Winter and Spring 2015 Felting Classes with HeartFelt Silks

It's a new year and a new season of felting classes at the HeartFelt Silks Studio at SEASONS on St. Croix Gallery! Find the list of Winter and Spring 2015 classes below. Other felting classes (including private and group instruction) can be arranged by appointment.

All registrations are done via phone or email and must be prepaid. 

Follow us on Facebook to see photos from previous classes!

Take a felting class with fiber artist Robbin Firth at HeartFelt Silks® Studio  

Let your creativity flourish and create unique fashion accessories and home decor objects! 

Location: 401 Second Street, Hudson, WI 54016  at SEASONS on St. Croix Gallery

  phone: 651-263-7275        email: robbin@heartfeltsilks.com        www.HeartFeltSilks.com 

Felted Vessels with Resist

Create a one-of-a-kind vessel with 3D effects and learn the technique of wet felting using wool roving, UPWOLFING cutouts. These unique vessels make bold decorative and functional objects of home decor.  Robbin will teach you a faster way to felt using the Palm Washboards and the new Wedge Palm Washboards felting tools. Felting experience required. 2 day workshop.

Material & class fee: 
$160.00                     
Saturday & Sunday, January 17th-18th 12pm-5:30pm




Felted Cross Hatch Scarf

Create your own lattice-style scarf or wrap. This technique makes a beautiful scarf that looks complicated, but is easy to learn. Use merino wool roving of various colors, silk embellishing threads, and your own scrap yarn bits to create the design, and then wet felt with Robbin’s Palm Washboard felting tool, and her innovative non-rolling technique. Felting experience required.


Material & class fee: 
$65.00       

Saturday, February 7th 1pm-4pm  




Felted Raw Locks Scarf

A superfine merino wool will start as your luxurious base fiber; then, layer in raw Blue Faced Leicester sheep locks onto the merino base. Just a small amount of rolling and use of a custom designed felting tool, and your wet felting adventure will produce a scarf with a soft texture, but a curly and chunky appearance. Please note: raw locks do have a slight odor. Felting experience required.

Material & class fee: 
$70.00
                                                         
 Saturday, February 28th 1pm-4:30pm





Intro to UPWOLFING

Discover the creative and unusual UPWOLFING felting technique! Learn the basics of UPWOLFING invented in Eruope by Irene Van Der Wolf. In this class we will experiment with a small UPWOLFING mat and Merino Wool Prefelt. You will create patterns and designs that you can later use in other felting projects. This class will go over advanced UPWOLFING techniques and products. 

Material & class fee: 
$65.00 

Friday, April 10th 6pm-9pm
                                                                
Saturday, April 18th 1pm-4pm



Felted Flowers and Vines
Create beautiful and delicate flowers with stems to make belts and necklaces. This class will take you through the basics of making the flowers with the Palm Washboard felting tools. Robbin will show you an easy technique to create the stems and then a way to connect them to the flowers for fashionable accessories. Felting experience is required.

Material and class fee: 
$65.00

Saturday, May 2nd 1pm-4:30pm

Friday, May 29th 5:30pm-9pm

Please bring a couple of towels to the class/es you attend.

All registrations are done via phone or email and must be prepaid. Other felting classes can be arranged by appointment. Private and group instruction available. Contact Robbin at 651-263-7275 for details. If you cancel 2 or more weeks prior to class date, there will be a 10% cancellation fee. If you cancel less than 2 weeks from class date, there will be a 50% cancellation fee. If you cancel the day before or day of class, there will be no refunds. A full refund will be made if a class is canceled by the instructor.
   

All registrations are done via phone or email and must be prepaid.

                            651-263-7275        email: robbin@heartfeltsilks.com


Shop for unique felting tools, supplies, and kits: www.heartfeltsilks.com

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.

 

Robbin Firth is a Guest on Fiber Art Now magazine's FAN Fare Online Show - September 14, 2014

Robbin Firth of HeartFelt Silks will be a guest on the premier episode of Fiber Art Now magazine's FAN Fare online video show -- Sunday, September 14, 2014, 3:00PM EST. Tune in to chat with us!

