UPDATED January 2020,Dagmar Binder, NZ 2020 workshops

4 PLACES ARE STILL AVAILABLE IN THE VEST WORKSHOP IN ELTHAM, TARANAKI

Renown German Felt Maker Dagmar Binder will be visiting New Zealand in Autumn 2020, with a number of workshops in both North and South Islands.
The workshops will take place in the following places, please contact the workshop facilitator listed with the area:

Beginning in Eltham Taranaki with a live-in fully catered 3 day workshop, 
Saturday 28th - Monday 30th March. We will make 3D  surfaces Waistcoats  contact Bernice Mitchell, heartfeltbernice@gmail.com 

Auckland 3 - 5 April, contact Gemma Torr gemtt@yahoo.co.nz




Blenheim, Mon 13th - 15th (?) April, 
Cherrie Mitchell, themitchellmob2@gmail.com










Ashburton, Fri 17th - Sun 19th April, Shona Schofield, shona@feltandfibre.co.nz



sorry for some reason I can't upload provided photos, but you can see more of Dagmar's intriguing work here :    Dagmar's website

Maximum student numbers 12 per workshop so do make contact with the workshop facilitator as soon as you can to let them know you're interested in attending.

x

HeARTfelt Bernice, Seamless Art Vest Workshop, March 2017

Embellished Nuno Felt Art Vest/ Waistcoat workshop with Bernice Mitchell

4pm Fri 10th March - 3pm Mon 13th March 2017

Learn shaping, layering, texturing and fabric manipulation creating your own seamless, embellished, lightweight vest, using silk tissue and merino as a background.

You will begin with learning various surface embellishment techniques and sampling your fabrics to decide on how you will decorate your chosen garment. 
You will learn tips for shaping and designing your garment, which will be individually suited and fitted to your body shape using a superfine layout.

Cost $295, fully catered (not special diets) and includes accommodation at Eltham Presbyterian Camp, Bridger Place, Eltham, Taranaki.

Minimum 8 students required, max 12. 

Confirmation with $100 deposit needed by 6th January 2017 to enable camp booking, 
Contact Bernice through nzfelters@gmail.com. check out my Facebook page here HeARTfelt Bernice Mitchell

Ladies at Tauranga workshop

Reversible using a Sari as foundation layer

Highly Embellished Surface Design Workshop, August 2016

Bernice Mitchell (aka HeARTfelt Bernice) will be giving a workshop in Napier on August 12th and !3th 2016. We will explore intriguing and delightful surface designs and textures as seen in the photo below, to create a sampler scarf.  The workshop will be held in Taradale at the Waiohiki Arts Village.
If you live from the Naki through to Napier and wish to attend this workshop I could give you a lift (Bernice).

There are only a few spaces left, so please contact Elaine Macgregor for more information at mac.rea@vodafone.co.nz 

Dagmar Binder Advanced Feltmaking workshop. From Flat to Form

There is one place left in this workshop in Stratford from 22nd to 24th April.
Please email the editor for more information and photos of what to expect, I can't put a PDF on here, sorry.

Workshop for experienced felters (3 days)
From a flat surface to 3d forms experimenting with 3d felted objects
In this workshop we want to explore various possibilities of how to build up reliefs or 3-dimensional felted objects. We will start with a number of basic form elements that can be combined, lined up or interlaced with each other and unfolded after the felting process.
You will have the chance to play and experiment with different versions, but there's always some indispensable technical aspects to consider, f.ex.:
Which combination of materials will suit a certain project? What to pay attention to when laying out wool fibers and the resists? How do changes in line up or interlacing of all single basic forms influence the final felt object? Which effects can be achieved with different colour settings? How to calculate (or at least estimate) shrinkage? How can a felted object be stiffened?
This workshop will offer a variety of suggestions and perspectives, that you can apply to future works in manyfold ways

Painting with Fibres or Wool.

We have received a request for information on "painting with fibres". If you know about this technique or know where to find out about it, please e-mail us, so we can forward it to this talented needle felter. 

Hi there,

My name is Sabine Laakmann and I live in Hawkes Bay.
I have been doing needle felting for more than 10 years.

Most of my creations I am selling to the Rudolf Steiner community here
in Hawkes Bay. I also give classes for children and adults here at my home.

I am writing to you today as I am wondering if anybody of your group has
heard
about "Painting with Fibres"? I have seen some beautiful pictures on the
internet,
they are all made out of wool, differrent from the needle felting technique.

Please,if anybody knows more about this technique could you please let me
know
as I would so much like to learn this art.


Warm Regards, Sabine.

As we all know as felters, we have all had the benefit of generous information sharing from others in the world wide felting community, and this is how we build on our existing knowledge and skills, and in the process develop new techniques.
If you can help Sabine, and anyone else for that matter, please drop us a line!
 Ellen.

Felting the ancient mongolian way.

Last week I was demonstrating felting at my local primary school, and to make the lesson more interesting I decided to use the classrooms' interactive whiteboard. I found a great little you-tube clip on felting the mongolian way, which was only three minutes or so long, just enough to hold the childrens' attention.
I thought it would be interesting for them to see people from other places, and to briefly talk about the history of felting. This way I managed to put social geography, history, science and art into the same lesson. Their teacher was very happy!
 So you can see what I'm talking about, here it is!

I love the singing! 
And the women chatting together. That looks familiar...

Four Felt stories from Otaki Retreat 2013.

