Creating a new wet felting workshop

I’ve recently created and run a new wet felting vase workshop to fundraise for my local community arts centre (the Horsebridge Arts Centre in Whitstable). I’m going to describe here how I planned it and show you the results. 

Previously, I’ve taught wet-felt picture-making (flat felt) and bowl-making (3D felt) but these have been full-day classes (six hours with a lunch break).  To keep the fees down, I decided the new one would be three and a half hours, so I needed to think about what we would make and how to manage the time. 

I decided on a fairly simple wet-felted sleeve, using a rectangular resist, shaped to fit a tall, straight highball glass, on the grounds that a vase would be both useful and attractive. 

I knew there was a degree of risk around the timing. If you’re making a picture or bowl and don’t have quite enough time, at the end of the workshop you will actually have a picture or bowl, it’s just that it would benefit from some more fulling at home. If you’re making a felt sleeve to fit a vase and run out of time, you’ll just take home a glass and a baggy bit of near-felt that is too big to do its job. 

After some deliberation, I decided to give it a go. I bought some inexpensive highball glasses from a local supermarket and made some examples. Firstly, I wanted a few different effects to show people the sort of thing they could make rather than prescribing a particular design. And secondly, I wanted to ensure the process was as quick and streamlined as possible to make best use of the time. 

Sample 2 colour fade 

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For the lavender and stone effect samples, it didn’t matter whether the vertical or horizontal layer of wool was laid down first. But for the colour fade it was important to have the vertical layer on top and for the water sample, the horizontal layer needed to be on top. 

I added this point to my notes and used these to write a sheet of instructions for participants to take home as a reminder of what they’d done.

Just before running the workshop, I made one more sample to check how long it took me to make a vase and also to demonstrate the use of wool nepps. I wanted to see if it was possible to make a flower design, without making prefelt, in a maximum of two hours. 

Example 5 – Flowers

It was possible (though I think it would have been better to have used prefelt for the flowers) but the layout did take a long time. I’d have to warn participants that if they went for something like this or the lavender they would be unlikely to finish within the class. 

On the day of the workshop I was fully prepped with lots of wool & embellishments and all the necessary equipment in the back of my car. 

I’d heard first thing that some of the town was without water which ratcheted up my stress levels, but didn’t turn out to be a problem. 

And then my car wouldn’t start. 

I was allowing 45 minutes to set up the room. Ideally I’d have liked more but the Horsebridge opens at 9am and the workshop started at 9.30am so I was already pushing the boundaries.

I won’t drag this out (having drawn a blank on a taxi and a lift from a friend I did eventually manage to start the car) but in essence I had 10 minutes to set up the room ….. and two people arrived early. 

This was not a great start for me (I was in a flat spin or as we might say in Yorkshire, a right tizzy) but I managed to calm down and the workshop went well. After unloading the materials I also managed an incredible feat of parallel parking into a tiny space, so it seems adrenaline has many uses!

Nine people were booked into the workshop although only seven arrived.  Here’s a view of the workspace set up.  I devised this in the ‘post covid peak’ period when people were allowed to gather but were still maintaining some distance.  Rather than push all the tables together to create one large work area, I’ve kept this table layout as it means I can interact with individuals and their work without leaning in from behind. 

I kept the introduction brief, talked participants though the samples I’d brought, then demonstrated wool layout and how to use silk fibres, nepps and wool yarn as embellishments.  

People were soon able to crack on with their layouts. When the first ones were ready, I demonstrated rubbing to take the wool to prefelt stage.  As they worked, I also introduced tools to assist with rubbing – scrunched bubble wrap, old Tupperware jug lids and plastic printing barens – for those who wanted to try them.

At this point I remembered to take some photos!  I always explain in the introduction how I am likely to use any photographs (eg to include in this blog) and ask for permission. In this workshop there was one child (his mother was also participating) so we were clear there would be no identifiable photos of him.  I also say that even if they have given permission at that stage, they can still opt out at any point in the workshop by just letting me know they don’t want to be included.

As soon as the first people reached prefelt, I showed participants how to full using pool noodles and bubble wrap. I like to break the demonstration sessions into parts rather than showing everything at once as makes the steps easier to remember and keeps the pace clipping along rather than having one long demonstration session before people can get their hands on the wool.

Here are some shots of work in progress.

In the later stages I also introduced bamboo mats to help speed along the felting process.

And these are the finished vases ready for home. 

Was timing a problem? Yes.    

I had discussed the timing issue with some felting friends (some fellow-blog writers on this site) before running this workshop. They made excellent suggestions, particularly around limiting colour choices (choosing takes some people a long time). I did intend to follow that advice, honestly, but in the end I couldn’t bring myself to have a small colour range for participants to choose from. Instead I just urged participants to choose quickly, and they did. I love that several people made colour choices that matched their clothing or the towel they had brought.

Fortunately everyone was able to stay a little longer than the scheduled end time to finish their vases. For one person it was an additional 10 minutes, for most it was about half an hour.  If I ran the session again I would add at least half an hour to the class time, possibly an hour as I’d rather people finished early than overrunning.

I always use a simple feedback form at the end of a workshop.  Two main questions: what did you like most about the workshop and what could have been better, plus a box to tick if they’re happy for their feedback to be quoted, for example in advertising future workshops.  There was a lot of positive feedback around being creative, choosing their materials, the small size of the class and the way it was taught.  The only issue raised by a few people in ‘what could have been better’ was the need for a bit of extra time, which I thought was absolutely true.    

What next? I will run another fundraiser early in 2027. All of the workshop fees go to supporting the Horsebridge and I donate my time and materials. Because Whitstable is on the coast, I may run a seascape picture workshop. Some of the coast is North-West facing giving fabulous sunsets so maybe a seascape and sunset will be an option. There was also an appetite among this group to try making a felt bowl so that’s another possibility.

Now it’s November. I have a week in the Fishslab gallery in December, sharing with two friends, and my work will also appear in local makers’ markets at the Horsebridge and Creek Creative (in Faversham) so plenty to keep me busy until the end of the year.