About the FAN Fare show: FAN Fare is a free, online, interactive, web show devoted to inspiring and connecting the fiber arts community. Every month, FAN Fare will give viewers the opportunity to actively participate in the program and ask questions while watching the live show.  Hosted by Cami Smith.

Join Robbin on FAN Fare - September 14, 2014!

About the GUEST: Robbin Firth, felt artist & teacher at HeartFelt Silks studio in Hudson, WI, and host of Fabulous Fibre Feltmaking Workshops 2014, has been working in the fiber arts for over 20 years. Robbin’s artwork can be seen at fine boutiques in the region. She also teaches at The Textile Center (a nationally recognized organization for fiber & textile arts), Phipps Center for the Arts, and offers private lessons.

Felt Artist Robbin Firth

Robbin and her husband Harry Firth are inventors and makers of the handcrafted Palm Washboard line of felting tools. The Palm Washboard eliminates the need for rolling, which lets you explore new design ideas and removes tedious labor from the process of wet felting.

Tune in for the live show to ask Robbin any questions, from technique and creativity to teaching, selling your work, and running a fiber business!

Take felting workshops with Robbin and talented guest felt artists from around the United States, in October 2014 at Seasons on St. Croix Gallery in Hudson, WI. Here are our Top 10 Reasons to come to Hudson, WI for Fabulous Fibre Month!

Contact Robbin at robbin@heartfeltsilks.com with inquiries.

Top 10 Reasons to Come to Hudson, WI for FABULOUS FIBRE MONTH October 2014

Fabulous Fibre Month is weeks away, and here are our Top 10 Reasons to come to Hudson, WI for Felting Workshops in October 2014!

Some classes are almost full, and registration for all classes is closing on September 15, 2014. If you haven't registered yet, please email Robbin@HeartFeltSilks.com today. Go HERE for the full felting workshops schedule and complete details on each class and instructor.

See you in October!

Fabulous Fibre Month October 2014 is hosted by HeartFelt Silks and Seasons on St. Croix Gallery. Additional sponsor: Textile Center of Minnesota.

Top 10 Reasons to Come to Hudson, WI for Fabulous Fibre Month October 2014

1. Hudson, WI is located on the beautiful St. Croix River, designated a National Scenic Riverway.

2. October is peak foliage season in Hudson -- the area will look breathtakingly beautiful. 

3. Learn the Art of Felting from artist instructors with a regional and national reputation in fiber arts.
 
4. All Felting workshops are held at the award-winning Seasons on St. Croix Gallery of art and fine craft.
 
5. Delicious meals at area restaurants - Barkers, Knoke's Chocolates, San Pedro's, Smilin' Moose, Pier 500, Mama Maria's. 

6. Many cultural & historic attractions, including Octagon House Museum, The Phipps Center for the Arts.

7. Fiber arts classes for every level, from beginner to advanced. Make one-of-a-kind fashion accessories to wear -- felted hats, shawls, bags. Home decor too! Learn the fascinating art of felting in a friendly, relaxed, and inspiring atmosphere.

8. Ride kayaks, canoes, or a take a narrated scenic boat tour down St. Croix River. 

9. Learn the trendy eco-printing technique or learn how to "paint" a landscape in felt.
 
10. Meet the HeartFelt Silks family - fiber artist Robbin, woodturner Harry, their daughter/model Kirsten, plus pets and Internet celebrities, Mick and Wally.

