The last few weeks have been incredibly busy… After 9 happy years working for Eli Lilly and Company I handed in my notice, it was a very difficult decision, the people I work with are so wonderful I am already grieving at the thought of not seeing them every day. I hope we will stay in touch but I know how difficult it is to maintain friendships if you don’t meet up regularly.
Now I am finding that it is very true what they say about job hunting be a full time occupation in itself but at least I am in the fortunate position of being able to be selective about which opportunities I apply for.
Last week was spent in sunny Devon, attending 2, two-day workshops with the very talented Judit Pocs, a felt-maker from Hungary. The first workshop was in Tiverton, making hats. I have attended a hat making workshop with Judit before and she was so generous with the variety of styles and techniques that she taught in that first workshop, I wasn’t expecting to learn any new techniques, I was approaching this workshop as a fun activity vacation. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
The whole group managed to finish at least one hat in the 2 days, most of us had at least started a second, even if, like mine it wasn’t finished before we had to leave the community centre.
A selection of the hats we made, the white, blue and red one to the right of centre was also a bag!
The texture on this hat was from a beautiful devore silk fabric
Claire’s hat – she and I used a similar technique to create silk ruffles
The next few photos are of the “cat hat” I made first, I’m very happy with how the sequins in the ears and the silk over the felt “bumps” turned out.
In the last couple of hours I made use of one of my screen-printed prefelts to make a “boxy” hat.
This was the prefelt before laying out the hat:
And the (nearly) finished hat, it just needs a couple of stitches to hold the felt ring in place:
As with the other printed prefelts, the finer details of the print, such as the orange circles from the bubble wrap, disappeared but the rest of this print was so bold it has held up well to fulling.
Judit also ran a bag workshop after the hat workshop, more on that soon!
I totally LOVE seeing pics and reading blogs on fantastic felt stuff and this post fulfills my love of clear pics, bright colours and techniques I can wonder on for hours as to how it was created. Thank you so much! Sequins in the ears, silk pleats, boxy with ring … aaah, my day has started on a high…
Fantastic colors, clear pics and techniques I can marvel at for hours – thank you! My day has started fantastically well!!
I am chuffed to bits to have put a smile on your face Cath, I agree there is no better way to start the day that looking at pictures of felt! 🙂
Glad to hear all is well and that you enjoyed your class with Judit! We’ve missed you on the forum. I totally understand the full time job of looking for a job. Best of luck to you! Thanks for sharing your class results. They are wonderful!
Thanks Marilyn, I have a meeting to attend this evening but hope to get back over to the forum after that, I am missing you all too and I think the orange boxy hat qualifies for this quarter’s challenge! 🙂
Wonderful hats! And it sounds as if you had a really enjoyable workshop.
Good luck with the job hunting.
Thanks Lyn, I had an absolute ball, all the ladies on the workshop were so lovely, supportive and chatty and Judit is such a generous teacher. I would do it all again in a heartbeat!
Fantastic hats Teri! I do envy you with these workshops, I’ve missed one when Judit was in our area. Next time maybe…
You’ve done great job!
Thanks Galina, I can’t recommend taking a workshop with Judit highly enough, she has 2 small children so only runs a handful of international workshops each year, it was a real privilege to work with her again.
Great hats Teri! Workshops are always such fun and it looks like you all had fun making such wonderful hats. Good to see so many styles of hat coming out of one workshop. Best of luck on the job search.
Wowee! What a wonderful workshop!! Have wanted to take a class with Judit for ages. You’re so fortunate to have had this opportunity-twice. And yes, it’s impressive how the hats are each so different in silhouette and surface. Printing on prefelt looks fruitful and makes an interesting hat. There’s an Elina Saari hat workshop coming up …
Thanks Juliane, Judit is an amazing teacher but I’m sure Elina’s class will be a lot of fun too, her hats are so funky I’m sure her workshop will be right up your street and fit into your own very funky style! 🙂 If you post some photos online please let me know – I would love to see what you make with her!
Thanks Ruth, yes Judit is incredibly generous, sharing a wide range of techniques and hat designs. Everyone made fantastic looking hats.
I like the hat you are finishing! That is the shape I also like and I am wondering if, now my block has arrived, if I could have a go at making that style. I look forward to hearing about the bag workshop!
Thanks Anthea – it looks complicated but the boxy hat was one of the easier hats to lay out, how are you getting on with it? do you have any photos?
Great hats Teri, love the screen printed one especially 🙂
I did a Lizards workshop with Judit a couple of years ago, she is a brilliant tutor.. you must of been overflowing with inspiration and new things after 2 back to back workshops!
Thanks Deborah, I was an amazing 4 days, I’m really quite envious that you have taken her lizard class though, when it looked like the hat workshop might get cancelled I was hoping it would be replaced with a reptile workshop, but it wasn’t to be…
I’m attending Judits workshop in April(very,very happy)but I wanted to ask about the printed prefelted…did you actually print on it,or you created the design…I’m trying to find some way to add drawings and images to felt…ty?
Judit is a wonderful and very generous teacher, I am sure you will have fun and learn lots with her. The prints on my mitred hats were screenprinted using a technique I learned in Ruth Lane’s class, this link will take you to it, the next class starts on April 1st: link