Chasing Felt

I'm thinking this could be the theme for this year. Well, this and another more crass term from the previous post. I just came back from a 4 day felting workshop at New England Felting Supply in Easthampton, Massachusetts. If you had told me a month and a half ago that I'd be on a plane to Massachusetts, I would've called you crazy. I'm thinking some of the women in my class thought this when they first met me ("You came from where??") but when you see a class being offered by someone with mad skills like Lisa Klakulak, you go a-running. And I did!

Lisa's one of the few artists out there (ok, in my opinion) doing things with wool and felting that are truly amazing. She's been studying felting for the past 13 years and has come up with techniques and designs that are so unique. They're just not done by anyone else. So the chance to take her class in Realism in Felted Imagery was something I couldn't pass up. The class alone made for an amazing week, but traveling alone, meeting the coolest people (one gal had a flock of sheep, another rode a huge motorcycle), hanging out in Northampton and exploring a part of the U.S. I'd never been to.... all of this made for one hell of a good time! The class had waaayyyyy more math than I thought was possible, and even she jokingly said that she was glad that she didn't put this in the class description because people may not have signed up! I'm grateful for her crazy formulaic mind, otherwise I wouldn't have a good foundation in which to start my own work. Thanks Lisa!

New England Felting Supply where I took the workshop. A fiber artist's dreamland!

More views of the shop.

 

This was my second time using hand carders and it took me a WHILE to get the hang of it. I butchered the pretty shades of blue that I made.

My little spool of thread!  

Carding wool to create the colors I need for my projects. I didn't finish the image on the left, but I did card all the wool and brought it home, so I'm hoping to finish it. It's me and my shadow on the beach in Gualala, Ca. 

  All of our felted spools before we did any free motion stitching.

Lisa giving us a free motion stitching demo. It was so much harder than it looked! Something I'll need to practice for sure.

Me and Lisa.  Check out more photos here on my facebook page!

My goal this year is to work more on my felting technique, honing my craft and spending more time on creating, discovering and seeing where I want to take my felt. I'm the worse at decision making.....I can hem and haw until even I'm so annoyed with myself, but after taking this class, I've decided (saying it out loud helps, right??) I'm going to take a leap this year, curtail my wholesaling and online sales and devote my time to exploration. This is where chasing felt comes in. You may recall, if you read this blog, that I took a felting workshop with Claudy Jongstra in 2010 (in Italy! Oh take me back!) and a 2 day class with Jorie Johnson, both women creating such beautiful work. I'm thinking this is going to have to be the way I get my felting education since there isn't a school or extended workshops that specialize in felt. So I'll be in search of classes this year! And possibly residencies too. I'm pretty excited :)

A Week of Inspiration, Frustration and Letting Things Go

I don't have any formal training when it comes to felting. It's been good ol' hard work, experimentation, lots of books and the internet. There are times when I lament not having a past with wool....not having years and years of technique down. But when I think about how I actually feel when i'm felting, that it's never boring and there's always sometime new around the corner I've yet to find, I realize that I don't need this background. BUT i've always wanted a teacher. Someone to inspire me, give me honest feedback and to expand my horizons. And that's where Claudy showed up! I took a felting workshop in Italy with Dutch artist Claudy Jongstra back in June and it was just heavenly.

The olive oil farm where I stayed.

From the location (I stayed on an olive oil farm in the hills of Umbria), the class itself (Claudy was so awesome!) to the FOOD.....it was such an experience. And speaking of food. Ohhhhh, the food! Rita, who owns the place where I stayed and grows/makes her own olive oil, cooked for us every night and man were we spoiled! Handmade ravioli, rabbit one night, quiches and homemade desserts. I could go on, but I can see that you're drooling.

The workshop was held amongst the trees of a peaceful retreat in the Umbrian hills. We were given a huge amount of beautiful wool to work with - from hand dyed wensleydale to a whole fleece from one of Claudy's sheep in the Netherlands called Drenth Heath. I had never worked with a raw fleece before and this alone set the whole tone of the class - to work with the wool, allowing for experimentation and to not pay so much attention to technique. This was definitely a challenge for me! I do like to experiment but I'm one that can stick too much to the rules at times, reading and re-reading all about felting techniques. It was funny because Claudy came by me more than once to say "Let it go now" and "You're done! Stop felting!" Thankfully she was such a kind person so her admonishments came with a grin and a laugh. It was inspiring and frustrating all at the same time. By the end of the week I focused a little more on the wool spinning and weaving (which we learned in the class) and less on the felting and didn't let myself feel too guilty about it. 