October 4-5, 2014 -- Eco-Printed Fantastic Felt Hats Workshop with Dawn Edwards (all levels)
October 10, 2014 -- Felt Birdhouse Workshop with Becky Utecht (all levels)
October 11, 2014 -- Raw Felted Locks Throw Pillow Workshop with Becky Utecht (all levels)

October 14-15, 2014 -- Felted Wool Locks Shawl Workshop with Robbin Firth (some felting experience necessary)

October 17-19, 2014 -- Seamless Nuno Felted Vest Workshop with Beth Marx  (some felting experience necessary)

October 24-25, 2014 -- Felted Landscape Workshop with Jan Waller (all levels)

October 27-28, 2014 -- Bag on a Ball Workshop with Ruth Walker (all levels)

October 29, 2014 -- Hat on a Ball Workshop with Ruth Walker (all levels

 

Schedule & Complete Details on Fabulous Fibre Month Workshops.

Fabulous Fibre month at HeartFelt Silks and Seasons

Fabulous Fibre Month at HeartFelt Silks and Seasons

HeartFelt Silks Studio

Robbin Firth of HeartFelt Silks is excited to announce the FABULOUS FIBRE MONTH for October 2014, hosted by the HeartFelt Silks studio and Seasons on St. Croix Gallery in Hudson, WI!  We will present EIGHT (8) FELTMAKING WORKSHOPS throughout the month, taught by Robbin and guest fiber artists/instructors from the region and from around the country. Please see below for schedule and complete details on each workshop, and contact Robbin Firth directly via email with all inquiries regarding the workshops: Robbin@HeartFeltSilks.com.

If you live in the region or if you have been thinking about visiting the scenic St. Croix River Valley, this is a wonderful opportunity to plan a trip. You will expand your felting knowledge and technique, learn new feltmaking skills, interact with engaging teachers and meet new felt art friends, all while enjoying the beautiful gallery setting in the riverside town of Hudson, WI.

Seasons on St. Croix Gallery - location for Fabulous Fibre
Workshops

To kick off Fabulous Fibre Month, the SEASONS gallery will host a month-long fibre show. The show will include a beautiful variety of wearable fibre art and decorative fibre art by local, regional and national artists (stay tuned for more details on this!). The Fabulous Fibre Month opening and reception will take place during SEASONS' "First Fridays” on October 3, 2014, 5pm – 9pm.  You won’t want to miss it!

LOCATION for all FELTMAKING WORKSHOPS is:

401 Second Street, Hudson, WI 54016

FABULOUS FIBRE Month

Feltmaking Workshops 
at HeartFelt Silks and Seasons on St. Croix Gallery

Meet our Instructors:

Robbin Firth

Robbin Firth (felt artist & teacher at HeartFelt Silks studio in Hudson, WI, and host of Fabulous Fibre Feltmaking Workshops 2014). Robbin has been working in the fiber arts for over 20 years. She enjoys all areas of fiber art creation: working with raw fibers, carding and blending, dyeing, spinning, and knitting. She also wet felts and needle felts to create extraordinary pieces of wearable art and fiber art for the home. Robbin's artwork can be seen at fine boutiques in the region. Robbin's HeartFelt Silks teaching and retail studio is located in beautiful Hudson, WI at the magnificent and award-winning Seasons on the St. Croix Gallery. She also teaches at The Textile Center (a nationally recognized organization for fiber & textile arts), Phipps Center for the Arts, and offers private lessons. Robbin and her husband Harry Firth are inventors and makers of the handcrafted Palm Washboard line of felting tools. The Palm Washboard eliminates the need for rolling, which lets you explore new design ideas and removes tedious labor from the process of wet felting. Robbin lives in Stillwater, MN, with her husband Harry, daughter Kirsten, and many family pets.

Dawn Edwards

Dawn Edwards (felt artist & teacher at Felt So Right in Plainwell, MI). Dawn is a felt/fiber artist specializing in fun, out-of-the ordinary felt hats. She sells her work under the name of Felt So Right through specialty retail, boutique and gallery shops throughout the U.S. Dawn states, "I believe that we are all artists....That it is the soul's deep need to create. I love and appreciate so many of the arts, but I have found my passion through feltmaking. I have studied, and worked with numerous renowned felt artists and treasured friends from around the world. Feltmaking has truly opened windows to the world for me and I am grateful for this most wonderful opportunity." Dawn has taught extensively within the U.S. and also internationally. Her felt works have appeared in exhibitions, art shows, magazines and books. Dawn recently won the Mad Hatter's Society 3rd Annual Hatmaking Competition (2014) judged by Couture Milliner, Arturo Rios. Dawn and Nicola Brown of Ireland are the coordinators of ‘Felt United’, an international annual event celebrated on the first Saturday of October with the goal of connecting feltmakers around the globe.

