As I write this I am surrounded by boxes and bags of felted work that’s been collected from, or dropped off by, one of the eighteen members of IFA Region 8 who will be taking part in the Felt Connected: Bringing People & Fibre Together Exhibition this month. This will be our first ever Regional exhibition and we couldn’t be more excited!

The suggestion for the event came from Lincoln based Feltmaker Jo Cook who also went on to produce and distribute our exhibition posters. Jo wanted each member to have a piece of work on a poster so made several different versions which have been circulating for the past couple of months. This seemed a far better idea than trying to cram 18 tiny images on to one A4/A5 poster!

Although I’m used to planning my own exhibition area at shows, organising a show for eighteen participants has taken a lot more head space and it’s been a learning curve! Jo and I will be very relieved once it’s all set up (this Thursday and Friday) and we open to the public this Saturday morning. Several of us will be attending the Meet the Artist session in the Gallery from 1pm – 3pm and, if our Play Days are anything to go by, the room will be buzzing!

The aim of this event was initially born from the question of how can we better “connect” our members? And if that was our only aim we can say at this stage that it’s been fulfilled and then some! We’ve held monthly Zoom meetings to discuss all aspects of exhibiting with tips on finishing our work, framing, hanging, etc, we also launched a WhatApp Exhibition group for discussions in between the Zooms and we’ve held satellite Play Days to get to meet in the flesh, allowing those that live the furthest from the Gallery to drop off their work for me to collect. These are a few images of members meeting for the first time and enjoying our Ilkeston Play Day.

But there’s more to it than that. We also want to show the general public the enormous diversity of what can be done using fibre. We will be displaying 2d, and 3d, wet felting and needle felting, garments, bags, wraps, hats, vessels, bowls, animals, lighting, wall art, and a storytelling diorama. There will be Nuno felt, cobweb felt, differential shrinkage, directional shrinkage, encapsulation, etc. We will also be featuring what we’re calling our “Education Station” – a touchy-feely area full of samples donated by our exhibitors, complete with explanations as to what they are. These will be displayed alongside a range of laminated “So What Is” info cards explaining a variety of terms such as …..So What Is Nuno Felt? So What Is Differential Shrinkage? So What Is Encapsulation? Etc, etc.

And last, but not least, we aim to promote the International Feltmakers Association both verbally and with the use of promotional material i.e. printed leaflets, our banner, QR Codes and copies of our quarterly magazine Feltmatters. We’ve heard that a delegation of students from the local Art College are planning a visit so we’re keeping fingers crossed that we might get a few younger creatives enrolled in our Region!

We are hoping to have at least one Artist in the Gallery each day of the exhibition so if you are in Lincoln between 14th – 29th March be sure to call in to the upstairs Gallery in Harding House on Steep Hill, say hello and see what we’ve been up to. HH is situated in the beautiful Cathedral Quarter of Lincoln with cobbled streets, quaint buildings, interesting independent shops, friendly pubs, cafes, restaurants, more Galleries, and our wonderful Cathedral and Castle. It all adds up to a perfect day out!