Gabi McGrath's Slipper workshop

Gabi's sample slippers

Beautiful works in progress

Didn't everyone do really well judging by the pic above?  The girls from Feltmakers North had a super fun day on Saturday at the workshop led by the very talented and wonderful tutor Gabi McGrath. 

Gabi in the early stages describing the Perndale wool    

Gabi demonstrating while Yvonne looks on - Bronwen looks thoughtful!

As Ann who was acting as FN's helper on the day, said who would have thought making slippers could be so much fun!

What a great day we all had with Gabi, who travelled up from Dublin to take our workshop. Gabi is an experienced tutor who took us carefully through all the stages to produce very wearable slippers.

The girls had a lot to think about what with making their own templates, designing their slippers and then all the hard work of actually creating them.

 

All will be revealed!

Jayne's foot takes a gentle tap from Gabi's spoon!

There were lots of interesting techniques using Perendale wool and the day flew by as we rubbed, rolled and tapped our slippers into shape.  Everyone was encouraged to enhance their creations with additional embellishments/layers/inclusions and the results were stunning!

Many thanks Gabi for a really worthwhile workshop and thank you also to Yvonne who was a super help to everyone. 

Hanky Doodle Dandy!

Dympna's little bag with lots of silk hankies

Well we might not have been singing but we were laughing and having lots of fun learning about silk hankies and how to use them in our felt.

Ann led the session and explained all about how the hankies were made - she'd even brought some photos of a visit she'd made to Turkey last year where she visited a carpet making factory and saw zillions of silk cocoons in large vats being prepared for use in beautiful Turkish rugs.

Ann points out the piece of cocoon still trapped

She'd brought along lots of samples which showed the versatility of these wonderful little things  from adding texture and colour to creating subtlety in a felted picture, silk hankies were well and truly explored.  We stretched them, scrunched them, flattened them, shaped them all with very interesting and differing results. 

Spot the hanky!!

These are some of Ann's lovely samples which proved very inspirational for our

felters to have a go themselves!

During the Show n Tell members shared some of the things they'd been working on which led to lots of compliments and loads of questions!

The morning passed in a flash and produced some beautiful samples all very different and all very inspiring.

Well done to everyone and keep on FELTING!!

Fun at September Felt-in - all wrapped up in cocoons!!

Gail's seaside creations using cocoons and throwsters waste

Saturday was our first felt in of the year and it was all go!  Apart from sorting our membership fees, it was great catching up with everyone, meeting some new faces and seeing some of the projects members had worked on over the summer.  The Show n Tell  produced lots of lovely work.

Jane tells us about her project where she used recycled fabric to create a lining and handles

Anne and Deirdre talk about their beautifully felted bags and we see Sarah's lovely scarf

Those lucky few who had attended the Liz Clay workshop shared some of their beautiful creations and there was great excitement about learning how to use patterns and stitching to create some lovely pieces

Ann telling us about how she created her scarf at the Liz Clay workshop

Ann models Deirdre's gorgeous creation

The work session led by Gail was all about incorporating de-gummed silk cocoons and throwsters waste into felt 

Gail's delighted with all the lovely samples

      

Congratulations to everyone and look forward to our next session

           

                                                  


I'm sure you'd all agree that this is a beautiful image.  This fabulous peacock created by Claire Merry was one of the many beautiful pieces exhibited at Feltmakers Ireland's recent exhibition 'Kaleidoscope' The Changing Shape of Felt which was held in the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.  Our Chair Ann McCullough visited the exhibition and was very impressed.  This particular piece caught her eye.  Congratulations to everyone involved.


Great new workshop announced!!      Learn how to make some fabulous felted slippers

We are so pleased that Gabi McGrath, a very talented feltmaker and Chair of Feltmakers Ireland, will be delivering a one-day workshop for Feltmakers North on how to make felted slippers.  The workshop will be held on Saturday 22 October in Hillsborough Village Centre and costs £45 for members and £55 for non-members.  Applications are on a first come first served basis with a closing date of 24 September.

Contact Jane Fox, one of our workshop team, for more details and an application form: jane.fox@gmail.com


                                   




Membership September 2016

For those who may have missed the reminder our new membership year has just started.  It still costs £50 and membership application forms can be obtained by emailing the blog - feltmakersnorth@gmail.com.  Alternatively just pay at our September Felt-in on Saturday the 17th.