Come along to GalGael's Winter Fair

A fantastic event not to be missed!

"Inspired by the colours of Autumn" needle felt workshop in GalGael on Thursday 31st of October 4-5.30pm

In this first of 3 felt workshops you will learn how to needle felt or improve your skills in needle felting. We will use natural fluffy wool and colourful dyed wool fibres to create autumnal objects like leaves, fruits, a pumpkin, mushrooms or a little ornament.
This is a great opportunity to learn a new skill, or improve your felt skills and create a beautiful object. It's fun and easy to learn!
No previous experience needed!

Needle felted apple

Please feel free to invite friends!
Cost:£5 incl. wool

This workshop is lead by Laryna, volunteer in GalGael.

More felt workshops, including wet felt workshops, on Thursday, the 21st of November and 12th of December 4-5.30pm.

Venue: Galgael, 15 Fairley Street, Glasgow/Ibrox, G51 2SN
Please book your place via Galgael's office: 0141/4273070
or via Laryna: 07503 210 416

Felt workshops in Galgael in February and March

New wet felt and dry (needle) felt workshops in GalGael

Come along to a felt workshop for some creativity with fluffy natural and coulourful sheep's wool and make something beautiful! Beginners and advanced felters are welcome. The felt workshops are suitable for all age groups from 5 years onwards.

The felt workshops are run by Laryna Wuppermann, fibercraft artist with 28 years of experience in teaching fibercraft. 

Workshops in Glasgow's South: in GalGael /Ibrox, 15 Fairley Street,
on Thursday, 02/02 and 16/02 and 01/03; 15/03 and 29/03/2012 at 3.30-5pm.
Suggested donation: £5/£3

You are welcome to participate on either a regular base or whenever you can make it.

By booking in advance you can secure your place.
You can either send an email:to:laryna108@gmail.com  or book by phone: 07503210416 (mobile)

Feel free to check out my blog to find out more about felt workshops I am running in the Glasgow area: http://creativefibercraftbylaryna.blogspot.com/
The felted items below were made by participants in felt workshops in GalGael.


Wet felted picture



Needle felted butterfly

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/

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. 

Sail 'n Oar and mega Galgael Galore

What else is life about than being on a boat on the Ocean of Life?
Seeing land, and holding an oar in hand and knowing all landing there is but a passing moment on our journey towards becoming what we are embedded in: the Ocean of Life.

Yes, it might seem like much strife, building the boat and weaving the sail ..... ah - do you know how much work all that is!?! If not, you have not really lived, and you have not really danced! ;-) ;-) :-)
But somehow you might just know what it feels like to go to sleep in a rocking open boat with nothing but the stars above you head and the bare boards for your cradling bed..? Breathe deep and go to sleep ....... breathe deep and awaken anew, and see the new morning view....

The above depicted boat, the ocean faring curragh Columcille sailed smoothly across from Ballycastle (NI) to Millport in 3 days this week and back... and the weather was at ease for her and her crew...

Well, here you are, Woolcraft at Galgael, embedded in this other boat and its nets, the Galgael Clan. Were art and part of calling the Celtic boats to shore for 3 wonderful days and wild nights...! I hope everyone's weary heads are now all resting on some soft shipskins, and the winds are kind to your boats embedded afloat in the Ocean of Life, and that the threads of destiny you spin in the great web of life will be doing us all proud.

click here to see the video

"Wee Glimpses of Dorna on Saturday 14th August"

I certainly was proud being a tiny part of this great and mad Galgael web of waves on the Ocean of Life, a Galgael web that spans many a land on this and the other sides of that Ocean of Life. This event certainly was sending many a ripples all round.
And the locals loved it, too, and wonder whether you come back next year :-)!
Maybe then I will stay all weekend, because it was a shame on Saturday to have to go back to the East when West was Best in the lap of the Sun!

For more pics of the Saturday, go and see and read more here.

More video will be uploaded soon on both the Urban Clansman and the Woolcraft at Galgael Youtube channels.
And, with a bit of luck, full footage of this mammoth event will be found via Galgael blogs etc.

You are dancers, ye Galgaelians all, on the Ocean of Life for a sounder touch....

Especially of course when Albannach gives the beat!

Best wishes to you all from the East Coast!

Mary's writing on the workshop process

Walking down Govan Road after my first foray into the world of felting I was shocked at the amount of brain cells that were leaping from dormancy and lethargy! What a great day with such creative potential !
Guided by Anneruth and Flora an ancient world was revealed:
Wool, the Saviour of Mankind!

As the weeks passed by all participants were amazed at their abilities. Watching their faces glowat their achievements was a joy to see. No qualifications or skills needed. A truly universal craft.

