Work from felt workshop participants in November 2011

The following photos are from different participants from felt workshops in November 2011. There will be one more felt workshop this year in Galgael on Thursday the 15th of Dec. 3.30-5pm in our Bothy.  Would be lovely to make Christmas decoration either dry or wet felted.
You are welcome to join in.
Suggested donation: £4/£3
More workshops to come in 2012. Please watch this space!

Om

Scottish impression

Mobile phone bag

Felt picture in progress

Felted flower

Finished felt picture




Sing to work - work to sing

 Two weeks ago a couple of woolcrafties gathered on a very woolcraft busy afternoon to eke out some space and time to try something new - or rather ancient:
to sing whilst working - esp. if the work entails sustained rhythmical movements like rowing or waulking (beating woven tweed to soften and shrink fabric), spinning, weaving and rocking the cradle, and making the bread, from corn threshing to dough kneading. These intrinsic rhythmic tunes develop easily into dances, slow or fast, and have been developed more recently into chart topping hits.

Singing to work and working better whilst singing:
We can find it in all cultures as an expression of connectedness to the elements and the cycles of life, the communal efforts of surviving in them, as a means of gossiping, telling stories, lamenting and praising, and praying.

This little song here we chose by digging through an old Hebridean Song Book, looking for a simple lilt which can aid the simple circular movements entailed in wet felting a wee picture.

Luckily Jenny and Eileen are very musical and loved improvising on the tune as they at the same time learned some wet felting basics.
It would be fabulous if we could find more Gaelic worksong specialist to teach us some stuff from our first and future culture. :-)
Here are some good links to background of Gaelic Songs in general: http://www.siliconglen.com/culture/gaelicsong.html

I love to learn the sean-nós style, and at home I get so much strength and peace out of chanting the Ceile De Fuin to my daily chores and creative woolcraft explorations.


Lets see how we fare tonight with the second exploration session and whether Alison will be there this time and we get started back again at processing our Hebridean fleeces? :-) 

gosh - felting that fleece was more than 3 years ago!!

More blast from the past

Next two felt workshops on Thursday, the 3rd and on Thu. the 17th of November in GalGael

Would you like to learn wet felting or improve the skills you already gained before? Come along to the next felt workshop on Thursday, the 3rd of November and/or 2 weeks later . Both 1,5 hour workshops start at 3.15 pm and are by suggested donation: £4/£3.  Felt making is a magical transformational process from fluffy wool fibers into a solid fabric. It is the most ancient fabric making technique, with historic and prehistoric founds in different areas in the world, especially in asia. Have you heard about yurts, nomadic people in mongolia use as their housing? Felted rugs and panels were made to make these tents cosy and waterproof.

Rainbow coloured spiral on red background



Playful shapes on brown background

These both photos show felted pieces from the last felt workshop in GalGael's woolcraft bothy, almost 2 weeks ago.  

Photos from felt workshop on Thu. 6. of October in Galgael

It was good fun creating jewellery out of merino wool, by using the wet felt technique. Next felt workshop in Galgael on Thursday, 20. of October 3.15 - 4.45pm, Suggested donation: £4/£3. You are very welcome!

Felted bracelet

Closure with a loop and a bead

Felted necklace

...and another felted necklace

Felt workshops in Galgael in October and November 2011

Fancy to learn about felt making? Come along to Galgael on Thursday, 6th of October, 3.15 - 4.45pm. You can make a flat felt, or something else, using colourful sheeps wool. It's fun and easy to learn! Suggested donation: £4/ £3.There will be 3 more felt sessions, every fourtnight (20./10. and 3.+17./11.)  Please send me an email if you were up for it. (laryna108@gmail.com ) The woolcraft group in Galgael is a group of volounteers, doing spinning, weaving, plant dyeing, knitting, crocheting and felting. We are happy to share our skills. If you like you can stay for longer. Thursday nights in Galgael are a great opportunity to get to know the place the guys and share food, poetry, songs, music and laughter ;-)

GalGael, 15 Fairley Street, Glasgow/Ibrox, G51 2TS(Phone:0141/4273070) http://www.galgael.org/

Woolcraft@Galgael on the Riverside Regatta, 16th of July 2011

Heather's display of plant dyed, handspun wool

Woolcraft@GalGael had a stall in GalGael's huge marquee. It was a new event related to the former Riverfest but in a new venue, on the northern side of the river Clyde, just beside the new Riverside Museum.  
The weather was okay and we had crowds of people visiting the woodcraft and woolcraft stalls from Galgael. It's always great to meet new people, who haven't heard about GalGael. Heather and Jaene were spinning on their spinning wheels and the kids could have a shot on the wheels. Proud little faces! Then and now Heather was singing a gaelic spinning song and received standing ovations. Lots of pics were taken.
Jenny did a bit of needle felting and sold Galgaels newly produced CD! Laryna was weaving on the rug loom and a couple of kids had a go in rug weaving. 
We all enjoyed a fantastic day!  
if you couldn't make it this year, we hope to see you there next summer!

