Volume 2 2010 Feltmakers of Western Australia · Vianne Sleypen had applied her skills as a hair-dresser – and her perming equipment – to a very original hat with curls. There

Volume 2 2010 Feltmakers of Western Australia www.feltwest.org.au

FeltWEST 2010 Volume 22

contentregularsall wrapped up 2toss n tell 3-9billboard 18-19eventsAGM 2010 9Felters’ Convergence 15

workshops 10-11

reviews Lee Anne Davis 12 Sue Eslick 12Catherine O’Leary 13-15books reviews 11

articlesTanya’s fabulous finds 16Wagin Woolorama 17doll exchange 18

FeltWEST incnewsletter

ISSN 1834-9994This newsletter is published quarterly. Deadline dates for material to be submitted are as follows:

Volume 1 15th February Volume 2 15th May Volume 3 15th August Volume 4 15th November

We will endeavour to have it distributed by the first week of the following month. Correspondence should be sent to the editor, Virginia Campbell, 62 Goldsmith Rd, Dalkieth WA 6009 [email protected]

FeltWEST ABN 20395651770

Notice of exhibitions by members that involve felt will be advertised free of charge (subject to availability of space). Advertis-ing inquiries are welcome, contact editor for details.

FeltWEST Inc reserves the rights to accept, alter, reserve for later use or decline any advertisement or article.

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of individual contributors and are not necessarily those of FeltWEST Inc.

Content of this newsletter may not be repro-duced with out permission.

Advertising rates for the NewsletterFull Page $100 Half Page $50Quarter Page $25 Eighth of Page $12.50

www.feltwest.org.au

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editorThis is my last editorial and I would like to use the opportunity to thank all who have generously contrib-uted their time, thoughts, skills, ideas and experience to the newsletter over the last 4 years . A newsletter is only as good as its contributors and for your individual assistance I am grateful. It has made the job of editor an easier and much more interesting one.I’m sure members will continue to contribute and assist wherever possible the new newsletter team – Heather Davis has kindly agreed to be the new Edi-tor after she steps down as President in August, Lucy Bourne will be the new publisher and Emma Murdoch the new newsletter reporter. Their generous willingness to take on these positions is much appreciated . In fact, this edition is already a combination of the old and new team as Lucy and Emma have already commenced their roles. So this is the transition issue of the newsletter!Finally, a special thank you for all those who have contributed to this issue: Heather Davis, Emma Murdoch, Jo Saunt, Christine Wheeler, Tanya Peters, Sue Eslick, Judith Shaw, Lorraine Mc Arthur, Lucy Bourne and Soosie Jobson.

Happy felting to you all,

Virginia CampbellEditor.

Outgoing president, Heather Davis models the beautiful hydrangea hat she made at Sue Eslick’s recent workshop (see page 5).

Judy Barkla, LathlainTerri Brandstate, CorriginCheryl Brigden, Wembley DownsMelissa Burling, BictonThelma Cluning, BictonKathleen Comber, BassendeanKelly Comber, Victoria ParkCamille Giles, BictonHelen Green, York

Janet Houldcroft, DoubleviewAndrea Lewis, ScarboroughCaroling Linge, BremenPatricia Poynton, CowaramupMarijke Richmond, BunburyKim Ryan, Bicton,Pamela Ryan, Perth,Renata Simon-Dalton, BeaconsfieldKerrie Wakefield, Duncraig

FeltWEST 2010 Volume 2 3

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tell Toss n Tell 20 March 2010

This busy gathering of about 40 members marked the start of the Doll Project. A range of largely na-ked bodies (pictured right) were laid on the table ready to be swapped and - month by month - faces, hair, clothes and accessories added, by different Feltwest members. At the end of the year the completed dolls will be auctioned for charity. Also on display was Shirley Maher’s col-lection of whimsical and quirky dolls which she had brought along to pro-vide inspiration to us all.

Shirley was to star at this particu-lar Toss n Tell, modelling her own scarves, an exquisite jacket by Catherine O’Leary and a wool suit made by Helen O’Neill. Helen’s nuno suit, made with devore silk

velvet, had deservedly scored high marks at the Wagin Woolorama in 2009. The Catherine O’Leary jacket was brought along to give those who had enrolled in her workshops a taste of Catherine’s style.

Heather showed us an interesting piece made by a textile student she taught to felt. The yellow scarf was a felt plait with a yellow wool top woven through the middle of the plait (pictured overleaf).

Soosie Jobson showed us the amazing quilt she has been preparing for submission to the Quilted Stitch and Bound Exhibition to be held at Heath-ridge. The quilt,based on a photograph, comprises felting, machine and hand quilting and embroidery (pictured overleaf).

Vianne Sleypen had applied her skills as a hair-dresser – and her perming equipment – to a very original hat with curls.

There were a number of sample pieces resulting from Lee-Ann Davis’ Colour and Surface Work-shop earlier in the month. Gail Putz had made her piece into a stunning book cover. Nancy used fabrics which were hard to felt (including upholstery fabrics) by stitching them on to prefelts then felting that to an background pre-felt.

Among many pieces on show that day (apologies, the inexperienced ‘reporter’ didn’t get manage to get everything down), Noreen Willcocks had made a beautiful backpack, Judy Calderwood showed us two of her recent felt landscapes and Lindy Frayne had used her skill with natural dyes to colour and create a stunning nuno wrap coat.

Judith Shaw, who is famous for never letting any-thing go to waste, brought along a range of items made using scraps or found objects. She used scrap pieces of felt to make padded coathangers which, she said, worked well as your clothes never slip off and the hangers help keep their shape. She had also made necklaces from ‘nuts’ from Woody Yate trees. The nuts need to be soaked in water for a day before a needle can be pushed through them. Leave the needle there until the nut has dried, then pull the needle out and you have a hole to thread the necklace.

