Nicola modeling an amazing felted duster she madeI don't know why it's taken me so long to write about it, but last month I had a great opportunity to attend a felting class in Michigan with Nicola Brown whose blog,
Clasheen, I have followed for a while. Those that read blogs regularly have the feel for how small the world becomes... Nicola is from Ireland, but she was coming to the states to teach and I couldn't pass on the chance to learn from her. She seemed like an incredibly creative, generous, and fun teacher and I was certainly not disappointed!
I decided to really treat myself, and stayed at a lovely B & B, The Kalamazoo House, that was immediately next door to the Kalamazoo Institute of Art.
The entire experience was inspiring, and I loved the museum and it's surroundings. Although I took along lots of knitting and reading, I was surprised to find that I enjoyed socializing with the other guests more than holing up in my room! The hosts were great as well.
The first two days of class were specifically about making a complex felt bag. Although I'm a semi-experienced felter, I enjoyed learning about using a "resist" to make a 3D object with the strap cut from the original layout of fiber, and I also had fun incorporating other fabrics and embellishments into the felt.
It was fascinating to see the variety of approaches the other attendees took to choosing the style and colors of their purses (one of the benefits of attending a class, watching and learning from other attendees). One lady put together some colors that I thought were pretty horrendous, and I was sure that her uptight pace would lead to disaster- how wrong I was when she was the first to finish what was definitely a spectacular purse! I was pleased with how mine came out, although it's a bit more "flashy" than what I'd normally carry.
The final day was a Felted Accessories class- we had a choice of techniques to learn about, and although I'd been doing a lot of nuno work where you felt various fibers to a base of silk or other fabric, I wanted to learn new techniques since I'd admired Nicola's nuno feltwork so much. I used some silk that I had already dyed, and felted it with short-fibered merino.
Although it wasn't my best finished project, I enjoyed the process and especially love working with that type of merino now in addition to alpaca as it felts so fast and evenly.
I've found a fair amount of time to do some other felting projects since then (though not as much as I'd like!) I made this purse with hand-dyed alpaca, merino, and C1 wool (and embedded glass beads), as I wanted to make another bag while I could remember the techniques.
I've also made quite a few nuno scarves and shawls with silk and both alpaca and wool. Now I need to buckle down and make some of the smaller items (like soaps and jewelry) that are the staple of my holiday gift sales. If only I had more time in the day!!!
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As I mentioned yesterday on our Seldom Scene Farm blog, I've started making felted birdhouses and finished a few more today. They are soooo fun!
Someone asked if I thought that they would hold up okay in the elements, to which I quickly replied in the affirmative. I actually think they'll last longer than a standard wooden birdhouse.
As I thought about this further, it occurred to me that a yurt is a great example of the insulating qualities, water resistance, and durability of wool. Still used for homes in some parts of the world, yurts made with handmade wool felt survive very harsh environments, so certainly a wool birdhouse will provide the same benefits for discerning birds!
I'll have these at Art in the Barn this coming weekend, and at Damselfly Gallery in Midway and Truly Bluegrass in Versailles in the near future!
In addition, I'll have a few Bird Nesting Balls... these are balls made from somewhat loose natural alpaca fiber which you hang in a tree, and the birds take tufts of the soft fiber to line their nests. Lucky birds, their own "bird yurt" lined with alpaca!
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