time flies....

 Ricarda Assmann - felt laboratory

time flies when you're having fun.... and fun there was since my last post about Ricarda Assmann. There were a lot of interesting classes with great teachers in atelier Fiberfusing. For a lot of photo's you better go to the albumsection of the facebookpage atelier Fiberfusing. If you would like to keep informed about the activities please send an email and like the page on facebook.

 Minka de Weerd - silverclay and felt

 Ulla Lapiolathi - natural printing and painting 

 Irit Dulman - tatooing a new surface

 Andrea Graham - a serie of Pods

 Leiko Uchiyama - Pine needle felt

 Pam de Groot - Garden Gathering

 Pam de Groot - splashes and sprials

 Irina Levkovich - dressmaking

 Kate Ramsey - lacemaking in felt

 Irit Dulman - tattooing a new surface

 Jacquelien van Eerden - solid rock

 Anneke Copier, Claudio Varone - felt for architecture

 Andrea Graham - jewelry in felt

 Jorie Johnson - layer on layer design

 Anita Larkin - felting found objects

Show must go on!

The show must go on, to start with a full week Diana Nagorna from the Ukraine!

showmodels of Diana Nagorna's dresses

dress made of only wool by Diana Nagorna, 18 April 2013

I was in such a good flow, having good idea's and I could handle all the stress. Untill that split of a second. Hubby was hanging up the last lamp in our renewed atelier and asked me for my 'approval'. I made a turn, didn't lift up my foot (probably because of my distrophy) overbend my knee and before I knew I was swimming on the ground. After two days I went to a doctor and the photo showed a broken ankle. It needed surgery with 7 screws, 1 pin and a plate and 2 nights hospital. Plus 4 weeks no walking. And this all happened two weeks ago, just before the season with all my guests. Now way to cancel this because of such a thing. So I decided to go on, to start with as first Diana Nagorna, a week full of felting and demonstration.

one of the participants showing the dress Diana Nagorna made on the first day

Diana's work is one of a kind. She started feltmaking a couple of years ago and she developped her own style. She is talented with skills and creativity. She knows how to flower a woman's body, the quality of her felt is superb and the finishing of the garments are perfect. Her sensitivity for the right colours are tremendous.

particpants are 'testing' the quality of the felt of the jacket Diana Nagorna

In the seminars Diana has showed her secrects how to make a dress, which fits as a handglove and she demonstrated a complex jacket with a hoodie and shibori. She shared her knowledge and her patterns. In the workshop she teached how to make a felted scarf with bumps and fringes. All participants were very satisfied. One student went home after the first day and came back on the last seminar with two finished dresses! Another student had worked on one sleeve untill the middle of the night to test the way Diana is working. Some students worked the whole evening to get felted the hundreds of fringes.

happy students with their finished scarves workshop Diana Nagorna 19, 20 April 2013

It was such a great privilege and pleasure to have Diana as a guest during these days. I also want to thank Natalia, for translating all the technical explaination and being a helping hand during the days.
I'am still sitting in a wheelchair, there are a couple of weeks to go before I may walk, but with the help of my family the show will go on. Thanks to them too!

lovely group with particpants from all over the world, 2days seminar Diana Nagorna 21-22 April 2013

Bluetiful Blue with Carmen Bolanos

Last weekend it was raining all saturday. If Carmen Bolanos wasn't visiting me I probably had been sitting down and doing nothing. But now we had a great day dyeing with indigo! I heated the woodburner at the workplace and nothing could stop us from working. Last time we were together we had a pH-issue. Carmen wanted to solve this problem so badly that she drove 2hours by train to test it again. She wants to get it perfect for the upcoming workshop at the 26th and 27th April, 2013. And after testing and re-viving the vat we got two perfect vats. One made with hydrosulfiet and one with fructose. It is realyy magic how the green change into blue! We have tested several kind of fabrics like wool, fauxfurcotton, silk, linen, cheescloth, nettleyarn and flaxgarn. We tried to make some Itayime and even an open weave as cheescloth it worked very nice. 

I know there are springholidays for most of the dutchies and maybe they will be abroad. But for those who wants to visit Europe and our beautifull country, this workshop at the 26th and 27th April 2013 could be a perfect combination for sightseeings and creatings. My atelier is located close to Amsterdam and there are lovely B&B in our countryside. The partners can go for a golfclinic at the golf-centre which is at a distance of 5 km. 