Vianne Sleypen and her curly hat (left); Shirley Ma-her models a Catherine O’Leary jacket.


Kerry Gelmi from Bunbury told us all about the forthcoming Felting Convergence, described in more detail on page 15.

Nancy Ballesteros dispelled the myth that well-full-ed felt can’t be fine and soft. “So many pieces are not taken far enough, with the result that they will pill,” Nancy explained.“Fulling, or tossing, allows the fibres to intermix and must be done thoroughly, however fine your piece of felt. Felt should shrink by at least 30 – 40 per cent and ‘crimp’. Without shrinkage you don’t have good felt.”“If the result is too thick, then you laid out too much wool in the first place.”Nancy uses Olive oil because it doesn’t create suds and has good PH. She believes pieces should be kept well-lubricated during the fulling process, or the felt will get fluffy. Tossing should start gently, getting more robust as the piece becomes firmer, stopping every so often to stretch the piece into shape. Nancy uses a corrugated surface to help the final fulling process – rubbing the piece across a washboard, swimming pool bubble wrap or simi-lar. The piece must be well lubricated, so it glides across the corrugated surface. The result? Top quality felt.Lindy showed us how to make cobweb felt from needlefelted bat or ‘Felby’.The felby is stretched out over the table, using both hands to part the fibres away from each other (not by pulling the edge of the bat). For finer felt, the felby can be wet and stretched further until it almost doubles in size. Holes that appear can be left as holes, filled lightly with wool – or the whole piece can be nuno-ed. The piece is then rolled and fulled as normal.

demonstrations:

toss n tell continued

From the top (L-R): Heather Davis and her student’s plaited scarf, Shirley Maher models a nuno suit with its creator Helen O’Neill, Lindy Frayne’s swing jacket, Katrina Virgona wears a piece of felted jewellery from her exhibition, Judith Shaw and her necklace made from Woody Yate seeds, Soo-sie Jobson’s spectacular landscape quiltewith detail (insert). Left: Nancy Ballesteros demonstrates quality felt and (insert) her ‘washboard’ method, and Lindy Frayne shows us how to make cobweb felt.


toss n tell continuedToss n Tell 17 April 2010

Several new members came today, some members from overseas we don’t usually see at our meetings joined us, and lots of our regular attendees at T n T returned bearing wonderfully embellished dolls in all states of undress, semi dress and some with unusu-al augmentation. The felt exchange doll programme is kicking along very nicely and proving a good venue to show off members’ creativity, special skills and senses of humour – such as Vianne Sleypen whose hairdressing talents were put to good use when she added human hair to her swap doll.

Judith Shaw brought along some natural merino fleece which she had been recently given by a visiting farmer’s wife. She displayed it in its natural, dirty state and its cleaned state. She described the cleaning process as being quick and easy: dip a hunk of fleece into a bowl of hot water containing a splash of detergent, swish it about in the water, then shake water out, rinse fleece in clear water and spin dry. The natural fleece should emerge white, clean, free of twigs and dirt and able to be used in all kinds of felting projects and experiments. She also produced a reversible nuno felted poncho made of fine chiffon with satin decoration on which she had laid (on the chiffon part) fine layers of white wool decorated with green silk. After felting she had cut a hole large enough to pull over the head. Melbourne visitor, Lorraine Ste-vens, kindly modeled both aspects of the piece.

A number of members brought along fabulous pieces they had made at Sue Eslick’s beanie/ crazy hat workshop on 3 April 2010. Heather Davis had attended and made a very beautiful hat featuring a large felt hydrangea flower made from uniformly shaped small pieces of felt, Joyce John, Sally Moldrich, Jill Jodrell, Judy Calderwood, Robyn Groom, Christine Godfrey and Kerrie Wakefield also had delightful hats to show us. Jill’s gum nut hat is perfect for the next Australia Day party, Joyce’s brown hat with large red flower was arresting, Christine shared with us the secret to making curly felted tendrills for her hat (wind felt around a pencil and leave to dry), Judy informed us she was turning her hat into a teacosy and might sculpt it further so that it resembled Ayers rock more closely, Robyn’s hat with extension is still a work in progress she says, while Christine and Kerrie had made not only full sized hats but also several maquettes for future reference. Sue Eslick showed us her very elaborate latest (red) hat which she had made. There was

some useful group discussion on how to avoid cre-ating a thick edge or ridge when making a felt hat.

We also admired some lovely and diverse pieces of felt jewellery members had brought along to the meeting – Shirley Maher’s necklace, Ail-in Chen – Van Leeuwen’s green and blue brooch, Val Horni-brook’s necklace and belt buckle, Kerry Gelmi’s necklace and Karen Wood’s necklace.

Joyce John modeled a beautiful nuno felted brown and green vest she had made and Kerry Gelmi showed us her very versatile and colourful felted grid bedspread with knit inserts, which she assures us is useful to pull off the bed and use as a wrap

Photos: Clockwise from top: Vianne Sleypen’s curly-haired doll, Judith fits her wrap to Lorraine Stevens; hats by Sue Eslick, Jill Jodrell, Christine Godfrey, Kerrie Wakefield and Robyn Groom.


toss n tell continuedwhen going out for the evening! Emma Murdoch delighted us with her large stuffed felted ladybird, Ai Lin Chen-Van Leewen produced a nuno felted brown apron made from a scarf and an orange and blue scarf she had made from a silk loom end and felted, Janet Houldcroft showed us her two lovely nuno felted wraps (see one on page 9 and one on the back page) and Lucy Bourne discussed with us a new method she had used to make elasticated felt booties. Lucy used a thin strip of resist material (heavy plastic) to make a casing around the bootie ankle. Before fulling the booties, the resist was removed and a piece of cord threaded through the casing. This was replaced with elastic (and a decorative bow) once the felting process had finished.