Apart from personal enjoyment and growth, the path also led us to our Group Work. There we were throwing in ideas, debating, deciding and agreeing.
We all played different parts in creating the very beautiful "Portal Banner". Many hands worked together but looking at it there is unity and we all achived that "wholeness" we had set out to find.

Cups of tea warming hands at Galgael, Winter clothes brought out early. Timeplans forgotten. Everyone putting in time when they could. A truly communal effort and a great experience.
I've had a great wee journey and all I did was pick up a wee leaflet.

Many Many thanks to all fellow travellers and guides.
Journey on and fare thee well
Mary Docherty

And thank you so much, Mary, for your beautiful gifts, the 2 'painting with wool' pictures, those amazing 'copies' of postcards of the Hebridees:

It seems you have found your very own brand!

.......

A rich account of the making of the Felt Portal

A big thanks to all who made it possible that this felt making project came about :
Plantation Productions and their funders; the Galgael trust, its appreciative welcome into the big workshop, and whole community there and especially its passionate volunteers; but above all thanks be to the enthusiastic and now quite skilled participants of the classes!

To get the best account of this rich process, pleasae visit our various photoalbums and the slide show:
On http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolcraft.atgalgael/FeltMakingSessionsAtThePlantationProductionsThePortalGovan# you can find over 200 pictures of almost every stage of the process of making the Felt Portal.
You can see more photos from the process when it took place at 15 Fairle Street over the last 2 months dotted throughout our 2 albums
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolcraft.atgalgael/OurAugustPictures#
and http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolcraft.atgalgael/September08Woolcraft#
and also this month of course http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolcraft.atgalgael/OurOctoberPictures#

A brief slide show summary of the journey the Felt Portal took all of us can be found here:
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhbv7q9h_38f9c3mshh&hl=en

This is what Debbie wrote on her journey with the Portal

I really enjoyed the felt making class at the Portal. I had dabbled in a bit of felt making before but have now learned a lot more about it from Anne-ruth and Flora. I had never heard of needle-felting and it really is useful for adding interesting designs to pieces of work. I enjoyed mostly being in the company of the nice friendly group of people who appreciate and enjoy arts and crafts. It was great to see the team of workers in the photos and the felted portal design as it moved through the various stages. It really does look beautiful and nice and peaceful. I can just imagine walking through that portal and up along the riverside. Thanks Anne-ruth and Flora for all your help and patience.

We received more notes of appreciation strewn in emails - and we gave Mary's poetic writing a blog entry on its own

There was a wee launch for the Timeout project (which the felting classes were part of) on Friday the 3rd of October in the Portal

The output of the various art classes (pottery, photography, cardmaking, and of course film making and animation, the core activity of plantation productions) was quite a feast to see. Now we very much hope that our felted Portal into Wholeness will find worthy home in the community there.

As Luis put it so aptly: "There were moments I thought this is not getting finished as ever new hurdles had to be taken. It is a pure miracle that it got done!"

Yes, it s quite a miracle - and we are looking forward to visit the Portal often. We need to get plague done still for it (informing folks in a nutshell as to the whodunits!) ...

The Interactive Felt-Portal at the wall in the Portal, Govan,

- during the launch party of 'Timeout'

week ending 3rd October

Before the Portal got to the stage you see it above (= being carried out of 15 Fairley Street for the final time) - this week saw still lots of action, and joint decision making ...

• what works best to stiffen the felt?
• how do we join the 2 big felt pieces with the bamboo frame?
  
• where do we put the tree now?
• what do we use as hanging rope?
• where do we put the lovingly created details?
  

You can best see the last 3 day countdown unfold on our photoalbum from photo 166 to 203.
And then from picture 204 to 217 you can get a look in at Friday evening at the Portal where Plantation Productions had a wee reception to showcase the works done in the Time Out sessions, and esp to show the animations and films done, everything in the light of Art in mental health.

Here is a picture of the Felt Portal before the exhibition started, showing you our clever solution to the many eager and so different views as to where the felted figures should go on the now interactive felt portal banner! We fitted each of them with a little velcro and put them up on a felt board, inviting visitors to gently place the figures on the banner, creating their own path into wholeness.
At the end of the night all little details had found a place in the greater picture and we gathered in front of it.