Vorige week zaterdag regende het de hele dag. Maar dat deerde ons niet. Carmen Bolanos had twee uur in de trein gezeten om de verfbaden met indigo weer tot leven te blazen. Bij een warm gestookte kachel stonden ze al klaar. De vorige keer in november 2012 kregen we de pH niet goed op orde. En nu met de methode die ze al jarenlang gebruikt lukte het wel. Carmen gebruikt indigo uit El Salvador, de beste die er is volgens haar japanse indigo-docent. We hebben diverse stoffen en garens geverfd van licht naar donker.  Het is iedere keer weer een wonder hoe het van groen naar blauw veranderd. De workshop zal hier plaatsvinden op 26 en 27 april as. Behalve hoe je een bad maakt, leer je ook allerlei handige tips hoe je zo'n bad controleert en weer nieuw leven in kunt blazen. Ook zal er geexperimenteerd worden met het maken van dessins in de Itayime-techniek. Voor informatie zie het tabblad hierboven.   

Horst was here!

Time flies and I cannot sit back to take a rest. This week Horst has left to Germany for the workshop at Wiesbaden at Andrea Noeske-Porada and to see the concert of Cruxshadows, his favourite band all times! Having him around for more than two weeks felted very familiair. We have been talking a lot about business and my head is pumped full of information. I need time to digest it all and will see how it works for us the best. 
Both workshops 'White&Wild' and 'Crazy Coloured Coats' were a big succes. I love it when the participants are open minded and respects the way of the teachers path! Creating in such an athmosphere brings the work on a higher level. Participants were invited to show their designs at the downtown fashionshow. Horst has encouraged everyone to think outside of the box and inspired them to be better.

De tijd vliegt voorbij. Aan het begin van de week hebben we Horst op het station afgezet voor een treinreis naar de volgende plaats voor de workshop in Wiesbaden bij Andrea Noeske-Porada. Maar ook om op tijd te zijn voor een concert van zijn favouriete band de Cruxshadows! Het voelde erg vertrouwd de ruim twee weken dat hij hier was. Op een gegeven moment stonden zijn Das Bootz gebroederlijk onder de salontafel naast de gympen van Hermann.. We hebben het veel over zijn bedrijf gehad en hoe we eea grootser zouden kunnen aanpakken. Ik moet alles eerst laten bezinken en heb rekening te houden met mijn berperkingen. Maar wellicht dat we samen hier thuis een goed team kunnen vormen. 

Beide workshops 'White&Wild' en 'Crazy Coloured Coat' waren een succes. Het is mooi om te zien dat na een eerste aftasten- soms letterlijk ;) - een ieder open kan staan en zijn manier van werken respecteert! Om in zo'n sfeer te werken maakt dat een ieder het beste uit zichzelf kan halen. De cursisten waren uitgenodigd om hun creaties in de downtown fashionshow te laten tonen, een geweldige stimulans. Horst heeft m.i. iedereen aangemoedigd om buiten het vertrouwde viltpad te gaan en met succes!

modern felt

Kate Ramsey                                                    

Tatiana Sheverda

The last two weekends I was privileged to host two workshops with Kate Ramsey and Tatiana Sheverda. Both young and working with felt in a professional way. 
Kate has learned us how to make felted garments in a simple, but luxury way. She showed us how to make lines and holes, which created very light and drapey felt. 
Tatiana has launched recently her new fashion-collection Transcendence and teached us already the techniques she has used for this collection. She demonstrated how to create 3D surfaces with different kind of shiboro techniques. Both are willing to come back, Kate around 9 September 2012 for three days and hopefully Tatiana will teach a masterclass again in 2013.

3D surface feltsamples made by Tatiana

De afgelopen 2 weekenden waren helemaal top! Ik heb ik het voorrecht gehad Kate Ramsey and Tatiana Shevera te mogen ontvangen, twee zeer gedreven jonge designers en vilsters. De workshops waren een succes!
Kate leerde hoe je op een doeltreffende manier luxe vilt kunt maken. Ze liet ons zien hoe jezelf haar bestsellers op Etsy kon maken. Met lijnen en gaten in het vilt kan een licht en mooi vallend vilt worden gemaakt.
Tatiana heeft onlangs haar nieuwe kledinglijn Transcendence gelanceerd. In de workshop demonstreerde ze de gebruikte shibori technieken om zo een 3D werk te creeeren, waarna we zelf aan de gang konden gaan. Beiden komen terug, Kate rond het weekend van 9 september voor drie dagen en hopelijk lukt het Tatiana om in 2013 terug te komen.

the colourful results after the 2days masterclass with Kate

Kate Ramsey

Tatiana Sheverda