Barbara Schutzgruber – Storyteller & Weaver

Wool prefelt is a lightweight batting
compressed to the point where the fibers will hold together,
but have not yet shrunk to form the strong cohesive bonds.

Michigan League of Handweavers held their annual set of workshops once again at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The campus has fabulous range of old and new buildings which I have always found inspiring for design ideas. Spending 3 uninterrupted days surrounded by creative people learning new fiber techniques is my happy place!

Six workshops were offered this year:
–Beyond Rep Weave, exploring Rep Weave and its new variations with Lucienne Coifman
–The Art of Transparency with Laura Viada
–Double Rainbow with Jennifer Moore
–A Tapestry Weaver’s Tool Kit with Brenda Osborn
–Unlocking the Mystery of Block Weaves and Profile Drafting with Jill Staubitz
–Surface Design & Dimension Using Prefelts with Kathy Forzley

I signed up for Surface Design & Dimension Using Prefelts with Kathy Forzley.
“Take the mystery (and the guilt!) out of using prefelts to create surface design & dimension on felt. This wet felting class focuses on surface design techniques using handmade and commercial prefelts, partial felts, nuno prefelts and small felted pieces to create patterns and textural designs on a felt surface.”

Our classroom was in the Science Building since felting can be a bit messy, requires access to water and large tables for our work surface. There were 10 of us in the workshop which filled the room! Kathy supplied us with pretty much everything we would need (and then some!) for 3 projects plus a fabulous 25 page set of detailed instructions for reference once we are back home and on our own. Her philosophy of ‘We’re here to play so let’s have fun!’ encouraged us to experiment, try new things and if we had an idea but didn’t know how to implement it she helped us figure out way to do it.

And had amazing examples of her work for inspiration.

Day 1
The day began by going through all the materials Kathy gave us and discussing the attributes of commercial prefelts, home made prefelts, fully felted scraps and the different fabrics we would use as overlays to keep things in place and to mute colors. We weighed and set aside the different amounts of wool fiber we would need for each day’s project.

Journal Covers-
Using commercial prefelts and the fully felted scraps I brought from home I laid out a variety of shapes and thicknesses.

I love the class variety – each cover was unique to its creator!

Day 2 – Clutch Purse
We used a plastic resist to create a ‘3 dimensional container’. Again I used some heavily felted scraps this time with a silk overlay and the variety in class was inspiring.

We finished the day by making our own prefelts and cleaned up our room for the evening ‘Walk-About’ where we all get a chance to see what the other workshops had been doing.

Day 3 – Felt Embellished Silk Scarf
Kathy demonstration how to make the cool ridges she used on one of her purses
and we made a scarf using our newly made prefelts and loose fiber to embellish silk fabric.

Now that I’m back home – I may add some stitch work to the journal cover.
I added a strap to make the clutch into a cross-body bag. I pulled yarns from my weaving stash that fit the colors of the purse, used my cord winder to twist them together and threaded it through grommet holes I added to the sides. I can shorten of the strap as need by simply tying an overhand knot further up the cord and tucking the extra into bag.

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Being inspired by the imaginative designs
my fellow participants created and
having new techniques added to my tool box…
this is one of the best workshops I’ve taken!