then proceeded to take many online classes. Her trip to Hungary was an opportunity to return to learning in person.
Scroll down to the bottom to see the links to the Hungarian tutors and the online felting classes.
Hungarian Felting Camp
The guild members enjoyed seeing each of the pieces that Annika created during the retreat. She would hold them up, and then we passed them around the room.
She cautioned that it was a full-on program, with most projects taking more time than allotted. Most of the projects could have been done over two days! Fortunately, Annika could complete her projects by continuing in the evenings. The one exception to this was the pillow project taught by Bea Németh.
There were three groups of students, with around ten students per group. Two of the groups were English speakers, and one of them had German speakers. Annika’s group was impacted by Covid-19, with more participants becoming ill daily. Interestingly, two students were only mildly affected by the virus. They managed to follow along, working outdoors and receiving their instructions via WhatsApp. The wonders of technology!
The cost of the seven-day workshop was around 1,375 euros, which included tuition, room, board, and transport from Budapest. The class was held in the village of Nagybörzsöny.
Necklace Project – Anikó Boros
Annika’s favourite class was creating a felted fuschia necklace with Anikó Boros (BaribonHU). She really appreciated the new feltmaking perspective and eye for detail that this teacher brought to the class.
{See above for a photo of Annika sharing this project.}
Pillow Project – Bea Németh
Annika sharing the pillow that she made in Bea Németh’s class.
Interestingly, the students worked together on a giant rug, each person decorating her own square, which they then felted and fulled collectively. After the wool became properly felted, the large piece was cut up, and each part returned to its’ designer. Then, they learned how to use an ingenious cord-making machine and, finally, how to assemble and sew their cushions.
Felted Bag with Prefelts – Gabriella Kovács
Annika sharing her felted bag.
Taught by Gabriella Kovács, this class was billed as being for ‘lazy felters’. In this class, the students use manufactured prefelts. There was no laying of wool roving. Interestingly, the students learned how to create a bag so that the lining was integral to the layout.
Doorway Guardian – Márti Csille
Annika sharing her Doorway Guardian
In this class, the students learned how to make a modern version of the traditional tumars, which is an amulet-like embroidered felt to keep evil away and is hung in the entrance area of the yurt. Annika explored new colour combinations in this piece.
Nunofelted Scarf – Nadia Szabó
Annika sharing her nunofelted scarf
With this class, Annika strove to create exceptionally clean lines to her geometric pattern with her wool layout. The silk was dyed afterwards.
Some of the teachers sell their finished products and online workshops via their websites. Other tutors may need to be contacted directly for further information. Some of the teachers who teach online have recorded classes that are available year-round, while others have ones with specific availability. Several of the tutors teach additional classes which are not included below. Visit the links to be inspired and learn!
Links are in the approximate order of when mentioned during Annika’s presentation.
If you have experienced other online felting-related courses that you have enjoyed, let us know. We will collect this information for a future post. – feltmakersIE@gmail.com
This Sunday, the 8th of October, from 10:30-12:30, Feltmakers Ireland member Annika Berglund will share her experiences at the Hungarian Felting retreat and other online felting classes that she has taken.
By Annika Berglund
The Joy of Learning
When I was asked to do a Sunday session about my recent Felting Retreat adventure, I was a little worried that it might not be enough for the two hours available. I had a little think and decided to do a talk about online felting courses in general and the Hungarian retreat in more detail.
I used to work in ceramics, glass, and bronze but was looking to change to some form of textiles in late 2019 and early 2020, mainly to find less energy-hungry means of expression. I started with a number of short workshops at the 2019 Dublin Knit and Stitch, of which the felting one was probably my favourite. Luckily, the 2020 Basic and Beyond happened soon after, which further whetted my appetite.
Online Education
Then came Covid, and I discovered a wealth of Felting courses available online. These courses give access to some of the best teachers in the world, and open the door to a wealth of new techniques and ideas, no matter your experience and level of felting. Having this window onto a bigger world of the craft and global community of felting has meant a lot to me, especially during the lockdown, but also since then, and I am hoping to share some of my best experiences and answer any questions in relation to online learning.
Felting in Hungary
The seven-day Felting Retreat I attended in September featured five excellent teachers, my absolute favourite being Anikó Boros (Baribon), teaching her fabulous finely felted fuschia necklace. {https://baribon.hu/ }
The other 4 courses were:
Making a large rug together and then cutting it up to make individual pillows with Bea Németh. { https://www.facebook.com/beanemez }
So, come along to the CIE Hall/Inchicore Sports and Social Club, for this Sunday Session of Feltmakers Ireland and learn about Annika’s experiences with feltmaking in Hungary and online.
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.
‘Arbour Essences in Anthropocene Dublin – Four New Visions for our Urban Forests’, a group show running at the Olivier Cornet Gallery until 30 June 2023.
Artists: Annika Berglund, Hugh Cummins, Eoin Mac Lochlainn and Yanny Petters, with a small selection of works by Belvedere College’s art students.
The exhibition is sponsored by Coillte Nature and is also complemented by an outdoor ‘pocket’ urban forest installation in collaboration with Simon O’Donnell from the Urban Farm project at Belvedere College.
Artists’ Talk
Author and writer Paddy Woodworth co-curated this exhibition and will chair a panel talk with the four artists at 6:30pm on Wednesday, 7 June 2023, at Olivier Cornet Gallery, 3 Great Denmark Street, Dublin.
You are invited to attend this free event, but booking is advised as seats are limited. Please email info@oliviercornetgallery.com or phone/text 087 288 7261 to book your seat.
“It’s been exceptionally exciting, stimulating – and humbling — to assist, however indirectly, in the development of an exhibition by four artists as talented and as responsive to environmental issues as Annika Berglund, Hugh Cummins, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, and Yanny Petters, with a co-curator as generous, insightful and experienced as Olivier Cornet. And, after many months of periodic discussions around the theme of urban trees, it’s been a breath-taking pleasure to walk into Olivier’s gallery and see such beautiful, poignant and sensitive work on the walls. Annika’s magical evocation of the unseen wood-wide web that sustains trees from beneath our feet, Hugh’s delicate use of wood itself as a material for subtly allusive art, Eoin’s heartfelt, heart-breaking elegies for individual trees loved and lost, and Yanny’s innovative and exquisite celebration of trees in Dublin’s historical topography – all engage us intimately with the role of trees in making our cities more liveable, healthier, happier spaces. And they all hint at the catastrophe we are inviting by tearing the interconnected fabric of life to breaking point. It was an added delight to see the loving sketches of Katy apple trees by Belvedere College students, adding a dimension to the show that is both youthful, and rooted in the gallery’s location on the college’s property. And the installation of birch trees and ferns in the basement frontage showed visitors to the gallery how nature can bring vivid life to neglected city spaces. In our panel discussion with the artists, we will discuss their practices and techniques and reflect on the relationship between art and environment, and how this relationship can enhance environmental awareness, without losing artistic integrity. I look forward to it very much.”
Feltmakers Ireland 