Felting Fun at Wiggonby

Fabulous Felt Pieces

Recently I headed out to Wiggonby CofE School to run a felt making session for the Key Stage 1 pupils. I like running these one off workshops as it's a chance to see different schools and how they operate and they're always a lot of fun. Felt making is such a tactile and satisfying process that it's difficult not to enjoy it! I also like that even with no experience it is possible to produce really interesting pieces of felt.

Laying out the fibres

Laying out the fibres

Laying out the fibres

One of the challenges with this session was that I essentially had three classes (reception, year 1 and year 2) all together which is quite an age range. Interestingly, it was actually the older children who struggled a little more as I think they were thinking it through more whereas the younger children just got stuck in. It got quite loud at one point but they all seemed to be having a good time and everyone produced a piece of felt. I think they're planning to use the felt to decorate their new classroom, which I think is a good use for it!

Building up designs

Building up designs

Building up designs

It was lovely (if a little surprising for me) when I got to meet the class as they all knew who I was and knew that I used birds and feather a lot in my work as they had been looking at my website. This gave me a good 'way in' as I was able to talk about how I used felt in my work and about how I found the natural world very inspiring. As a class they were very keen on nature and enjoyed telling me about the wildlife around them. One of the boys brought in a picture of some feather drawings he'd done at home after looking at my work in school. It was great that he felt he could bring that in to show me. I was very impressed as he'd very carefully observed and drawn the texture of the feather. With all the negative stories about education in the press at the moment it was quite uplifting to go into a class and see children not just full of enthusiasm and interest about the natural world and art but able to explore that interest in school.

Starting to felt

Starting to felt

It's interesting working in very rural schools like this one compared to those in town, the children all had a very clear understanding of where the fibres we were working with came from which you often don't get in (not surprisingly) in more urban schools.

Rolling the felt

Seeing how it was going

At the end of the session I had one of those great 'this is why I do this moments.' One of the pupils came up to me with a feather she had found (she's been collecting them) and said she wanted me to have it as a thank you for helping them to make felt. It was such a lovely gesture and a really nice way to finish my week.

Finished felts

Finished felts

Felt Progression

Experimenting with additions to felt

I had an excellent session with the No Borders art group at Carleton Day Centre today. It was the penultimate session and everyone was in a good mood and working hard (I think the sunshine and toast helped!) One of the aims of this block of sessions was to give the guys the chance to develop their skills and take things further. I had already done some felt making with this group before but these sessions have given us the opportunity to really build on previous work, try new things and push their work forward.

Laying out fibres

Blending fibre colours

Rolling the felt, the hard bit!

The group has decided to make a joint piece of work, a hanging sculptural piece for the centre which will first go on display in the Prism Arts studio in Carlisle for C-Art in September. Over the past six weeks we have been experimenting with different elements of felt making such as making felt beads and sausages as well as developing our work with flat felt. All these elements are going to be incorporated into the finished sculpture. I can't wait to start putting it all together next week as I'm really excited about how it's going to turn out.

Making beads

Sliced felt beads

So, today we carried on preparing all the elements for the final piece and also working on some individual pieces. One of the things that I most enjoy about working with people is seeing how they take on and develop ideas. It is very satisfying to see someone make something with a technique you have shown them but which they have adapted to suit their way of working and their vision.

Painting the sculptures base (yes it is a lampshade!)

Flock at Woolfest

The FLOCK

I was very excited at the weekend because I made it to Woolfest! I've missed it the past couple of years for various reasons but managed to get there on Saturday and I had a really good time. Having had a stressful few weeks it felt really good to do something I wanted to do and that wasn't really connected to work. I spent lots of my shiny pennies on various fibres and threads and am looking forward to having a play with them.

Detail of FLOCK

More Sheep!

Also at Woolfest I saw FLOCK again. This is a project I'd taken part in with my Heathlands textile group and when we went to visit Farfield Mill a few weeks ago we saw it installed there and one of the members spotted their sheep (quite impressive as there are now over 5000 sheep!) We'd also seen part of the flock at Rheghed, not that we're following it round! I really liked the way they'd installed it in one of the livestock pens at Woolfest and I was very excited to spot my sheep!

Sheepy

My Sheep!

Curious sheep

Part of the Flock at Farfield Mill