Val Hornibrook and Kerry Gelmi then spoke to the meeting about the 11th Southern Hemisphere Felting Covergence to be held in Bunbury October 2011. They asked for theme day ideas, what small exhibitions could be organized to promote felting, suggestions for national and international tutors, entertaining ideas, what events members may have especially liked at convergences previously attended, and the names of suppliers and sponsors who should be contacted. It was strongly suggested that if you are interested in attending you should register your interest in doing so now at the blog site http://feltconvergencebunburywa.blog.com

The meeting concluded with an informative talk and demonstration by Lucy Bourne and Vicky Hearn on needle felting animals and other 3 D objects.

From the top (L-R) Joyce John’s hat, Joyce John’s vest, Karen Wood wearing her necklace, Lucy Bourne’s booties, detail of Ai Lin Chen-Van Leewen’s blue and orange scarf, Shirley Maher’s necklace, detail of a nuno felted apron by Ai Lin, Emma Murdoch’s ladybird, lots of hats, Kerry Gelmi’s bedspread and Val Hornibrook’s necklace.

Toss n Tell 15 May 2010

Heather Davis began this meeting by presenting gifts of thanks to Soosie Jobson and Virginia Camp-bell for their work over the past four years as Pub-lisher and Editor of the Newsletter respectively. All the Committee members had individually contrib-uted to the creation of the beautiful gifts: a journal covered in bright blue felt embellished with beads, stitching and buttons for Soosie and an orange felt cushion decorated in pink and green fabric, stitching, and beads for Virginia. These items are pictured on the back page.

Heather spoke about the forthcoming AGM and urged all members who were able to, to attend and vote. She encouraged members to take an active contributing role in the association. She noted the position of Newsletter Editor was still to be filled but thanked Lucy Bourne for assuming the role of Publisher and also welcomed Emma Murdoch to the new newsletter team. Emma has generously volunteered to be responsible for reporting our Toss n Tell meetings in the newsletter, including taking photos of the felted creations members bring along to those meetings.


toss n tell continuedThis meeting is the first one she has reported and there were lots of interesting pieces members had brought along to show and discuss.

Alison Gomez, Vianne Sleypen, Pat Kendall, Shirley Maher, and Judy Calderwood had recently attended Catherine O’Leary’s workshops and each said how much they had learned from the experience. Alison said she had especially appreciated learning how to make nuno felt without the fabric being distorted.

Below is a list of the pieces which members attend-ing the meeting brought along to show and discuss:Alison Gomez modelled her beautiful aubergine scarf with overlays of multi-coloured fabric, created at the Catherine O’Leary workshop.(Pictured below).

Judith Shaw brought a display of creative ideas for using small scraps of wool and felt (pictured over-leaf).

Theresa O’Malley showed us a sample square of felted garter stitch, dark khaki wool. Liz Odd had made a stunning light brown rug with African influenced pattern. A batt was used for the base and the design was prefelted and blanket stitched on top. She also showed us a terracotta coloured rug with African influenced zig-zag pattern. The wool on the reverse side is fungi dyed (both pictured above) Judi Barkla showed us a range of naturally dyed silk scarves, including a cream and rust coloured silk scarf created by using copper piping and eucalyptus leaves; a dark brown, ‘leopard skin’ silk scarf cre-ated by using a rusty bed base, iron rod and gum

leaves, boiled with puff-balls; a golden coloured silk scarf created by being wrapped tightly around steel rod and cooked in puff balls (pictured below and back page). Judi’s tip: in natural dyeing, to enable you to create a similar effect again, keep a note of exactly what you have done and used pinned to the sample piece!

Justine Row brought along a blue and pink bowl-shaped felt bag with leather handles and nut fea-tures. Made at ‘The Hub’ gathering in Mundaring (pictured overleaf). Marie Marshall had purchased a secondhand white silk shirt and felted red wooltop stripes onto it.

Terri Brandstate had made a grey and black panda mat (pictured overleaf), using alpaca wool. Black wool was used for the base colour, overlayed with grey wool, and black and white for the panda de-sign. Her Koala needle book (pictured on the back page).was dry felted with brown alpaca wool for the

base, and grey and black for the koala picture. She had also made a black nuno silk scarf with crimson rosette design, a black nuno circular purse with pink features and a black circular purse with white swirlsShirley Maher produced a long black and lilac knit-ted scarf with coloured ribbons within the stitching she had made and a dark moss-coloured, patterned, Catherine O’Leary jacket, she had purchased at the workshop.

Christine Godfrey showed us her blue rectangular felt handbag featuring a dark blue wave pattern, blue felt strap with wooden loops – originally con-ceived as a felt wrap but remodelled! (Pictured on page 8).


toss n tell continuedKerrie Wakefield showed us a claret coloured oval shaped nuno felted bag, with rolled felt ties and matching claret cloche hat with nuno felted cream and white fabric features (pictured below).

Kelly Comber had needle-felted wren birds (see picture on back page), both small and large, as well as an orange-haired fairy and an orange and blue cat doll (pictured on page 9), needle felted and made for her daughter . The face was directly copied from her daughter’s concept drawing.

Vianne Sleypen produced a burnt orange and lime

silk nuno felted ribbon scarf wrap inspired by the Catherine O’Leary workshop (pictured being mod-elled by Heather Davis on the right) and a lime and eucalyptus-coloured felt loop scarf (pictured on the back page).

