Felt Workshops in August. PART ONE

I have been lucky enough to take two different workshops in August. Since I was a self taught feltmaker in the beginning, it was only through the Northeast Feltmakers Guild that I had had any real instruction. I took my first official (ie paid for) class two years ago with Linda Veilleux and the next summer I spent a week at Shakerag in India Flint's Quiltfelt Landskin class. Having two back to back workshops this year was a big deal for me. Especially as the first one was at the Felter's Fling. I had decided that if this was going to be the last year that Sharon Costello was going to run the Fling I was going to go whether I could really afford it or not. Because I have been teaching I decided that it was important for me to take workshops myself. Teaching has also given me some extra funds to reinvest in my feltmaking.

The Fling surpassed my expectations. I WAS expecting the felt work in my Scandinavian Rug class to be physically grueling. It was. (I am glad I did some training by making two natural fleece rugs on my own; plus all my gardening!) What I was not expecting was how easy everything else was and just how wonderful it would be to spend a week with people who all spoke felt. I also wasn't expecting to learn so much outside of class, though I should have been. I find fiber artists to be so much more willing to share and support than groups of artists in other mediums. For example, after the show and tell for Erma Yost's class I spoke with her about using some of my old woodcut blocks for printing on fabric. I have been wanting to try this for a long time, and Erma gave me many tips and showed me which paints she like to use. So through the wonderful rug class with Rod and Karoliina, visiting the other studios, show and tell nights, and conversations with so many other feltmakers I learned so much and I am filled with ideas of things I want to try.

Here are some photos from the show and tell nights.

 Student work from Anna Gunnarsdottir's class.

Student work from Marjolein Dallinga's class.

More student work from Marjolein Dallinga's class.

Here is Janice Kissinger showing the yurt bag she made in Annemie Koenen's class.

Student work from Chad Alice Hagen's class.

 Annemie and Bruce Sargent taught a class where students learned about yurts and created their own models.

 Students in Erma Yost's class learned about different surface design techniques.

More student work from Marjolein Dallinga's class.

Here is some of the work from students in my friend Jean Gauger's Butterfly Shawl class.

To be continued...next up, the student exhibition.