Calling Felt-Makers Near and Far: Help Us Create an Inspiring Installation of Felted Poppies

Calling Felt-Makers Near and Far: Help Us Create an Inspiring Installation of Felted Poppies

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There are times when making with our hands feels especially meaningful. We would love it if you would like to join us in making this one of those times.

The Auckland Felters group is preparing an exhibition titled Deeply Felt, opening on 21 March and running through to 2 May at Nathan Homestead, Manurewa (Auckland), and we’re inviting felt-makers from around the world to help us create a collaborative installation of felted poppies. The exhibition will encompass ANZAC Day, making this shared work especially poignant. The poppy installation will be used to raise funds for the RSA (Returned Services Association).

Image by freepik

What is ANZAC Day?

ANZAC Day is commemorated each year on 25 April in New Zealand and Australia. It honours all those who have served and continue to serve in the armed forces, and remembers the lives lost through war and conflict. The day began as a remembrance of the ANZAC soldiers who landed at Gallipoli in 1915, and has since grown into a broader day of reflection, respect, and remembrance.

It is a quiet, reflective day — one that feels particularly fitting for an exhibition called Deeply Felt, where the act of making, remembering, and responding through fibre is central.

Why felted poppies?

The poppy is a powerful symbol of remembrance. Interpreted through felt — a material that embodies time, patience, and touch — each poppy becomes a small but heartfelt gesture. Individually they are modest but together they become something deeply moving.

Every contribution will be combined into a larger installation, creating an evocative expression of remembrance through hundreds of poppies, made by many hands.

Who can take part?

Anyone who loves working with fibre.
You don’t need to be a professional felt-maker — all abilities are all warmly welcomed. Each poppy will be unique, and that individuality is part of what will make the final piece so special.

What we’re looking for

  • Hand-felted poppies — wet felted, needle felted, nuno felted, or a combination (they do need to be felted please)
  • Poppies should be predominantly red and approxiately 10-15cm diameter

Please see our simple instructions and ideas for making felted poppies below to help guide you, but there’s plenty of room for personal expression.

How to take part

If you’d like to contribute, please:

  • Make one (or more!) felted poppies – the more the merrier!
  • They will need to be posted to Teri in New Zealand, to arrive by 10th February 2026

Because this is a volunteer-led, fundraising project, we are unfortunately not able to reimburse postage costs or return poppies. All contributions will become part of the installation, and any funds raised through the exhibition will go towards supporting the work of the RSA.

Do you know other feltmakers or belong to a crafting group? Please consider combining your poppies in one parcel to save on postage.

A shared act of making and remembering

This project is about connection — across borders, practices, and experiences — and about using our skills to contribute to something larger than ourselves. Each poppy is a small act of remembrance; together they will form a quiet but powerful presence within the Deeply Felt exhibition.

If you’d like to be involved, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Teri for details of where to send your poppies.

Auckland Felters thank you for considering adding your hands, your wool, and your care to this collaborative work.

How to make wet-felted poppies

If you prefer needle-felting, our resident needle-felter has prepared another set of instructions just for you! Please visit Sarah’s website here.

1 – Print this template on A4 or US Letter paper (tap on the printer icon), if you don’t have a printer a 20cm / 8″ diameter circle will also work.

poppy templateDownload

2 – Lay your template under a sheet or clear plastic or bubblewrap then lay your fibres from the centre out:

3 – Lay out your fibres until you have completed the circle:

4 – Layout your second layer in concentric rings starting from the outside, you probably will not need to add any fibre in the middle as the fibres are already overlapping here from the first layer:

5 – Optional step – you can add some accent colours to a couple of petals, this may be a different shade of red or you can “finger blend” another colour with your main colour.

To “finger blend” two colours, lay a tuft of each colour on top of the other. Pinch at both ends and pull your hands apart.

Lay the pulled tufts on top of each other and keep repeating until you reach your desired level of blending

6 – Lay your accent colour on one or two petals:

7 – Wet out (you might want to remove your template first):

8 – Add a black centre and dots for stamens. These can be cut from prefelt if you have some scraps or the dots can be made by rolling a tiny amount of wool in the palm of your hand:

9 – Push any wispy fibres around the edge towards the middle:

10 – Felt your flower to the prefelt stage using your preferred method; rubbing, rolling, “sanding”, kneading etc. When you do the pinch test the fibres should be holding together:

11 – Full the outer petals – pinch the centre of your flower from the back so the petals point downwards then roll the petals between your hands. This step tightens the felt on the outside of the circle so it starts to form a cup shape:

12 – Make 6 cuts leaving at least 5cm / 2″ of uncut felt at the centre, if you used an accent colour try to cut either side of those petals. This is a good time to trim any pointy bits of felt on your petals too:

13 – Continue fulling the felt by rubbing and kneading it, stopping to stretch and shape the individual petals every 30-60 seconds:

14 – While you are shaping the petals try to overlap them so each one sits a little behind its neighbour:

15 – Rinse and dry in a towel before the final reshape. I let mine dry in a cup or glass so they keep a tighter bud shape.

This is the amount of shrinkage you can expect:

Wishing you a fibre-filled creative 2026!

With thanks to Clare and Margaret from Auckland Felters for initiating this collaborative installation and creating the template.

 

My year in review; 2025

My year in review; 2025

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Belated Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Christmas. I hope you are still enjoying the festive season (hopefully with fibre and felt!)

What in the world did I get done this year? This should be interesting, since most of this year was a blur of post-surgery and anaesthetic recovery (including a few very tiny but powerful pain pills – I have no idea what they were, but I vaguely think they may have been green?), I am extremely curious to see if I actually got anything done this year. If you are curious too, let’s take a look!

 

January: I was trying to get organised after getting bad medical test results (I was never good at tests) and found out I was going to have another surgery at the end of the month. Then be out of commission for a lest a couple of months afterwards.  I focused on getting notes ready for the other librarians to take over running the whole Guild library while I was out of commission.  I also taught an inkle weaving workshop and took a workshop on tablet weaving.

