Nuno felted dresses with Charity Van der Meer!

I'm so proud of my nuno felted dress!!

I made this dress in a three days workshop organised by FeltmakersIreland. The teacher was Charity Van der Meer, an amazing fashion design from Zambia but living in Holland.

She works with just one layer of extrafine Merino on silk ponge or chiffon. (I used red chiffon).

She has up to 50 % of shrinkage and lays the fibres on the direction that she wants the shrinkage happening. That's how she shapes the dress. (It's hard to belive that you can get a dress from that, isn't it?)

From the same pattern we got many different dresses and jackets.

Mine is pure colour madness! I had a very busy time recently and I planned to buy my wool the week before the workshop, but plans changed at last minute and instead of been in Wicklow buying my wool and silk I finished in Connemara hillwalking and kayaking against the wind!! So, for my dress I just took all the wool and fabrics that I had at home: three different greens, reds, whites and blacks!!

I paniked a litlle bite, I didn't know how to put all together without looking like a clown. Thanks to Clodagh who carded all the wool together for the tops, bringing all the colours together beatufully and thanks to Charity who helped me with the surface embellishment.

I'm very pleased with the result, but I hope that it's the last time that I left the shopping for last minute!!

The dresses are so nice to wear, they adapt to your body, just showing the best of you!! And moreover they are reversible!! What else can you ask to a dress?

Check here and here to see more of Charity's work. It's just faboulous!!

Great workshop with Birgitte Krag in Denmark

In September I was in Denmark to attend a 2 days workshop with master needle feltmaker Birgitte Krag.

 We work on the human figure. This is my doll.

This figure is flexible because has a body made with pipe cleaners.

 All what you do is to wrap the  wire skeleton with a 1st thin layer of wool, and after you keep adding more layers and wool to create the body volumes. Like that, the head, the belly, the breast and the bottom are made by felting extra balls of wool to the body.

 The face has a lot of detail but it's made in the same way, by adding wool in specific spots (cheeks, nose, ...)

Always it fascinates me how in the same class, after following the same instructions, the finished items can look so different. I think they have their own personality!

I had great time in Denmark, my doll still need to be finished, but I came back with plenty of technical tips...

 ...and few felting goodies as these beautiful crafted wood handles for needels and this natural coloured wool, perfect for needle felting.

The wool is from NewZeland bought in http://www.henrichsens-uldspinderi.dk/

 Birgitte (the one with the green foulard) is a very good teacher. I was amazed to see how she got 12 people progressing at the same pace in a relax and friendly environment. 

Birgitte is a very good artist with  a very good knwoledge of the human figure, she gaves us a lot of tips to make our dolls a more real look.

It was a plesure to see her work in life. 

I like this owl. Very often she is inspired by the wool themself, she works a lot with raw wool.

If you want to learn how to needle felted a human like figure, I advise you Birgitte's book "New felt", you can get it directly from her, on her web www.feltmaking.com, she'll write a llittle word for you! or you can attend one of her workshops in Copenhagen. They are in Danish, but even not speaking  a Danish word, I could followed the class without any problem. It is a practical course, with very visual demonstrations. And every body was very nice, the others students helped translating, specially Lena from Sweden, she even baked a cake for the last day, delicious!! And Birgitte was very generous with her attentions towards me!!  

I really enjoyed my stay in Copenhagen, I loved the city, their colours, their architecture, their design, their craft, their love for vintage, their bikes!!!