Terra Textures-Surface Design in Felt Workshops

 Katia Mokeyeva and I are absolutely delighted to announce a workshop series to be offered this April at the Okanagan School of the Arts in Penticton, BC.

 The idea is to create a mix and match workshop combination where students can chose an assortment of classes, learn very different felting styles from two enthusiastic, supportive teachers, while creating a complimentary collection of felt wearables. We work from a similar starting point...nature as our inspiration and the space that feeds our creative spirits....and from this core, we then work quite differently in every way...in design, layout and felting process....but both with an emphasis on surface design.   We will both be offering  two  x one day accessory classes, plus a three day garment class on the weekend.

The Okanagan School of the Arts at the Shatford Centre in Penticton is a perfect location for our workshops. Lots of room and a very supportive space, in a beautiful natural setting. Lake, mountains, orchards in bloom, vineyards...it's quite idyllic....


Full workshop information and registration through the Okanagan School of the Arts will be available On December 15th, 2015. I'll send you the links when that happens.

It really is very exciting! 



Warm wishes, 
Fiona



 

Okanagan School of the Arts Workshops 1

  I have been working in one version of my most perfect place... there are several variations on this... but this is definitely a good one. The Okanagan is beautiful. And home to Canada's best wines, including some amazing reds. I'm staying on the Naramata bench, right on the KVR walking trail, in a vineyard... overlooking the lake.... with fine sunrises and sunsets. It is heavenly...and that is just my mornings and evenings.

  All day I spend at the Shatford Centre, home of the Okanagan School of the Arts. Some days I am teaching... and then others I am there as Artist in Residence. I'm using this time to tidy up some old work, refine my plans and goals for 2015/2016 and then start to enter into the mindspace for my upcoming exhibition in February. It is a wonderful world! Even with a separate studio space at home, and older children now, who are pretty self-sufficient, it is still a unique experience to go to a different space and focus. I think that is the key....to have clear goals to work towards in this special time set aside....with some breathing spaces allowed for...of course...and a fine glass of local red wine.

  This weekend was a three day session on Joomchi Feltmaking. We had a small class, due to a few cancellations, so I had the opportunity to make my own piece as a demonstration. With experienced feltmakers in the class, we delved deeper into perfect fit in garment construction and with a focus on lots of surfaces and composition techniques. 
All of the pieces were beautiful and perfect for their individual wearer and creator...

 

  And my own, red study....working with a single colour to really highlight the textures in the piece.

   This is first class I have taught in years that was not full. It was a tiny ego hit...being honest with you... but not for long...this smaller class size opened up opportunity to go much farther with my students and create something alongside them. We had more time for discussion and even a short "felt clinic" looking at past projects and tips for improving each work. It was a great gift of space and time.... These were three calm, creative, wonderful days, in an incredible setting and facility. It was pure pleasure.

And there are still 4 more days to go....
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Experimental Garment Construction Workshop

  I'm really looking forward to this workshop. We have a great space- very large, open airy and bright. Lots of room to move and work and think.  Plus it takes place at the same time as the opening of my upcoming exhibition at ArtCraft.  This exhibition is a collection of sculptural garments, accessories and small sculpture. The elements I am working with now in creating these pieces, will be those we'll view and explore in creating interesting shaping in our garments in the workshop. 

  Here's the workshop description:

  Sculpture for the Body explores the manipulation of the surface of a garment; building up organic shaping that alters the structural lines, beautifully, dynamically and unexpectedly.  We’ll create highly wearable art pieces exploring architectural and sculptural design in wool. Layers and shaping will be created with prefelts, cords and gathers, shibori, folding, cutting and stitching. We’ll cover seamless garment construction while making a garment design of the student’s choice-dress, jacket, vest or skirt.

  I am most excited about the range of possibilities in this class. You could come just for the basic garment construction and learn how to make a fit-to-you jacket, dress, skirt, vest, or....
  And then as much and deeply as you want to, we will cut and shape and manipulate to add new form and architecture to the garment. Clean, wild or elegant... 3 days of creative feltmaking.

  I'm so looking forward to sharing this time with some of you!
 
Dates: July 10, 11, 12
Location : ArtSpring, 100 Jackson Ave, Salt Spring Island
Fee:  $325.00 plus materials fee: $65.00

For more information and to register:
www.fionaduthie.com/experimental-garment-construction/

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

New Year - New Projects

  It is a bright, new, shiny year...and it is going to be fabulous! So far every day has been filled with excitement, momentum and pure pleasure! And lots of work...but in the best possible way.
  I have launched a new project: felt :: feutre- a celebration of feltmaking in Canada. I wanted to find a way to unite and promote feltmakers in Canada.   Even with the internet, our country is so vast and our population is so small. Having lived on both coasts now, I wanted to find a way to heighten awareness of our talented artists, our wonderful fibre farms and retailers, and our ongoing feltmaking events and workshops. A resource that provides information and inspiration that covers our whole geography.   
  The project includes a full resource based website that will be fully bilingual...currently in translation, a week long Canadian feltmaking event with 5 days of workshops, an exhibition of Canadian Contemporary Felt, exhibition catalogue, fibre sales, and studio tours. Canadian Felting Week runs from September 25th- 29th, and is held this year on beautiful Saltspring Island, BC. Next year I plan to bring to bring the event to Eastern Canada, and hopefully, the North, to have made it as accessible to as many feltmakers as possible. 
  The workshop details will be announced by January 23rd, with registration opening on February 1st.