A big cheer up was the felt Christmas card from Eleanor. I was not feeling well after diagnostic testing and dreading the impending surgery, so perfect arrival timing!

Felted cristmas card exchange from 2024, a 3-D christmas tree and a raven on a branch in black / white/ grey1.1) Above the card from Eleanor, below was the card I sent to Eleanor

 

February 1st found me getting a drive home from the hospital rather than going to the Spin-in in Chesterville, Ontario. I have photos of the guild’s February meeting, and a few shots from other guild members of some of the things I missed. I know I was doing things, but I don’t remember any of it.

 

March was also a write-off. Anaesthetic and my brain are not friends. Luckily, Ann and Ann were running the library.

 

By April, one of the Librarian Anns had to step away from the library due to illness. I returned to work,  a bit early, Glenn dropping me off and picking me up (driving was not an option yet), it was unfortunately shorter than normal hours. I was not really up to speed; it took all day just to keep the library running. I brought in felting to work on if I got my library work done, but no luck.moose head and moose bag i had been working on at the end of 2024 but was not getting enuff work done to work on them in January2.1) Moose head and moose landscape bag. At this point, it was still probably a good idea not to be doing a lot of stabbing with sharp objects.

April was not all frustrating and forgotten, I also got a surprise to cheer me up! I was watching Marie from Living felt on YouTube and had been commenting on her videos (not that I remembered doing so shortly after each episode), one of which was her store’s Birthday party. My anaesthetic brain at the time did not remember winning anything, so I was so happy and surprised when one of her deluxe wet felting kits arrived! Thanks, Marie, that really cheered me up! (and I got to try it for workshops much later in the year).

Living felt from Texis wet felting tool kit and bag2.2)A surprise from Living Felts on line Birthday party

 

May arrived, but was still mostly lost in the fog. I seem to have worked on the Library report, and I am pretty sure it was Glenn who drove us down to the fibre festival at Spencerville (south of Ottawa). I have vague memories that I was very sore getting there and back, but it was so nice to get out and see friends and look at shopping.

3.1) Spencerville Fiber festival 2 photos of shoppers and booths3.1) Spencerville Fibre Festival

The long weekend in May (Friday to Sunday) was also CanGames and ghelting convention, which I have told you about before. I finally thought it might be safe to try a needle felting project. I may have been a bit premature in trying that. I somehow wound up with 6 fingers on one hand, and my under structure wrapping was not as tight as it should be.

3.2-3.3) Oops still can’t count! hand with 5 fingers and a thumb 3.2-3.3) hand repaired to only have 4 fingers and a thumb3.2-3.3) Oops, still can’t count!

evicting racoon in live trap from the garrage3.4) I somehow forgot we evicted another garage dweller. He was not impressed.

 

By June, I was feeling safer to make expensive decisions, but I limited it to one new camera. The old one was over 13 years old and was needing an upgrade. I still don’t really remember much unless I am looking at the photos from what I was up to. (I am glad I took pictures, or I would not remember doing anything!)

4.1) new Nikon bird watching camera with sneaky powerful zoom feature.4.1) new Nikon bird watching camera with sneaky powerful zoom feature.

4.2) I continued to putter on the Mer-Boyfriend I was creating for the missing Miss Mer 4.2) I continued to putter on the Mer-Boyfriend I was creating for the missing Miss Mer.

June 07, we tried to be in two places at once, the Lamsdown Fibre festival and the Dickonson Day Demo. I was doing shopping and photography, so no felting!

4.3) Demo at Dickonson Day4.3) Demo at Dickonson Day

4.4) one of vendors at Lamsdown 4.4) one of the vendors at Lamsdown

I had been trying to be careful about large perchasess with anesthetic-brain but I had been waiting for a stock tank of about this size to go on sale, so I bought it!

4.5) 75-gallon stock tank, becomes perfect fleece washing station. 4.5) A 75-gallon stock tank becomes a perfect fleece washing station.

With the addition of a fleece washing station in the side yard/Driveway, I got to work washing my way through the fleeces from the last couple of summers I had not felt up to working on.

4.6) Glenn was very helpful working the spin dryer for me. (its an old RV hand washer/spin dryer) 4.6) Glenn was very helpful working the spin dryer for me. (It’s an old RV hand washer/spin dryer)

4.7-4.8)the father’s day weekend brings a blacksmithing workshop to the Glengarry Pioneer Museum in Dunvegan Onrario (East of Ottawa) - black smith made sisors on display on a folding wood table 4.7-4.8)the father’s day weekend brings a blacksmithing workshop to the Glengarry Pioneer Museum in Dunvegan Onrario (East of Ottawa) - needle felting mer-person4.7-4.8)the Father’s Day weekend brings a blacksmithing workshop to the Glengarry Pioneer Museum in Dunvegan Onrario (East of Ottawa).

This was a great chance to do some photography of blacksmithing, and do a bit more felting, on the young mer I had started last month.

4.9)There was also a demonstration of finishing a blanket by walking it. (walking is likely spelt differently when applied to a wet blanket thumped repeatedly on a table.) 4.9)There was also a demonstration of finishing a blanket by walking it. (walking is likely spelt differently when applied to a wet blanket thumped repeatedly on a table.)

 

July continued fleece washing, a bit at a time. I still seem to keep over-exerting myself, but I was feeling so far behind.

5.1) 3 more bins to sort and wash. 5.1) 3 more bins to sort and wash.

5.2) Trying to sort without a skirting table 5.2) Trying to sort without a skirting table.

This month, I was back to the Glengarry Pioneer Museum to demo felting for them at their Fibre/Textile day.

5.3) 3 of the Mer Family and their pets get out to a demo. It was an extremely hot day and they seemed happy to be in the shade of the porch.5.3) 3 of the Mer Family and their pets get out to a demo. It was an extremely hot day, and they seemed happy to be in the shade of the porch.

