Teaching My First Hat Class

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wet felting -making a hat

A challenge for me

I decided to try my hand at teaching a Wet Felted Hat Class. I have taught beginner felting and scarf making but this class would be a real challenge for me, because there is a lot of information to be given to create a successful hat. The week before  I made a demo hat ,in order to get my notes and written instructions down. But I also gave myself a challenge- I wanted to lay many more layers of wool then I had before in order to see the difference in the quality of felt, so this hat had 9 layers on a side instead of the 4 the class laid.…


Time, Money, How do You Evaluate art/craft?

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How much time does it take to make art? Is time a factor in equating value? When trying to sell products for a profit, isn’t it true “time is money?” These questions have always been a conundrum to me.

The logical answer to how much time does it take to make art is: AS MUCH TIME AS IT TAKES, to do the job. But when making things to sell, the cost of labor is a part of the formula for calculating profit.…


Summer Camp Revisited – Adult Style

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Lake Setting Of Camp Merrie- Woode

Every year when summer arrives, and the smell in the air and the heat of the sun are just right, my mind is transported back in time to the most wonderful years of my childhood-those spent in summer camp in the mountains of upstate New York.

Camp was a wondrous change of pace, a far cry from the pressures of tests and getting good grades in school. Camp was transformational—totally different from regular life at home on Long Island, New York where I grew up with my parents and 2 siblings.…


A Special Teaching Opportunity

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Last week I had another really enjoyable and unusual teaching opportunity.  The Southern Highland Craft Guild  in Asheville, North Carolina of which I am a member, was hosting a group of international teachers for a morning of craft and relaxation on their day off from their studies. These teachers were studying  different teaching modalities in the USA on a grant from the U.S. State Department. The program provides funding for a small number of  highly accomplished international teachers to take part in an intensive professional development program, which includes a broad range of educational classes and faculty support while residing in the USA for 6 weeks.…


Why I do what I do

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Ever think about why you pursue a certain activity, pick a certain job or follow a certain career path? I have been thinking a lot about this lately. It might be because I have reached an age – 60 ( although I do not relate to this number at all) where I thought it was important to examine my chosen path and see if I was still content.

I needed to examine where I am now and see if anything I wanted or needed to do was glaringly absent-dreams I may have had, activities I always wanted to do, or trips that I wanted to plan.…


An Art Form Most People Just Don’t Know About

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Funny, I don’t even keep up with writing my own blog, because it takes me so long to organize my thoughts and formulate my words, but when a fellow textile artist asked me to be a guest writer for her blog, I rose to the task. I wrote a short blog on felting, which is what I do — on my days, nights and weekends. And since I took the time to write it for her I would like to share it with you as well.…


The Art of Taking an Art Workshop

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There are so many wonderful Felting and Surface Design workshops available around the country as well as in Europe, that I never have a problem choosing one. This summer I might have overdone this luxury a little too much by choosing three in a 2 month period.

I chose two of these classes specifically for the teacher, the other class because of the subject matter. I was taking one five- day workshop in Surface Design with Jane Dunnewold, one three-day class in felting a garment with Charity Van der Meer, and another five-day class with Sachiko Kotaka, a co-inventor of the Nuno Felt process.…


A Wonderful First Experience: Felting with Children

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I was so fortunate the other day to have had such a wonderful teaching experience.

I taught a How To Felt Class to a group of 14 of the most well behaved and wonderful home school children-ever. Their ages ranged from 4 -12. Even some their moms got down and wet.

The class was taught at  The Folk Art Center in Asheville NC. and is part of a new outreach program that The Southern Highland Guild is initiating in order to give Hands On Craft Workshops to school children and community groups.…


Teaching and Being Taught Art

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preschool felting projects

As a young child I always created art -preferring to paint and draw rather than  join my friends at the mall. I loved copying Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Matisse.

As a college student I studied art, design and painting.  As an adult I found, not only did I have a desire to make art professionally but also to teach people,  young and old,  how to express and explore their own creativity through art making.  …


How do you even start to create a piece of art?

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The finished piece of art

It was my first Southern Highland Craft Guild Show.   I would get to see how people responded to my work and was excited by the prospect.  My booth happened to be crowded at the time, but I noticed  a man and woman very intently examining one of my highly textured scarves. When I approached, they asked me if I ever did wall hangings and would I be interested in doing a piece for their bedroom.  …