New Felt Scarf

CRAFTed - the making of a felt wall hanging in the classroom

For this years  CRAFTed I had 4th class from Scoil Bhride,  Paulstown, a country school about 20 km from Kilkenny city.

In order to get used to felt making   each child was to make their own felt picture  of their own design ,  only condition   to use as much colour as possible . The children enjoyed  the colours and what  happy amazement  when their laid out wool fibres turned into a piece of felt . They made tractors and lions, sunsets and rainbows, golden beaches and  the sea, and some wrote their name in colourful felt.

On my second visit I was overwhelmed by the happy welcome I received on my return and from then on every time I came back was greeted by children from the class welcoming me  the minute I got out of the car  offering their help to carry in the felting equipment.

The plan was to create a large wall hanging in time for the opening of the new school extension.

Now it was time to make some prefelt in preparation for our wall hanging. Children were divided into groups in order to make prefelts in shades of the dominant colours of the large piece.

For our 3^rd workshop with  the help of their  teacher  the children  prepared cut out handprints  of their own hand  and also of the hands of pupils from other classes , involving the whole school  in our project.

These were then traced on a multicoloured  prefelt  and cut out, acting as the blossoms for our “welcoming tree”. We recreated features of the local landscape  and natural environment and at the bottom added the name of the school by laying out fibre and adding the coloured  prefelts prepared beforehand.  Everybody took part in wetting and rolling the large piece which is now happily displayed in the school hall.

It was a great experience and a real pleasure to work with the children of 4^th class Scoil Bhride, and while their teacher was very good at maintaining a healthy level of discipline the children   never lost their natural enthusiasm and spontaneity  and I hope the wall hanging  resembles  just  a bit the bright , joyful  and vivid children I worked with .

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air and only 2 more days to St.Patrick's Day. I got distracted today by this beautiful Hellebore  that grows in my driveway. Just had to take a picture. 
Yesterday we went to the launch of the Open Studio by the Arts Office here in Kilkenny
‘Open Studio’ is the culmination of the current artists in residence programme. Deirdre Gallagher (Limerick), Caroline Schofield (Kilkenny), Vicky Cody (Kilkenny) and Maeve Coulter (Kilkenny) who have been sharing studio space  at no. 76 John Street since October 2011.  Textile Art, Printing, Drawing and more, delicate smocking on printed textiles by Maeve Coulter, large wallpaper project collage printing by Vicky Cody, etchings and Prints by Deirdre Gallagher and brilliant drawings and dramatic free machine embroidered portraits large scale of passers by, by Caroline Schofield. Worth a visit if you are in Kilkenny on until 22nd of March. For more info :  www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/Services/Arts/
Artist’s residency blog: www.no72artistsresidency.com