Volume 4 2007 Feltmakers of Western Australia · 2013-12-03 · book by Gillian Harris, “Complete Feltmaking: Easy Techniques and 25 Great Projects“, (St Martins Press) for members

Volume 4 2007 Feltmakers of Western Australia www.feltwest.org.au

FeltWEST 2007 Volume 42

contentregularsall wrapped up 2toss n tell 4events 2008 9agm 2007 10billboard 19contact details 20calendar 20

reportspresident 2007 2treasurer 2007 11

reviewsfiona wright 12jorie johnson 17trudi pollard 18

articleswhere did it all begin? 14geelong 2007 13living fibre artists 16

FeltWEST incnewsletter

ISSN 1834-9994This newsletter is published quarterly. Dead-line 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. Cor-respondence should be sent to the editor, Virginia Campbell, 62 Goldsmith Rd, Dalkieth WA [email protected]

FeltWEST ABN 20395651770

Notice of exhibitions by members that involve felt will be advertised free of charge (subject to availability of space). Advertising 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.

www.feltwest.org.au

cover photo -

all w

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pSusan Espie WEMBLEYToni Fisher FLOREATDeborah Foster-Gaitskell SUBIACO Donna Glasson ALEXANDER HEIGHTSAlison Gomes LEEMINGJulie Grono BRIDGETOWNMarion Joy NOLLAMRAJennifer Limb BICTONSubhadro Luhn HAMILTON HILLVictoria Pearce EAST PERTHTanya Peters WILLETONAnna Prestianni STIRLINGEmma Read JANE BROOKDenise Read KALAMUNDAMeg Smart-Firman AUGUSTAGeorgi Smith SHELLEYJannie Sprukkelhorst NOLLAMRASarah Toohey BAYSWATERAlt wool shop Tsagaan ULAANBAATAR MongoliaRobin Williams CLAREMONT

new members

As this year draws to a close I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and much joy and creativity in the coming year. I would like to thank all those who have very generously contributed to this newsletter – Liz Odd, Heather Davis, Karen Wood, Lynda Palai, Tanya Peters, Darriel Palfrey-Jones, Judith Shaw, Pauline Franklin, and a very special thank you to our publisher, Soosie Jobson, whose creative eye for colour, design and layout is always so very much ap-preciated and contributes substantially to the quality of the FeltWest Newsletter.

Virginia Campbell

editor

Fiona Wright inspired jacket by Val HornibrookPhoto by Virginia Campbell

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

Above: Some of Judit Poc’s amazing work. See page 8.

FeltWEST 2007 Volume 4 3

Felting in Western Australia has progressed significantly in the past decade since the incep-tion of FeltWEST in 1997. I would like for a moment to remind us all about the contributions of those who established the felting community in Western Australia.

My introduction to the world of feltmaking in Western Australia took place at the Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School where the Bunbury group under the leadership of Val Gilmour held the first Australian Southern Hemisphere Feltmaking Convergence in 1994.

Bunbury was a notable event in that it was the catalyst for establishing groups in Canberra and Victoria and stimulated felt work throughout WA

Many who were part of that first group in Bunbury deserve a place on the honour board for contributing to hand feltmaking in WA but of those Val Gilmour, Holly Nutley and Teresa

Lawrence deserve a special men-tion.

By this time feltmakers met sev-eral times a year in Perth and produced a newsletter to share feltmaking information, particularly for regional members who worked in isolation. Feltwest was incorpo-rated in 1997 with Judith Shaw as inaugural President.

This is my third and last year as President. The association has continued to forge ahead, with an increased range of activities made available to our members. This has only been possible with the wonderful support and enthusiasm from all Committee members dur-ing this period.

Highlights of the past year have included;o Best Stall winner at Fremantle Arts Centreo Three International tutor work-shopso The Felt The Water Art exhibition

I thank you all for your support and I wish the incoming Committee all the best for the forthcoming year.

Liz Odd

Left: Liz wearing a beautiful scarf made by Jennifer Blair

repo

rtpresident 2007


toss

n te

ll There was a large roll up of members on 21 July and we welcomed seven new members at our lunch gathering, who were taking a felting beginners class with Liz Odd in the smaller room at Craft House.

Judith Shaw showed us some cosy slippers she had made from the pattern of her foot and displayed her beautiful felted spiral hanging. We were pleased to see Chris Harnby and Darriel Palfry-Jones who had driven up to Perth together to join us. Darriel, who has re-cently rejoined FeltWest and has long been a member of Bunbury Felters, was wearing an attractive leather jacket with panels of decorative felt which she had machine stitched in. She said she had bought the jacket at an op shop and found this was an easy and inexpen-sive way to introduce felt into a fitted garment.

