I’m writing this sitting in my B&B in Stoney Stanton having just eaten a delicious meal in Nemos Bar.  I travelled down here last night ahead of a two day workshop with Mandy Nash to make experimental sculptural forms.  The workshop is being held in Arnesby, a small village just south of Leicester.

Examples of Mandy’s sculptural work

This morning Mandy began by showing us some of her wonderful wet felted objects, including hats, bags and funky fish, and explaining how the various 3 dimensional shapes were achieved.  Several of the bags and vessels had been created using “book resists” and this was the method we were going to be working with.  In addition Mandy talked us through the various surface design techniques she uses and demonstrated how we could achieve these effects using Bergschaf wool batts.  Most of the ladies chose to make a fish and the following photos show their work in progress.

Georgina and I chose to make a vessel and treat it as a sampler, using the various surface treatments on each of the sides.

Georgina applying resists for surface decoration

This is my three sided vessel taking shape…..

It was full day and a lot of fun but none of us have finished our pieces yet so I will post an update on how things turned out tomorrow.