Mad Hatters at Mandy Nash Workshop

Saturday saw the launch of our programme of workshops with Mandy Nash's 'Make a Felt Hat'  - and I think it is fair to say it went down a storm!

Raring to go...

Here we are at the start, all eyes on Mandy as she gives her first demonstration.

 It was hard to imagine at this stage how this was going to end up as a hat.

Mandy laying out a first layer of fibres

But under Mandy's calming and expert tuition we were all able to make our own hat creations, even those of us who have never done never done any wet felting before - all credit to Mandy's  excellent teaching skills - and of course the fact that we will generally try anything once!

Karen's cheeky number

Brenda having a well deserved cuppa

Here are a few of our creations - I'm afraid I was too engrossed with all that wool to remember to take pictures of everyone's hats - if you want me to add any, don't be shy :-)













The actual felting is quite exerting, so we were glad of having tea & cake on tap to keep our strength up.

Angie's elegant number

 

We all had a great time and it's given us the skills and confidence to take on other felting projects which we may otherwise have been a bit apprehensive about 

Thanks to Mandy for such an inspiring day!

Marilyn's Marvel

Paula's fine accomplishment

My 'Middle Earth' number, as Mr J describes it!

Mandy is currently exhibiting work using various media undertaken with her lazer cutter at LLantarnam Grange - hurry though as this will finish on 9 March. She will also be running a workshop there entitled ‘Fun With Felt’ on International Women’s Day, Friday 8th March, 10 -4pm. Cost £30.00 includes all materials, and booking is essential via Llantarnam Grange. And of course, look out for Mandy on the International Feltmakers Stall at Wonderwool in April - don't forget to wear your hats!

To learn more about Mandy and her work with felt and jewellery visit her website. She will also be returning to provide another Stitches Coven workshop on 21 September. this time to make frilled and layered felted scarves -  so keep you eyes posted for further details of this soon.

Felt Hat Workshop - 1 Place Now Available

Due to a cancellation we now have 1 place available for our Make a Felt Hat with Mandy Nash. See our Workshops page for further details.

March & April Workshops now available to book

In March we have the delightful Alison Moger to tutor us with Stitching Memories of the Past, 

while in April we have  Skewers, Spills, Matches & More with the lovely Enid Davies - see our workshops page for more information.

 

Alison Moger

Enid davies

Stitches Coven meet-up cancelled tonight

The usual Thursday meet-up is cancelled tonight due to the wintry weather we have been experiencing. Whilst many areas are now clearing up, other areas still have snow and widespread ice is likely after dark, so best to stay indoors tonight!

See you next week :)

Introducing......Gala Blazejewska

Check out this wonderfully quirky purse I stumbled on by Polish designer-maker Gala Blazejewska who sells her work on Etsy shop, galafilc

Image taken from Gala's Etsy shop

She also writes a lovely blog which, fortunately for us, google can translate to english with the click of your mouse - though some of it is written in both english and polish anyway.You can see more of Gala's gorgeous teapot bags and purses here. At the moment she's blogging about her latest octopus purse design

Image taken from Gala's blog

I'm starting to develop a bit of a 'bag habit' of late - and these are just the sort of thing I like - ***hint to Mr Jones***!! :)

Short Course at Gower College, Gorseinon

Gower College Swansea are hoping to provide a new textile short course at their Canolfan Gorseinon Centre This 8 week short course about decorating fabric may start soon (subject to sufficient interest) which will cover topics such as silk painting, batik, printing & screen printing techniques. It is intended  to run as a 2 hour session per week(6-8pm on Tuesday evenings), and is a bargain at just £50 for the 8 sessions.

If you are new to textiles, or would like to expand on your repertoire of surface decoration skills then this course will be of great value to you. It will only run if there are sufficient numbers (i.e.12), so if this is of interest to you please get in touch as soon as possible by telephoning: Maggie Carr or Rachel Hall on 01792 894363.

Collagraph Adventures....

It was great to catch up with everyone who attended on Thursday - there is some lovely work being produced by members - reckon I'll take my camera next time to try to coax some of them to post their work on here occasionally.....!

If any of you were wondering if I ever finished those mount board collograph plates I was busily hacking away at in the group sessions before xmas, then the answer is yes! These were then varnished and I even had a try out with them and here are some of the results.

the varnished plates

plate 2 - white on black paper

Plate 1 - on paper

Plate 2 - earthy tones on paper

Plate 2 - on fabric

Plate 2 was made from the 'leftovers' of plate 1, but I think I prefer it to the original design! I had a go at printing onto a piece of fabric too, which I can embellish with some stitch when I get a mo! This is a new technique for me, and although there's clearly room for improvement, I'm quite pleased with my first efforts. I like this form of printing as you can be as simple or detailed as you want to, and it's made from very basic, everyday materials so no specialist equipment required. It's quite time consuming and fiddly to make the plate, but once you've done so you can keep it well varnished for multiple prints. You can also add to it/cut into again to modify the design. This is definitely a technique I will use again and want to explore further.