Jo Saunt showed us an interesting scarf she had made comprising of separately felted pieces of unwanted knitted jumpers sewn together. She also had brought a new felting book by Gillian Harris, “Complete Feltmaking: Easy Techniques and 25 Great Projects“, (St Martins Press) for members to view and which she pointed out included instructions for a similar felted scarf. The latest Interweave Press magazine publication was also circulated – it is a special issue devoted entirely to felt (see www.interweave.com).

Faith Hamilton brought along some very cute little slippers she had made at Judith Shaw’s recent slipper workshop and two felt bowls she had made using a child’s blow up balloon and the lid of a screw top jar to model the shape. The smaller one took 9 layers of wool while the larger one took 12 layers.

members activity

Left” Judith Shaw shows her spiralAbove: Darriel Palfry-Jones wears her leather jacket


Kate Weedon-Jones showed us a collection of samples she had at-tractively combined together and a scarf she had worked on at the recent Retreat using Charlotte Buch’s method of laying circles of silk fabric on a felt base and entrapping by nuno felting the entire piece with a fine silk material overlay. Noreen Willcocks brought along a lovely Charlotte Buch – inspired top which was modeled by Jo Saunt. Judi Barkla displayed a very effective scarf she had made at the Retreat where she had felted black silk strips and white silk onto a needle felted batt with black mohair yarn stitched through the piece.

After Toss n Tell we were treated to a short talk and demonstration on working with resists by Heather Davis. She based her demonstration on a very exotic bag she has been working on which featured little pockets, decorative flaps, belly buttons and a range of other treat-ments achieved by using resists made of bubble wrap.

20 October was another lively meeting. Heather Davis displayed her blue silk nuno felted apron and a gorgeous shoulder bag fashioned from felting a large jumper in the washing machine and stretching. We admired Gabrielle Carati’s beautifully felted cushion complete with tassels, buttons and decorative felted feature panel.

Karen Wood brought along an elegant nuno felted shawl she had purchased while in Victoria to attend the Geelong Forum. She showed us two sample pieces she had made at the Fiona Wright workshop held in Geelong and a thick yellow and orange felted pon-cho/cape a friend had brought back from Finland.

Clare Adams modeled her latest felted hip belt, and Judith Shaw a matching nuno felted jacket and cute felted hat. Sangit Tafelmaier showed us a bright mulicoloured lattice felted shawl she had made for a friend and which she said took her considerably longer than she had anticipated. She also brought along some very cute lined felted shoulder bags which she intends to sell at the Darlington Arts Festival in November.

toss n tell continued

Above left: Jo Saunt’s scarfAbove right: Fath Hamilton’s slip-

persBelow: Heather Davis models her

bag & apron


Above Right: Kate Weedon-Jones’ Charlotte Buch technique scarfAbove Centre: Heather Davis demonstrating bubblewrap resists

Above Left: Judi Barkla’s retreat made scarfBelow Left: Sangit Tafelmaier wears her lattice shawl

Below Right: Judith Shaw talks about chosing Alpaca Wool



Clockwise from above:Marie Marshall at her son’s wedding, Dorothy Hickey’s bag, Sanigt Tafelmaier’s bags, Gabrielle Carati’s cushion and Sue Eslick with her hat



Marie Marshall shared photos of her son’s wed-ding showing the felted wedding banner Marie had made at our Retreat for the ceremony and the lovely felted collars she had made and at-tached to a red cardigan she had worn at the wedding and to an orange woolen cape she had been given.

Sue Eslick produced a little felted elfin hat – not dissimilar from the gorgeous tea cosies she of-ten makes and several of which were recently displayed as part of the annual exhibition of tea pots at the Old Bakery On Eight Gallery in Maylands.

Dorothy Hickey shared with us some tips on how to create a beautiful felted knitted bag similar to those we admired in the recently pub-lished US Interweave Press magazine on Felt, mentioned above. She used size 7.5 needles, 12 ply non wash wool, knitted the bag and then

felted it wet in the dryer, finally adding some embroidery to complete the decorative flowers’ centres.

Toss n Tell was followed by a lively discussion of different felting tools various mem-bers have found useful and then Judith Shaw very generously gave a most informative illus-trated talk to the group about choosing, cleaning, carding and felting alpaca wool.

Left: Jo Saunt wears a Charlotte Buch inspried

top by Noreen Willcocks.Above: Heather Davis models Karen Wood’s

cape. Right: Clare Adams displays her latest hip belt

belt.



even

ts We anticipate the programme planned for 2008 will be a stimulating and informative one with lots of new ideas, methods and inspiration to extend your felting skills and experiences!

As always, Toss n Tell will be held on the third Saturday of each month February- November. The only months we don’t meet are December and January. We plan to continue this year with incorporating short practical demonstrations into our Toss n Tell days as these were well re-ceived this past year, many people finding them interesting and helpful.

