LEIKO UCHIYAMA visiting master feltmaker!

Leiko will share her beautiful Matsuba, or Pine Needle Felt technique, in two back to back workshops at Luckystone Studio.

Matsuba (Pine Needle) Felt Tunic with Leiko Uchiyama
Wed. April 17 to Fri. 19, 2013
9 AM – 5 PM
$425 plus materials

This workshop is now full!  Please email me to be added to the wait list!

Create a seamless, sleeveless top with Pine-Needle technique. We will use the Pine-Needles technique to create the design and learn very important tips of making very fine but strong felt.

Felting experience required. This 3 day workshop is limited to 4 student

50% ($200) is due with Registration, the remainder ($225) is due at the workshop.  To register click here, print out and mail a copy with your $200 deposit, payable by check to Robin Blakney-Carlson, Luckystone Feltworks, 71 Lawrence St. suite 208, Glens Falls, NY 12801

Matsuba (Pine Needle) Felt Scarves with Leiko Uchiyama
Sat. & Sun. April 20 & 21, 2013
9 AM – 5 PM
$225 plus materials

This workshop is now full!  Please email me to be added to the wait list!

Leiko will lead us in making two distinctly different scarves in her Matsuba techniques-

Pine-Needles scarf : We will use the Pine-Needles technique as a part of the design and we learn also very important tips of making very fine but strong felt.

Nuno Pine-Needles scarf : One of the variations of the Pine-Needles with fabric. It’s amazing to find how the wool behaves!

50% ($100) is due with Registration, the remainder ($125) is due at the workshop.  To register click here, print out and mail a copy with your $100 deposit, payable by check to Robin Blakney-Carlson, Luckystone Feltworks, 71 Lawrence St. suite 208, Glens Falls, NY 12801
Cancellation Policy:  There is a $50 administrative fee for cancellations.  Refunds are subject to the ability to fill the vacancy created, only if there is a waiting list, and adequate time to respond.

Leiko writes, “Matsuba Felt means Pine-needles Felt in Japanese. The pine-needles spread on snow inspired me many years ago during long, quiet winter in my home land, Hokkaido, the north island of Japan.  Matsuba-Felt is very fine, lacy felt, and the texture changes with the way you prepare the wool, how you lay them and with different types of wool.  I’m developing more possibilities with nuno and I call it Nuno-Matsuba (Nuno Pine-Needles) Felt, specially for my summer collection.”

I have been a serious admirer of Leiko’s felt work for a number of years, she is a long time friend of my sister Polly and I am so pleased  for the special opportunity to host her at Luckystone Studio!  Leiko possesses an extraordinary aesthetic sensibility; she is one of those rare individuals who’s creativity manages to transform fiber into another realm of beauty.   Her hallmark is meticulous and imaginative technique  resulting in lace-like to shibori-like textures; manipulated into ethereal shapes.  There is a delicate, uncommon beauty, and a playfulness in Leiko’s work.
See more of Leiko’s work on her web site: www.leikofelt.com

 A Public Lecture with Leiko Uchimaya:  My Felting Journey
April 17, 7 to 9 PM, at Samantha’s Cafe and Catering
11 Broad St, Glens Falls, NY 12801

Leiko’s fascinating journey has taken her around the globe in a circuitous path as sheep shearer, author, fiber artist and teacher. She writes “The process of creation is central to what I am. … As time passes, my felt creates the path I’ve been passing through.”   Join us for a fascinating evening.

She has studied, taught and exhibited extensively throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, South America, the UK and the USA. Leiko currently resides in Carlow, Ireland. Leiko Uchiyama’s work can be seen at www.leikofelt.com

Suggested donation $5

Organized by Luckystone Feltworks Studio
Sponsored by Art in The Public Eye and Lake George Arts Project
With Support of Ray Supply, Inc

 

A landmark FELTING RETREAT with two of Australia’s original Wild Turkey Feltmakers:

WIAWAKA FELT
with
POLLY STIRLING & SYLVIA WATT

July 7 to 13, 2013
At beautiful Wiawaka Holiday House on Lake George, NY

This workshop is now full!  Please email me to be added to the waiting list.

