Photos from our Fabulous Fibre Month!

As many of you know, in October 2014, the HeartFelt Silks studio at Seasons on St. Croix Gallery hosted a month-long celebration of all things felted, woolly, and wonderful -- Fabulous Fibre Month! In addition to a special gallery exhibit of decorative and wearable fiber art (complete with a fashion show!), we hosted a series of unique felting workshops with guest instructors from around the US. If you missed live reporting on our Facebook page, here is a taste of the festivities at HeartFelt Silks in October 2014.

Our workshop series opened with Dawn Edwards' Eco-Printed Felted Hats, where students of all levels of experience spent two days concocting sculptural hats that were bundled to be eco-printed.

Dawn and her students used a selection of leaves for their beautiful eco-printed hats.

All Fabulous Fibre workshops took place in our retail and teaching studio, and to accommodate larger than usual class sizes, our felting tables spilled over into the beautiful Seasons on St. Croix Gallery.
In the photo above, you can see some of Dawn Edwards' other beautifully eco-printed objects, including handbags. The scarves and wraps overhead are HeartFelt Silks-made, and the hat block in lower right corner is an original hand-crafted wooden hat block by Harry Firth.

The lovely Dawn had a selection of her one-of-a-kind felted hats on display at the gallery.

Making a (supplies and tools) list and checking it twice!

Next up was Becky Utecht's Raw Felted Locks Throw pillow class. Becky, who is not only a feltmaker but also a shepherdess, knows her wool locks! There's nothing quite like a handsome, fluffy, and warm felted locks pillow to add a touch of the grassy pastures sheep love to your home decor.

If you know me and my fiber favorites, you know that I simply love felting with raw wool locks! During Fabulous Fibre Month, by popular demand, I got to teach a Felted Wool Locks Shawl workshop, which was a lot of fun.

I started by prepping the gallery the night before, setting up the tables, laying out the wool bundles, and some inspiration for our shawls from fashion magazines.

The felting adventures began the following morning, in the sunlit gallery. First, the layout...

(The students felt inspired by the artwork surrounding them, as well as by the scenic setting of our town, Hudson, WI.)

Then, the felting...

 And not long after that, we all had luxurious wraps to model!

A few days later, we welcomed Jan Waller to HeartFelt Silks. Jan came to teach a Felted Landscape workshop. With Jan as an inspiring (and entertaining!) teacher, the students had an amazing time.

We were again treated to gorgeous fall weather! And the autumn views around Hudson helped to inspire the colorful landscapes made in wool.

See? Gorgeous fall colors interpreted so very beautifully in felt!

Each student put their own inspiration and personality into their one-of-a-kind, unforgettable landscape.

And none of us shied away from lots of color and lots of embellishing fibers.

We reveled in each part of the process, from carding the fibers...

To using our trusty Palm Washboard felting tools...

To examining and admiring the stunning fruits of our labor.

Another student-favorite was Ruth Walker's Hat on a Ball workshop.

Ruth is a well known teacher and felt artist, and students traveled from near and far to take her class.

What could be more fun than bouncing a felted hat to have it take shape, while surrounded by colorful wool on all sides!

It was full house for Ruth's class, and look at the lovely hats made by all!

We also hosted Beth Marx all the way from California as a guest teacher during our Fabulous Fibre Month. Beth taught a Nuno Felted Vest class -- it had a big turn-out and lots of hard-working students.

What an eventful and busy month! We took a few breaks from felting by sampling some of our local restaurants, and entertaining extra special guests, like our very own internet celebrity Mick (Firth) who came by to visit one day!

Curious about what's coming up next for HeartFelt Silks? Visit our website, follow us on Facebook for daily updates from our studio and helpful tips, Twitter, and Pinterest, and email us any time. For the complete Palm Washboard series of felting tools, felting supplies, kits, as well as handcrafted wooden buttons and shawl pins, visit our online shops on Etsy and on our website.

We are working on bringing online lessons and tutorials to you in 2015, please stay tuned!

The HeartFelt Silks teaching and retail studio is located at 401 Second Street, Hudson, WI 54016.
Private individual and group felting lessons are available by appointment.