Again we are delighted to welcome an international tutor to hold workshops for our members. This year Judit Pocs from Hungary will be teaching a weekend workshop on Making Felt Jew-ellry (26 and 27 April) and a three day workshop on Miniature Sculptures in Felt (29, 30 April and 1 May). More details will be available in the next newsletter but meantime you may like to look at some of her work on the web. She doesn’t have a web site of her own but if you google her name many beautiful photos of her work can be found so pencil in those workshop dates in your new 2008 calendars!

2008

Sat 2 Feb Beginners’ Workshop with Judith ShawSat 16Feb Toss n Tell. Nancy Ballesteros to demonstrate “How to Lay Wool – 3 Dif-

ferent Techniques”. Judith Shaw to demonstrate “ Carding Wool”Sat 1 March Machine Embroidery Workshop - Tutor TBASat 15 March Toss n Tell. Hand Needle Felt DemonstrationSat 5 April “Nuno” Workshop - Tutor TBASat 19 April Toss n Tell. Judith Shaw to demonstrate “Moulding Felt”Sat 26 & Sun 27 Apr Workshop with Judit Pocs : Felt Jewellery MakingTues 29, Wed 30 April & Thurs 1 May

Workshop with Judit Pocs: Miniature Sculptures in Felt

Sat 3 May Soosie Jobson’s Pattern Making WorkshopSat 17 May Toss n Tell including Show n Tell Work Done at Judit Pocs’ workshopsThurs 29 May to Sun 1 June

FeltWest Retreat at Woodman Point Recreation Camp, Munster

Sat 7 June Beginners’ Workshop with Soosie JobsonSat 21 June Toss n Tell including Show n Tell Work Done at RetreatSat 5 July Workshop with Heather Davis to Explore the Techniques Taught by Judit

PocsSat 19 July Toss n Tell. Demonstration by Nancy Ballesteros “Silk Paper with Pow-

dered Starch” Sat 2 August Structured Wraps Workshop with Sue SwainSat 16 August Toss n Tell . Demonstration of Soluble Fabric by Soosie Jobson Sat 6 September “Colour and Surface Exploration” Workshop with Lee Anne DavisSat 20 September Toss n Tell. Demonstration on Felt JewellerySat 4 October Floor Rug Workshop with Liz OddSat 18 October Toss n Tell. Demonstration on dry rolling pre felt (with Lee Anne Davis)

and using pre felts in different ways.Sat1 November Workshop with Jan Stroud to Explore the Techniques Taught by Fiona

WrightSat 15 November FeltWest Christmas Party


The morning of the AGM on 4th August commenced with the setting up of the ever-popular Trash and Treasure which was then followed by an informative presentation by Jo Pickup on “Ethical Fashion”. Jo is a Perth based artist and fashion designer as well as the new Course Coordinator at the Fremantle Arts Centre and she chose to illustrate her topic by focusing on the cotton t shirt, outlining in detail the environmental, social and economic impact of creating this simple garment

Jo urged us to shop with a conscience, become more environmentally and socially aware, support organic clothing, organic farming, non exploitative manufacturing processes and fol-

low the care labels on clothing since 80% energy costs of clothing is estimated to occur at the stage of look-ing after the clothing you buy (hand felted goods excepted!).

Following the AGM our new President Heather Davis presented to outgoing President Liz Odd a double sided door hanging made from many pieces of felt donated by members for the special purpose of creating this collective gift to thank Liz for her dedicated and skilful leadership of Felt-West over the past three years.

Minutes from the AGM are included as an insert to this newsletter

agm

2007

We also have planned an exciting programme of regular but very varied workshops using the wonderful felting talent and expertise we have closer to home. Further, we continue with the programme we devel-oped this year aimed at sharing material learned at international/interstate tutors’ workshops organized by FeltWest . These special workshops are charged at a considerably reduced rate and are a great oppor-tunity for members who were unable to attend the original workshops to learn new techniques and explore new ideas.

This year the Retreat will be held at Woodman Point, Munster ( just south of Coogee Beach) – a beauti-ful bush setting by the sea! We believe the accommodation is far more comfortable than our previous venue and will very ably suit our special felting needs. Retreat 2008 will also feature lots of mini workshops and demonstrations on diverse topics including Revamping your wardrobe with Felt, Creative Chronicles, Machine Embellishing, Resist Techniques as well as another Dyeing workshop with Heather Davis. More details will be published closer to the Retreat which will be held 29, 30, 31 May and 1 June 2008.

As usual all events take place at Craft House in Menora unless otherwise specified. Most workshops are scheduled for the first Saturday of each month.

Full details are also available on our website. www.feltwest.org.au

events continued


I would like to show my appreciation to the Feltwest committee and members who so gener-ously donated their time and effort to make such a lovely present for me on the occasion of the end of my term as President.