This is an unique opportunity to learn from two of the most creative felters I know (and I’m totally unbiased)!   I am privileged to present this retreat with my sister Polly and her long time felting cohort Sylvia Watt.

Polly is visiting from Australia next summer after a three year absence, and we’ve planned an inspiring six day event at our favorite retreat haven- Wiawaka Holiday House on Lake George.   Wiawaka is a very special place for an intimate gathering.  Steeped in history,  Wiawaka is set against a backdrop of the Adirondack Mountains, right on the shore of Lake George, the Queen of American Lakes.

Polly Stirling is known as the creator of the felting technique she dubbed “nuno felt” in the early 1990′s, but most recently she’s focusing her creative talents on eco-dyeing and mark making with native  plant materials.  Always exploring new pathways with feltmaking, Polly will be sharing her felting and dyeing artistry with us using plant materials  native to New York State!
(P.S. Her  Wild Turkey Feltmakers retreat in Skaneateles is full…)

I am thrilled that Polly’s long time friend Sylvia Watt, an extremely talented feltmaker and artist,  has agreed to join us for her premiere teaching gig in the USA!  I had the privilege to get to know Sylvia on my trip to Oz in 2011, and was wowed by the breadth and depth of her work.  Sylvia has an amazing talent for layering, hand stitching and creating mysteriously ethereal pieces.  (Sylvia’s beautifully layered garden is second only to her felt work!)

Sylvia and Polly go back to the early days in Nimbin, Australia when Polly was first developing nuno felt.  Sylvia was one of Polly’s team of Wild Turkey Feltmakers, along with Sachiko Kotaka.

Polly shared: Sylvia is particularly good at inspiring folks to draw on their observations of the world around them and transcribe this into art forms.

An artist all her life, Sylvia has worked with textiles as a maker and teacher since the 1990s. Sylvia explains “At the heart of my work is an exploration of organic form and my main medium is fibres. I have been a felt-maker for 20 years and I love the surprise of it, the surface texture, the response of materials.” She values the clarity and integrity of working with materials that maintain their individual identity, unlike paint. She says her work is more about the process than the product, and more about the medium than the image.

Sylvia’s elegant approach to imagery is embodied in her recent work: Camouflage Series, featured in a solo exhibition this year in Sydney, Australia, and published in Textile Fiber Forum Magazine, Vol. 105.

All participants will work with both instructors in the focused topics described below:

FELT & IMPRINTS
with Polly Stirling 

All participants will be treated to 3 days of instruction by both tutors in separate groups.

Working with the subtlety of impressions left behind by employing natural elements to stain, print, mark or texture felted materials.

We will be felting a variety of samples which may include different fibres or fabrics so that the dyes and prints take interestingly. These smallish samples can be imprinted, stained or dyed according to what I source for the workshop from NY surrounds, and either re-felted onto larger pieces at leisure, or be stitched onto the surface for feature panels of garments of works of art in general. 

A variety of possibilities for wearables or other works of art will be offered for exploration and discovery as we tempt the natural world to reveal it’s secrets. Basic felting experience is recommended as the emphasis will be on transforming visually “neutral” felts which could be brought or made quickly in class.

Materials list will be provided upon registration.

 

ASSEMBLAGE in FELT
with Sylvia Watt 

All participants will be treated to 3 days of instruction by both tutors in separate groups.

Participants will spend three inspiring days under the tutelage of feltmaker and artist Sylvia Watt exploring the art of assemblage.

We will be using felt as the core element, to pull together different components to make a unified image with hand stitching and feltmaking techniques.  Gleaning all those bits and pieces (felt offcuts, fabric, beads, found objects, etc), we will deconstruct & reconstruct. 

Day one will be a strong focus on feltmaking as Sylvia shares various methods to make felt, with a focus on images as we investigate principles of colour, design and composition.

Days two and three will be a continuation of the reconstruction process as we compose and construct our assemblages with hand stitching.

