By Breda Fay
Feltmakers Ireland member Maria Mc Garry facilitated a very exciting Sunday session.
Maria’s Artistic Background
Maria’s presentation began with a description of her artistic journey through a wide variety of
courses with various artists from Ireland and away. She began this journey in Brussels with
quilting, joining the Quilters Guild when she returned to Ireland. She proceeded to study free-motion embroidery with Ana Buzzalino. While studying art and psychology via the Vocational Training and Opportunities Scheme (VTOS), she explored the stained-glass effect and found the medium of FELT. Following a visit to the Feltmakers Ireland stand at the RDS Knitting and Stitching Show in 2010, Maria joined our guild. Then, she enrolled for the guild’s Basic and Beyond Course and was “completely hooked!”.
Maria’s feltmaking techniques grew while participating in courses with Gabriella Kovacs, Gabi McGrath, Nancy Ballesteros, Clodagh McDonagh, Nessa McCormack, Nicola Brown and Leiko Uchiyama. A summer course with Mel Bradley inspired Maria to enrol in NCAD for a Visual Arts Certificate, and then Cork’s Crawford College to study Textile Art.
Maria’s Exhibitions
Maria’s work has been displayed at Feltmakers Ireland Exhibitions, as well as in exhibitions by Laois Quilters, Mountamellick Library, Stradbally Art House, Electric Picnic, and the Tullamore Show.
She brought her work to a wide selection of markets in the early days of her felting, but would say that cheaper goods are now in greater demand.
After a coffee break, Maria demonstrated a ruffled scarf-making technique she learned from Lena Archbold’s online course.
Maria Demonstrating
Maria brought a wide range of samples of her work, which we examined and admired. She answered questions and explained techniques.
Two of Maria’s Felted Scarves
Maria brought several of her felted scarves in to share. Guild member Deirdre Crofts kindly modelled them to an appreciative audience.
Two of Maria’s Art Quilts
More of Maria’s Work
Suppliers
Maria often purchases silk scarf blanks from the Spanish supplier SodinTex. For Margilan silk, she purchases from suppliers in Eastern Europe via Etsy. She mentions that it is best to dye after nunofelting because the silk shrinks during dyeing.
Another great Sunday Session – thank you, Maria, for sharing your journey with the guild!
Want to learn more about Maria? There is an interview with Maria from 2020 on the blog – https://feltmakersireland.com/2020/08/16/meet-the-maker-maria-mc-garry/
Thank you, Breda, for writing and photographing this blog post. We also want to express our appreciation to Adrienne Dempsey, who took some of the photographs at our June Sunday Session, held at the Fatima Community Centre.
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