Here follow 4 little felting stories of some of our fellow NZ felters, as promised.

Some of the projects were big and some were little, but they were all done with enthusiasm and in the spirit of experimentation.

The Felt Story of Rita's tank-engines.

Rita set about making a large rug for her grandson, and it had to have Thomas the tank-engine and friends on it. 

As you can see she started off with cutting prefelts.

Their faces were crucial, they had to be just right. Some silky balloons added to the train party. Then followed several hours of a softly, softly felting method, so that nothing would be out of place. Just when she started to lose all patience, it came together.

Rita (left) and Ellen at the show-and-tell.

Rita finished the rug the same day, and very proudly showed it off to all, and rightly so.

It should be a hard-wearing play-rug, and warm and soft to boot.

The Felt Story of Kay's Hedgehog.

Kay was inspired by a book she recently read, and created a gorgeous little hedgehog.
She used needle felting as a technique.

This is how she started it, an egg shape with a point for the snout.

Add some paws, ears, a button nose,

and of course all its' prickles. In this case they were made from gotland wool curls, and instead of looking sharp and dangerous, we all just want to cuddle it!

The Felt Story of the Whole Gotland Fleeces.

Cheerful Yvonne Monk, who is a prize-winning fleece breeder, and also one of our traders, brought in a number of whole gotland pelt fleeces. Because of their length and climatic conditions, these had started to felt slightly while still on the animals. She had them carefully rolled up, so that they could be spread out in 1 go.

So several people had a go at felting a whole fleece, and trying to keep the curly locks seperated. A layer of wool was laid on the back of the fleece.

This picture above shows just the dry fleece , you can see it is holding together by itself.

You can imagine the hard physical work that followed, it had to be done outside, because of the amount of water involved. 

And although different people had slightly different end-results , the pelts all came out gorgeous and soft, retaining the animals' character.

The Felt Story of Ellen's Egg/Tealight.

Two thin layers of felt with threads and fibres trapped between them, were wrapped around a plastic easter egg. Ellen wanted to play with the light filtering qualities of felt.

After the felt was strong enough to stand up by itself, she cut the egg open and removed the plastic shape.

A glass tealight was placed inside, and the base was felted some more, to make a snug fit.

The candle was lit, and you can see how soft the light shines through the felt. A few crystal drops were added later hanging from each point.


But, you may ask, what about the story of Maureens' rug, and the show-and-tell, and,and...

To be continued.....

I Was A Felt Ball Tragic

All the way from Adelaide (via a Kiwi!!!!) we have a technique I am very curious to try out. I can't believe its this simple. Thank you very much to Maude Bath and brilliant photography by Malcolm Downes

I Was A Felt Ball Tragic

I was always known as the ball tragic in my felting group. Everyone else could effortlessly turn out beautiful hand-made, smooth felt balls.

Not me.

For me they were lumpy misshapen things resembling a sheep’s brains as much as anything. Definitely not something to be proud of, or to use in felt jewellery. I was the butt of many jokes. I had to plead with other members to make balls for me.

Last October all that changed for me.

I attended the 11^th Southern Hemisphere Convergence in Bunbury.

As we have for several previous Convergences, the SA Felters did a workshop called 'Felt Jewellery for Beginners'. As usual, I was relegated to teaching rat tails, coils and licorice all sorts.

I was busy explaining to the group why I was demonstrating these aspects, and that I was a ball tragic, when a voice from the end of the table piped up,

'Why don't you make them in a jar?'

'In a jar??', I asked.

'Yes,' she answered, 'we all make them in a jar in N.Z. It's really easy. You can't go wrong.'

I looked at her in disbelief.

So, the student became the teacher. This angel got up, found a Tupperware container, some fluff and a bit of yarn for fun, and proceeded to turn out ball after ball.

Look Maude, no hands!

I imagined this must have been a very closely kept secret in New Zealand until my innocent saviour let the cat out of the bag. A bit like the Chinese with silk, eventually the truth leaks out. So, now I'm going to tell the world – sorry NZ.

So how do you do it?

Necessary Equipment

Find a squarish plastic container with an airtight lid. A Kinder Surprise plastic capsule or a small glass jar are also perfect. The smaller the container the smaller the ball.

Pull enough fleece in whatever colours you want. Trial and error will teach you exactly how much is right for each container; you need to about half fill it.

If you want to jazz up your ball, add a little bit of yarn to the pile at this stage; or glitz (one of my favourites), or anything else that takes your fancy.

Adding a bit of Jazz

Poke the fleece into the container. You don't have to form it into a ball, just stuff it in.

Serious Poking

Half fill the container with water. Add a minuscule amount of soap if you want; it works without any, but I think it takes a smidgen longer

Smidgen of water

Put the lid on tightly and then shake.

Shake the container in all directions as fast as you can. Make like the Zumba!

Doing the Zumba

In no time at all a ball will form in the container.

Open the container, drain the water out.
Roll your ball in your hand a bit. If it isn't as hard as you want, put it back in the container, add some more water and shake again.

Repeat the shaking and rolling until your ball is perfect (hard and round).

Completed Balls

That's it!

You can then use the balls to make great jewellery, to decorate Xmas trees, or use as buttons or whatever. The main thing is you won't be a ball tragic!

PS you can make cubes too! Just over-stuff your squarish container and you get this....

          Cheers Maude

Photography by Malcolm Downes