 

In August, the guild had a workshop on Cyanotype printing with felt. It was a half-day workshop and ran twice. I took lots of photos, which reminded me of playing with the enlarger in the dark room.

6.1)Cyanoprinting with felt6.1)Cyanoprinting with felt

August is also the time of the very large fibre festival Twist, about an hour away in Quebec. Glenn came with me as my attendant, and I filled in at the guild demo table with the Mer boyfriend I was working on. I missed getting a roll of garden felt, so I went back on Sunday. (We had the comfy duck sandwiches twice this year!)

6.2) I missed out on this size, but got a piece from the big roll 6.2) I missed out on this size, but got a piece from the big roll

There was more shopping, a bit closer to home, at Stash-it Fibre Festival in Kempville, Ontario (about a half hour south of Ottawa)

6.3) I seem to be focused on fiber acquisition again, I see more fleece washing in my future.6.3) I seem to be focused on fibre acquisition again; I see more fleece washing in my future.

 

September is Almonte Fiberfest (about half an hour west of the west end of Ottawa). I again did a “few” photos for the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, who run the event (I hope I remembered to send them!)I am pretty sure I showed you the Booth Birds of a Feather by Catherine

7.1) Birds of a Felter booth, at Almonte FiberFest7.1) Birds of a Felter booth, at Almonte FiberFest

A few more fleeces to wash, the stock tank has been helpful, and fall seems to be holding off, so I may get these done before snowfall! One was a lovely but horribly dirty ram Shetland fleece

7.2) big Shetland fleece (looks like he took a mud bath before sheering)7.2) big Shetland fleece (looks like he took a mud bath before shearing)

 

In October, I tried a wet felted Slipper workshop with Ann. I was sure I could make a simple pair of slippers in a day…. No, not quite yet, it seems, but I had lots of fun, stayed reasonably dry and am looking forward to finishing up the slippers when I have another burst of energy.

8.1) Jan’s almost finished slippers at the end of Ann’s Class.8.1) Jan’s almost finished slippers at the end of Ann’s Class.

This month, I also spotted a cottage for sale, very close to my brother’s cottage. It had just had a major price drop, which might have potential, so worth taking a look at it.  There is also a Quonset hut, on about an acre of land, not too far from that’s for sale too. One is better for spin and felt in’s the other would be better for blacksmithing. At least neither is attached to a piece of protected swamp, which was almost everything I have looked at for the last few years!

8.2) cottage option8.2) cottage option

October is also the month for KanataCon Board game and Felting convention! They are the gaming convention with the HUGE second-hand game sale where I found a game about alpaca and one about lamas! I also got a lot more work done on the Mer-Boyfriend for Miss Mer.

8.3) Fiber related board games8.3) Fibre-related board games

8.4) Glenn with the young Mer-sturgeon now with bumps!! (on the mer not Glenn8.4) Glenn with the young Mer-sturgeon now with bumps!!

The day after the gaming/felting convention was a new Fibre festival in Merrikville Ontario. It was a nice drive down, fabulous weather for photographing the locks and a bit of good shopping.

8.5) Fall colours and the locks at Merrickville8.5) Fall colours and the locks at Merrickville

October was very busy. The day after Merrickville, we jumped in the car and headed for Toronto. We did a couple of shopping stops on the way to Oakville, but made it through all the Toronto Traffic! (Rush hour may be nearly 24 hours long!)

On Tuesday, Glenn and his brother did legal stuff, and I had a lovely day staring at architecture, photography, and felting.

8.6) Happy with his hand upgrade8.6) Happy with his hand upgrade

The next day, we stopped to shop with Monika at the Olive Sparrow on the way back to Ottawa. By the time we made it home, I felt wiped!  I think I could have slept for at least a week.

 

November arrived, and it’s time for the Guild Sale and Exhibition. This event is run by Ann, and I help where I can. I am still noticing I am not back to full steam yet. I usually can photo-document the event as well as run the music and demo felting. Not this year, photos and music were all I could manage. Most of the signage and layouts could be updated from last year, so not as much pre-work either. We had a couple of good felters with booths this year. If you check back in the blog, you will see the photos.

 9.1) Ann showing how a drop spindle works (she is wearing her new name tag) i cant remember when i made her her new name tag?) 9.1) Ann showing how a drop spindle works (she is wearing her new name tag).

At the end of November, I ran the needle felted landscape workshop. We look at wool in a painterly approach. Ann took this workshop and has been having fun with mist and trees!

9.2) November students and their felt Paintings (it looks like they had fun)9.2) November students and their felt Paintings (it looks like they had fun)

The next day, I got up nice and early and headed back to the guild. This time Ann was teaching, and I was the student. I was oddly tired (as if I had been very busy the day before) even before we started, but it was fun (and dangerous, you could get wet). I was able to get all the rolling done by the end of the class. I still need to do a bit more shaping to finish off, oh, the want of free time!!  I am not sure where all the time goes, but I seem to be missing more of it this year than usual!!!

9.3) my odd shape black hat in progress9.3) My odd-shaped black hat in progress. (Can you guess what it will look like?)

 

It’s finally December, and I’m not sure I was ever going to make it to the end of the year, but I am happy I did. I had a workshop teaching beginning Inkle weaving, with great students again!

9.4) Inkle weaving workshop9.4) Inkle weaving workshop

Inkle looms make straps, belts, trim, ties, and narrow woven band. It is usually woven where only the warp is showing, and usually the colour order of warping will determine your pattern. There is the option of Pickup (for which there are other better teachers), and I have taught the “inkle Two” class of many of the truly weird things you can weave on an inkle loom, but may or may not want to.

 

Throughout the past year, with the help of the other librarian, I have continued to volunteer at the guild library. I usually put in over 500 hours each year.  I am about to get to the number crunching for the library year end data. (which, considering my lingering deterioration of math skills, may make this more of a challenge this year)

I am glad this year is almost behind me. It was interesting to see what I did, even if I didn’t remember doing it, until I saw the pictures. The heavy fog seemed to go on for more than the first half of the year, with mini fog attacks even up to recently (I will be able to add again any time I want to soon). I am going to try to avoid having any anaesthetic for as long as I can in hopes my spelling improves, and my little bit of math comes back!!