At the recent AGM, I was overwhelmed to be presented with the most fantastic double sided wall cum door hanging. So much giving and thought went into creating this piece. I will cherish it as a reminder of that giving that makes things grow.

It has been an honour and pleasure to be President of this Association for the past 3 years. It has been a wonderful group of Committee and fellow felters that has given me great support and friendship during this time.

The Association has an excellent committee to lead you forwards into the ever changing felting world. I wish the new President, Heather Davis, and her Committee all the best for the future and the ongoing success of Feltwest and thank you all for your support and love.

Liz Odd

thank you

lett

erre

port

treasurer 2007Feltwest has had a very interesting felting and financial year. We have had 3 wonderful international tutors sharing their skills and ideas, another successful Freo Bazaar co-or-dinated by Heather Davis and her team and not forgetting the highly regarded exhibition, “Felt the Water”.

As some of you may remember from last years AGM, it was our goal this year to give back to the members. This was to be achieved by providing opportunities to grow and learn more skills. This was done by underwriting the exhibition and Freo Bazaar, subsidizing the international tutors and lowering the cost of Toss n Tell days and inhouse workshops.

With all these undertakings, the net balance of our accounts was a loss of $772! I might add that the interest that we received this year was $792! So we are actually out front by $20. At the end of the financial year we have a cash balance of $18550.38 represented by cheque account $3161.76, investment account $6796.51, gold cash account $8492.11 and

petty cash of $100.00. We also have assets of $600.00 as we purchased our own tables this year.

I submit the profit and loss and balance sheet reports for further scrutiny.Lynda Palai

Left & right: Heather Davis teaching felt-ing to the kids

of Darlington in November


revi

ewSumptuous Surfaces with Fiona Wright by Tanya Peters

August the 31st and September the 1st saw the Sumptuous Surfaces Workshop with textile artist Fiona Wright. Participants had come from far and near with open minds and enthusiasm to spare. Fiona predominantly creates art wall hangings, which she has exhibited in many gal-leries in Australia and internationally. We were lucky enough to have her bring a number of her recent pieces, which have been inspired by her passion of India.

Fiona always starts her pieces by using a layer of voile, usually black. Onto the piece of voile she uses very thin layers of wool tops, followed by either silk or other very fine fabrics. Most of Fiona’s work is entirely covered with silk. She does not felt her work very much and elects to let her washing machine do a fair amount of the work for her.

Heavy stitching, both hand and machine, has been applied to the majority of Fiona’s work and reverse appliqué was also a feature. We were shown how you are able to write or draw with inks onto silk, which can then be applied to pieces. In Fiona’s work, the areas where the ink had been applied, ap-peared to have a raised surface, which added to the different textures. The back of Fiona’s work is as interesting as the front. The black voile highlights the colours of the wool and with the combination of the wool and heavy stitching, you could be confused as to which side was for display.

We were given a quick and impromptu demonstration of dyeing silk, which was very useful as many of us were able to have our plain white silk turned into a myriad of colours. Fiona is not shy with colour and most of her work is bold and striking.

After some sample pieces, we took off on our individual projects. People went in many different directions and some wonderful pieces were created. Some very motivated indi-viduals took work home the first night and completed some beautiful stitching. The second day saw highly motivated people (some who had trouble sleeping the night before with ideas running through their heads) get down to work. Col-ours were abounding and the day flew to an end. Fiona was exceptionally helpful with her artistic input and direction.

Most people would not have learnt any new felting techniques from Fiona. But the point of the workshop was ‘Sumptuous Surfaces’ and we were definitely shown how to create, use and manipulate the surface of our felted work. The pieces from the workshop will stand testimony to this. A highly enjoy-able and enlightening workshop.

For more of these beautiful workshop samples please see the web site. See examples of Fiona’s work on page 15.

fiona wright


Geelong Textile Forum - October 2007By Karen Wood

I lived very close to Geelong way back in the distant 1960s. Very briefly. Then, in those heady days of change, the town was considered something of a dump and an eyesore. There was always trouble in Geelong. Nice people simply didn’t hang out there after dark or when the sky clouded over, whichever came first. So, it was a surprise when the word “Geelong” elicited the sort of ecstasy normally only associated with the words, say, “George Clooney” or “chocolate gelato”. Better than either, I was told by those in the know. Geelong is just the best by a long shot. You get a week away with textile arts and tarts and someone else does the cooking. Well, that was enough for me to find a million excuses to go to Melbourne, a pleasure in itself, with a week at the Geelong Textile Forum thrown in as extra.