Beth Marx

Beth Marx (felt artist & teacher at Studio 907 in Long Beach, CA). Studio 907, affectionately dubbed for its uptown address, is the colorful and cozy 1920's California bungalow where Beth Marx lives, designs and creates one-of-a-kind jewelry, accessories and wearable art. Beth finds balance working with hard metal and soft felt often creating a single piece using both medium like the etched metal closures on her nuno felted purses or the felted beads adorning her hand forged wire necklaces. Her process is organic and intuitive, allowing her creations to evolve like a collage. She repurposes cast-off items, integrating found and worn treasures into her work. Whether she is manipulating metal with hammer, anvil and fire to create a unique piece of Boho jewelry, or teasing wool fibers and fabric with water to create a piece of nuno felt, Beth’s style always exudes an earthy patina rich with tactile, textured layers.

Becky Utecht (feltmaker & teacher at River Oaks Farm & Studio in Mora, MN). Becky raises Bluefaced Leicester sheep and makes art in rural Mora, MN. After years of painting in oil, watercolor, and pastel, Becky discovered felting in 2006 and was immediately excited by its efficiency and potential as an art medium. Becky learned that the wool can be used like paint (oil and pastel) as well as like clay to create 2- and 3-D art. For Becky, felting is a fascinating process which combines her love of animals and nature with her passion for art. Using the wool from her own flock of sheep, Becky creates 2D and 3D felt art work. Her recent work includes a series of assemblage pieces utilizing found objects from her pasture walks and paper-transfer resist-dyed pieces of handmade felt. She also felts raw fleeces into rugs and lap blankets that look amazingly like tanned sheepskins – but are much kinder to the sheep! Becky finds satisfaction in using a renewable, sustainable, and ecologically friendly resource to create her art. Becky has studied felting with renowned felt makers from the US, Japan, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Canada. Her felt art work has been part of numerous shows, wool festivals, and has won fine art awards at the regional and state levels. It also was selected for inclusion in the recent book "500 Felt Objects: Creative Explorations of a Remarkable Material".  Becky is an experienced teacher who enjoys sharing the fun and magic of felting. 

Ruth Walker

Ruth Walker (feltmaker and teacher in Columbia, MO). In 1982 Ruth became entranced by the beauty of wool yarns in Navajo textiles from the 1800’s. She began working with wool in Canberra, Australia in the mid-1980s, and she was introduced to Beth Beede’s “hat on a ball” technique in 1992. She left her employment in medical school research labs at the University of Missouri in 2000 to work in her studio full time, and went on to sell her work through shops in the U.S., and later began directly selling to the public at major retail shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art show, American Craft Council shows in Baltimore, St. Paul, and San Francisco, and wool market shows in Taos, NM and Estes Park, CO, among others. She has won many awards for her work, and has taught for the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association conference, Napa Valley Weavers Guild, Midwest Felting Symposium, Fine Arts Dept at Southern Illinois U-Edwardsville, Bristol Gallery and Estes Park Wool Market in CO, Eureka Springs Art Guild in AR, and in her present home state of Missouri for the Craft Alliance in St. Louis and the Fine Arts Department at the U of MO-Columbia. She presently dyes, felts, teaches and launches off to shows from her home in Columbia, MO, where she is also one of five owners of Bluestem Missouri Crafts, a fine craft store established 1983. Ruth’s favorite activity is buying fleeces.

