Our last meeting for 2023 is our annual Christmas Party this Saturday 10:00am

We would love to see you all to celebrate the year we have had and to give you a sneak preview of what’s to come in 2024. We would like to do a little charity fund raiser, and keeping in the season – we would like you to make a Christmas decoration and we will sell them off.

Bring along:

• A plate to share
• Some flowers for the table
• Your favourite piece of Christmas felt or just your favourite piece of felt to show
• And your lovely selves!

Sue Eslick is going to show us how to use the leather making gear in our library – in particular the hole punch and grommet system. Perfect for holes in your felt.

Along with a Pop Up shop, Sara Quail will be demonstrating methods for creating decorative elements using viscose, a plant based fibre. She will show you how to incorporate this silky fibre into your felting to create a variety of effects ranging from light and lacy to lookalike nuno. To create graphic, jewel-like and textural elements, some unusual layout methods will also be revealed along with how to make ‘silk’ paper. Make the most of this versatile and economical fibre with the shared tips and tricks for endless possibilities!

Over 40 viscose colours and a variety of other Unicorn Fibres products will be available for purchase on the day – Cash or credit card available. To ensure availability of any specific items, please pre-order from the website for collection at TnT or email Sara at info@unicornfibres.com.au for assistance.

It’s that time of the year our AGM is around the corner. Doors will be open at 9:30am for Trash & Treasure sellers but the day will start at 10am.

All details are on the website under the Members section and include:

• Previous meeting minutes
• Agenda
• Both online and downloadable forms for nomination and proxies

Sue Eslick is going to show us the many ways to stiffen felt.

Nancy Ballesteros will be talking all things silk. The types, their nuances, and their uses.

Nancy will have a Pop Up shop with her so bring your credit cards and a shopping bag!

Nancy Ballesteros

Nancy Ballesteros has passionately worked with fabric all her life. She spent most of her childhood sewing and then was introduced to spinning, felting and dyeing while at university. These elements quickly took over as her life’s passion and she hatched a fibre business called Treetops Colour Harmonies in 1987. Since moving to Australia in 1990, Treetops continued to grow into a successful international web-based company offering felting supplies for discerning felt makers. She has taught felting for many years before taking a break to raise her two children and run Treetops. Since 2014, she began teaching again in Australia, Europe and the USA, mostly concentrating on unravelling the mysteries of working with superfine Merino and Nuno felting. Nancy was instrumental in developing the technique of Silk ‘Paper’. She has written about felting in numerous publications and participated in many workshops and master classes.

www.treetopscolours.com.au  facebook.com/treetopscolours   instagram.com/treetops.colours

The library has many books on colour and colour theory ready to borrow.

Soosie Jobson will be demonstrating 3D Resists. Take your vessels and sculptures to a new level. Soosie will have several of her vessels, sculptures and cactus to share. Yes we said Cactus!

We have many books in the library about resist work – come and browse before the demo.

3D Resists

Soosie Jobson

Soosie has been obsessed with felting for decades. Starting as a textile artist Soosie fell in love with felting after seeing a demonstration by one of Feltwest’s life members – Judith Shaw, and has been exploring the many facets of felting since. Her 3D journey started with a desire to make a cactus from felt and ended up with an entire cactus garden!

Feltwest is very pleased to announce an Artist Talk by Elizabeth Marruffo

Needle Felting Artist

Elizabeth is going to tell us all about her graphic novel project using needle felted creatures and characters to create the story.

“I am using needle felting to sculpt all the characters in my retelling of the Wind in the Willows story. I am also using recycled materials and polymer clay for other props. I am sculpting around 30 poseable anthropomorphic figures, arranging scenes and then taking photos of them. I then alter these photos digitally on my ipad using a program called Clip Studio. Finally I arrange the photos in a sequential way to create comic pages and add speech bubbles and text . The final book will be around 250-300 pages and I hope to be finished in around 2 years.”

Elizabeth Marruffo is from the small border town of Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico. In her painting practice, Marruffo engages with ideas of self-representation along with themes of collective grief, loss and love. Her paintings appear as dreamlike images where the earthly and the otherworldly co-exist. With an increasing interest in folkloric traditions, she uses the techniques of a traditional painting practice and creates works that have a distinctive and contemporary voice.

