The International Feltmaker Association (IFA) has a new podcast! Cohosts Vivienne Morpeth and Heather Potten discuss their love of all things felting. The podcast is an excellent way to learn about different feltmaking perspectives while felting, cooking or walking your dog!
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.
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Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.
The International Feltmakers Association (IFA) offers a series of five different online felting classes. These Discovering Feltmaking Courses begin in October and include Basics, Color, Surfaces & Edges, 3D Forms, and Nuno Felting.
You can work at your own pace with qualified mentors giving advice daily.
The classes are open to IFA members and non-members.
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.
Many of our Feltmakers Ireland’s members use wool to create beautiful felted creations, while some express their creativity through additional mediums. The talent within our community continues to shine, as evidenced by two of our members who recently authored articles that were successfully published.
Guild member Jane Fox went on a trip of a lifetime – a Felt and Culture Retreat in Kyrgyzstan for thirteen days. Included in her trip were eight feltmaking and textile workshops, along with cultural and natural highlights.
Over the summer, guild member Hélène Dooley had two articles published.
Her first article concerns her thought-provoking experience of using treasured textile materials to create new artworks. If you have a ‘stash’ of fibres and fabrics that you are ‘saving’, this article may inspire you! The article is published on the ‘Felting and Fiber Studio Blog’.– https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/08/17/rethinking-old-sayings/
This photo comes from the Felting and Fiber Studio website.
Hélène’s second article, featured on the Ashford Handicrafts’ blog, is a valuable resource for anyone interested in feltmaking. It’s a detailed, step-by-step tutorial that shares her experiences as a feltmaking tutor and guides readers through the process of creating a wet felted, Frilled Vessel. https://www.ashford.co.nz/felted-frilled-vessel/
Let’s give these two members, Jane and Hélène, a round of applause for learning, creating, and sharing their unique experiences with the world. We couldn’t be prouder of their achievements!
If you, as a member of Feltmakers Ireland, have a textile-related award, exhibition, or experience that you’re proud of and want to share, we encourage you to do so. Your unique experiences and achievements make our community so vibrant and inspiring.
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.
International Feltmakers Association (IFA) members were requested to submit headwear-related felted works for the fifth annual exhibition, ‘Hats Off: Online Exhibition 2024.’
All IFA members, whether beginners or advanced in their felting journey, had the opportunity to apply to this inclusive online show. 47 members entered pieces they created using wet and/or needle felting. Two of Feltmakers Ireland’s members have pieces in this online exhibition: Juliane Gorman submitted her wet felted, Oversized Sunflower Beret, and Joanne Turner submitted her Wizard Hat inspired by Terry Prachett’s Discworld series.
On the IFA’s page, click on each hat to learn more about the artist’s inspiration, materials, and links to her social media and website. The variety of headwear is fascinating!
If you are a member of the IFA, there are four hat-related videos commissioned for this year’s AGM, which you can watch on the association’s private YouTube pages – https://www.feltmakers.com/ifa-agm-2024/
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.
‘The Gate’ is an elegant, informative, and inspiring film by Judit and Roland Tóth-Pócs.
In early 2021, during the pandemic, the International Felt Association (IFA) commissioned the film as part of its ReConnect program series. The film covers three topics related to Judit Pocs’ feltmaking: spatiality, material use, and recycling. It also follows Judit as she creates a large wall panel entitled ‘Gate’.
An earlier video on her work, ‘On Gentle Threads’, presents the phases of feltmaking, from sheep shearing to wool processing to various felting techniques. It also can be seen on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EQqOnlPq9E
Both films have beautiful music, too!
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.
The International Feltmakers Association (IFA) offers online workshops through the Discovering Feltmaking series, designed to help feltmakers, both new and experienced, understand the process of making wet felt.
Part 1- Discovering Feltmaking
Part 2 – Using Colour
Part 3 – Surfaces and Edges
Part 4 – 3D Felt
Each course focuses on a different aspect of feltmaking and gives ample opportunity for practice and experimentation.
For example, if you want to learn about colour mixing, surface design, getting exciting edges, 3D felting, and shrinkage rates for different breeds? All these topics, plus much more, are covered in the courses.
Each course pays particular attention to the quality of the finished felt. All are fully supported by mentors, who check in twice daily with the students to offer advice and encouragement. The courses also offer great value for money, and you will have unlimited access to the material.
Feltmakers Ireland guild member Hélène Dooley will assist with Parts 2 and 3.
The International Feltmakers Association (IFA) has a series of online wet felting workshops: Part 1- Discovering Feltmaking; Part 2 – Using Colour; Part 3 – Surfaces and Edges; and Part 4 – 3D Felt.
These online workshops have been developed by the IFA to help create an understanding of the process of making wet felt, paying particular attention to the quality of the finished felt.
These courses are invaluable for all feltmakers. You may be just starting out in feltmaking or, as a more seasoned feltmaker, want to find answers to your questions. Our workshops teach you how to make small-scale samples using the wet-felting method. By the end of each course, you will have created a personal resource that you can refer to for all of your feltmaking projects. Open to IFA members and non-members.