Jan Waller (feltmaker & teacher at Love.Make.Think. in Michigan.) Once upon a time I thought I would be a painter, so I went to art college and discovered I was more of a sculptor. I left art college and did all sorts of jobs -- I was an artist model, I worked in a foundry, I was an assistant to a fire eater, I worked in retail, as well as for the British government, and I did a lot of work with kids, and that led to teacher training. During the next 10 years, I worked as a teacher and raised a family. It was my husband who booked me a one-day felting class with Gillian Harris of GillianGladRag fame, and that is how I fell in love with this wonderful ancient craft. Since then I have lived in Australia, before moving to Michigan. These days I make felted wall hangings that I can sew into and add lots of embellishment. I really like making images of women and girls, and I love adding nature. I always wanted to be a painter and I think you could say I now paint in felt. I like to exhibit whenever I can and I sell my work through local galleries and art shows. My work has received recognition and prizes from the Plymouth Community Arts Council (2012, 2014), and Northville Art House (2012).

SCHEDULE

October 4-5, 2014 -- Eco-Printed Fantastic Felt Hats Workshop with Dawn Edwards (all levels)
October 10, 2014 -- Felt Birdhouse Workshop with Becky Utecht (all levels)
October 11, 2014 -- Raw Felted Locks Throw Pillow Workshop with Becky Utecht (all levels)

October 14-15, 2014 -- Felted Wool Locks Shawl Workshop with Robbin Firth (some felting experience necessary)

October 17-19, 2014 -- Seamless Nuno Felted Vest Workshop with Beth Marx  (some felting experience necessary)

October 24-25, 2014 -- Felted Landscape Workshop with Jan Waller (all levels)

October 27-28, 2014 -- Bag on a Ball Workshop with Ruth Walker (all levels)

October 29, 2014 -- Hat on a Ball Workshop with Ruth Walker (all levels)

REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Space at each workshop is limited, and reservations will be taken in the order registrations and payment are received. Payment in full is required to secure your spot. Lodging and meals are NOT included. Please note that we will be unable to offer refunds unless your spot can be filled by another student. Contact Robbin Firth at robbin@heartfeltsilks.com to obtain registration forms.

WORKSHOPS LOCATION: 401 Second St, Hudson, WI 54016 (Seasons on St. Croix Gallery).

HELPFUL TRAVEL LINKS: Closest airport is Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Area lodging is available at Comfort Suites (mention "Fabulous Fibre Month to receive a room rate of $90/night). Other lodging options are Holiday Inn Express & Suites and Super 8. Visit the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce website to see a list of area attractions, and visit their office at 502 Second St to receive a special gift bag (mention that you are in town for Fabulous Fibre Month).

Eco-Printed Fantastic Felt Hats Workshop with Dawn Edwards

Eco-printed felt hat by Dawn Edwards

October 4-5, 2014 (2-day workshop)
Daily schedule: 9am-5pm, with a lunch break.
Cost per person: $250.00 (if paying by check) or $258.00 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 10 students

Eco-printed felt hats by Dawn Edwards

About this Workshop: Combine felt, fashion, and nature in this hat-making class. On Day 1, we will create sculptural felt hats using a plastic resist and the wet-felting method. This is a great introduction to 3-D felting. The shape of this hat will allow ample room for your botanical printing to show, plus it's just a fun hat to wear. Scrunch it up or pull it down to cover your ears on those cold Minnesota winter mornings. We will finish the felting of our hats by the end of Day 1. The fun continues on Day 2 as we begin to bundle and eco-print our felted hats. Eco-printing or botanical printing refers to leaves and plant matter that print when bundled (wrapped around a twig) and simmered for a period of time. Eco-printing differs from ‘natural dyeing' in that while both use natural plant materials, natural dyeing more commonly results in a fabric being dyed in one particular color. With eco-printing, you will actually see the wonderful leaf prints on your piece, and some, such as Eucalyptus leaves, actually print in bright color.  After bundling and simmering our hats in the dye-pot, we will make felt flowers for embellishing your hats. What a treat opening the bundles will be. The rest of the afternoon will be spent blocking and shaping our hats.

