Category Archives: workshop

Concertina Hat Class

The concertina hat class drew to a close last Sunday after 4 weeks of fantastic hat making! We all had a fabulous time and everyone made stunning hats, which is all the more impressive when you consider that some of the students were relatively new to making felt over a resist. This post is a photo collage (in no particular order) from those who were happy for me to share their work publicly….

Meg was one of our most prolific milliners, producing 4 hats in just 4 weeks, the top one was inspired by Australian Banksia cones

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Phyllis was another very industrious felt-maker, all of her hats included lots of beautiful 3 dimensional texture and embellishments:

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This is Robin’s “Bill and Ben” hat, so named because she took it into work and her British colleagues started singing the theme tune to the well loved British children’s TV show 🙂robin-hat-3

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Tricia also managed to make 3 hats, I loved her single-sided snail fascinator, he reminds me of a colourful whelk 🙂

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This is Simon the snail, made by Jane:jane-1

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This was Lizette’s first hat and demonstrates beautifully how completely different styles of hat can be made from the same piece of felt – it all depends on how it is folded and shaped. I also like her style – felting with a glass of wine in hand, now that is classy! 🙂lizette-1

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Catherine only had time to make one hat but it was stunning:

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This was such a lovely class to teach, all the participants were so chatty,  friendly and supportive of each other it was wonderful to work with you all – thank you 🙂  We had some really good discussions and your questions made me stop and think about why I work in certain ways which is always a good thing!

Well done everyone, I am so very proud of you all! 🙂

Here are some of the comments from the students in case you are thinking of taking this class when it runs again later this year:

  • This has been such an enjoyable class! Thank you so much. I’ve never really taken any online classes, much less classes on fiber arts. Now I’ll probably sign up for more!
  • It’s been great fun, just wish it could last longer as I haven’t even started my last hat yet due to work being mad.
  • Hi Teri, thank you for a great class – I am sorry I have not had more time to play but will have lots of ideas and your good notes when the exhibition is over.
  • Once again Teri, many thanks for the workshop and to all of the other participants- thank you for all your input, creativity and inspiration.
  • It was a terrific experience and your input was very helpful. Thanks for a terrific course!

I will post the link to where you can sign up for the next class in a couple of weeks, but if you can’t wait and would like to register your interest, please use the contact box to get in touch.

Weyfest 2016

What a weekend! I have attended Weyfest with the West Surrey Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers for the last 3 years and it is always a very special event, a wonderfully eclectic mix of people, children and dogs with music provided by bands that I grew up listening to (Boomtown Rats, Big Country, Bad Manners…). It is located on the site of the Rural Life Museum in Tilford and normally I demonstrate / teach spinning with a drop spindle, while I am very happy teaching, watching complete novices learn to spin I have to confess I’m not much of a spinner 😉

This year we did something a little bit different, I was let loose on the unsuspecting public with my felting equipment and I was in my element 🙂 The first question was what could a beginner make in a short space of time? I considered flowers but decided that would require a fairly skilled layout…. What about a small picture / a coaster? Then I thought of pods, but would they be too difficult for a beginner?

She didn’t know it but Paula was my guinea pig, she had never made any felt before but did an amazing job, I was so impressed with what she made I took the plunge and made pods with everyone.IMG_1720

My next visitors were Phoebe and Jemima with 2 more fabulous pods…IMG_1721

There were a couple more visitors on Saturday, including a young lady of only 4 years, who made a felt coaster but I’m afraid I didn’t get photos.

After a good night’s sleep (I slept like a log) we did it all again on Sunday…

First up were 2 mother and daughter teams, Donna and Olivia, Ava and Helen. It’s hard to believe but Ava is only 6 and made a fabulous heart shaped pod. Didn’t she do well?

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In the afternoon we had Fiona, Vanessa and Sue pictured below and Sandetti and Niamh (who were under 18 and did not have a parent who I could ask permission to post their photos). Again, 5 more amazing pods and very happy customers!IMG_1724

What did I learn? Several people commented on how glad they were to make something functional, and I was surprised at how forgiving felt pods are too make, a couple of the youngsters had a very thick layout but the finished pods were fine, just very sturdy!

I hope we can do something similar next year, perhaps offering a phone / glasses case for some of the sessions as an alternative to the pods.

Finally, a couple of photos from my brief excursions to see the rest of the festival between teaching sessions:

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