Ever since being taught how to make a basic flat piece of felt 5 years ago I have been hooked and have been experimenting with the complexities of hand felt making! Compliments about my contemporary designs encouraged me to work with a publisher of online books to produce a full colour step-by-step guide showing how to begin learning to felt at home on the kitchen table. Finished pieces of felt can be uploaded onto the site creating an online community where crafters can share the results of their labour.

Lisa Slinn
IFA Member

This is an edited version of Lisa's full press release

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society is to showcase a unique adaptation of one of David Hockney’s most renowned paintings at its headquarters in Harrogate.

A section of Hockney’s vibrant “Going up Garrowby Hill” will be recreated as a 3m by 6m wall hanging for the Entrance Hall of the award winning Regional Agricultural Centre. The Society is best known as the organiser of the annual Great Yorkshire Show and its sister event, Countryside Live and its staff are based in the Centre that opened last summer.

The idea came from the Society’s HR Manager and IFA member, Susan Hibbert after she joined a felt making class. She decided on Hockney because of his strong Yorkshire links, and after gaining the artist’s permission, the work was commissioned by the Society.

The hanging will be made up of 18 separate felt panels, created from specially dyed coloured wool. Susan and her fellow felt makers are each making a panel, recreating the glorious colours used in the original masterpiece to produce the distinctive and unique piece of artwork.

Once completed, the panels will be connected and hung as one piece at the Centre. Wool has played an important part in the building both in its insulation - fleeces from 1,500 sheep were used – and all the carpets in the two-storey building are made from wool from Herdwick sheep. The Centre has won numerous awards for its sustainability, including most recently the highly acclaimed ‘Project of the Year’ title as well as the award for Sustainability at the 2010 RICS Pro-Yorkshire Awards.

A blog has been set up by the Yorkshire Agricultural Sociery where you can view more information.

To celebrate her tenth year of creating felt pictures, Andrea Hunter has published a coffee table book A HEARTfelt LANDSCAPE and there will be a solo exhibition in Ripon of the same title from the 17th September - 8th October.

Open the PDF flyer for more information.

Chris Lines, coordinator for Region 2 (which covers her home on the Isle of Wight) was involved in some yurt making. She was interviewed for the Isle of Wight's news blog. Read about it and listen to her podcast interview on the Ventnor Blog.

Nuno Felt by Liz Clay

Nuno Felt by Liz Clay was published by A & C Black at the beginning of December. It is selling very well and available from Amazon or from www.lizclay.co.uk if you would like a signed copy.

Unfortunately the review did not make it into the latest Felt Matters so it is supplied here

Review

Nuno and Felt is a marriage of woven fabric and fibres. This alliance allows Liz Clay to pursue her artistry over the medium with subtle, inspirational subversions. Using pebbles as fortuitous interlopers, or in her masterly apprehension of the gossamer translucence of fibres into wearable forms, which is where her greatest innovation lies. In this book, she shares her secrets.