12th September
Felt bowl making workshop led by Nancy Shafee
With precious little knowledge of felt making- the only previous felt I had made was in a CTA workshop with Yvonne and Buffy where I was delighted to produce a 10x12cm piece of felt – I was a little uncertain as to how we were going to not only make the felt, but also a bowl, and perhaps even a rose!!
Nancy provided wools in all hues, tints and tones together with resists and other items to assist with our felt making. We were all laden with equipment- spray bottles, hand soap, bubble wrap, aprons, biros scissors and 2 paper templates, a 7.5” circle and a 9” circle.
Nancy explained to us all the process we would undertake, then Sewing Bee style we all dived onto the mass of wools she had provided to choose our colours. We could make a design for the bottom and top of our bowls but were told that we were unlikely to remember which was which!! How true that was!! We placed our resist onto bubble wrap, layered out wool, cartwheel, then sunburst style, both sides of the resist, liberally spraying with warm soapy water and placing another piece of bubble wrap on top & rubbing, turning and folding in each layer as we went. Then rubbing and turning and flipping, and turning and rubbing…….. Eventually after what seemed like a lot of rubbing we progressed to wrapping into a sausage and rolling- repeatedly!!The more we wrapped, rolled and folded the smaller and more felted our circles became until we came to the point of the workshop- making into a bowl. A hole was cut in the circle and the resist was removed. More rubbing, rolling & soaping until the bowls began to emerge from out wet,soapy wool, and the results were amazing!
Nancy then demonstrated how to make a rose- took less time and was very effective. Some speed merchants managed to make one in the session, for the rest of us it was ‘homework’!!
A great workshop, which was greatly enjoyed by all! Thank you Nancy. We hope for more in the future.