 

I am optimistic that you are as excited and hopeful about 2026, it’s a pleasant shape, for a number, so I am optimistic. I also have some wet felting to finish and some dry felting to find! Have fun and see you Next Year!!!

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

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Happy holidays, everyone. Christmas for us this year will be late. We won’t have family dinner until Sunday, when everyone can be together. The littles will still get Christmas day and Santa, but we big people will wait. I am hoping that that means I can play in my studio on Christmas Day. I think that will be a great present for me.

Currently, I am still working on my picture from Jan’s class.  This is how it was in the last post. I don’t like the tree trunks I added at the end, and I am not fussy about the fog.

First thing, take the tree trunks off and pull back the fog. I also want to soften the bottom edge of the fog. Although we do get fog that is just like that, with a hard line bottom sitting several feet off the ground, it’s not looking great in the picture.

I did try adding a leafless tree near the shed, but I pulled it off again before I took a picture. I also do not like this fogound tree. The branches are too round. I like the trees behind it and to the right. That will have to be next.

Jan suggested I try a frame on to get a better look at it. The picture is a little bigger than the frame opening, so I tried it with a little less sun and with a little less snow. Sorry about the bad( worse than usual) pictures. I thought I had them straight when I took them. I think I like it better with a little less snow and a lower horizon. What do you think?

I am still thinking about a fence along thetee line. Jan suggested making it at an angle across and out the side. I am not sure. I like the snow. I was thinking of adding just a small clump of grass in the snow on the right to balance things.

 

Nuno Felted Paper Fabric Lamination Online Course, Ruth Lane
Online Classes for 2026

Online Classes for 2026

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Happy Holidays from all of us here at The Felting and Fiber Studio! We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a creative 2026. We have our dates up for our 2026 online classes and we hope to have some new additions to these as the year progresses.

You can see all of the classes available and the calendar of class dates here.

Screen Printed Felt Journals by Ruth Lane

The Embellishing Felt with Surface Design (4 Modules) registration will be opening soon on December 29th. There will be two sessions of these courses in 2026 and then the courses will be discontinued. So any of you that have been putting off taking any of these fun classes, 2026 is the last year they will be available. These include:

Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination

Experimental Screen Printing on Felt

Free Motion Machine Stitching on Felt

Print, Stencil and Play with Thickened Dye on Felt

 

Ann M’s new class learning to create a 3D multi part resist for felt will be offered in March and September. Ann is adding another PDF to this course about how to use fabric to see what the outcome will look like from a multi part resist without completing the entire felting process. You can see her first classes creations here.

Learn to make a hanging felted spiral from Helene in March and October. You can see here students work here. This course teaches you about complex resists and how to add movement to your felt.

Wet felting a 3D pod is always available. Take that next step from being a beginner and learn to create 3D felt with a resist. You will also have access to private Facebook page with this class so that you can interact more readily with fellow students.

Wet Felting for Beginners is also always available. Learn the basics of wet felting for a good start to your felting journey.

If registration has not opened for the class you are interested in, please fill out our Contact Us form with the name of the class and we will add you to our mailing lists. Take that creative leap in 2026 and learn some new skills!

The Unperfect 10!

The Unperfect 10!

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A few years ago I was invited to join a felting group. It is called Unperfect 10 and it is currently made up of 10 members who are based in Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland and Canada. Distance requires that we meet online and we aim to be there every 6 weeks. The challenge is that we can only use 10 grams of fibre in our projects.

There’s a good deal of catchup and banter when we meet up. Then we each present our piece, our thinking behind our design and we briefly describe how we made it. After that we decide on a theme for our next meet up, whether we can use a resist and at times we will work to a specified colour too.

I thought I might show you some of the pieces I have produced over the past while and tell you a little about each piece.

The Twister:

The challenge was 10 grams of fibre over a 20cm circular resist and incorporating prefelts.

I thought I would play with differential shrinkage here. The dark base took a little over 4 grams of fibre (2 layers each side). The remaining weight was divided between 6 colours and an ombre effect prefelt was made in 4 layers. Then it was cut into 1cm strips, 7 in total. These were wrapped around the circular resist. This gave 6 layers around the main section of the resist and 30 layers where they all came together at the top and the bottom. It shrank nearly 50% and then I twisted it until I got this spiral effect.

  • close up of spiral twister
  • view of the array of colours on the spiral twister
  • the top of the twister


Facing darkness:

was this session’s 10g challenge. My theme was life’s challenges, the curveballs that are thrown at us all. At first, they appear insurmountable, difficult to navigate, and find a way through. Then, often, we start to see the possibilities as we look closer. Or we experience acceptance and light dawns. We regain our momentum and move forward often stronger from the experience. My slide show takes the viewer through this journey from the darkness of the challenge when initially faced to personal progression. For this challenge, I laid out a variety of different colour fibres on the resist. Then I topped it off with the black merino and some angelina fibres. Once fulled, I cut out shapes and added a little stiffener to it as I wanted it to maintain its shape. An LED tealight completes the piece.

  • The sphere before it is lit up
  • The felted sphere has angelina fibres on its outside
  • the darkness is abating
  • light and shadows – Facing Darkness
  • another view – pretty colours and shadows reveal themselves on Facing Darkness
  • Pretty colours and shadows reveal themselves on Facing Darkness
  • Pretty colours reveal themselves on Facing Darkness

Home:

The theme on this occasion was Home. We were free to decide how we represented it once we kept to the 10 grams.

Home to me involves a specific room in the house, the kitchen. It is the place for gatherings, family and/or friends, happiness, and informality. This is not a time to pull out the best china cups. It’s the mismatched crockery and, at its centre, the cup of tea. It can be my kitchen or yours. It’s home, and no one present cares about dusty surfaces or dirty windows. It’s home and it’s love.

