Well, holiday time is here at last and I am off to the frozen north. I am off to Canada and although Vancouver is not going to be in the minuses when I am there I will be going North to Alaska. Flying up to Anchorage, a place I have always wanted to visit, and then on a cruise down through the Hubbard Glacier and on to the Inside Passage finishing at Vancouver where I am giving a workshop for Urban Yarns www.urbanyarns.ca We are going to be making my crazy birds. Check out this picture of some of my Felted Friends.

AT LAST!!!
I have joined the 21st century. I have a Felt Better Facebook page, name felt-better, and now I am officially a Twit. My Twitter name is feltyfriend so I hope that some of you out there will be 'tweeting' me from time to time. I have fought shy of being so available but that is really just silly. I need to be 'out there' to ensure that feltmaking can become even more available. Please check out my Facebook page and maybe even become my friend so that you can see all the things that are happening in my felty world.

Well the last lesson was today, the last of the 10 week course I have been running in the slightly grungy craft workshops off the Holloway Road. Maybe a bit grubby but a great space nonetheless.

My lovely group of students brought in their felt work and their portfolios to show. We oohed and aahed over the lovely hats and smart berets and all the extra bits that they had done at home. I hope I have inspired them to carry on producing such great work. Here is a picture of some of the work and also a picture of my group. In case any of you reading this are interested a new 10 week course will be starting on September 12th every monday until November 14th. Just visit my website and drop me a line.

Went to the New Designers Show at the Islington Design Centre on thursday. Walking back to the station I saw this sight. The cat's name is Bob and he belongs to a really nice Big Issue seller who 'pitch' is just outside Angel Station. Bob is just like a dog, walks on a lead, sits when told and wags his tail when he's happy. A lovely cat. If you are in the area stop and say hello and buy a copy of the Big Issue. It'll help Bob and his man.

This is the finished piece inspired by Hundertwasser, hanging in my dining room at home. It is 60cm by 1m. I think I will tackle a smaller one next time.

Back from Latvia last week. I had a fantastic time at the workshop of Karoliina Arvilommi and Rod Welch. I love Karoliina's work and have never been to Riga so it was the perfect opportunity. Ilona Vasilevska arranged and organised everything. She lives in Riga, about 15 km away from the venue which was a detached villa with enough bedrooms to fit in all 12 participants. We were from the UK, Holland, Belarus, Riga and Russia. We worked very hard, it rained a lot but we all had a wonderful time. Rod first talked to us about Karoliina and his work and then told us to forget everything we ever knew about making felt. I don't think we quite knew what to expect but by the end of the 5 days we had all made our samples and finished our main piece and also managed to get in a bit of Riga sightseeing. We also went to an amazing house in Jurmala which is a seaside resort near to Riga. The house was called the House of the White Dragon and was like something out of the Brothers Grimm fairy stories, surrounded by carved wooden creatures and animals which I am sure came alive at night. Can't wait to go back there!

Karoliina and Rod were extremely patient and helped us all to complete all pieces in time. Some of us (me in particular) bit off more than they could chew and insisted on making pieces too big, but I needed it for a particular place in my house so that's the size it had to be. Despite panicking about it not being finished/dry enough to take home all was well and I didn't have to fly home wearing all my clothes at once as I had a soggy heavy mess in my suitcase (which I would have done if it had been necessary).

Now the piece is home and hanging proudly in my dining room. I think it looks really good. But then I am biased.

It's July already and I have neglected my Blog.

This is slightly understandable as I have a new addition to the family. Amelie Rose arrived on June 1st, a sister for Joshua. She is beautiful and my first granddaughter so now I am busy knitting pink things. Joshua, I think, would have rather had a combine harvester or a bulldozer with big grab hands but the choice wasn't his.