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CAT | workshop
Yes I am going international with my felting workshops... Germany, India, Sweden,, Belgium, Sounds good no? I hope to add more countries to it, as I like teaching and travelling too so a good combination.
But to be honest, Belgium isn;t that far from my place... only 30 minutes drive. Today's destination was one town more far then where I held an exhibition in May. Only the trees looks different. Where back then in May the trees were fresh green, now they slowly turning yellow, red, brown and becoma empty before the winter is here... Nervertheless, I am always feeling gratefull for the beautyfull area we live in and all the changes in nature per season.
At the place to be, were 8 children waiting for me to arrive. We had lots of fun while making 2 pieces of soap per person. Hopefully they wil once come to my place too, to do another workshop here.
The results:
ps. the table had this great color... but does now look little strange on the picture.
Today I had an annual day of the dutch felting society. I left very early with P. Noordhoff , drove to germany and picked up my Colleque A, drove to Susteren and dropped off my cardingmachine at M. place. All before 8,15. Then we finally drove to Amersfoort, a 2 hours drive from my place.
Not even 30 minutes from our last stop the heighway was closed and we had to follow the boards for the alternativ route, we saw villages we never were before and we arrived more north at the same heighway. I expected we could drive on it again, but still that part was also closed. I followed the signs Eindhoven again and arrive at the first spot we had to leave the heighway, arghhh, We drove a circle!! :( 
Finally we arrived one hour too late, missed the meeting but were in time for the worskhops 
My first worskhop was called: "Knopen stansen en vilten".
We pilled up prefelt , one at a time and after felting it thoroughly it was punched and i got 4 beads
The second I participated was called : "deksels vilten" (felting with a lid)
I forgot to take pictures but there is a picture with all the things I "produced "
Next one was called "Zeeuwse Knoop" given by Ellen Bergman. Therefor we used some kind of sponge with holes and we added prefelt and wool on it. nice results!!
Then we moved over to the table to learn about how to make a scouts braird. The lady whom taught us , Titia Rithagen, told me that it was only possible for 4 times, "the folding". but I felt triggered and thought about it, and so I made a longer one. She was happy it also worked.
Then we went to try felting a Keltic knot , Which was also fun to do,,, amazing how a long felted cord of 1.5 m can become so short after knotting it.
Last thing i did was making a button from felt. We all got the first one for free the next ones were €0,75 each, Very special ones,for a special project.
In the left corner all the things I made , Very pleased with it
the other side of the table , not all people added their results there.
While driving back to our place we discussed about the scoutsbraird and we (A and me) descided it should be possible to make it longer....
Top one was a short one and bottom one is one part how I made it there and second part is made in the car... not by me, I was driving 
but by A.
It was a very nice meeting and i feel loaded with new plans and ideas
After writing this post I made 2 longer brairds and 2 more "ballflowers" by making holes in a sponge
26
review of happenings in May and June part 1
2 Comments | Posted by Kim in Other, revieuws week / weekends, workshop
Wow how time flies, doesn't it? I just saw my last post is from months ago. The reasons for that is that I had a very good freind from India was staying here adn itw as a busy time lots of things to organise. Now, during the vacation time a good moment to look back at what I did.
In the beginning of May we had a groupexhibition in Kanne, Belgium. The opening evening was very promissing.
The 3 days after this evening I was going to offer small felting workshops there to all whom wanted to felt... we had heigh expectations....
But as it was springvacation, I guess many children were out on vacation to warmer places So not that many workshops to do
After that Vasudevan left to Uk to give workshops there and a lexcture in Estonia and for me started teaching again, a very busy time as examns and end of year presentations were held.
I gave a workshop Canlde light votivs,
Made a new kind of shawl, using Indian Saree left over fabrics,
a workshop rug making
made a rug myself too
and my good freind Heather came to visit me for in the weekend June 1th and 2nd. We finally met after mailing for so many years now. I showed her Maastricht and Den Bosch, organised a meeting here with 2 other ladies she knew and are also freinds of mine: Mitsy and Mariana plus their kids it was a great weekend.
On sunday when she left, the weather was excellent for an outside (late) breakfast.
The weekend after that Vasudevan came back and on Sunday 9th we drove all the way to Blankenham and Vledder (places 3 hours drive from my place) to pick up 3 looms I bought after first seeing them. I'll make a seperate post for the looms.
Ok that'is it for so far. In the next post more about the textile workhsops we gave..... to be continued
As promissed I will share my newest raw wool project. I felt quite inspired to give it a go too again after "discovering" my wools again and giving a workshop with raw wools.
result of the workshop:
So I started laying out 4 layers of carded Gotland wool, on top of that I added different kind of raw wools. Some I even forgot which breed of sheep it comes from... But I recognised the Racka wool, white and grey, Gotland curls grey, voskopschaap, and brown quessantwool (not completely sure).
As I wanted to have a clear divorced line in between the raw wol I added a color in between: red merino fleecewool.
Now that was the dry part... now I needed to wet it all with soapy water. I think I used at least 3 of these buckets completely filled . Luckily I have the table slightly lower in one corner, so all the water ends up in and even bigger tub and i can re-use the water again.
From "airy" heigh to wet solid low.....
When all the wool was completely wetted and little massaged, I rolled it up first in bubble wrap after that also in an old blanket. So while rolling the "roll" it could not slip away all the time, but being able to roll.. Lots of water came out ofcourse..... needed all my buckets I coul find ..... praying for help with rolling up the wool, as it became more and more heavy to roll it up into a nice bundle, but I managed!! And Janna all of a sudden came to help me
And as an extra handy tip for you: I secured the blanket with ropes so while rolling it stayed as a nice bundle....
after opening and re-rolling it few times, Janna wanted to roll the felt with the "Knackebrod" roller I bought in Sweden some years ago
After a long time, I descided it was enoug felted, rinsed the whole piece and wanted to add it into the spinner.... but the rug was too big So I took out as much water as possible and let it dry flat on my floor, which has floor heating... and still in use due to the very cold weather here (
Here a detail while still wet,
And a picture nearly in total. I never worked with colored wool in combination with this pure natural wool, but somehow I think it is ok. What do you think?
Enjoy your weekend!
Special textile event!!
TASARA On Tour in Europe
Eind april begin mei in de voorjaarsvakantie komt dhr. Vasudevan van het Tasara weaving centre, Calicut, India
in Bunde textiele verfworkshops geven.
26 april: Zeefdrukken op katoen
26 april avond, 27 april hele dag: Multicolorbatik
28 april: Shibori op zijdestof
29 april: Blokprinting
1 mei: Tas vilten met tie-dye
Meer info via tel: 043-3649825 of 06-38312343
mail: viltk@yahoo.com site: www.viltalakim.com