I worked around a resist and kept a little fibre back for the handle of the cup. I worked with a number of colours; peach and green for the outside, white for the inside and brown for the tea. I added the handle to the prefelt and formed the ‘cup’ by turning the top of the area (white and brown part) to the inside of the cup.

  • a cup of wooly tea
  • a cup of wooly tea another view
  • a cup of wooly tea the cup is half full!

Carnival:

Another theme was Carnival. For this challenge we each made a piece of prefelt which we then sent to a partner. Our felting buddy interpreted the theme on the prefelt and then returned it to its owner.

I chose to go back in time to the early Venetian carnivals. These were “silent” celebrations, participants did not speak lest their accents gave them away! (In theory it was supposed to allow the classes to mix but I suspect that the wealth showed through on the garments) To ensure this ‘anonimity’, masks were held in place by the mouth, a strap for the men, and a ball or button for the ladies. Today, many feel it safer to ‘button our lips’ as our opinions are being shot down. This ancient addition acknowledges it.

The curls are a ‘nod’ to the Romans, who are believed to have invented carnival. I used part of the prefelt that my buddy sent to me, and added margillan silk, extra merino and, of course a button. Everything brought the weight back to 10g.

  • Spikies!
  • The components of the Carnival mask
  • building the mask
  • The back of the mask is covered in margilan silk
  • checking the weight!
  • Carnival mask
  • Silence was the key to anonimity.
  • side view of the Carnival mask

Escher inspired:

The next theme was Escher inspired.

  • Black and white fibre,
  • optical illusion,
  • tessellation,
  • 3D.

My illusion was the creation of 2D that presents as 3D. Mine weighed in slightly under the 10 gram (9.62 to be exact 😉). I decided to mount the finished work on pins so that it floated above the base. I created three prefelts which were then cut to a pattern I had made and felted together. I had to take great care that I did not all it to distort when it was shrinking. It was a real challenge and I learnt a lot during it.

  • Escher Inspriation
  • working out the calculations!
  • prefelts laid down ready for fulling
  • side view of the work
  • another side view of the piece
  • side view ‘on the flat’
  • front view of the work

Botanical:

I have many more but I will just show you one more.

The challenge was as follows:

  • 3D or sculptural art piece
  • Botanical
  • 3 colours of summer
  • 2 pieces unconnected, can be interactive, second piece can be hidden or integrated inside
  • use resist or no resist

My inspiration came from the poppies growing in my garden. Being the lazy gardener, I love the way they self seed! Their petals are fragile so not a lot of fibre is needed. So photos here attempt to show the stages of growth, the closed petals opening and falling to reveal the pod. I hand beaded the seeds.

  • poppy in vase 2
  • poppy in vase 1
  • Worms eye view of the poppy flower
  • in two parts ready to lose its seeds
  • another photo of the seed head
  • seeded glass beads were sewn on for the seeds

I hope this post might inspire you to set up your own group. A resolution for the New Year? It doesn’t have to be felting, it just needs to have a particular focus and a challenge that everyone commits to for the following meeting. I am here thinking it’s a bit like a book club but instead of reading and discussing a chosen book, everyone is presenting their interpretation based off an agreed theme and limits.

As a group, we are always amazed at how diverse the interpretations are. It’s great fun but it also gives me direction when I feel my creativity is drying up!

I wish you a wonderful festive period.

Thank you for reading this post (I know everyone is so busy at this time of year).

Wishing peace, happiness and great health to and your loved ones in 2026.

Helene@feltzen

Another Tapestry Workshop

Another Tapestry Workshop

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In my last post Two Coats Colder I told you about my attendance at a tapestry design and weaving workshop run by professional tapestry weaver Bobbie Cox.  The report of that workshop, along with that of the workshop I attended shortly afterwards,  appeared in the March 2003 edition of The Journal for Weavers Spinners & Dyers, and I repeated the report on the first workshop in my post.

At the end of that post I promised to tell you about the second workshop, so here’s the rest of the published report:

“Sydling St Nicholas, A Bit Warmer than Peter Tavy, But Not Much.”

“Two weeks after Peter Tavy, I attended a two day Miniature Tapestries workshop run by another resident of Devon – Pat Johns, but this time in Dorset.  Our Guild had arranged for Pat to talk to us at the April Guild Meeting about the Tapestries she had been commissioned to weave for a Synagogue in Washington DC.  This really whetted our appetites, although, having been given details of the size of the Synagogue tapestries (larger than Pat’s living room in which they were woven) we were pleased that we were only attempting miniatures.

“The workshop took place at another Village Hall, over the two days following the Guild meeting.  There were fifteen of us, and (I think) only one beginner (me).

“Pat’s approach to warping was to use frames fitted with rows of nails at either end and to wind a continuous double warp from one end of the frame to the other round the nails, starting and ending with a fixed loop.  The warp was then tensioned by taking up the slack from each section of downward travelling thread until the last section was reached.  The slack on this was taken up by moving the end loop around one or two extra nails until the thread was taut.  A strip of hard nylon parcel banding was then woven into the bottom of the warp and pressed down so that it sat against the nails and provided a base for the heading.  A length of warp string was also woven through on the opposite shed and tied at each side of the frame.

“The double warp was made up of two colours, an ordinary white cotton thread and a cotton thread of the colour of our choice.  The heading consisted of four rows of twining (as in basketry) using the same thread as that used for the coloured warp.  This made a very neat start.

“We were then sent off to look at Pat’s vast array of weft threads in all sorts of fibres and all sorts of colours, from which we were to take our pick.  We were not given a specific subject or theme, but were to take our inspiration from the available threads.  There were also various books to look at and Pat’s folder of notes and samples.