Nancy Ballesteros discussed with us her bold col-oured striped table runner (pictured on the previous page). A batt was used as the base and wool tops for the stripes. She also showed us two samples of silk and wool paper made with starch and ready to be nuno-ed.

Shana Davies brought along a blue and green ribbon nuno silk scarf (pictured on the back page) and black green and pink nuno felted scarf. Both sides of these scarves were felted, and cardboard was used during the felting process to keep the strips of wool straight and the edges of the wool lines sharp..Maryanne Dawson was commended on her pink felted baby rattle with bell and synthetic wadding

inside and Katrina Virgona displayed her multifarious sculptural wool finger puppets (pictured above).Pat Kendall was pleased with her blue and lavender coloured scarf with small fabric samples, made at the Catherine O’Leary workshop.Judy Calderwood had made a fish mat with open weave cotton, nyon and lace fabric scraps, also made at the Catherine O’Leary workshop.

Ail-in Chen Van Leeuwen brought along a mustard-coloured industrial felted jacket, with hood made in Italy and purchased recently in London’s Portobello Road markets. She had also made a burnt red and dark brown floral felt collar (pictured below) and a herringbone woollen cape with floral felt features and buckle (made at a ‘reconstruction’ workshop, from an old skirt).

Following the toss n tell part of the meeting Heather demonstrated various ways of making pockets (pic-tured right).


even

ts2010 AGM2010 AGM FeltWEST incDATE: Saturday 21 August TIME: 9:30 PLACE: Craft House, Clyde Rd, Menora

This year FeltWEST will be holding its annual AGM on Saturday 21st August. We would like to make this a fun and special day by incorporating a Trash n’ Treasure before the AGM and including a Toss n Tell/ Doll Exchange session after the AGM.

The 2010 Annual General Meeting of Feltwest Inc will be held at Craft

House, Alexander Park, Menora, at 12.00 noon on Saturday 21 August 2010. All members are invited and encouraged to attend and contribute to the business of the Association. Your vote is important. Please note only financial members can vote. There is a membership renewal form included in this news-letter for your convenience!

Proxy. For those not able to attend, for whatever reason, there is an Appointment of Proxy form available and included as an insert in this newslet-ter. This will allow you to authorize another member who will be attending to vote on your behalf at the meeting. The main business of the meeting covered by this arrangement will be the election of the new Committee of Management for the forthcoming year.

Election of Committee. There is a Nomination form for nominating members for positions on the Com-mittee included as an insert in this newsletter. Your nomination for yourself or any other financial mem-

ber can be submitted in advance of the meeting, although nominations will be taken from the floor at the meeting.

AGENDA for the Day (times approximate)

9:30 Doors open, set up for Trash n’ Treasure- any-one welcome to sell their things – no stall holder fee. Felting time.12:00 AGM12:30 Lunch 1:00 Toss n Tell and Doll Exchange

AGENDA FOR THE AGM1. Welcome2. Apologies3. Previous Minutes4. Business Arising5. Consideration of Reports President Treasurer Secretary6. Declaration of Committee Positions Vacant7. Election of Committee of Management President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Committee [2 or more]8. Other Business9. Close of Meeting

By Order of the Committee

toss n tell continued


Workshops Natural Dyeing day with Heather and Lindy

Come for a day of natural dyeing with two fanatical dy-ers. Learn about and enjoy the pots of colour that can be created from around you: colours of the earth from Puff ball fungi, euycalptus gums, iron and rust, as well as whatever else can be sourced sustainably. Expect gorgeous rich earthy tones and quiet soft shades that fit comfortably with any wardrobe or home. Bring silks, wools, some cottons and a bundle of threads, yarns and fibres. We will demonstrate simple resist techniques, show you how to prepare and mor-dant your work for dyeing and run dye pots all day for you to experiment with.

Date of workshop: Saturday 3 July 2010Time: Doors open at 9am for 9.30am start – 3pmWhere: Craft House, Alexander Park, Clyde Street Menora. Cost: $45

Nuno Felting with Lindy Frayne

In this workshop we will incorporate felt and fabric to-gether, this technique is called ‘Nuno’. ‘Nuno’ was de-veloped in 1994 by Polly Stirling and Sachiko Kotaka.

Techniques we will try are laminating, layering, surface adhering, join-ing and entrapping objects, resist methods. The texture and drape of the lightweight ‘Nuno’ fabric is ideal for clothing in our climate. We can make samples or lengths of fabric depending upon desire. Lindy will bring samples of work done over the years to inspire participants.

Experience in felt-making is essetial for this workshop.

Date of Workshop: 7 August 2010Time: Doors open at 9am for 9.30am start – 3pmWhere: Craft House, Alexander Park, Clyde Street, Menora.Cost $45

Accessorise with Nuno - a workshop with Judith Shaw It is always a good time to accessorise with nuno. This is a chance to do it by blending fine wool merino top with light and airy fabrics . Natural fibre weaves are best. These include cotton gauze, & voiles, tissue silk , chiffon, organza ,thin rayons and any others you may have found successful. Colours in vogue have been described as “sweet pea” pastels but choosing those you love to wear is what it is all about. Students will be encouraged to make pieces which may be based on a square, a circle or the odd shapes which may be left over from other work as well as scarf lengths to wear in different ways.Strips of silk , ribbon, threads, fabric and thin pre-felt may be incorporated.

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Judith will demonstrate and encourage in-dividual choice in making small to medium sized pieces. For more information call her on 94475659. A “What to Bring to Class” list will be sent out following registration. Beginner felters as well as felters with experience are welcome at this workshop.

