The Midwest Felting Symposium Part 2: My Classes

It has taken me a bit longer than I expected to get back to writing about the Symposium. It has been a strange week. I was very affected by Robin Williams' suicide and all the discussions about depression, etc. as well as being shocked and saddened at the loss of such a brilliant man. I somehow always felt like I knew him personally, as though he could have been a member of my own crazy family. I also got bad news that one of my sisters was in a horseback riding accident while she was away on vacation. She has a compound fracture to her shoulder which required surgery and then later found out that she broke her sacrum as well. She is still in the hospital and far from her home near here so I can not do anything to help or see her in person. So to keep my mind off these less than pleasant subjects I wound up felting this scene from my trip.

What I was supposed to be doing was cleaning up this mess in my "studio". Everything was in disarray because of having to pack all my colors in spacebags for the trip.

I also had a lot of gardening to do since I had not had much time out there before the trip and there was the added chore of harvesting.

And I won't go into all the other day to day stuff the should have been getting done. I will get right on those things when I finish writing this. (Yeah, right). 

The first class I taught was my landscape class. This time it was a 3 day class and that worked out so much better than doing only 2 days. It was much more relaxed and I was able to add more information and take more time with demonstrating and giving individual attention. To me that is key with this class. It was a joy to teach this fun and talented group of women and I think their pieces came out great.

Here are photos of each student's piece after the layout, wet felting, and then one as they left the class. Many students plan to do a bit more embellishing. First here are photos of the inspiration photos they used.

Here is Sheryl's piece.

And at the end of class

Here is Hedy's piece.

And at the end of class.

Here is Suzanne's piece.

And at the end of class. Suzanne plans on adding beads and shells, etc.. I hope she sends me a photo!

Here is Bonnie's piece.

And at the end of class.

Here is Trine's piece.

At the end of class.

Here is Diane's piece.

 

At the end of class.

And here is Kathleen's piece. Kathleen liked her piece so much after wet felting that she did not want to do any needle felting on it. Many students have photos they really want to use as a reference but that might not  the best to practice all the things I want to teach them. In those cases I encourage them to work with another photo as a practice piece. I then give them advice on how to approach the next piece. This was the case with Kathleen's first photo choice so since she finished early I suggested that she do a sample of color combinations for her next piece.

Here is her first piece.

One of the nice things about having the extra time was that the students got to talk about their pieces, and what they learned, with each other more than usual. 

After that I got to take a break for a day...and now I will take a beak from this blog writing for the day. Stay tuned for the third installment.

A photo post to catch up on my posts.

I started this blog as a way to help me remember what I have been doing, as well as a way to share my work with others. I have been lax with posting these aide mémoire so I will do a kind of photo album with captions as a way to catch up without spending hours writing. I hope the photos will be enough to help me remember the events...that is if they have not already faded from memory. Thank goodness for cameras and other recording devices. 
I don't keep up with my posts in the summer because I am outside working on the garden and yard whenever it is not pouring rain. Hard work outside is a key to happiness for me. This year I harvested enough strawberries to eat, freeze, and to make a double batch of jam. Picked 16 pounds of black raspberries, some of which got frozen; though many were eaten over vanilla ice cream! SO YUMMY! 

 I canned many jars of tomatos, sauce, and soup stock. I havested vegetables in the evenings for dinner. It makes me feel like I have something to contribute to the household since I am not finacially able to do much. 
Along with the harvesting I did a lot of collecting of plant material for dyeing and eco printing. Here are some examples that I have not shown here before. Marigold petals and cosmos from my garden gave good color. Plum leaves gave that gorgeous plum purple. ;)

I experimented with mordants...

The photo above is of the same piece of cloth premordanted with alum. I then dipped different sections in copper water, vinegar, and washing soda.

In August I needed to get back to felting for some up coming craft shows. Some bags got finished...

 

and a wine bottle holder...

a scarf or two...

 

and some jewelry. Most of the jewelry was made in a fantastic workshop with Judit Pocs. What a sweet person and a superstar feltmaker. I am SO glad that I had the opportunity to take her class.

I took advantage of some nice days to wash fleeces.

The grey Border Leister/Shetland was used in the grease to make my purse. It did not need much washing. The brown Icelandic however....smelly dirty, but such a pretty color, some of it is almost red.

I finally got around to making the fall jacket I wanted. I have had the fabric and wool for well over a year...just waiting. First I made yardage and then tried to figure out a way to make it wearable.

 I wore my jaclet at the Southern Adirondack Fiber festival where I helped my friend Robin Blakney-Carlson with her booth. I demonstrated how I create a landscapes to promote my upcoming class at Robin's studio, while Robin showed her great skill at Nuno felting. I was interviewed for a newspaper in Glens Falls while I was covering for Robin who was teaching a class. My landscape was a flop. I didn't have a reference photo, all my colors of wool,  and the lighting was bad...how's that for excuses. Oh well they can't all be winners and I find I learn more from the mistakes. I decided that it will make a cool tote bag if I fold and sew it.

My current projects are two pieces that I am doing for the upcoming Granby Land Trust Art show that I try to enter every year. This years theme is about agriculture in the Farmington Valley.  I am working on a felt landscape of Cherry Brook Farm in Canton, CT. Here is the layout.

I am also working on a piece in colored pencil. I am actually enjoying drawing again.

Next up will be preparing to teach at Robin's in November and down near Washington, DC. at the end of this month. I want to do a bit of dyeing for those classes. I also have to frame some things for this years show and sale at Wesleyan Potters.

And of course I am still visiting the garden.. I had no idea that the Morning Glories would grow enough to cover my folly.

I love Morning Glories!