“Also available for us to look at were Pat’s three miniatures of an apple in various stages of being eaten.  One unusual effect demonstrated in these was the coloured section of the double warp – red – being allowed to remain on the surface of the work, adding to the shading of the rosiness of the apple.  This illustrated to us why Pat had suggested that one thread of our double warps should be coloured, so that we could incorporate it into the design if we wished  by leaving it unwoven.

“Pat’s other reason for using a double warp was to facilitate, the smooth transition of curves in her work, curves being notoriously difficult in any weaving.  The idea was to split the warp where necessary so that a curve could increase by half a warp at a time.   This method is also helpful when negotiating diagonals which are more vertical than 45º.

“Pat showed us how various effects could be obtained by using different formal tapestry techniques in conjunction with the use of colour and handed out some very useful notes.  She also gave us some hints on finishing and hanging – although none of us got anywhere near that stage at the workshop.  Pat insisted that each of us should take sufficient threads from her store to enable us to finish our pieces at home, and packed us off tired but happy at the end of our second day.

“Judging by the noise that we were making most of the time, everyone enjoyed the experience.  Indeed I believe that we were making more noise than the pre-school children who occupied the main hall on the morning of our second day, I certainly don’t remember hearing them at all over our din!

“Pat Johns and Bobbie Cox both have individual and distinctive styles.  Bobbie’s work incorporates lots of straight lines – vertical, horizontal and diagonal – with hard and stark colours.  It makes great use of symbolism.  Pat’s work contains many curves and flowing lines with softer colours and, quite often, lettering.  Her work is much more representational than Bobbie’s.

“Both are excellent teachers.  Despite their different approaches to their subjects, they both take the view that if what you do in your work (even if it breaks orthodox rules) works for you,  it is right.  If you want  to do something that they think may not work, neither of them will say “you must not do it”; they will both say “try it and see what happens”.  The best way to learn is to make your own mistakes.

“I am privileged to have been able to attend  classes with both Bobbie Cox and Pat Johns.”

As I mentioned in the previous post, I didn’t own a camera at this time so I don’t have much in the way of pictures of this workshop for you.  However I have found a photo of the tapestry which I started at Pat’s workshop and, unusually for me, finished at home.  The subject was a beech tree which had just come into bud in the spring, which I had seen while attending a completely different workshop at Sydling St Nicholas Village Hall.  I had managed to beg a friend to take a photograph of this tree and I have photographed the photograph, so it’s not as clear as it might have been.  Here’s the photograph and the tapestry.

Just to fill in a bit of space I will quote from the chap who’s regular posts on You Tube my husband watches avidly.  The presenter always finishes up with “Here’s something to put a smile on your face”:

I was indoors sheltering from a really heavy downpour one afternoon.  I peered out of the window to see if the sky might be lightening a bit.  It wasn’t, but this is what I did see.

pigeon sitting in a puddle on a tarmac surface with right wing held up
A pigeon in a puddle – is it hurt?

 

I was horrified, frozen to the spot, just staring at this poor bird.  I thought I was going to have to go out and try to catch this obviously injured pigeon and take it to our vet.

And then while I was watching I saw this:

Bet you’ve never seen a pigeon taking a shower before.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  There was this pigeon standing/squatting in a puddle with one wing in the air.  Then I saw it preening a bit and then it changed wings – we’re obviously not the only beings who wash under our arms!

Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful, peaceful Holiday and New Year.

Felted hat workshop #6?

Felted hat workshop #6?

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Felted hat workshop #6? It’s a fun workshop with Ann, so let’s take it again!

Nov. 29 2025, I was busy teaching needle-felted landscape for the Ottawa guild in the studio. As you saw recently, Ann took the workshop and was making an impressive forest with mist. She was also making funny faces as we tried to get a group shot!! (This was the best option, and really is pretty good…. I was so tempted to show you her best silly face!)

5 students holding up their pictures1) Most of the students from the felted picture workshop (one had to leave early) (Ann sent a shot of her progress on her picture, but I should let her show you in another post!)

 

Nov. 30th 2025, Wet Felted Hat workshop.  Glenn and I were back in the studio bright and early, but not quite as early as Ann. She had the tables set up and was laying out the tools we would need. I was going to be a student today, and she, the teacher!  She had me in the back by the door (out of the way…. I have taken this class a few times before, I think this is hat 6, or was it hat 7? I can make one on my own, but it feels safer to face the water in a group.).

Glenn was there in case I ran out of rolling power, partway through the day. In the meantime, he was working quietly at the back of the room on one of his game boxes (he was building inserts for the game pieces to fit in the box better). He seemed to be having fun and did stay drier than I did.

Husband setting up at table in front of snowy window2) Glenn at the table by the window

Ann with bag of wool balls3) Ann with a bag of balls of wool

More enthusiastic students arrived, and we wound up with a class of 7 students.  With a class size of 6, we usually are done at 4 pm, but adding more students adds more time for everyone to finish. We each chose a wool colour and a hat shape. Like my workshop on the previous day, we had students working on the same topic, but each was quite unique.

white hat with black edged brim and top of hat 4) Sample hat with brim

Ann showed us samples of some basic hat shapes.

a table full of various silks and other augmentation fibers Ann is standign to one side and showing a silk roving.5) showing us various types of fibre we can use to augment our hat

She had a full table of fibre to augment our base colour for the hat.  (Various formats: of silk, small curly locks, and other fibres.)

6) Drawing out the patterns for each student6) Drawing out the patterns for each student

She then adjusted the basic pattern for each student’s head size.

She demonstrated 2 ways to pull out thin wisps of staple lengths of fibre.

pulling thin wisps off the combed top then laying the down like shingles over the resist. pulling thin wisps off the combed top then laying the down like shingles over the resist. pulling thin wisps off the combed top then laying the down like shingles over the resist. pulling thin wisps off the combed top then laying the down like shingles over the resist.7.1-7.2- 7.3-  7.4) pulling thin wisps off the combed top, then laying them down like shingles over the resist.