Date of workshop: Saturday 4th SeptemberTime 9am for 9.30 start – 3pmWhere: Craft House, Alexander Park, Clyde St. Menora.Cost: $45

Workshops continued

Books Reviewed and Recommended by Judith Shaw:

COMPLETE FELTMAKING -Easy techniques & 25 great projectsBy Gillian HarrisColliers & Brown, London www.anovabooks.comISBN 978-1-84340-476-7Achievable projects for beginners to advanced; this book covers flat felt, felted knit and needle felt.It has clear directions for beginners, and plenty of hints & techniques to interest the more experienced felter. Attractive and clear cartoon style pictures and directions with inspirational ideas and things to make.The author says “nothing in this book is set in stone, but I have created a range of projects for you to learn from and enjoy….”

CREATIVE FELT - Felting and Making more Toys and GiftsBy Angelika Wolk-Gerche

Flores Books ISBN 978-086315-678-6Offers broad coverage of general feltmaking, making this book suitable for new feltmakers Contains over 100 “How To” projects with clear illustrations in colour with patterns. Includes a large sec-tion on Felt doll making.Experienced feltmakers may find much of interest in variations in techniques and inspirational notions. A template and directions for type and weight of wool is provided The author urges the reader to work sensitively in this ancient craft of feltmaking saying “we should felt the wool into complete seamless forms to make functional,useful objects.”The doll making section of Creative Felt may be of special interest to Felt West members who are mak-ing dolls as part of the Doll Exchange.

Both books were borrowed from State Library Service – Karrinyup.

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Judith Shaw


revi

ewreviewsReview of Lee Anne Davis’ WorkshopBy Christine WheelerLee Anne creates beautiful pieces with a lot of surface embellishment and her technique is of particular interest for two reasons .First, she is able to use fabrics which are not very suitable for nuno work and, second, she creates pieces which do not require very slow and me-ticulous felting(at least if used solely as decorative pieces).We began the day by looking at Lee Anne’s samples, and discussing design. Lee Anne then briefly discussed prefelts,

demonstrating dry prefelting, and then those of us who had no prefelts quickly made some, while oth-ers worked on their design.Once the prefelts were made we proceeded in three stages. Stage 1 consisted of collecting our fabrics-silk, beaded, velvet, synthetics, lace, all sorts- and making shapes suitable for our design. These were then arranged on our prefelt and stitched. We used mainly simple running stitch, starting at the out-side of the fabric to anchor it securely. The point of the stitching is to ensure that the fabric does not move during felting, so the design stays crisp, and it means that even if the fabric does not felt in well, it will still not come adrift.The stitching at this stage also contributes to the look of the piece. Depending on the chosen design

and type of fabric, we could use wool, which would shrink with further felting, light thread which would tend to disappear, or heavier thread. The direction and amount of stitching would later influence the distortion and shape of the fabric pieces, so becom-ing factors adding texture to the final product.Once we were happy with the stitching, the prefelt

was placed on another background piece to support the added fabric and help the piece retain its shape. It was then felted again. At this stage the look of the final product is starting to emerge.As this was a one day workshop, most of us did not get up to the final stage. That involves the ap-plication of threads again, to enhance the outline of the design, together with other items like beads, buttons or found objects, if wished. Although we did not embellish our own pieces in this way, Lee Anne had a number of samples which showed how much the further work would contribute to the look of the piece, and Tanya had with her a piece from an earlier workshop-using velvet, which responds beautifully to this technique-which she had started to embellish. Judging from the discussion, we all went away intending to complete the work we had started, hoping to end up with pieces as attractive as the samples.

Review of Sue Eslick’s Beanie Fest WorkshopBy Heather Davis

We started the morning look-ing at a variety of amazing and outlandish hats and tea cosies that Sue had made. These included a cac-tus shaped egg cosy, various monster heads, a Perth bell

tower and a bush inspired leafy hat. Our imagina-tions went a little further than our abilities following this spectacular display but we were all there for a challenge and had great help when needed.We all started with a basic shape and added design and colour as we built up the layers. Then were called back to the growing display to see how tails, loops, flaps, balls and curls were added. A jar of felt eyeballs sat next to a jar of felt calla lilies as Sue demonstrated how spiky points were added to monsters’ heads. Near the end of the workshop day with all of us frantically rolling still, we found out how to do the final fulling and shaping using cotton cloth and boiling water. I finished my hat the next day with some stitching and final shaping on a


reviews continuedblock. I am now ready for the Alice Springs Beanie Festival, form in hand and inspired to make the next beanie!

Review of Catherine O’Leary WorkshopBy Christine WheelerIf the technique Catherine taught catches on widely, “toss and tell” will have to be renamed “stroke and show”. At the heart of it is a very slow and gentle method of felting, especially in the early stages, that results in little shrinkage-only up to about 25%-and almost none of the crinkly effect many of us associate with nuno. The result, when used with fine tissue silk or other very fine silk or cotton, is an ability to create felted work(including wearables) which are patterned in crisp, clear shapes and, if wished in contrasting colours that retain most of their distinctness.An overview of the work over the two days was that we created a palette by selecting appropriate fabrics in different colours and patterns and felted them very briefly (5 minutes rolling) onto tops or batts. We then cut those wet and experimented with layering those pieces to make different de-signs or new fabrics. For example, we cut strips off our prefelts and “wove” them together, then felted them, to make a new piece with a checked de-sign. That new piece, in turn, could be cut to make shapes to form part of a larger design. This process could be repeated almost indefinitely. Catherine emphasized that very fine prefelts, with tissue silk and a couple of fine layers of wool, could be built up in many overlapping layers without the final piece becoming too bulky.The felting technique Catherine used progressed

