Workshops

The Final Show and Tell…..

/ Karen Lane / 10 Comments

My first stint at tutoring a residential weekend came to a close this afternoon with the final show and tell at Cober Hill.  It’s been a terrific three days spent with the 18 creative ladies from the East Yorkshire Embroidery group.  They don’t shy away from putting in the hours and the effort to learn a new skill but at the same time they certainly know how to enjoy themselves!  We’ve had lots of chat, lots of laughs and the ladies have produced lots of wonderful work.  It’s worth remembering that for many this was their first attempt at feltmaking……..

A huge thank you to Maggie and Carol for giving me this opportunity and I hope to work with you all again sometime in the future.

E.Y.E.s Residential Weekend…..

/ Karen Lane / 11 Comments

This weekend I am up in North East Yorkshire teaching wet  felting at the E.Y.E.s (East Yorkshire Embroiderers) annual Residential Weekend Retreat.  It’s being held at a wonderful venue called Cober Hill, overlooking the North Bay Area of Scarborough.

Out of the 18 ladies attending sixteen are creating wet felted pictures while the other two are here doing their own thing.  We met up on Friday afternoon and after a brief introduction got straight on with planning our designs and laying out our fibres.

After a three course dinner the ladies were straight back in the studio and hard at work rolling, throwing and generally fulling their work.

I’d been warned that some of the group would be working all hours and I found myself staying in the studio until 11pm with Ruth who was the last woman standing!

This morning I heard one lady was in the room and working at 6am……I certainly wasn’t!!!  Most of us resumed work straight after breakfast adding needle felted elements and beginning to free motion or hand stitch into the felt.

There is some fabulous work being created and I reckon we are going to have a really impressive “show and tell” tomorrow lunch time!  Watch this space…….

Nuno Felting Day Two…..

/ Karen Lane / 5 Comments

Nuno Felting day two at East Keswick and the ladies used view finders to identify areas for adding stitched detail to their Felted work…..

There were some wonderful designs taking shape as areas were enhanced with stitch…..


Thanks to Nicola for hosting the workshop and to all the ladies who took part and created such wonderful work.  I shall look forward to seeing some of you again on my return visit in September.

Nuno Felting Workshop…..

/ Karen Lane / 8 Comments

Weve just finished day one of a two-day Nuno Felting Workshop at Simply Stitch, East Keswick and what a productive day we’ve had!  10 ladies are taking part and today they experimented with different lightweight fabrics, combining them with Merino fibres to produce beautiful new Nuno fabrics.

And a few close-ups showing the wonderful textures achieved….

Tomorrow we will be using apertures to identify areas to be embellished using hand and/or machine stitching.

Merino and Silk Collars…..

/ Karen Lane / 7 Comments

Today’s students were Jenny, Felicia and Anne, three friends from the Derby area who travelled up for the day to make Merino and Silk Collars.

As you can see from the photos of their finished work the ladies did a wonderful job and achieved some fabulous textures.  They even got done in time for a quick Tyvek demonstration and each made a Tyvek brooch.

Felicia’s finished collar

Jenny’s finished collar

Anne’s finished collar

Jenny, Anne and Felicia…..all hoping the damp, cold weather continues a while longer!

It was a pleasure working with you ladies.  I hope you all enjoy wearing your new creations and go on to make lots more!

Photos From Day Two…..

/ Karen Lane / 9 Comments

As promised photos from day two of the Yellow Poppies workshop in Hemmingby…..

Lou was the first to finish. Having worked so fast she even managed a second piece of work!

Lou’s Felted wallhanging with yellow 3D flowers

Janny’s Felted wallhanging with 3D red poppies

Zoe’s red poppy wallhanging

Wet Felted wallhanging with floral design

Trish’s sunflower wallhanging

Maggies  floral wallhanging

June’s red poppies and dragonfly

Elaine’s Landscape with swan and dragonfly

Ellie and Brenda still have work in progress so I will add photos of their finished work as and when I get them.

Ellie’s Yellow Poppies work in progress

Many thanks to Ellie for inviting me over to Hemmingby and to all the ladies who took part.  It’s probably too late to tell you now the workshops over but, as you may have already realised, felting is very addictive and can seriously improve your health….you’ve been warned!

Yellow Poppies Workshop…..

