Old friends and new.

I have been having a wonderful time in the last few weeks of my time in Australia, taking the opportunity to meet up with old felting friends and new ones.
Discovering that Pam de Groot lived in the Blue Mountains which border the Sydney conurbation I contacted her and arranged to see her when she came into Sydney to put some of her new stock in the lovely New South Wales Crafts Guild shop here in The Rocks. We met for lunch and I had the chance to examine her work and talk felty things. I have written an article about her for the next issue of Felt Matters, the magazine of the International Feltmakers Association. Pam is coming to Europe later this year and will be giving a workshop in London for the IFA Region 4 members and friends.

Flushed with my success at managing to find other fellers I emailed Anita Larkin when I discovered that she lived quite close to Sydney. So on Tuesday morning last week I took the train into the 'Shires' (western suburbs of Sydney) to see Anita and two of her felting buddies from the Illawarra felting group.
Anita and her friends Eleanor Brash and Melinda Binkins. Our meeting place was a halfway point for Anita and I and was at the Hazelhurst Gallery in Gymea, a really nice community art centre with lovely spacious studios for workshops. I was quite envious!
Anita has a piece in the 'Climate is Changing' exhibition which is currently travelling around Britain after showing in Italy and Germany. I love her work, it's so quirky.