Catherine O’Leary Jacket Workshop Report

Catherine O’Leary Sculptural Felted Jacket Workshop Nov 2018

 

Catherine O’Leary is a textile artist from Melbourne. She has been working with felt since 1990’s. On the first evening Catherine presented a slide show to FeltWEST of her past and present textile work. She works mainly in 3-D, often covering entire surfaces (like desks and telephones) with felt or felting Barbie doll figures into interlaced cube shapes.  She also works extensively with stitching clothing from the Korean Bojagi technique in Silk Organza. The transparent fabric is highlighted with incredible seams. The Bojagi is a traditional Korean wrapping cloth. Catherine also has

been a finalist in the New Zealand Wearable Art Awards three times.

Our Sculptural Felted Jacket workshop was mainly a project about learning how to use needle-felted prefelts, making a length of fabric, then cutting and sewing a jacket.  To embellish our prefelts, we not only brought pieces of fabrics from our ‘stash’ but spent the morning creating

individual designs on fine silk fabric through the application

of drawing, stencilling, mono printing and block printing. These fabrics where useful while creating our designs on top of the needle felted prefelts.

When our design work was finished, we

wet it down, covered it in plastic and rolled it in bubble wrap. Now began the arduous task of rolling! It took virtually one whole day to roll the pieces. The prefelt behaves very differently to laid-out wool. It is much more spongy and stretchy.  It also takes a long time to grab the fabrics.  However, on the upside you don’t have to spend anytime laying-out wool. Once your piece was finished with the rolling stage it was put out to dry.  You could then begin cutting out your jacket pattern pieces.  Much fun had in designing what pattern piece would go where. Nothing was wasted. Even little scraps became pockets, trim, or collars. A few ladies nearly finished completely but many had more cutting, fitting and stitching to go. Most were well on their way

to being able to take home a gorgeous new Sculptural Felted Jacket thanks to Catherine!

by Nancy Ballesteros

FIGS Exhibition15-20 Sept 2018

“THE FEELING OF FELT” EXHIBITION

Venue 52 of the SOUTHERN ART AND CRAFT TRAIL

15-30 September 2018 10am – 4 pm daily

Opening function morning tea Sunday 16th September from 10.30

At: Eclipse Building, Museum of the Great Southern, Residency Road, Albany

Travel south down York Street towards the harbour; turn right at the last roundabout onto Stirling Terrace. Turn left into Residency Road; the venue is on the right immediately after the railway line

Journey along our welcome wall of creative felted discs. These wonderful works are for sale with part of the proceeds being donated to an Albany charity. Be led upstairs to an exhibition showcasing contemporary felt with sculptural, functional and fashion works by felt makers in the Great Southern.       Contact 0419047291

MINI WORKSHOP TOSS ‘N TELL, 21 ARPIL 2018

NINE WAYS TO LAY-OUT WOOL

MINI WORKSHOP/DEMO by Nancy Ballesteros

FeltWest Toss ‘n Tell day,  21 April, 10:00 -11:30 (and stay after lunch to continue felting)

Come along to FeltWest. for a mini workshop/demo by Nancy Ballesteros.  She will show you the hows and whys for nine different wool lay-outs. Bring along your felting equipment and enough wool to have a go at whatever sampling you are up for. Different lay-outs are used in felting to create various effects, learn more about these techniques to be a better and more creative felter

Funky Bag Workshop by Sue Eslick

Funky Bag Great Southern Workshop by Sue Eslick.  Feltwest member Sue Eslick will be teaching a Funky Bag workshop in the Great Southern near Denmark 30 June, 1 July. Contact Maureen Nichols at ian.nichols@bigpond.com for more information

Hats by Sue Eslick

Learn Felt Hat Making in Dongara, WA with Sue Eslick, April 2017

Midwest Autumn Craft Roundup with be having Sue Eslick teach felt Hatmaking in April. Check out the program for a weekend of craft activites @midwestautumncraftroundup
www.midwestautumncraftroundup.com

 

Wearable Art Felting Workshop by Sue Swain

Tues, 25th April, 2017 Wearable Art Felting Workshop by Sue Swain

Come and create a wearable art wrap garment at a felting workshop with Susan Swain, Felt Artist.  Susan has been felting for nearly 20 years.  Susan has exhibited and sold her felt in Australia, UK and the USA, as well as running workshops in those countries.  Her love of felt is creating wearable art.  Susan trained as an architect, as well as earning a degree in Fine Arts 3-Dimensional Design.  She has a real sense of design for garments to wrap around the body, using simple patterns.  This class is suitable for both beginners and skilled felters.  Be prepared to work hard to complete the garment on the day.  The results are often simply amazing, and you’ll love to wear your new garment.

 

Contact:  susan.swain@adswa.com   tel. 0439 641 227 – this is not a FeltWest event you must contact Sue to sign-up

Where:  Craft House, Clyde Road, junction with Elstree Road, Menora, WA (off Alexander Drive)

DateANZAC Day, Tuesday, 25th April, 2017

Time:  doors open at 9am, for set-up, class starts 9:30am sharp -3:00pm.  Cleanup starts at 3pm.

Cost:  Workshop Fees: $50, payable in advance to secure your place, plus approximately $40 of felting materials:   1) 200 gms of fine merino wool and

2) 2m of 5 momme Paj silk dyed to match the wool colours, available from Treetop Harmonies, 3 Benwee Road, Floreat between 9am to 3pm Mon– Th.  Tel. 9387-3007 to book let Nancy know you are coming.

Other Materials:  Some materials will need to be brought on the day.  A list will be provided once your payment has been received.

There are only 12 places available.  Refreshments:  tea and coffee will be provided.  Please bring your own lunch.

Christmas Lunch & Nov Toss ‘n Tell 2016

Christmas Lunch & November Toss ‘n Tell 2016.

It was hard to believe it was already Christmas time again! A lovely group gathered for our annual lunch feast. Luckily this year the sea breeze gently kept the flies away and it wasn’t too hot.  We were incredibly fortunate Soosie volunteered to supply the Christmas Tree, having just made one for an on-line tutorial she is teaching.

img_1780. felt tree by Soosie Jobson   img_1777img_1786

We had and incredible feast, since we are all such good cooks!

Our new president Virginia Campbell introduced our new program for 2017. Lots of workshops and demonstrations are being planned as well as our annual retreat, two international tutors, and a group project to be announced early next year.  Keep your eyes on the home page of the websiteand our eNews bulletins. img_1779

We had our annual gift exchange and raffle which Sue Eslick won.img_1822

At our Toss ‘n Tell, Sue Harrington showed some very intersting sample pieces she made in Alison Gomes workshop, What lies Benneath, learning how to add resists to your work to add surface design.img_1758. sue harringtion img_1756-resize. detail sue harrington

Alison Gomes show an incredibly luscious new wall hanging she has been working on, with some wonderful hand stitching for embellishment.img_1770-resize. alison gomes img_1775-resize.close up alison gomes

Katrina Virgona showed off her talent for creating evocative jewelry using a limited palette of red and black, and a splash of yellow.

img_1800.katrina virgona

Sue Eslick had been busy re-purposing and old tea cozy into a gorgeous Meditation Bead necklace. She also found a leather worker to add leather strap onto oimg_1805-resizene of her fabulous bags.img_1762.sue eslick

 

Marie Marshall had been busy making scarves for family and overseas friends for Christmas. She did a wonderful job of folding her scarves in so there were no raw edges.

img_1810                       img_1806.marie marshall               img_1807.detail marie marshall

Marie Jacquier made a large wrap adding on a special piece of fabric to each end to add the ‘wow’ factor.

img_1819.marie jacquier