Students should bring: felting wool, felt offcuts (scraps of felt), hand sewing needles, thread, scissors, found objects, “bibs & bobs”, fine silk and cotton fabric (small pieces) for collage, beads, any interesting fabric, lace, etc. Extra supplies will be available, so no worry if you are unsure about what to bring. A complete materials list will be sent upon registration. 

 

 

 

The retreat begins with registration at 5 PM July 7 followed by dinner at 6 PM, and concludes Saturday July 13 at 4 PM.

All inclusive registration fee: $1045

Registration fee for this workshop is all inclusive of workshop, lodging and meals.  (Materials fee extra.)

50% ($522) is due with Registration, the remainder ($523) is due by May 31, 2013.

To register click here, print out and mail a copy with your $522 deposit, payable by check to Robin Blakney-Carlson:

Luckystone Feltworks Studio
71 Lawrence St. suite 208
Glens Falls, NY 12801

All participants will work with both instructors

Fee Includes: 6 nights lodging – Sunday July 7 through Saturday July 13; 6 days of workshop and all meals beginning with dinner July 7, the last meal will be breakfast July 12.   Participants may make arrangements directly with Wiawaka to extend their stay.

Cancellation Policy:  There is a $50 administrative fee for cancellations.  Refunds are subject to the ability to fill the vacancy created, only if there is a waiting list, and adequate time to respond.  No refunds after April 20, 2013.

 

PAST EVENTS:

Coming out of Winter Hibernation
A Workshop in Sculptural Felting

with Dutch/Canadian Felt Artist:
Marjolein Dallinga
February  1, 2 & 3, 2013

Second session, a repeat of Coming out of Winter Hibernation:  February 5, 6, 7, 2013

Marjolein Dallinga is an extraordinary felt artist with a very unique approach to teaching.  She has become known world wide for her sculptural felt work as costume designer for the renowned Cirque du Soliel.

My first encounter with images of Marjolein’s work in a  magazine in 2010 left me speechless- the vibrant color gradations and startling forms were unlike anything I’d seen before.  I jumped at the chance to take her workshops at the 2011 Felter’s Fling.  Now I have the honor of bringing her to Luckystone Studio to share with you.

THE WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

Experimental Sculpting with felt

Our feelings and our level of creativity are modulated by the rhythm of the seasons.

The inspiration for this workshop is “winter”.  We are going to experiment with form, colour and scale within various winter settings.

As well we will explore various techniques used in the shaping of felt and the rudiments of dyeing and the creating of colours.

Consider this workshop as an invitation to an adventure.

Marjolein was the recipient of an award for her costume Skin at the 2011 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards Show in New Zealand.  She designs for her company, Bloomfelt.

This workshop is limited  to 10 students, so please register early by clicking here and sending your 50% deposit to secure your place in class.

3 day workshop, 10 AM to 4:30 PM
$300 plus materials fee (payable at the workshop)

Cancellation Policy:  There is a $50 administrative fee for cancellations.  Refunds are subject to the ability to fill the vacancy created if there is a waiting list, and adequate time to respond.  NO REFUNDS AFTER DECEMBER 17, 2012.

Location: Luckystone Feltworks Studio, Glens Falls, NY

Playing with Beautiful Recycled Kimono Fabrics
with Sachiko Kotaka
July 28, 29 & 30, 2012

This workshop is full, please e-mail me to be added to the waiting list!

Sachiko is returning from Australia to teach a 3 Day Master class!

Feltmakers who attended our retreat with Sachiko in 2010 will know what a special talent she is.  Her combination of technical skill, innovation and a unique aesthetic are unparalleled.  Mix that with a passion for urging her students on with humor and wit, and you have some idea of what is in store!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sachiko will teach students her special techniques of layering and manipulating kimono fabrics, prefelts and wool; focusing on joining pieces in many ways to create simple to complex surfaces, adaptable to many projects.

3 Days, Saturday, Sunday, Monday July 28, 29, 30, 2012

$375 plus materials fee for kimono fabrics and wool