About our Makers: Greenweeds Contemporary Feltwork, From Fleece to Felt workshop

On 7th June, our workshop is "From Fleece to Felt", an introduction to wet felting presented by Lorraine Pocklington of Greenweeds Contemporary Feltwork.
During this workshop, and starting with professionally washed, combed and dyed British wool tops, you will be taught how to make a flat piece of felt using a wet felting technique (wool, soap, water and rubbing). Progressing from this first achievement, you proceed to making a 3-D object felting around a resist to create a pocket. Ultimately you'll be taking home a finished item - a purse, glasses case, mobile phone cover, passport holder - and lots of ideas of how to proceed.
Although you won't be working with raw fleece straight off the back of the sheep, if there is interest among the group Lorraine will explain how to go about selecting a fleece for felting, and how to go about preparing the fleece for this use. You will also learn something of the history of feltmaking, with felt being probably the first constructed textile known to (wo)mankind.


Based in Ceredigion, Lorraine started felting in 2001, under the guidance of Ama Bolton in Somerset, and moved to Wales in 2006. She has achieved a City and Guilds Level 3 Certificate in Constructed Textiles and Design for Craft, and is a member of the International Feltmakers Association.
Lorraine is involved in the Afghanistan Inspiration textiles project, developing the website and working with Meike Laurenson on the launch of the touring exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham. Lorraine's own work is included in this European touring exhibition. Each piece of work incorporates a 10cm square embroidered by a woman from Laghmani village in Afghanistan.
She runs Greenweeds Contemporary Feltwork with her husband, John, using wool from British farms. She also develops websites, and is currently working part-time for the University of Wales Trinity Saint David as the Web and Social Media Developer for the CIME Project (Creativity and Innovation in Micro Enterprise). Lorraine is the Chair of The Wool and Willow Festival for 2011.

To reserve a place on Lorraine's feltmaking workshop, or find out more about the workshops at Wool and Willow 2011, please follow this link: Wool and Willow Workshops.