I chose to spend the week felting with Fiona Wright, though there were several other workshops which would have suited; maybe next time the shoe making? Or the dyeing? Or practically anything on offer. The final exhibition, showcasing everyone’s work was truly amazing and revealed the range of disciplines .that had been covered during the week. A close second or

third to the no cooking and felting all day (and into the night if you felt like it - no pun intended) were the lectures and presentations, at least two every evening. These were given by tutors and other invited artists and were of the very highest quality. It was fascinating to hear such a diverse range of “where the art came from and the ideas that inspired it”. One artist’s textile pieces sprang from a residency in a Tuscan town, another from the bush outside her back yard, and yet another from an ever changing, but always the same view of the harbour near Auckland. Also on offer were several exhibitions, some textile, some from other areas. And the viewing had to be fitted in somehow be-tween eating and drinking and working and exchanging ideas and encouraging and being encouraged.

Very special mention, though, must be made of one of my very fa-vourite pursuits, which could be fitted in whenever there was five minutes to spare. Yes, good guess! Shopping.! Traders in textile stuff came to Geelong from all over Australia and they were open all hours. Eat your heart out George Clooney! There were four or five rooms full of delicious temptations. I shopped with practically every other person in my workshop group. That way you really get to know people. A list of the things I just had to have would have given even the best husband in the world heartburn, so the full extent has never been revealed Enough to say I won’t ever need to buy a Japanese washboard again. Some of the stuff I don’t have a clue how I’ll use, but so what. Someone will know. And the colours are wonderful.

Added to all this the week is run with great efficiency. Tea, coffee and biscuits never seemed to run out and every night was great fun with the staff dressing to a different theme. This created a festive atmosphere led by the redoubtable Janet, whose pa-tience was unflagging and who seemed about to break into song or dance or both at any minute. The party night was great fun. (Let’s do it at the Retreat!)

I can’t finish this article, without a gripe. CAN’T SOMETHING BE DONE ABOUT THE COLD? I wore every article of clothing in my little case, all the time. Sisters, never go to Geelong without your thermals! With that warning go, and have just as good a time as I did.

geelong 2007ar

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Above: Workshop pieces by Karen


hist

ory Where did it all begin?

By Judith Shaw

Our story belongs with the contemporary practice of hand felting in New Zealand and Australia before formal Feltmaking associations were formed.

By the time feltmaking took hold in Australia, Mary Burkett in England and Beth Bede in the USA were researching traditional feltmaking around the world ,experimenting with complex techniques and encouraging others to share the excitement. Beverly Gordon’s book, Tradi-tions, Techniques, and Contemporary Explorations FELTMAKING, 1980 N.Y gives comprehen-sive information about the craft and the feltmakers in the USA at that time. Although materials and equipment have made the work easier it might surprise new feltmakers to discover the level of expertise achieved before 1980.

In a letter to the Felt West editor in 1996 Marion Valentine in New Zealand refers to the increasing interest and expansion of feltmak-ing since 1990. Val Gilmour of Bunbury, now an Hon.Life Mem-ber of Felt West, travelled back and forward to New Zealand and saw what was happening there, influencing the creation of the first WA felting group in Bunbury. Earlier still, Peggy Buckingham co-ordinated TAFTA’s only WA Convention at Muresk Agricultural College near Northam in 1978.

Two feltmaking enthusiasts from Queensland’s Toowoomba Spin-ners and Weavers calling them-selves the “ Gundawindi Greys”, demonstrated hand feltmaking taught to them by “a migrant lady”. Their technique was passed on by participant Ellie Eaton (Roy-al Agricultural Society & Melanian Society) and others, when they met with woolcraft practitioners. Ellie recalls that the felt was very thick, which was usual in coun-tries with colder winter climates. All of this occurred in the midst of the hand spinning craze which resulted in an increased use of natural fleece and increased understanding of the properties of different types of wool for knitting and weaving.

So, felt making began as dem-onstrations showed the way for a further and exciting use of wool already on hand. At this time wool crafters washed and carded raw fleece. Demonstrations often included advice on washing wool. Some country people had their own sheep, others bought from emerging seller breeders or from Elder Smith’s wool stores where fleeces for hand spinners were put to one side and sold by a helpful character in the back of the shed! Wool was also imported from NZ.

West Australians who went to NZ for the National Woolcrafts Festival, Manawatu, in 1990 saw prepared, dyed wool on sale for the first time. New Zealand had many wool processing outlets and feltmakers there could choose the type of wool batt they wanted for specific felt works or purchase sheets of machine made natural wool felt. Wool batts were even available in broadloom widths which allowed for commercially viable production of felt coats etc. In a demonstration, well made felt sufficient for a large car coat was made from a large wool batt in around 20 minutes using a cane blind, soapy water and woman power.

