Southern Hemisphere Feltmakers Convergence 2015 Report

The 2015 Southern Hemisphere Convergence was wonderful.
Fiona Duthie, from Canada, was a very generous tutor who
offered well-structured workshops with themes.  Each morning
136 of us gathered in the neighboring Parnell School hall
for one of Fiona's workshops.  The first was about
’Tactile metaphors’ (inserting our own narratives into
our work) and this was followed by ‘Sculptural vessels’,
‘Nuno Inclusions’, ‘Design is fun, not scary’,
‘Composition in feltmaking’ and finally ‘Felting over
the edge’.  Fiona was very generous in her approach and
each morning was packed full of new ideas for us.  The rest
of the day was full of lectures by other Convergence
attendees offering their specialties.  I came away with so
many new ideas to explore it is going to keep me inspired
for years.

For the final dinner we all bought along the ‘sculptural
vessel’ we had made in Fiona’s workshop.  These were
designed as light sculptures and we lit them with small LED
torches.  The tables looked spectacular and it was a tribute
to Fiona’s energy throughout the week.

Lynette Hartley