/ Karen Lane / 10 Comments

Today was day one of the Yellow Poppies Workshop at Hemmingby Village Hall attended by nine enthusiastic ladies all keen to learn a new skill.

The morning was spent Wet Felting the backgrounds using three shades of Bergschaf wool. Once this was done the work was spun and put aside to dry while we had lunch.

This afternoon Lou and Jani chose to make additional pieces of felt to cut up to use as 3D flowers while the others got straight on with Needle Felting their flowers directly onto the background.

Tomorrow the ladies will continue embellishing their work with Needle Felting, couching, hand stitch and free machine embroidery.

 

Forest Floor Workshop…..

/ Karen Lane / 14 Comments

Last Saturday I travelled back up to one of my favourite workshop venues, the Simply Stitch studio in East Keswick.  It was for the first of a new class I’ve put together which I’m calling my Forest Floor Workshop.

12 ladies took part in the two day workshop exploring the use of heat manipulative materials including Tyvek fabric, Tyvek paper, Lutradur and polyester fabrics which we painted, stitched, cut and distressed using heat tools and soldering irons.  For the majority it would be the first time they have worked with any of these materials and tools.

Our theme for the weekend was the forest floor and it was great to see that some of the ladies, like Juliet and Julie, had been out foraging for inspiration!

The samples that were created included a variety of leaves, bark, twigs, lichen, etc…..anything you might see on a walk through the woods, and a few things you might never see too!!

Carolyn arrived with her hand heavily bandaged and the intention of just watching the others.  That idea lasted all of a few minutes and she turned out to be one of the most prolific sample makers of the group!

Janet and Jackie were looking very proud of their hessian and Lutradur “twigs” and rightly so!!

The ladies threw themselves whole heartedly into experimenting with the various materials and created some wonderful pieces of work with fabulous textures.

Once again a big thank you to Nicola for being such a great host and to all of the ladies who took part.   I’m looking forward to seeing some of you again when I return to East Keswick in June.

 

Tyvek Leaf…..

/ Karen Lane / 9 Comments

Today’s workshop was for four lovely ladies from the Nottingham area.  Freda and her friends had seen my Tyvek Leaf on Pinterest and got in touch to say they fancied having a go at making one for themselves.

Trisha and Carol

Freda and Pat

Non of them had used Tyvek previously so we looked at the various colouring mediums that can be applied, discussed the difference between the paper and fabric versions and saw how each reacted to heat.

With lots of chatting and laughter (hearing us from the hallway my other half swears I put something illegal in the homemade soup!) the day was gone before we knew it!

Work in progress

Each of the ladies produced some wonderful work which they will mount on their chosen papers and put in a box frame once they get home.

Thanks to all for being such eager students….I’m already looking forward to hosting you again on your return visit for Feltmaking!

Wall Hangings and Vessels…..

/ Karen Lane / 15 Comments

A quick catch up on the past week’s workshops which included wall hangings and vessels…..

 

Wednesday saw me driving back down to Podehole for the second session of my Wet Felted Wall Hanging workshop with the Spalding Embroiderers.  Last month the ladies created their wet felted backgrounds and added some needle felted flowers.  This week they concentrated on embellishing their work with hand stitching…..unfortunately they are not permitted to use their sewing machines in this particular hall which is something I’ve never come across before!

One or two  of the ladies had done some homework since we last met and added free machine stitching.  This is just a small sample of the wonderful work being produced…..

Once again it was a pleasure to work with such an enthusiastic bunch of ladies and as you can see from the photos the standard of work is terrific!  I’m already looking forward to my return visit in September when we will be experimenting with Lutradur and Tyvek to produce a forest floor themed 3D picture.

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In the studio this week I had a visit from Annie and Marisa.   Neither of these ladies had ever felted around a resist before but both were keen to have a go.   They certainly rose to the challenge and produced two wonderful wet felted Merino bowls with multicoloured necks and embellished surfaces……

On Saturday I was given even more of a challenge when Sue, with daughters Adele and Sharon, visited the studio.  They had said they wanted to make 3D vessels but made it very clear from the outset that they weren’t prepared to settle for something straight forward or easy.  They were only interested in making complex 3D shapes, the sort that require a book resist or differential shrinkage.  When you consider that none of these ladies had ever done Wet Felting, either 2D or 3D, prior to this visit what they achieved in 6 hours was pretty amazing!