During the Woolcrafts Festival a group of leading N.Z feltmakers posted a notice inviting anyone interested in becoming part of a Southern Hemisphere Feltmak-ers register to come to a meeting. Elaine Hutchinson and Judith Shaw attended that meeting of a group which went on to host two NZ Conventions followed by the Third Convention and first in Australia organised by Val Gil-mour and Bunbury Feltmakers, at the Bunbury Cathedral Gram-mar School in 1994. It drew an incredible group of talented feltmakers nation wide plus rep-resentatives from NZ. Registra-tions from other States included Polly Stirling, Molly Littlejohn, Clare Carolan, Jan Clements, Christine Sloan, Jenni Farrel, Liz.Evans and others who went home to form felting associations and undertake teaching. Bunbury inspired the formation of groups in Canberra and Victoria and the recognition of felting by existing woolcraft organizations in other States.

Undaunted by the huge joint effort required for that first Australia wide Convention, Bunbury hosted a second live-in retreat for WA feltmakers which offered a pro-gramme of demonstrations and exhibition of work by all partici-


feltwest beginnings continuedpants. All shared their experience on an honorary basis.

The first Felt West newsletter was issued to approx. 50 mem-bers in July 1996 after the three day retreat in Bunbury at which participants agreed to work towards a formally constituted felters’ network. It was agreed that this should now be based in the Perth Metro.area with Judith Shaw as co-ordinator. The first newsletter was paid for with funds carried over from the Bunbury retreat. Our stated aims were

i) to send out two or more Newsletters annuallyii) Plan a felters’retreat once or twice a year at a suitable live-in venue

The Bunbury Feltmakers with Val Gilmour at the helm and Hon.Treasurer Gloria Truman had

done a marvellous job of provid-ing for felters’ interests over the last few years and thanks from all concerned were gratefully re-corded.The first Newsletter invited all members to attend felting days at Craft House on Friday 15th November and Saturday 16th 1996 to give them an opportunity to meet and share. Arrangements were made to billet out of town members. Thus began Felting days & teaching sessions in Craft House, Menora. Seven current members have been part of Felt West from that beginning.

The early newsletters contain felting hints and ideas which remain relevant. Copies could be available at Craft House for reference on Felting days. When Felt West was formed (later to be incorporated) we had already

began to take advantage of tutors with world wide experience. Lene Neilsen from Denmark was the first international tutor. Most of us had learned from each other and from demonstrations at Felt happenings. Lene went on to produce FELT FILT, available in English as well as Danish, setting high standards for hand felt-ing and undoubtedly influencing many subsequent tutors.

E & O.E ( errors and omissions excepted!), many names deserve inclusion. In WA however, we can-not but remember the influence of Susan Seaman, Holly Nutley, Jenny House, Eileen Cresswell, Teresa Lawrence, Val Gilmour and others who set high stand-ards and were inspirational by example and thus contributed individually and collectively to encourage feltmaking in WA.

Above & Below: Examples of Fiona Wright’s work. Photos by Tanya Peters


artic

les Living Fibre Artists – 11- 13 October 2007, Melville

By Heather Davis

Artopia was an event that was run all over Perth. Part of it included the Living Fibre Artist ex-hibition which showcased textile artists in working environments. The Melville hall was full of craft artists for three days surrounded by lots of beautiful work. Thursday was huge with free talks held every hour. The hall was bursting with people all keen to pick up a new craft or learn more about their current passion.

Feltwest members Lindy Frayne, Soosie Jobson, Heather Davis, Val Hornibrook, Jenny Tate and Helen O’Neill all had beautiful work on display, most of which included felt. Some of their work also featured in the Wearable Art fashion parade amongst some way out and incred-ible pieces by local students.

It was a great three days of good intentions to create volumes of work which were never achieved and non-stop talking with some like minded people.Artopia and the Living Fibre Artists exhibition run every second year, if you are interested in being involved next time try contacting the City Of Melville Community Development Officer for the Arts which is currently our very own Feltwest member, Hannah Katarski.

living fibre artists

Above: Heather DavisLeft: Lindy Frayne

Below: Helen O’Neill


revi

ewWorkshop Exploring the Techniques of Jorie Johnson by Heather Davies and Lindy Frayne – 6 October 2007By Pauline Franklin

The day began with a wonderful display of samples done earlier in the year with Jorie Johnson, which had us all asking,”How did you do that?”

Heather and Lindy proceeded to give a great demonstration of the various techniques. .sushi rolls .attaching tails and loops .entrapments .revealing surprises and pockets with resists .layering prefelts using resists .adding unusual fibres eg. hemp, flax

We were then asked to choose one technique that interested us and we were to produce 5 of these to then disperse to other members of our group, hence we would all get to take home each other’s samples as a reference.

I chose to do the pockets and revealing surprises and amazingly each person in the group wanted to do something different so we were all set to begin.

The beauty of being able to do 5 of the one technique is that it enables you to develop ideas. I was very interested in using this process to develop three dimensional flowers as I could see a way to use these in future projects.