in these gentle stages. First, just bubble wrap, the wool gently and thoroughly wetted down with warm water and a little soap (detergent or soap dissolved in water, so as not to rub across the wool) and roll-ing with a pipe of a largeish diameter. Then move to a smaller pipe as the surface pieces begin to attach. If some of the surface pieces show signs of not attaching, or are looking too thick for the piece, Catherine spreads the work out, puts freezer bags over her hands and, pressing firmly, “vibrates”, rather than rubs, till it is satisfactory.Once everything is well attached, but still fairly soft, Catherine rolls for a short time on the pole alone, then, for a still shorter time, as a tight lit-tle roll of wool alone. She rinses in very hot water, not squeezing, just pats it gently in a towel and then places the piece flat (generally face down) and “strokes” it gently but firmly into shape from the centre, a bit like pastry making. This last step contributes to the fulling and takes off a lot of loose fibres, as well as shaping the piece.Catherine” bombarded” us with samples showing how she had created shadow effects with tissue silk, painted on tissue silk and then incorporated the painting into a piece, and built up many lay-ers to create rich ,3D, effects. She also showed us some unusual and beautiful ideas for scarf or wrap shapes. The photos will, I hope, give some idea of the variety of effects (more on the back page).There were a lot of useful and interesting ideas in this workshop. The only possible negative relates to the long materials list. It was not clear from the list that some items, such as the needlefelted batt pieces, were options which we might choose not to use, and I would not have bothered to obtain them if I had known. That small matter aside, it was a most rewarding 2 days.

Participants prepare nuno pre-felts


Catherine O’Leary – Artist Talk – Monday 3 May 2010By Virginia Campbell

For a number of us unable to attend Catherine O’Leary’s two workshops this week, this was a wonderful opportunity to meet the artist and see some of her beautiful , innovative work - and to make a mental note to be sure to attend a Catherine O’Leary workshop in the future if the opportunity ever presents itself again.Catherine began by telling us a little of her back-ground and the development of her interest in feltmaking. A feltmaker for 25 years and trained in Fine Arts, Catherine first started felting when she had small children. Her first project was to felt directly onto a mannequin, commencing at the head and working down to the feet. She said that as she progressed felting her way down the mannequin she noticed the felt quality was improving and so, after completing the felting of the entire manequin , she decided to embroider and embellish the head and neck with beads to disguise the poor initial felting, steadily reducing the adornment as she neared the feet. She showed us some slides of this very strik-ing felt statue named ”The Body”. If you have the space, this would have to be the home decoration piece everyone should strive for! Later, when she was working as an artist in residence with a group of women, Catherine used the same mannequin for a group project and covered it in many layers of silk paper , eventually entering it into an exhibition.Catherine has also been employed as an artist in residence in numerous schools and has enjoyed introducing children to felt and other mediums to make large fanciful creations such as a felt banquet table and chairs complete with felt “food”, 40 me-tres of 1.5m theatre curtains which were eventually taken down and replaced with conventional curtains because they were “too distracting” at school as-semblies and performances, and deconstructed umbrellas of felt and silk paper attached by their handles to the ceiling, with light filtering through the umbrellas with glorious effect.

Catherine also enjoys creating sculptural and in-stallation pieces and showed us many images of beautifully shaped felted vessels, vessels made of felt and fabric featuring cut out pieces, and ves-sels made of nuno felt. She told us she had once been commissioned by Craft Victoria to create a felt office in 2 weeks. She found the time limit she’d

been given impossible for her to complete an entire office but made a fabulous office setting in white felt comprising chair and desk, light, telephone, books, tape holder, pens in vessel and other office accessories. Catherine said this project inspired her “telephone” phase wherein she made numer-ous felted telephones in marvelous colours and with various extensions attached. She then moved onto felted reading glasses and her pieces give a whole new meaning to phrases such as “ rose coloured glasses, square eyes, spots before your eyes, and cross eyes”.However after all these playful experiments in felt, she found she wanted to make functional felt and turned to making exquisite wraps, scarves, skirts and jackets – essentially wearable pieces of art! She showed us many images of such garments and also brought along a number of jackets she had recently made. Many of her pieces were fabulously coloured and shaped, using beautiful fabrics incorporated into smooth fine felt with lovely drape. She said she likes to make her own fabrics and uses a variety of techniques including shibori, batik, printing, weav-ing, etching, and many layers of different fabrics and wool to do so. Often she uses vintage fabrics and garments, recycling garments into something different. She likes to buy ugly commercial fabrics, removing the dye in them and seeing how she can improve them. She said she would like to incorpo-rate more drawing in her work, using fabric and felt to print on, and then incorporating these materials

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in further felted garments. Catherine noted that she makes more simple patterns nowadays for her gar-ments, preferring to shape, drape and cut directly on the mannequin. She likes the way felt drapes in in-teresting sculptural ways. She buys her needlefelted batts from Fibre Fusion in Victoria and Silk Sensa-tional in Sydney. The latter has a range of about 40 different colours and she finds the batts good for a

thick base.After her talk Heather presented Catherine with a gift of appreciation from FeltWest members – “Ab-stract Earth”, a book of the wonderful photographic images of Richard Woldendorp. We then enjoyed coffee, tea, delicious chocolate cake, and an oppor-tunity to talk further with our delightful guest.

Sue Eslick and Sherron Wake model Catherine’s jackets

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An invitation to FeltWest President Heather Davis, Committee members and all FeltWest members -

Bunbury Felters are inviting FeltWEST for their input, assistance or both in preparation for the 11th Southern Hemisphere Felters Convergence.

We have just set up a blog to keep everyone in-formed about the 11th Southern Hemisphere Felt Convergence Bunbury 2011. It can be found on the internet by going to http://feltconvergencebun-burywa.blogspot.com. Please click on this web site. It will be updated regularly. If any of your friends may be interested in attending, please for-ward the blog site to them.

