Create an artful, seamless felted market bag with fabric guru Miriam Young!  You will learn how to use a resist to create a three-dimensional piece of felt, how to felt cords that will be used for the handles, and some surface design techniques to decorate the bag.  The finished bag is about 16” square.  Please bring a bath towel and a pair of nylons (knee-high or regular) to the class.  All other materials provided. 

Instructor's name 
Miriam Young - Using the traditional crafts of felting, knitting, crocheting, macrame, and embroidery, I create fiber art.  My most recent work involves wet felting and nuno felting.  Felting is transformation.  Thin, fragile wool roving is transformed into strong and vibrant felt by my hands, soap, water and agitation.  The colors, textures, thickness of the product, and ultimate shape of the felt are determined by me and the techniques that I use to create it.  I feel that I am creating something at a very fundamental level when I am felting.

 

I embellish my pieces with beads, hand embroidery, vintage lace or crochet work, and natural objects such as vines and driftwood.  The use of vintage work and hand embroidery ties me to the strong women in past generations who created beauty and art in their everyday lives by making pieces such as quilts.  Natural objects tie me to the earth, its intricate designs and rhythms, and our need to care for it.

 

I develop projects ideas in one of two ways.  Sometimes I select fiber and technique first and let that serve as the creative inspiration for the piece.  Often the colors and texture of the fibers themselves will tell me what they want to become in general terms.  Then I refine the idea, adding and subtracting materials until I have the combination that seems right for the piece.  Other times something external - a phrase from a book or song, a picture, or an object - will suggest an idea.  Then it is a matter of matching fiber, color and technique to make the idea a reality.  I seldom sketch an idea preferring to work with and manipulate the materials themselves to match the image I have in my mind of the finished piece.

 

Course type 
1 Day Workshop 

Class time 
June 27th, 10am - 4pm

* The instructor will be wearing a mask and participants are asked to wear one too.

Ages 
16 years old and up

Supplies included 
Please bring a bath towel and a pair of nylons (knee-high or regular) to the class. All other materials provided.

To RSVP please fill out our registration form here or call us at 405-744-1535.