During the last quarter of 2023 I finally got around to signing up for a couple of online workshops which I’d fancied doing for a while. The first was Fiona Duthie’s Fibre + Paper. I’d dabbled a little with mark making on mulberry paper and then felting it so I knew how easy it felts, but that’s as far as I’d taken it.

I figured that by committing to Fiona’s workshop it would help focus my mind and make me produce samples…..that worked to a degree but then life got in the way! I still have work to do before I can say I’ve completed all of the exercises from this class but I will finish it in my own time. Fiona is very thorough and there is a lot of great content in the form of written instructions and videos. Although this is not a “live” class there is also plenty of support, both from Fiona and from your fellow students. I found the class very inspiring and now have a far better understanding of how, why and when I will use paper in my work in the future.

These are a selection of fibre + paper samples and my first fibre + paper vessel which I am very happy with.

The vessel (or is it a bowl?) is approx 13 cm tall and was made with mulberry paper and 23 micron Merino. The texture you get from the paper is beautiful and, at only 1cm dia, I was amazed at how small an opening I’d achieved! I still have a selection of Fiona’s papers left to work with so looking forward to making another vessel or two with these.

The other workshop was the Fuchsia Necklace. I’ve always admired the very fine finish that Aniko Boros achieves with her felted jewellery and particularly like the shape of the flower and the use of very tiny pebbles in her Fuschsia Necklace Again, this online workshop wasn’t live but presented as a recorded video of the original live class. I don’t mind this as it means you do not have to keep up with others, you can stop, start and go back over a section if you need to. It also has an accompanying pdf which is very detailed.

Aniko recommends working with 14-16 micron fibre and I was certain my DHG Extra Fine Merino was 14 micron. It turned out to be 19 but, with no one in the UK (as far as I know) stocking the really fine fibre, it was going to have to do! This was another very interesting class and this is my resulting Fuchsia inspired necklace, albeit with non fuchsia colour scheme! This was promptly followed by the yellow and grey necklace which is a design of my own.

With time to spare over New Year I decided to take one final class, this time with Maria Friese. It was seeing Maria’s vessels at the Black Sheep: The Darker Side of Felt exhibition back in 2014 that sparked my curiosity and made me want to learn as much as possible about 3D wet felting. I’ve been a huge fan of her work ever since!

I’d been toying with the idea of making a “Wave” wallhanging for the Waltham exhibition, inspired by Maria’s “Golden Spiral”…….so I went ahead and signed up for the pdf tutorial and this is the result.

My wallhanging Wave is approximately 32cm x 30cm x 1.5cm. It’s created from white and grey as well as several different shades of blue and green Merino and Corriedale fibres and embellished with beads.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing these workshops but I must make time now to finish Fiona’s Fibre + Paper samples before starting anything else!