April 2026

Our April meeting featured the lovely, highly entertaining, felt guru Laura Brittain who, although known to many, last talked to the group about 20 years ago. Instead of a slide show she gave us a very amusing talk and demonstration, starting with brief history of felting, how was done in the past and still done globally. We loved her explanation of how some of the nomadic tribes, like those in Iran, now drag bundles of wool behind their lorries and quad bikes, instead of horses, to felt the fibres. She explained that it was the Exhibition by Mary Burkett in 1978 that really opened peoples eyes that felt could be used not only for clothing and in industry but as an art form in it’s own right. She then proceeded to demonstrate how quickly and easily wool fibre can be formed and proceeded to make a flower. She showed us now felt can be made as fine as a cobweb or as thick as a mat and provided examples of felt mixed with fine fabrics (nuno felting), how felt can be embellished and what those lucky enough to get a place on the workshop would be making.