  We have an amazing group of Canadian feltmakers teaching- Andrea Graham, Marjolein Dallinga, Ulrieke Benner, Jessica de Haas, Laurie Steffler, and Judith Dios. And myself! 

  Just like all the best projects, since beginning this work, it has just flowed seamlessly from day to day, with each organizational piece clicking into place!
The website is still under construction, but you can see it here:
www.felt-feutre.org/  and on Facebook here:
www.facebook.com/pages/Felt-Feutre/

 There are several other big projects in the works, and I feel quite determined to see them come to life this year and confident that they will!

  Wishing you all a happy new year-one of fulfilled dreams, gorgeous fibre arts, 
and contentment in every moment!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

Golden in the (Felt) Garden

 Wow. What a golden month it has been....gold in colour and experience.  This was our shimmery lake view from the cottage in Quebec where the first Fall felting retreat was hosted.

  Oh so busy, and the busier things are here, the less I write about it all....I know others manage to keep it all going- the doing and the writing about the doing, and I am so respectful.....but this moment of life for me is about engaging inner passions, not disciplines! That has come and gone and can come again later!

Eco-printing on Day 1, with flora from the farm

Fall Felting Retreats went well.....with lots of learning for both the participants and the teacher.....My main lessons- comfort takes precedence over beauty (at least in our teaching spaces), and sometimes, less can be more.  I arranged the class days with great planning, mainly in order to convey as much as I possibly could, while pacing my own energies to be able to deliver, but have learnt from these retreats to re-evaluate how much is enough- and to also, and more importantly, pace the class to the energies of my students.  A three day retreat is very different from three days of intensive workshops.  Next years retreat sessions will have a different format, to accomodate our best learning and doing rhythms...
  So....lots of learning, and much, much beautiful making with two incredible groups of creative people. Thank you all for coming! I wish I had some images of the finished works to show you- the surface design tapesties are all stunning and very unique, and the bags....again- wow- so much diversity in design choices.....they were fabulous!  I only managed to take 3 pictures from both retreat sessions- lots going on!

  I have one more Fall Felting Retreat session coming up in Nelson, BC, on November 16, 17, and 18th.   I'm very much looking forward to this time and place. A week in the beautiful Kootenays- can't wait!

  In the midst of these retreats, I've been able to do some new felting...my own projects including lots more "joomchi" pockets and layers, as well as felting with friends including storytelling carpets and gorgeous BFL cowls-yum! I have pictures to share with you as soon as I get my battery charged....that is my camera battery....I'm personally now feeling fully recharged and ready to go!

Happy November!
Fiona

SaltSpring Island Fall Felting Retreat

Foxglove Farm, SaltSpring Island, British Columbia

 

October 19/20/21st, 2012  10:00am-4:00pm + evenings

  

The British Columbia retreat will be hosted at the very beautiful and charming Foxglove Farm. The farm is located on one of the original homesteads on the island, surrounded by hundreds of acres of protected forest and agricultural fields, bordering Maxwell Lake. An idyllic, inspiring and very relaxing natural setting.  There is accomodation available for up to eight people in the three cottages.

 

All of the retreat details are available on my website here and on the retreat page of the blog here.

It's going to be a beautiful woolly October! I can't wait!

Warm wishes,

Fiona

Fall Happenings....

   I'm immersing myself more and more in my creative journey...more and more into exploring feltmaking and dyeing in my own way...exercising consciousness through the process and the artistic impetus within each method....Stretching into new ideas and finding my way into my full creative potential.... playing with words that have meaning in relation to the work I want to do...topography, terroir, migrations, entanglement, aspiration, permaculture and art....I'm very excited about some future plans and directions! 

  Top of the list is completing a felting book I have been working on for the last month, which I hope to have complete by the end of September. The focus of the book is surface design in feltmaking and includes every idea I can imagine, with step by step instructions and images, as well as project ideas.  It is based on the super popular surface design workshop that I've been teaching for a few years now, and gives me the opportunity to get into each technique in much more depth.....I'm loving the exploration....

 
And the realization of a beautiful vision- a felting retreat, scheduled for the second week of October, in one of my most favourite places on earth...a place I have a deep connection to that I can't wait to share with other creative souls!  The retreat will take place in a cottage on Meech Lake in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec, just outside Ottawa, Ontario, for very easy access. 

  It feels like another world, and this is my favourite time of year to be there.  The cottage will be wreathed in the gold of the trees, and looking over the lake through the Fall colours is a deeply inspiring and peaceful experience.  We'll have access to some local dyeplants, canoeing on the lake, hiking in the hundreds of kilometers of trails that start at the trailhead next door.....wonderful food....heaps of wool....plus three full days of feltmaking. I am so looking forward to creating a space that combines relaxation, serenity and beauty with energy, enthusiasm and the joy of making!   I'll post the details tomorrow.

  Yay Fall! Yes, I did just say that.  In the Fall we can wear wool with abandon!
And now that my Fall is all settled, I can relax into the rest of summer with my head and hands in the same place- in the studio creating new work for the book and the retreat!

  Warm wishes,
Fiona