This workshop is suitable for all levels.

NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

Felt Birdhouse Workshop with Becky Utecht

October 10, 2014 (1-day workshop)

Daily schedule: 10am-5pm, with a lunch break
Cost per person: $110.00 (if paying by check) or $113.50 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 12 students

About this Workshop: Make an environmentally friendly home for the feathered friends in your yard. Using wool and wet felting resist techniques, we will make an adorable little house that the wrens will snap up right away. We will embellish the birdhouses and attach a hanger. These functional birdhouses will last for many summers and are wonderful indoor decorations during the winter. Dress comfortably and be prepared to get a little wet and have fun!

This workshop is suitable for all levels.

Felt Birdhouse by Becky Utecht (note: needle-felted birds are the subject of another class)

Recent Birdhouse Workshop with Becky, her students, and their finished birdhouses

NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

Raw Felted Locks Throw Pillow Workshop with Becky Utecht

October 11, 2014 (1-day workshop)
Daily schedule: 10am-5pm, with a lunch break
Cost per person: $110.00 (if paying by check) or $113.50 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 12 students

Sheep from Becky Utecht's farm -- showing off their beautiful fleeces!

About this Workshop: Create a felted “sheepskin” throw pillow out of raw locks from your favorite sheep breed. This is an environmentally friendly and sheep-friendly way to create a faux sheepskin pillow. Depending upon the type of raw wool locks used, the pillow could be luxuriously soft and lustrous, or thick and dense, or anything in between! Students can choose to make a round, oval, square or rectangular pillow. We will be using wet felting techniques and because we are using raw wool locks, things will get messy, so dress comfortably in old clothes or bring an apron to protect your clothing. 

This workshop is suitable for all levels.

Sheep on Becky Utecht's farm

Becky Utecht's flock of sheep

NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

Felted Wool Locks Shawl Workshop with Robbin Firth

Felted Locks Shawl by Robbin Firth

October 14-15, 2014 (2-day workshop)

Daily Schedule: 10am-5pm, with a lunch break
Cost per person: $225.00 (if paying by check) or $232.00 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 12 students

About this Workshop: Robbin of HeartFelt Silks is offering a felted wool lock shawl workshop. Surround yourself with sumptuous merino wool and Wensleydale or Teeswater sheep wool locks. In this workshop you will create a one-of-a-kind, luxuriously beautiful shawl that combines merino and cleaned wool locks, using the Palm Washboard felting technique. This technique is easy on the body and eliminates strenuous rolling from the felting process. You will learn to use resists and how to layer the locks for a free-flowing and elegant look. The first day will consist of a detailed introduction to working with locks, as well as doing most of the shawl layout. On the second day, you will finish the layout and complete the felting stages using Palm Washboards (available from Robbin). At the end of the workshop, you will have a glamorous and unique shawl to take home and enjoy all fall and winter seasons.

Prior felting experience is necessary for this workshop. 

NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

Seamless Nuno Felted Vest Workshop with Beth Marx

Nuno felted vest by Beth Marx

October 17-19, 2014 (3-day workshop)
Daily schedule: 9am-4pm, with a lunch break.
Cost per person: $425.00 (if paying by check) or $438.00 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 12 students


About this Workshop: Take your felting to the next level with this intensive three-day workshop with Studio 907's Beth Marx. If you have always wanted to learn to make seamless felted garments that actually fit, understand how to use a resist, make your own patterns, and demystify shrinkage calculations, then this advanced workshop is for you. Beth’s simple method of calculating shrinkage makes it so easy that no one even has to use a calculator – students have commented that this alone is worth the price of admission.

