more workshops highlights

Only one more workshop workshop to go - we will close the year with the class Fundamental with Ricarda Assmann. A must do for everyone who wants to deepen their knowledge about woolfibers and felting November 27-28-29, 2015  

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Tatiana Sheverda 

Andrea Graham

Irit Dulman

Jolanda van Luijk

Maria Friese

Ricarda Assmann

Natalya Brashovetska

Andrea Noeske-Porada

Cristina Pacciani

Katia Mokeyeva

more felted fleeces and a couple of solid rocks

With Jacqueline van Eerden of Goedvilt.nl we had a cosy time with a small group.  

These small stools as other handmade work are for sale on her website. She donates the proceeds to a good cause in Zambia.

Two ladies from Belgium wanted to learn how to make a solid rock and so the did a good work out to get it really rocky! 

And the two sisters were able to make each 3 small woolpads (!)  out of one big fleece of the Heideschaap. Aren't they just lovely.....?

raw fleeces...

The past week I decided to make a start to felt the fleeces I had collected the last few years. I wanted to make small rugs which is easier for me to handle. I have different kind of fleeces from different breeds.  Every breed asks for another treatment is my experience sofar. You should think that I'm a weltrained felter after all those year, but working with raw fleeces is something new for me. I had a couple of questions on my mind. For example, how much shrinkage does a fleece of raw wool need. How much backingwool shall I use. How to clean it. Which method will work for me.  

I started with the wool of the Schoonebeeker sheep, which has long hair. The fleece was a big one and it gave me 6 small rugs. Somehow I couldn't find a good way to get all those hair attached to my backingwool from mountainsheep. A lot of them came of after I had felted it, but fortunately there was enough hair to cover the surface. I was wondering why this was happening. Maybe it was because I had spread them to much? Next time I will have to make a new test again.

On the rack you can see from left to right: Veluws Moorlandsheep,  the grey one is a cross of Kerry Hill and Veluws Moorland, little piece of brown is from Skudde with long woolhair, again Veluws Moorlandsheep and on the right side there is an unknown fleece from a local farm. The fleeces of the moorlandsheeps felted very fast, while the one of the local farm took a long time to become a good one. The moorlandfleece had a lot of annoying burs and thistels in it, hidden deep down in the wool and only visible after felting. Because it was sheared early this year the fleece is very soft, but also very loose and sometimes with very short fibers. I had to look twice to get the sheerside up. But the result is like a teddybear! Soft and wooly...  

looking for true red

but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.... A very promissing colour in the dyepot with cochenille. Using cream of tartar will brighten up the shades I was told. But once the silksamples were rinsed it all changed to more brownish and purple. Bummer! Silk is very sensitive.....

Broken Beauty

In between all the classes in 2014 I have been working on a new collection. Inspired by the Wabi-sabi I experimented with the circle and a teacupform. As a surface I wanted the broken line with some golden elements. The corset-elements symbolisize the beauty. Broken Beauty was born                                                                                                                      
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boring grey?

The first three months of a year are for my own pleasure - no workshops, no shows. I love those months when there is no pressure, spending my time in playing and testing.  In the last few days I have been making all kind of greys. I'm looking for a lifely one, with a kind marbled effect. I have used different natural dyes as walnut, eucalyptus, indigo and sumacleaves. To get a grey you need iron and a tannine and I have used this combination in different ways. It's a wonderful palet of all kind of shades in browngrey, bluegrey and silvergrey. And this time I have wrote down all the data to be able to re-produce the colours.

wabi sabi in Germany with Gudrun Bartenberger-Geyer

For a very welcome change I have joined a workshop myself far away from home. I went by train in a wheelchair to Konigswinter to the FiR attelier of Ricarda Assmann and Andrea Noeske-Porada to attend a 5 days course with Gudrun Bartenberger-Geyer. She is from Austria and I was happy to stay with her in the same guesthouse.

This course wasn't about technics in felting, nor about layouts or making products. This was all about catching the deeper feeling of 'Wabi Sabi'. It is hard to describe what this can be, but once you discover it it will give you an excitement which will tell you that you're on the right way.

For me it was a kind of struggle to find the simplicity in the making - I'm always tempted to loose myself in structures. It is the less is more formular. Also I'm always tempted to go into waving and ruffling fabrics. How to keep my identity but not getting romantic? The answer is reducing, but without getting bored and keeping the poetics. All the time I could see it around me, but to translate it into my work was always a doubtful proces. After this week I hope to find my creative answers much more easier...

To get inspired Gudrun has brought many photo's and creations with her. We have done several excercises to find this way and discover the different possibilities. We have played with paints, have searched the shades of whites, have experimented with materials and finaly I have made myself a loopscarf. I wanted to go home with a wearable memory of this extra-ordinary class. I'm looking forward to new classes with Gudrun in Germany or here in my atelier too when she is ready for it.

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schedule 2015

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