Heather’s example of this involved laying down a spiral of textured wool fibre, then putting a circle of bub-ble wrap over this and covering this with 2 layers of fleece, felting the piece and then cutting open the top layer in a cross to reveal the lovely fibre underneath. I followed this process, also adding circular prefelts on top of the spiral. After felting I cut the top layer into petal shapes and pulled them back. I also experimented with putting down prefelt rather than wool fleece on top. The results were very pleasing.

We had time after lunch to try another technique or to continue on with our own developments. I really wanted to work out how to add more layers - a second and third layer of petals. After discussions with Heather and Lindy I made some more prefelts (with a great dry technique learnt from Leanne at previous workshop) and began my large flower.

It was very thick to felt, and it was important to remember to wet every layer, but it did work and I was very excited with the result.

At the end of the day we looked through everyone’s examples and discussed the different results. Wow, everyone had done some very inspiring pieces. I particularly loved the trapped pearls and roses. I still find it amazing that we can learn the same process and all come up with such different results. The technique of using resists and making felt three dimensional certainly gives us all endless possibilities for further experi-mentation, the only obstacle being to find the time.

A very big thank you to Heather and Lindy for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with us all and to all the other women doing the workshop, thanks for a really great day.

jorie johnson techniques


August 2007, Bunbury.By Darriel Palfrey-Jones

Trudi’s two day Indigo Dyeing and Shibori workshop in Bunbury was well attended and a great success. Indigo blue, though an ancient dye, is quite a modern colour that can be worn with the most common blue jeans or be highly decorated with Asian themes like stitching and tied strings in contrasting colours. We experimented with silks, cottons, synthetics, woven wool and felted wool – wrapping, binding, stitching, twisting and clamping the day away to obtain some quite stunning results.

I personally used only prefelted and felted merino, corridale, and Helen O’Neil’s merino/syn-thetic blend in my samples, some nuno with cotton gauze and silk. The results were varied. Because of the different absorption rate in the thicker felt samples in comparison to woven wool or silk, the shibori techniques applied made a huge difference to the definition of the design.

Techniques such as simply pleating and binding for semi circles, diagonals, and chevron patterns, marbling and tie-dye stripes were not particularly successful with the felt because of the poor definition of patterns achieved. However, stitching and gathering, pleating and then rolling and binding tightly and stitched smocking techniques were very successful with some powerful designs generated.

Indigo is one of those dyes that is fixed by leaving it to oxidize in the open air. However, because of the density of the pre felted and felted wool, this was not altogether satisfactory. After rinsing each item around a dozen times, with still some residues bleeding out, I realized that perhaps for the wool samples it would be worth using a mordant after the presoak stage before dyeing to make the samples more receptive to the indigo dye. Generally, almost all fibres for natural dyeing need to be chemically treated first to make the dyes fix and remain fast on the fibre. “The Fabric and Yarn Dyer’s Handbook” by Tracy Kendall has a mor-dant recipe that I am keen to try next time.The workshop was quite a learning process and I personally had some great successes. I’ve made a few of my larger samples into some great garments and I look forward to exploring Indigo blue further down the track.

revi

ewtrudi pollard

vale This is to honour the memory of Barbara Frew, long time member of Felt West. Barbara spon-

sored Prizes for Felt at the Perth Royal Show. When I first met her in the late 70’s she was in-troduced to me as “a remarkable knitter”. Barbara was also achieving a high standard in hand spinning, beadwork, embroidery, and all forms of sewing. When she began feltmaking over 25 years ago she applied herself to achieving the excellence which was a hallmark of everything she made.

Our first internationally recognised felting tutor was the renowned Lene Neilsen. Lene advo-cated rolling felts up to 5,000 times to achieve perfect suede like pieces. Barbara was possibly

one of the few who consistently followed that advice. On numerous occasions her felt waistcoats, hats etc. were awarded First Place by Judges. She was one of the first local feltmakers to make a full garment by applying fine merino to cotton fabric.

Barbara was in poor health for some time. She will be well remembered by those who knew her. Thanks to Val Gilmour of Bunbury and other members of Felt West for remembering Barbara and our need to honour her passing. Judith Shaw.

barbara few


details see above)22 – 24 February 2008, Royal Canberra Show and Crafts Expo, Exhibition park in Canberra, Mitchell

29 May – 1June 2008, Rapt in Felt, CRF Annual Exhibition and Bazaar, CSIRO Discovery Cen-tre, Black Mountain, Canberra

5 April 2008 10am – 5pm Medi-eval Fayre in the Supreme Court Gardens, Perth Volunteer mem-bers from FeltWest are invited to demonstrate the art of feltmak-ing and sell some of their felted goods at the Fayre. Further infor-mation is available from Carolyn Brede, Event Co ordinator, email [email protected]

Conferences2- 6 January 2008, Sturt Summer School, Range Road, Mittagong, NSW – 30 great art/craft courses, including felt. www.sturt.nsw.edu.au or phone 02 4860 2080