Nuno felted vest by Beth Marx

Linda St. Angelo commented on Beth’s Studio 907 blog:

I was one of the lucky ladies to have participated in Beth's class and was able to come home with a lovely garment I made myself (with Beth's help of course). The class was extremely educational and for 3 days Beth was on the go bouncing from table to table helping each one of us as we yelled out her name~~which was frequent. Ha-ha. She explained it to us so well with her instructional sheets she had put together for each of her students. A few days later someone asked me if the class was worth taking and I said "Yes, definitely I would recommend this class to anyone who wants to learn how to work with a resist, or just meet some wonderful creative people through the class, and take it with a fabulous, generous and fun instructor who creates stunning apparel pieces that people are lucky enough to wear." Thanks so much, Beth!

Prior felting experience is necessary for this workshop.

NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

Felted Landscape Workshop with Jan Waller

Felted Landscape by Jan Waller

October 24-25, 2014 (2-day workshop)

Daily schedule: 10am-5pm, with a lunch break.
Cost per person: $250.00 (if paying by check) or $258.00 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 15 students

Felted Landscape by Jan Waller

About this Workshop: The process of making felt seems to naturally lend itself to creating images of nature. Very much like watercolor paints, the layering of different coloured roving can produce a beautiful spectrum of subtle colours and hues. Come and spend a day with Jan “painting” a landscape in felt – this is a great class for felt makers of all abilities and experience – when we paint with felt, we tend to break the rules a little – so beginners are very welcome! Jan will take you through the process of laying out a composition using roving to create a landscape which you will then felt into unwoven cloth. She will show you how adding other materials like silk, muslin, and yarn can add texture and light. On day 2 you will finish felting your work, and Jan will show you how she embellishes her work further with needle-felting and embroidery to add detail and create depth. Students are encouraged to bring an image as inspiration (a holiday photo, a drawing from a sketchbook, or an image that just speaks to you), or Jan will have on hand some source material to get the creativity flowing.

This workshop is suitable for all levels.

NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

"Bag on a Ball" Felting Workshop with Ruth Walker

October 27-28, 2014 (2-day workshop)
Daily Schedule: 9:30am-5pm, with a lunch break.
Cost per person: $250.00 (if paying by check) or $258.00 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 12 students

About this Workshop: Felting a purse can be a refreshingly short-term project, yielding something wonderful and unique in a couple of days. This is my adaptation of Beth Beede's "hat on a ball" (that is, Beth’s use of a three-dimensional resist), and as such can be done in the space of the kitchen sink and a spot of the counter top next to it, or about 1.25 metres of table space set up as if it’s pretending to be a double-basin sink. The papier mache' technique I’ve developed allows for a great deal of control in the placement of color and design, as well as dispensing with that pesky seam that you never wanted to be there. The Bag on a Ball workshop consists of a bag containing 3 integral pockets, combining 2-D and 3-D resists. We will also felt the cords from which to hang the bag, and complete the bag within the 2 days. Everyone will complete a bag and take it home to dry, and to enjoy forever.

This workshop is suitable for all levels.



NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

"Hat on a Ball" Felting Workshop with Ruth Walker

October 29, 2014 (1-day workshop)
Daily Schedule: 9:30am-5pm, with a lunch break.
Cost per person: $125.00 (if paying by check) or $129.00 (if paying via PayPal)
Capacity: 12 students

About this Workshop: Felting a hat can be a refreshingly short-term project, yielding something wonderful and unique in a day . This is my adaptation of Beth Beede's "hat on a ball" (that is, Beth’s use of a three-dimensional resist), and as such can be done in the space of the kitchen sink and a spot of the counter top next to it, or about 1.25 metres of table space set up as if it’s pretending to be a double-basin sink. The papier mache' technique I have developed allows for a great deal of control in the placement of color and design, as well as dispensing with that pesky seam that you never wanted to be there. In the Hat on a Ball workshop you will felt a beret or cloche-type hat. Everyone will complete the hat and take it home to dry, and to enjoy forever.

This workshop is suitable for all levels.

NOTE: Materials and Equipment list will be emailed to you upon registration and payment.

IMPORTANT: For all FABULOUS FIBRE MONTH inquiries and for all workshop inquiries, contact the host, Robbin Firth, at Robbin@HeartFeltSilks.com.