Laryna's display of dry and wet felted things

Our rug loom

Riverside Regatta in Glasgow, on 16th of July 2011

You will find us here on Sat. 16th of July 10am-6pm in GalGael's Marquee: http://www.localnewsglasgow.co.uk/2011/07/riverside-regatta/
Looking forward to see you!

Festivals and fairs

This summer GalGael's  woolcraft is again present on a couple of summer fairs and festivals. this weekend you will find a stall of our group in Portsoy, near Elgin. You are welcome to visit the GalGael clan with boats, wood work and last but not least woolcraft. Come along and have a go on the spinning wheel or the rug loom and buy some phantastic hand crafted products from our stall.   
Watch this space for photos and more information

Come along for another Thursday eve with wet felting: 26th of May 2011 @5.30pm in Galgael

Jenny's felted spiral

Lets get creative with fluffy wool and felt something beautiful and hand crafted. 

For example this:

Laryna's felted spiral

 This is what you can make out of the felted spiral when you cut it in even slices:

Felted spiral necklace and earrings

Blue felted spiral necklace and earrings with felted sphere and wooden beads

Red/orange felted spiral necklace and studs

Or you can make a flat felted piece and make a brooch or a hairpiece out of it or .....There are many possibitities to create something beautiful.

 Felted blossom sewn on a clasp

Brooches out of a piece of flat felted fabric

Wet felting workshop on Thursday 19th of May 2011, 5.30 pm

Laryna facilitating a felt workshop with kids and their mums

Learn how to felt fluffy sheep's wool into a bead, a flower, a hair piece and more. Come along and have fun to learn something new. It's easy and could be done with kids as well!  
By donation. 

Blast from the past: our old 2008 google videos now on youtube

Back in 2008 we published a number of wee video clips on google:
Google Videos now are discontinued, and we have transferred them to youtube.
You might now find broken links somewhere in old posts here. If so - please report them to us, so we can corrcct them. Thank you
Up and running, literally!, are now the ones with Heather and Laryna singing whilst felting the Hebridean fleeces; and Alan Torrance teaching cross sword dance.




Laryna teaching in the nursery weaving and painting, are still available but only upon request in the context of  teaching to children.

"Glasgow's Trees" Find out more about GalGael's Timber Services on Friday, the 22nd and Saturday, the 23rd of April 2011 in GalGael

Please feel free to check out this link to find out more about the event on the Easter weekend on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd of April 2011, 10am-4pm. http://galgael2010.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post.html

The woolcraft group will be present with demonstrations like spinning on the spinning wheel, with wool processing and more and with our hand crafted products spun, knitted, woven and felted out of natural fibres.  
You are very welcome to come along and experience the very special atmosphere of GalGael's workshop.

The next 2 Thursday evening, 21st of April and 28th of April 2011, from 5-8pm you could have a go on the weaving loom

 

A wee Video of Rug weaving here 
from a few weeks ago

The next two Thursday evenings we will again give you the opportunity to have a go on our rug loom, learn about wool processing: teasing, carding and spinning. We are currently weaving with plied hand spun sheep's wool either natural plant dyed wool or just natural coloured wool.
A shared meal by donation will be on offer too.

That's how it looks now on our rug loom

Woven with plant dyed hand spun wool

Any more questions???
Just send us an email or call GalGael 0141/ 4273070

Workshop: Learn how to spinn sheeps wool on a spinning wheel

On Thursday,10th of March from 5.30pm onwards

Galgaels woolcraft group offers a workshop in spinning on a spinning wheel 

Come, watch and get to know more about this ancient and still popular technique!

Venue: Galgael, based in Glasgow/ Ibrox, 15 Fairley Street
Phone 0141/ 4273070

Workshop in natural dyeing in Galgael in February

10th+24th of February from 5.30 pm
Heather, a member of  
Galgaels woolcraft group offers a workshop in natural dyeing in GalGael. 

Come, watch and get to know more about this ancient and still popular technique!

See post below about a natural dyeing workshop in December last year! 

Magical indigo dyeing

One day before the end of 2010 we had a wonderful evening with the magical process of indigo dyeing. Heather invited us wool craft women in her house where we occupied the kitchen. We were a bunch of 4 women: Heather, Alison, Gillian and me, Laryna. We enjoyed the long preparation of the indigo dye-bath, which took more then 1 hour. For the dyeing afterwards we had many different natural fibers like sheeps wool, handspun lama wool, mashine spun cashmere, bamboo fibers and silk fibers.

The magic in this process is the changing of the colour when the wool after been dyed gets in contact with oxygen: Then it changes from green shades into more and more blueish shades, depending how intense the dye-bath is and how many fibers have allready been dyed in the dye-bath.

Here you see lama wool after been dyed, just in the process of changing its colour.

Heather had some yellow wool dyed with meadowsweet. We dyed it over and a beautiful green appeared..

This photo shows the indigo dyed wool on natural white sheeps wool and the over dyed green sheeps wool.

Thank you Heather for this great experience and the lovely evening in your place.