7.5) A second way to pull off a staple length7.5) A second way to pull off a staple length

 

Our various hats

slightly ball and stick shaped hat resist covered with black wool8) My hat (black, strange shape), side one is done

Ann, helping with dreadlocks to augment this hat.  First lay out one side, then the other.

9) helping a student add dreadlocks to her hat9) helping a student add dreadlocks to her hat

Now time to add the scary water!!

adding water and soap to wet the wool adding water and soap to wet the wool10.1-10.2) adding water and soap to wet the wool

Gently pushing down, making sure the wool is wet all the way through.10.3) Gently pushing down, making sure the wool is wet all the way through.

11.) Side one, turn the edges around the resist.11.) Side one, turn the edges around the resist.

12) My hat is a bit behind the others!12) My hat is a bit behind the others!

 

The second side is placed over the resist and wet. Once wet through, flip and wrap edges. Be neat, or you get a Mohawk line on your hat!!!

13.1-13.2) Adding embellishment fibers over wet wool. 13.1-13.2) Adding embellishment fibers over wet wool.13.1-13.2) Adding embellishment fibres over wet wool.

13.3) Ann explained about rubbing directions, and what happens if you go the wrong way.13.3) Ann explained about rubbing directions and what happens if you go the wrong way.

 

The gentle rubbing (caressing the wool begins.) I am a bit behind the others in class, but I will catch up if I keep working!

14) The Tupperware juice container lid works great as a rubbing tool14) The Tupperware juice container lid works great as a rubbing tool

The water was starting to fight back,  I realized as I discovered my apron had dogged to one side, and let my knee take the wet, dripping attack! It was obviously time for the towels to come out, yes pinch test is a success, so on to rolling!

15) Finally I am rolling my hat!15) Finally, I am rolling my hat!

I am still behind; most of the others are cutting open their felt to expose their resists.

16) cut a hole to reveal the resist.  Then heal the edges.16) Cut a hole to reveal the resist.  Then heal the edges.

 

Once we had shrunk them down partway, we started to try them on.  (Ick!! Cold, wet wool hat….where is the dry warmth I remember from my other hats???)

17) trying the hat on.17) trying the hat on.

One had a flat brim developing; you can see some of the hat blocks.

18) Hat block and brim18) Hat block and brim

19) This was a technique, I did not favor, but seemed to be very effective! Ann is rubbing a hat while its on the students head19) This was a technique I did not favour, but it seemed to be very effective!

I think my weird hat reputation has been surpassed. This one looks like it will be truly intriguing. It’s not finished, I think.

vibrant yellow green hat! vibrant yellow green hat!20.1-20.2) vibrant yellow green hat!

These two hats are done21) These two hats are done

 

5 pm, already?!! I was still working on mine, but the basic shape is done. Next, I will rinse out the soap and do some final shaping. I am going to be run off my feet for the next 2 weeks at least, so maybe I can find time to finish it after that?

22) Packing up the room after the workshop 22) Packing up the room after the workshop

 

I was wiped after all that wet felting! As we headed to the car, Glenn agreed that dinner out at the pub, Rose and Crown, in Centerpoint (west end of Ottawa, which used to be Nepean), would be lovely, which it was. Then I fell into bed early. The next day was December 1st, which was the guild meeting. I was in to the studio early to beat the traffic and set up the library. This month I still have more guild work, including prep for teaching inkle weaving, and then there are blog posts and Christmas! For tonight, heading off to bed to get some extra sleep sounds very exciting. Maybe I will get a real rest in January!

If you have the opportunity to take a workshop with Ann, she is a fun teacher (even if there were no Smarties (candy) in her class!)

Nuno Felt Scarf Class

Nuno Felt Scarf Class

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Last week I taught my final workshop of the year. It was Nuno Felt Scarf.  I had 8 students. Previously, I have been restricted to 6. The old class space at the guild was a snug fit with 6, but since some rearranging of space, I can now teach 8 students comfortably.

This was a fun class; one lady had bought 5 spaces to surprise her family with a Christmas workshop. They had no idea what they were doing until they arrived. They were all game, but I did see some scepticism there too.

I started with a little more explanation than usual to help the surprised students get a better idea of what we were going to do. I had lots of samples to show them to help decide how they wanted their scaves to look. Then I explained all the embellishment fibres. It’s a lot to take in when you’ve just started thinking about it. Most students have been thinking about it for a while and have an idea of what they want to do.

They picked scarf blanks and then base colours. There was a lot of back and forth to pick wool colours, and then the embellishment fibres.  Everyone was encouraging and helpful with colour choices and what goes together. All colours go together, just in case you didn’t know. I always enjoy watching everyone work out colours and often working up the courage to be bold and add all the extra bits of colour they want.

After everyone gets their scarves wet, it’s time for lunch.

Usually, lunch is a bring-your-own, or there are a couple of fast-food places around. However, the student who had bought her family had decided to provide everyone with lunch. It was very tasty, cold cuts, cheese, salad and bread. Then there were homemade cookies and fruit for dessert. I felt very spoiled.

After lunch, they moved on to rubbing and rolling.

I am sure some of them thought it was never going to work. Then they noticed it was really shrinking. Then, when it was time to finish fulling, it was so fast, and they could hardly believe they were done. They were all very happy, and there was talk of doing another class; it was so much fun.

 

Dyed fabric with dark reds/black dye mixture.
Dying Background Fabric for Golden Grove

Dying Background Fabric for Golden Grove

Comments 15 comments

One of my goals for 2025 has been to finish pieces and have them ready for framing at the same time that the piece is complete. I seem to have missed this by a long shot with Golden Grove. I looked it up in my posts and I finished working on this piece in March. I didn’t have a piece of background fabric for matting so it got set aside.  Now it’s December and I have things to take to the framer so I am doing last minute dyeing, stitching and lacing to get everything ready to frame. I thought I would show you a basic dyeing method for cotton fabric using fiber reactive dyes (Procion MX).