It would be a great help if you would occasionally add a comment to posts, as this shows to others that the blog is being read and encourages others to look in frequently and leave comments them-selves. To add a comment to the blog just click on the COMMENT label at the bottom of the post and complete the boxes. It doesn’t have to be a long comment – a simple “that’s great” will do fine. You do not have to leave your email address. Please look in to the blog often to keep up with how you can help with the 2011 Felt Convergence.We look forward to your input to the convergence in 2011 to help make this a great success.

Kind regardsVal Hornibrook

Felters’ Convergence

http://feltconvergencebunburywa.blogspot.com


Tanya’s fabulous findsBy Tanya Peters

What is this new column you are won-dering?? Well.....I love to cruise the cy-ber highway and come across the most amazing things. I also have this weird ability to meet people who do amazing things. So it was thought that maybe I should share some of this information with our members. This is not strictly about felt, it is about textiles, fibre, fash-ion, books, magazines, blogs, artists and websites and whatever else comes my way. So.......let’s get started.

The fashion scene in Fremantle is pret-ty strong. I have been lucky enough to make a fabulous friend in Liz Dawes. Her fashion label is Cocoon Textiles,

which can be found at “Hustle” in High St Freman-tle. Liz is the sole designer and all her products are made locally in Fremantle. She screen prints all her own designs and employs local staff, nothing is offshore. When I first approached Liz about her designs, I asked if she could custom make a couple of dresses for me. I now have 4 of her dresses and am exceptionally happy with all of them.

As well as Hustle, there is Mabu, Love In Tokyo and many more stores which stock local designers. Our friend Annie Rawle has her fabulous jewellery stocked in Mabu. It is well worth an outing with a couple of friends, have a bite to eat and stroll around.

Would you believe that a wonderful friend in the US, has put me onto a great Australian magazine, Pep-permint. I had never heard of this magazine, but have since easily sourced it and it is a great read.

If eco friendly is your thing, not to mention style and cutting edge, this is worthy of a go.

One of my many favourite blogs, is Print and Pat-tern. (www.printpattern.blogspot.com) I have been following this blog for a couple of years now and love the content. It is very visual, mainly pictures and based in the UK. It covers a lot of printed tex-tiles and also giftware, ranging from cards and sta-tionary, through to cups, plates and home wares. If you are interested in the latest design trends, this is the place to watch. A book has now been published called “Print and Pattern”, which I have purchased and it is a bible for design source.

From the inside cover: “ Pattern is everywhere. Years of minimalism have been superseded by a riot of colour and shape, whether on walls, fabric clothes or signage. Print and Pattern is a visual celebration of contemporary surface design.” 303 pages, 750 full colour illustrations, 120 featured artists. Each artist has a link to their work or website, a collection of work. I promise to bring this along to TnT.

If you have never been to Etsy, (www.etsy.com) give yourself a couple of hours the first time you venture that way. Etsy is an online shop, which is predomi-nantly handmade art, craft and supplies. Type in ‘felt’ into the handmade section and see what pops up. You will see all sorts of felt made by artists from across the world. When you become a bit more fa-miliar, you can search local shops in Australia, even down to Perth. There are quite a few Australian felt producers, who sell their work online through Etsy.

A few places to go to, things to look out for and web-sites to go and visit.

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HELPFUL HINT FOR NUNO BEGINNERS by Judith Shaw When hanging your finished nuno scarf to air dry, the shirred effect may be increased by rolling the work between your hands for a few seconds moving along the length of the fabric until it has all been treated the same way. . If you think it can do with more felting – do it again ! This is useful when you can see that some parts are less gathered up than you might wish.


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tsFeltWest member, Lorraine Mc Arthur, won the Wagin Woolorama award this year with a fine nuno Kaftan type top and pencil slim skirt. She designed the top around the colours of Geographe Bay from aquas to deep blues .Photos of her beautiful pieces are from The Wagin Argus newspaper.

Lorraine submitted two entries. She firstly created a white outfit at a time when a cyclone was coming down the Broome coast so she according-ly made the design motif a cyclonic swirl. After she finished making this garment she said that she re-read the data about the competition and noticed the use of the word “de-signer”. As she had used a Vogue pattern to make the white garment,

she decided to design a pattern herself and submit a second outfit using that pattern. The winning outfit was her second piece: a Kaftan style top and pencil skirt for which she made about 2 metres of fabric. Lorraine said her inspiration for the garment came as she was looking out on Geographe Bay and noticed how the colours of blue were ever changing and that the water seemed to dance in the sunlight. She first made a piece of pre felt in a variety of blues and aqua which she had dyed and also used some commercial top. She then cut the pre felt into wavy strips which she felted to some chiffon. The

hem of the top was finished with random sequins which caught the light as the model walked The skirt featured a high slash in the centre back.

There were 12 entries this year. Lorraine said they used the same model on the judging day so that meant any size problems showed up, which was interesting. Size stipulation was 10/12 The judges comment on sewing, seams, quality of finishing (such as threads hanging, and even if your over-locker is not doing the job), as well as fit, wearabili-ty, lining, colour, but not on micron or felting as such.

Lorraine noted that as the prize is $1500, this is the best competition in Australia to enter and we should be supporting it. However she expressed concern with the way Australian farmers are getting rid of their fibre sheep, and considered we may soon have trouble resourcing fine wool in Australia. She fears that our raw material for our craft will soon be lost as the expertise is going to China and the breeding of the fine fibre sheep in Australia is being replaced by breeding of meat sheep and easy shear or no shear sheep breeds crossed with the merino. An added expense to raising fibre sheep is that pasture needs to be carefully selected and grown and it is important that burs and foreign seeds do not contaminate the fleece so as to avoid too much chemical being used in the scouring process to dissolve these .She noted that Australia has no real machinery left to scour and card the wool and the Melanian group are now sending the fleeces to NZ.