Overall, the class was more than just a class for me. There were several "firsts". My first time traveling by myself and the first time taking an intensive workshop on felting. It's been well over a month since I've been back and my brain is starting to process everything that I took in. I'm ready to dive in!

In case you don't follow me on Facebook (which you can! Go there now and "like me"!), click here to see more photos of the class.

Getting That Travel Itch

If you know me well, then you know I have a severe case of the wanderlusts. And when I say severe, I mean exactly that. Severe. Drop everything at a moment's notice to hop on a plane? No need to twist my arm. Sell all my belongings to go around the world for a year? Why hells YAH! Some days are worse than others and lately, I've been scratching.

I leave in less than 2 months bound for Italy to take a felting class with 5 days after to do as I please. This is exciting for many reasons -
1) I'm taking a class with an amazing fiber artist whose work I admire so.
2) I've never traveled by myself.
3) It's in UMBRIA!

I've decided that after the class I'll spend 2 1/2 days in Siena (never been) and then 2 1/2 days in Rome (been there but need some more). I have rooms already booked - In Siena I'm staying at a place run by nun's. I've always had a thing about nuns....could be my Catholic upbringing, but they also happened to be reasonably priced, each room has a view and it's a short walk to Il Campo, the main square. (I have to be honest and tell you that it was an absolute thrill to e-mail them and ask them for a room with a view...just like the movie. This made me oh so happy.) And in Rome, I'm renting a room in a woman's apartment just across the Tiber via this site. I had the best experience last year using AirBnB for our trip to Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest (check out this NY Times article for a primer about them) but decided on the latter this time. I realize that I've never posted any pics from that trip! Another blog post....

The last time I visited Italy was in 1998. I dug through a box and found my terrible photos from this trip (I remember thinking back then that I really knew how to take photos) and for fun, scanned in a few that made me smile:

A Vespa near our pensione. 

The heavenly lighting and beautiful statues in St.Peter's Basilica.

                                                              Inside the Colosseum.

And outside, where these two guys made a killing stalking naive tourists and getting you to photograph them and then demanding money right afterwards. They seriously were as nice as they look here in the picture. (nice legs though)

If anyone has any must-sees/must-dos while I'm there, let me know! I'm hoping to visit some boutique stores while I'm there too...It would be great to have some Papaver Vert in Italy :)

Felting Class! (class is FULL)

I'll be teaching an intro class to wet felting at Peace Industry Rugs in San Francisco!

Ever wondered how a bunch of cotton-candy looking wool turned into a solid and beautiful fabric using water, soap and agitation? Then you'll need to sign up to find out :)

Space is limited.....e-mail me to join the class - papaververt@gmail.com  CLASS IS FULL(yay!)

Check out some pics of my last class - we had so much fun!

First Local Social Event

With me! Patty Benson! Felting extraordinaire! Well...not quite, but the gals of Local Social did give me a very lovely intro before the class. If you haven't heard me mention Local Social yet here's the low down on this very cool new venture:

"Local Social is a burgeoning events-based collaborative where we will be hosting intimate events about once a month.
Our focus is on the Bay Area and our mission is to merge elements of design, art and craft through community collaboration."

The next event is called "Plant. Shake. Enjoy." where guests will be learning from a talented cocktail expert how to make specialty drinks using fresh herbs from your garden. You'll also have the chance to pot your own herbs to take home. Oh and did I mention that it will be held at the Margarido House? Yes please! (rsvp by April 23rd)

Back to the felting class now.....Catherine and Gretchen of Local Social laid out the most beautiful and tasty spread based on all things tea: hot and cold mint and jasmine tea, tea infused vodkas, (now THIS is my kind of class) home baked goods, fresh fruits, agave nectar and more.

Each person got to go home with their own hand felted wool trivet/pot holder/ decorative piece.




See more pics here.

Sharing the Love of Felted Wool

I got together with some of my lovely co-workers recently to teach them how to wet felt wool.



See more pics here.