Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Students in the studio - Birgitta Olausson from Sweden :)

 From time to time I am contacted by people interested in one to one tutoring. I offer 2 days feltmaking workshop that covers all most important aspect of feltmaking using hands and sanding machines.

I was visited by Birgitta Olausson, a Swedish rug weaver and we spent a delightful  two days working on various felt designs that can be seen in my etsy shop.  Birgitta, is based in Uddevalla, Sweden, a small city overlooking a dramatic bay.  She is a long term textile artist who makes these beautiful rugs.

Here is her website: http://www.birgittashantverk.se/



  This one has been given to me and I am amazed at the quality of weaving and the smoothness and gentleness of the design.  This wooden object is a felting mouse.

We made felted flowers, 4-5 different types of scarves and we hand - dyed them.


this one is a ruffle type scarf that is very popular amongst Russian feltmakers.  We made everything in white and dyed it in various wild colours!

Here Birgitta is making some lovely flowers, we made 10 to learn how thickness of wool influences the size and speed with which a flower  brooch can be made.



We spend such a nice time together! We laughed, cooked, walked together round the city of Limerick and drunk the best Belgian beer Leffe at Nancy Blakes in Limerick.  We visited the  University campus which  offers a very serene and tranquil environment to enjoy the natural landscape of the river Shannon.


 The Living Bridge at the University.


The President's House. 


It was great to talk to a person that is more experienced in Craft business than I am, Birgitta is such a warm person, Unique and great! I will miss you!





3 comments:

Nadia said...

Hi Kate, I love your work! I am sorry,that I am far away from you, because I would love to learn from you too. There are to felt makers that I admire, you and Marina from felted pleasure's. I am self taught felt maker and always looking and learning from the work of others. Thats how we all learn. If you don' t mind I would like to get in touch with you via email, so I can ask you some questions about felting and the techniques you apply. Don't worry if you are not interested, I will understand.
All the best!
Nadia

Anonymous said...

Hello, I am self taught too! Marina is my heroe!!

Nadia said...

Hi dear, Marina is very pleasant and very helpful with advises about felting. Many of us are self taught, so is good to help each other. Happy felting!