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Workshops3-5 July 2010 Workshop by Patricia Black: Twist and Shape – Dimensional Shibori Workshop in Perth at Trudi Pol-lard’s studio Bedfordale. Bookings (03) 9419 7745 or email [email protected] and quote code PBP

Ken Smith Workshops in WA: 30, 31 July and 1 August 2010 Ken Smith is Guest Artist at the WA Craft Stitch and Quilt Show, Claremont Showgrounds, Perth and will conduct the following workshops:

• 3 and 4 August 2010 -“User Friendly Machine Embroidery” (suitable all levels of experience).

• 14 and 15 August 2010 Masks Work-shop, $160

9 -12 August 2010 4 day Retreat “Into the Woods” at Glenbrook Estate (5kms Margaret River) Explore the forest and learn how to create with fungi bark and lichens from the forest floor. $650.

For further details and bookings: Jennie Abbott 93064202; 0407 388 624, [email protected]

2 – 7 October 2010. 32 Workshops offered by Koala Conventions for the first time in Perth. Ven-ue: St Catherine’s College, 2 Park Road, Nedlands. Includes workshops on felting, needlefelting, bead-ing, nunofelting, embroidery and other embellishing techniques. Workshop fees: $165 per day (does not include project kits which are individually priced by tutors). Contact [email protected] or phone 07 4093 9474. See www.koalaconventions.com.au

OpportunitiesFIBRE DESIGN BOOK for Australia and New Zea-land: TAFTA (The Australian Forum for Textile Arts Ltd) is encouraging entries in this new publication.Deadline for entries is 1st September 2010 in anticipation that the book can be published by December of this year. Valerie Kirk is coordinating a judging team which also includes Annie Trevillian and Tony Dyer from Australia, and Christine Keller from New Zealand. Judging is based on digital im-

We are having a lot of fun with the doll exchange taking place every toss n tell meeting. Included in this newsletter are some photos of recent developments/ transformations in a selection of dolls.

The “rules “of this exchange programme are that you can put in as many dolls as you wish – for example, if you put two in, you can take 2 exchange dolls out and work on them until the next toss n tell meeting.

What’s to become of them when they are completed? They will be sold at the FeltWest Christmas Party by silent auc-tion. The proceeds of the auction will go to charity and the most- voted -for of the nominated charities will be the recipient.

PS. If you really want to, you can make a doll in its entirety without any exchange, but put it into the auction in November when the exchange has concluded for the silent bidding process.

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rdages which must be of the highest quality – full details from TAFTA’s website: www.tafta.org.au (click on Fibre Design book). Up to three works can be submitted, with nine categories specified: 3-Dimensional work; Basketry; Needlework; Paper & Felt; Surface Design; Quilting; 2-Dimensional work; Tapestry; Wearables.

Artisan Books’ Annual Beanie Exhibition to be held fom 3-24 July 2010. The exhibi-tion will accept beanies of every possible size, shape, style and material, and a $50 book voucher will be awarded to the most outrageous sculptural creation. Please contact the shop for details. Previous years entries can be viewed on our web-site, artisanbooks.com.au You Can Help Create a Circle of Peace Felt Around the World in 2010. Create a

work of art using handmade felt which symbolizes peace or unconditional love to give to & receive from your peace partners somewhere else in the world! For more details see http://www.peacefelt.org/

10 September 2010 – 10 Jan 2010 “Expressions 2010”, The Wool Quilt Prize. Entry deadline July 5 2010. To register contact National Wool Museum (03) 52724812 or www.nwm.vic.gov.au

Exhibitions and Festivals17 June - 8 August 2010 - Puturru Palyalpayi String-makers, Holmes a Court Gallery, East Perth; felt-work by Nalda Searles, Holly Story, Bronwyn Goss the women from the Warburton community.25 - 28 June 2010 Alice Springs Beanie Festival, http://www.beaniefest,org 23 July 2010-12 September 2010 Exhibition- Vir-ginia Cummingham: Spin Cycle, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery23 – 25 July 2010 The 133rd Australian Sheep and Wool Show, Bendigo. http://www.sheepshow.com30 July – 1 August 2010 WA Craft Quilt and Stitch Show, Claremont Showgrounds. Between 9am – 5pm come to the Art to Wear Textile Tantrums Exhibition sponsored by the Thread Studio31 July 2010 Heather Davis and Liz Odd demon-strate Fungi Dyeing at Mundaring Arts Centre – part of the Mundaring Truffle Festival

12 – 28 August 2010 The Moores Building Contem-porary Art Gallery, Fremantle – has been booked by WAFTA for an exhibition – watch this space for further info!2 September – 3 October 2010 Stitched and bound 2010, Exhibition of Contemporary Quilts, Heathcote Museum and Gallery, Applecross. www.waquilters.org.au

Conferences0 -16 April 2011 April Forum, Orange. Ballot June 13 2010 for places in workshops – tutors include India Flint, Anita Larkin, Yvonne Twining and Carol Cyper. Email [email protected] or phone 07 3300 6491 for enrolment form.

14 – 20 April 2011 Fibre Arts Ballarat 2011. See http://www.fibrearts.viviti.com/

2–7October 2011, FeltConvergence 2011 in Bun-bury. Register your expression of interest now http://feltconvergencebunburywa.blog.com

9-15 October 2011 Fibres West in Bunbury. See www.fibreswest.com.au

Heather Davis demonstrates the use of fungi dyes

Documents

Volume 2 2010 Feltmakers of Western Australia · Vianne Sleypen had applied her skills as a hair-dresser – and her perming equipment – to a very original hat with curls. There