The first step is to mix up soda ash and water to soak the cotton fabric in advance of dyeing. I used one cup of soda ash to one gallon of water. I use the soda ash water for many dye baths and it keeps well at room temperature. I let the fabric soak in the soda ash water for 30 minutes.

I am not a precise dyer. I don’t take the time to try and create a specific, repeatable dye bath. I do have some work I have done for classes where I keep track of amounts, color results etc. but I tend to add some dye to a cup of water until I get the color I want. I put down a wet paper towel, put a cup of water out and then add however much dye powder seems right to me. (Please remember to use proper safety precautions such as wearing gloves and face mask and use containers, measuring devices etc. that are only used with dyes.) I mix the powder into the water and then test the results on a clean paper towel. I used two different colors of red and a black dye. And if you’re paying attention, you will see that one of my dyes is an acid dye. I have used a combination of both fiber reactive that is used for plant fibers and acid dyes which are used with protein fibers. In my experimentation, I haven’t seen much difference between the two dyes as long as you use an acid (vinegar or acetic acid) for protein fibers and soda ash for plant fibers.

Here’s my first attempt. It helps to remember that you lose some of the dye intensity when it’s rinsed. I put a little dye on a clean paper towel and then looked at it near my completed piece. This seems a little too light so I needed to add more black.

And looking again after I added more black. The test on the right side of the paper towel was the final color.

Next up was to wring out the cotton fabric that had been soaking in the soda ash water. Then I poured the dye liquid into another container and added the fabric. You can also do this in a gallon plastic bag. I wasn’t worried about getting a solid dye on the fabric. More dye would have been needed for that.

The next step is to let the fabric “batch” or sit in the dye bath. Normally, I leave it overnight but I didn’t have time for that here so I let it sit for 4-5 hours. I didn’t go back and move the fabric around which would have given a more solid dye but I wanted some variations so I left it. Then on to rinsing. I rinse three times in cold water to get the soda ash out. You can feel it when you’re rinsing, it feels slick. Once that slick feel is gone, it’s time for textile detergent and hot water. The textile detergent is just a few drops into the hot water and then add your fabric. I usually let that soak for a couple of hours and then put it in the drain and spin cycle of the washing machine.

Dyed fabric with dark reds/black dye mixture.

Once it’s out of the washing machine, I iron it when it’s still wet and you can see I got a lot of variation. But I wanted that to look like sunlight through the trees and I was happy with the end result. Too bad most of it gets covered up.

Golden Grove stitched to background hand dyed fabric stretched over matte board.

And here’s Golden Grove stitched down to the dyed fabric and then laced on to matte board. It’s ready for framing (only 9 months behind schedule).

Have you tried dyeing? I really enjoy creating custom colors and getting a piece of fabric that is unique. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a try.

A Tea Cosy and other efforts.

A Tea Cosy and other efforts.

Comments 10 comments

Hello.

For my post this month, I have made a felt tea cosy, started and completed a quilt, and my grand daughter photographed me in the denim jacket that I have worked on over the last few months.  Tea cosies seem very popular just now – I’m thinking about Lyn’s wonderful cosy from a couple of weeks ago – my cosy is a little more sober than Lyn’s beauty!

I had watched a video tutorial some time ago from Fiona Duthie; she was demonstrating a vessel in a vessel technique,  I thought it looked intriguing and so very effective.  I don’t think I had the skill to make something similar, but I thought perhaps I could make a tea cosy using the instructions.

I made a paper pattern for the cosy, then made a double pattern using some flooring underlay, and made it bigger by about 3 inches all round, for the inside and outside layers.  I was hoping that this would yield the correct size when shrinkage is complete.

I found the layout to be a little confusing, especially the inside out view of one side of the cosy.  I had the tutorial up on my laptop while I was doing the layout, along with a pair of socks – one right side out, the other inside out – to ensure I got it right.  I wanted the outside to be green, and the inside – that would be visible through some apertures – to be purple.  It is even confusing trying to describe the process here.

The felting went well, the shrinkage worked, and the size turned out as I hoped.  I think (know) that I made the green (outer) side thicker than the inside; I thought that the inside would not fit properly if it was the same thickness as the outside.  My other conundrum was where to cut the windows in the outside layer, how many, the shape and size – a one time only decision.  It is now dry and the inside fits very nicely.  I will probably try to do a vessel in a vessel next year sometime, and I hope to manage the challenge of the vessel’s narrow neck that is in the video tutorial.

 

So, onto the next item – my quilt. This has been brewing in my head for a little while, and I needed to get on with it. It is made using the many, many hexagon shapes that I have made and squirreled away over the last few years ‘for a future project’.  These hexies, small and large, some pieces of my old embroideries, and some vintage tray cloths, were used for the quilt top.  All of these various items were then appliqued onto nine rectangle shaped pieces of fabric (an old cotton high thread count bedsheet). These were then joined together using some coordinating fabric as sashing, into one large piece of ‘fabric’. I used some of the same fabric for the border around the quilt edge, and also used some to make the binding.

 I had to find some backing fabric, and batting for the ‘sandwich’.  The backing fabric is actually a deconstructed  king size duvet cover, and it coordinates very well with the quilt top.  Then all I had to do was to put the three layers together and to quilt ‘the quilt’.  I used my sewing machine to quilt in straight lines, in a sort of grid, but not a complicated design, and I drew the lines on with a Frixion pen.  It was quite heavy to move the quilt through the machine, and that was a bit tiring really! I am super happy with the result, and it looks just how I imagined it would. Quilts can be very expensive items to make, both in materials and time. The quilt top materials were all repurposed, and charity shop finds, the backing fabric – a duvet cover, was a charity shop find too, a good label though, so the batting was the only item I had to buy.

I had promised to show my jacket, so attached is a photo of me wearing it, and I am very pleased with it too, lots of compliments given which is very gratifying, there is a little difficulty in understanding how I completed the stitching – even after I have explained how I worked the shapes – eyes tend to glaze when I mention a grid!!

Some of these photos are very large again, apologies.