In her work with children’s community groups she uses poetic and gentle techniques in ways that encourage a child’s ability to develop their own creativity and sense of self.

Elizabeth currently lives and works in Perth, Western Australia. She is also the director of Milktooth Arts Space, where she develops and runs children art classes and adults art workshops. She is a sessional lecturer in painting at Edith Cowan University, has been a finalist in numerous national painting awards including The Portia Geach Memorial Prize and is represented in various collections.

The wonderful Sharn Bruere will be talking all about slippers. Her workshop last year was a huge success and to tempt you into another one Sharn will showing us all kinds of slipper things. Bookings for her workshop will be open – make sure you jump in early as there was a long waiting list last year. Grab some supplies.

Sharn will have a popup shop with Slipper supplies

• Core wool
• Wool kits to make a full pair of slippers
• Shoe soles
• Resist material
• My e-book (printed) on the magical art of slipper making

About Sharn Bruere

Sharn is a town planner by trade and wool felter at heart. She started her wool felting journey making felted wool baby shoes. She now takes custom orders for ladies slippers through her website Woolly Wombat. She has made hundred of pairs of wool felted slippers using the wet felting technique. Through the making of each pair she has perfected the art, streamlined the process and made all of the mistakes (so you don’t have to!). She has written an e-book on how to make felted wool slippers and knows all the tips and tricks to complete a pair of beautiful and magical slippers.

We are very pleased to have June from Bilby Yarns come and share her wealth of knowledge with us. June will be talking all things carding and blending. June will be showing us how to use the hand carder and blending board from our Library. They are available for borrowing every Toss n Tell and Tuesdays. Come along and see how easy it is to blend colours with these great tools. Stay on afterwards to have a go – bring your felting and take advantage of all of our equipment.

June will have a Pop Up shop with her so bring your credit cards and a shopping bag!

June’s Story

I began my textile journey at 16 years of age, sewing my clothes on a Treadle sewing machine and later working with designers in a fashion agency in Perth.  Years later found me living in Nhulunbuy NT on the Gove Peninsula where I learnt to dye wool and weave fleece rugs through a local tutor [Swedish].   Moving to Karratha in the Pilbara I was fortunate to buy a foot loom and was taught multi shaft weaving by an English master weaver.

Before leaving the Pilbara, I joined the HWSDG WA and shortly after arriving in Perth became their Yarn Room coordinator and newsletter editor. It wasn’t long before I met the members of the Melanian Sheep Breeders Society and in 1994 became their City Wool Depot Rep. My ties to the country are strong through my father who grew up at Piawanning [north of new Norcia].

With an available abundance of fabulous natural coloured wool/fleece & using my superannuation as finance, I accepted the challenge of selecting/collecting/buying WA fleece, organising scouring, carding, combing & processing tops and a range of yarns as chemically free as possible. I travelled to monthly spin-ins throughout the country, attended Geelong Wool Fest and Bothwell Highland Spin In.  Many years ago I bought the Ashford Agency for W.A. from Joy & Albert Rosher.  I then found premises in Myaree to house and sell my ever-growing stash! There was one more premises shift before finding the lovely store in Willagee in which I am currently. We love to welcome visitors on Tuesday Wednesday & Friday 11-3 and the first Saturday each month 11-1.

Our last meeting for 2022 is our annual Christmas Party this Saturday 9:30am

We would love to see you all to celebrate the year we have had and to give you a sneak preview of what’s to come in 2023. We have been canvassing the membership to see what you would like for Feltwest, and we are making some changes to several aspects of how Feltwest will operate.  Come along for a sampler of the exciting things to come in 2023.  Of course we will be detailing all of these innovations via the eNews over the summer months.

Bring along:

• A plate to share
• Some flowers for the table
• Your favourite piece of Christmas felt or just your favourite piece of felt to show
• And your lovely selves!

This Toss n Tell will be a mini exhibition of the unsold works from Marks Over Time.  It will be a chance for you to come see the beautiful pieces and hear direct from the makers, their story and intent.  Please invite your family and friends as this will be an open door day to show our wonderful craft.  The Mini Exhibition will be 10am – 12pm – we would love to see you all.

Toss n Tell will also be the first delivery day for the markets.  Receival will be before 10am or after 12pm.  Links to the full instructions and payment are on the Members Area page under Members in the menu.

Please note the different schedule below.