15 -17 February 2008 Welling-

ton Area (NZ) Felting Weekend – residential mini convergence, lectures and time to felt with the Kapiti felting group. Contact Margaret Wickens phone 04 902 3439 or email [email protected] for more details

31 March- 4 April 2008, Fibres Ballarat 2008, - an initiative of Glenys Mann held at Ballarat Grammar School. Includes sever-al workshops of interest to felters, including Judit Pocs’s workshop on Felted Sculptural Hats. For details and illustrations see www.mannmaid.com.au

28- 30 March 2008 World Alpaca Conference, Australian Alpaca Breeders Association, held at Darling Harbour, Sydney. For details see [email protected], www.aaba.com.au or phone 02 42275975

August 2008 Creatov Felt sym-posium in Gotland Sweden. We dont have exact dates, but will have more info in the next news-letter. Current local contact is Linda Riccio please phone 9524 2332

billb

oard Workshops

Fibres West 2008 will be held at the Bun-bury Cathedral Grammar School from 5 – 11 October 2008. Held every 3 years under the auspices of TAFTA, this fully residential pro-gram includes 5 day workshops and lectures from outstanding international and Australian tutors in a variety of fibre/textile disciplines. To obtain a brochure towards the end of 2007 send a stamped addressed business size envelope to Fibres West 2008, PO Box 648 North Perth WA 6906 or email your postal ad-dress to [email protected]

Opportunities2007 Annual Exhibition and Competition of the Bead Guild of WA. The Guild aims to promote all forms of bead work in WA, share

expertise of members and promote new ideas and products. Entry form for the competition is able to be downloaded from their website http://www.beadguildwa.com.au and posted to the Guild c/- 11a Castleton Street Balcatta WA 6021. Note entries close 1 December 2007. Judging takes place 8 December. Ex-hibition is open 8 -29 December 10am-4pm Tuesday to Friday and 1pm-4pm Saturday and Sunday.

18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial, 15 No-vember 2008-11 January 2009. Artist enquir-ies welcome to Curator Valerie Kirk at [email protected]

Exhibitions and Festivals8 -29 December 2007 Annual Exhibition and Competition of the Bead Guild of WA (for

Above & Left: Some

of Judit Poc’s amazing

work

cale

ndar February

Sat 2 Feb Workshop Beginners’ with Judith ShawSat 16Feb Toss n Tell Nancy Ballesteros to demonstrate “How to Lay

Wool – 3 Different Techniques”. Judith Shaw to demonstrate “ Carding Wool”

MarchSat 1 Workshop Machine Embroidery - tutor TBASat 15 Toss n Tell Hand Needle Felt Demonstration

AprilSat 5 Workshop Nuno - tutor TBASat 19 Toss n Tell Judith Shaw to demonstrate “Moulding Felt”Sat 26 & Sun 27 Workshop Judit Pocs : Felt Jewellery MakingTues 29 Apr to Thurs 1 May

Workshop Judit Pocs: Miniature Sculptures in Felt

for full details see this newsletter or www.feltwest.org.au

Heather Davis, President265 Pickering Brook Rd, PICKERING BROOK WA 6076Ph: 9228 4034 email: [email protected]

Lindy Frayne, Secretary16 Long Street, Beaconsfield 6162ph: 9337 4069 email: [email protected]

Sangit Tafelmaier, Treasurer19 Lucius Street, Hamilton Hill WA 6163ph: 9336 5676 email: [email protected]

Virginia Campbell, Editor62 Goldsmith Road, Dalkieth 6009ph: 0416 264 175 email: [email protected]

Soosie Jobson, Publisher2 Fisher Street, White Gum Valley 6162ph: 0433 621154 email: [email protected]

Jennifer Blair, Committee193 Labouchere Road, Como 6152ph: 9474 1741 email: [email protected]

Nancy Ballesteros, Vice President6 Benwee Road, Floreat 6014ph: 9387 3007 fax: 9387 1747email: [email protected]

Jo-Anne Saunt, Minutes Secretary3 Tipperary Mews, Subiaco 6008ph: 9381 8174 email: [email protected]

Jan Stroud, Committee3 Tecoma Street, Duncraig 6023ph: 9447 4833 email: [email protected]

Judith Shaw, Committee30 Pascoe Street, Karrinyup 6018ph: 9447 5659 email: [email protected]

Lyn Lukic, Committee190B Salisbury Street, Bedford WA 6052ph: 9371 1562

Louise Nidorf, Committee32 Melrose Crescent, Menora WA 6050ph: 9271 1235 email: [email protected]

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Documents

Volume 4 2007 Feltmakers of Western Australia · 2013-12-03 · book by Gillian Harris, “Complete Feltmaking: Easy Techniques and 25 Great Projects“, (St Martins Press) for members