Poster for ‘Wonderful WOOL’ with a piece by Hélène Dooley.
This exhibition shows the versatility of wool, a wonderful natural product which can be felted wet or dry. A variety of wools have been used in the various exhibits – combined in different ways with other materials such as silk, viscose and cotton. There are 3D objects, hangings, pictures and wearable pieces such as hats, scarves and coats.
Cutting the ribbon. Left to right, back row – Shelley Steele, Jane Fox, Ann McCullough, and Gail Cooke. Front row – Alderman Gerardine Mulvenna (Mayor of Larne) and Anne Bennett. The Mayor is wearing a shawl made by Shelley, purchased at Shelley’s 2019 exhibition.
The exhibition features work by 15 members of the Association – Anne Bennett, Annika Berglund, Nicola Brown, Niki Collier, Gail Cooke, Hélène Dooley, Noelle Ferris, Jane Fox, Juliane Gorman, Ann McCullough, Laura Moffett, Jacki Sleator, Shelley Steele, Astrid Tromp-Hofman, and Leiko Uchiyama.
Jane Fox is pictured with one of her pieces from the display, “Woodsman and Dog”.
Visitors have said:
“Amazing talent and fabulous exhibition.”
“Just wonderful!”
“Beautiful!”
Anne Bennett with her ‘Spring Hug Shawl”.
All the exhibits have been created by members of Region 14 of the International Feltmakers Association. Our members come from across the island of Ireland, including feltmakers of international renown and those just starting their creative journey.
Shelley Steele with two of her pieces.
The exhibition is open to the public from Friday the 7th until Thursday the 27th of July and includes Saturday opening on the 22nd of July.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10.00am – 4.00pm.
We hope you are all doing well, staying safe and finding some time for crafting. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, there is one actual benefit from the pandemic, and that is that more felting workshops than ever are offered online. This means that you can learn from artists across the world and establish contact with other makers from many different countries. The best courses are quite pricey and fill up quite fast, but if you compare with the time and cost involved in doing in-person workshops they start to seem a bit more accessible. Also, remember, all renewing members will be placed into a draw for a bursary award to the value of €200 for an online international tutor workshop this year.
In this blog I want to present a list of artists whose courses I have done, or would like to do, in case any of you are looking for workshops to do in the coming year. Learning about new techniques and being encouraged to keep making has helped me retain a modicum of sanity in the last year and I am planning to keep it up in the new year as well. If any of you know of other courses and artists not mentioned here that you would like to recommend, please send us a line.
Fiona Duthie: Fiona Is well known for excellent online workshops. They one I took last year definitely improved the quality of my finished felt. She is also very generous with help and advice and added a number of extra tutorials to the course in response to what students were interested in. Fiona is opening registration for her spring courses on January 4th.
Pam de Groot: Pam’s workshops focus on 3D felting, and allows you to explore how felt can go from 2D to 3D and the effects and structure you get by varying the thickness of wool in a felted piece. Pam has not posted dates for courses in 2021 but sign up to her newsletter if you are interested and be first in line when registration opens.
Eva Camacho-Sanchez: Eva is a Spanish artist living in the US. Her online classes are mostly 2D, incorporating, mark making, stitching and Joomchi. Joomchi is an old Korean technique where water and agitation fuse mulberry papers together to create a strong and interesting surface that can be used on its own or with felting and stitching. Eva has not yet put up dates for 2021, but join her newsletter if you are interested in her courses.
The Online Felting Studio with Ruth Lane and Teri Berry have courses that are quite a bit cheaper, but much shorter that the ones I mentioned below. Ruth Lane teaches 2D embellishments and mixed media approaches to felting and Teri Berry ‘s courses include an interesting looking concertina hat. These would be good if you wish to dip a toe into online learning.
Mandy Nash: Based in Wales, Mandy did a few live zoom classes last year. I attended two of them (remotely) and learnt how to make two types of fabulously colourful felted fish. These are now available as a video down loads. They are quite long as they include the recording of whole day workshops. They are very reasonably priced, but require a specific wool (bergschaus) for best results. This is a very interesting wool as different colours of separate layers of wool migrate through the layers and give both vivid and subtle colour gradations when felted.
Patti Barker: Patti has a number of shorter tutorials and workshops. They are very reasonable and for the “Demystifying felt resist “ course she did Last year she even sent you all the materials needed. She does not have any dates up yet, but her courses can be found here:
Molly Williams: Molly’s workshops teach how to felt human figures in 3D around a metal armature. I am signed up to begin one of her courses in January, so will keep you posted. She has opened registration for courses beginning in March.
International Feltmakers CiFT: The International Feltmakers offers a course that gives a certificate in Feltmaking, CiFT. You receive course information online and send samples for feedback to a course coordinator. There is also a facebook group were students can interact and support each other. I have not done this one, but would be curious to sign up some time in the new year. If you have experience of this course, please send some feedback or information to Committee
International feltmakers also list a number of upcoming workshops on their Events page, including feltmakers Ireland’s upcoming workshop with Gabi MacGrath.
Feltmakers Ireland 