Felt Workshop with Heather Miler

Felt Sample by Heather Miler

On Monday the 22nd of August I attended a 4 hour long Felt Workshop by Heather Miler, part of Craft NI’s August Craft Month.

The workshop took place in Derry’s Craft Village. 

Nothing like a bit of craft therapy on a Monday morning, I could have played around all day! :)

more samples by Heather . . .

some of here stitches are so tiny you barely see them

such beautiful detail

I have hand felted before when I was at college . . . it’s the reason why I am fascinated by textiles. Sadly it wasn’t a specialist option at University so I choose print instead. Taking part in this workshop reminded me of how much I loved it. As Heather said herself ‘You can never go wrong with felting.’

We started off by layering the wool and placing plastic where we wanted the felt to bubble.

coloured wool, silks and other bits were then added to make my landscape

My inspirational photo was of Kinnego Bay in County Donegal

After placing the wools it was time for some elbow work! We added hot water and soap and massaged for 20mins or until fully felted . . .

. . . Then rinsed and towel dried ready to be wadded and stitched into.

Stitches were added using wools and threads along with beads to highlight certain shapes and to define the landscape

Here’s the finished piece :)

We didn’t get a chance to finish or pieces there so had to continue in our own time, here’s some pics of what the others had accomplished during the workshop . . .