Woolcraft at Galgael at the Glasgow River Festival

whilst we write up the notes, check this:

http://picasaweb.google.com/woolcraft.atgalgael/WoolcraftAtGalgaelAtTheGlasgowRiverFestival/
our photo album

and a wee video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c03vqn0ECfo

we found also this: http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/glasgow-river-festival
Thanks coal2k for a picture of Sunday's main attraction: Mary at the wheel

The Galgael were as always the best show on the fair - everybody agrees on that!
The 9 wool crafters women took their turns over Saturday and Sunday and it was great to talk to people, make contacts, kindle interest, and get new ideas for kids crafts and wool crafts.
What sold most were of course the small wee things, such as the felted bracelet. We did not selll any of the rugs as we had hoped - but then this is maybe not the kind of scene where people want to spent that kind of money, esp in our current credit crunch climate. The more important it would be to get people to spin their own wool and make their own clothes, weaving or knitting? Knitting wool for sure was not being sold - so we need to find better ways of 'educating' the public, as one team member put it.

Making your own rag rugs - when Flora brought hers on Sunday - seemed to jog the older people's memories and the younger ones got interested, too, as it means recycling and make new out of old.

The definite crowd pleaser was the spinning demos. Surely every visitor who went with a camera through the tent must have one or more pictures of Mary or Laryna (or one of the other girls) spinning the ancient tune. And indeed, like tune it seemed - that action of the wheel turning, and the fluff transforming into thin thread: people of all ages stood transfixed and like hypnotised as they watched and listened as the wheel turned...

The other popular action was kiddies crafts: be it making felt balls or weaving bracelets on cardboard or having a go on a one of the little looms, or the big frame - again this ancient movement of fingers and threads on looms, and the creating of some semblance of a cloth, reaches very deep in everyones soul, regardless of age, race or gender!

Next year we must have a full length strip on the big frame loom again: as this is most popular with the kids, because - not only in actual fact is it easier than the little frames, but it just feels also so much more 'real' on the upright frame!

As said before: Hazel's bracelets sold well - but even more so sold her cards which she had to cramp in at the wool craft stall on Saturday, as there was no other space in the tent. On Sunday she had more space than to herself. It was a great encouragement for her!

Laryna's mobiles went, too, but more because the customers were connected with German crafts, where these things are more custom. Again: do we need to educate folks? How can people feel that a mobile out of fine light colourful wool is so much more heartwarming for young and old than anything plastic? As the mobiles are a little bit of work they can not be sold too cheaply (Laryna reduced them already from £12 to £8), the best route is really this: workshops for the mothers so they can make them themsleves!

We hope that we will get some commissions for workshops and demos out of our presence at the River Festival. And maybe even a few more craft-skilled women to take turns in delivering them as a pride for Galgael community and for themselves?

Next on our agenda, and in preparation also for next years Riverfest is teaming up with the Gaelic Waulking Song group and have a bash at proper waulking the cloth in ture Gaelic style!

Before that... making more of the little things that people can afford to buy, including the also popular bead craft-kits,........ and advertising our bigger products, such as the rugs and handspun knitting wool?

Rock around the croft

Tonight, as always on the first Saturday in June, was the famous auld Govan Fair.
Read about its history here,
and bear in mind hence the great responsibility now resting on our, the weavers, shoulders! Or should we rather say the many threads we hold in our fingers?

This year Galgael won the first prize yet again with their "Rock around the Croft" float. A must to watch on youtube now!


Watch out for the rocking horse mascarading as a Blackface sheep (with Hebridean wool as his head!) - see it close up here with Laryna and watch out for it being rocked with Martin as his rider in the float when you watch above youtube broadcast of the "Rock around the Croft" float :-)

And also watch out for Marie rock'n'rolling spinning on the spinning wheel we got given last year from the Hebridean Sheep Society at the Woolfest!

Whilst everyone of the Galgael family got ready for the float

Hazel (who by the way knitted these Elvis Presley bonnets you see on Ian's and someone else's head on the float), plied the fine thread she spun last year and will knit some sheep from it...

A general Introduction to the Woolcraft group at Galgael

Since summer 2007, for 2 hours each Friday morning, our group has been meeting at Galgael to explore woolcraft activities and be part of a unique community.

The whole impulse started much longer ago when Colin Macleod, the late inspirational founder of the Galgael Trust, encouraged some crafter women to link up with the Govan Tradition of weaving as well as with the ancient Scottish heritage of weaving per se. A remarkable loom was Galgael-built, and the 'Weaving the Clyde' tapestry project commissioned.

A lot of water has flown down the Clyde since, and the tapestry weaving still continues providing the foyer at 15 Fairley Street with one of its central focuses.

In the background, in the 'bothy', more and more woolcraft activities started to develop in the last couple of years, inspiring, first of all, two Galgael trainees, local women on the 'Navigating the Future' wood work course.

Over the last year then more and more women from all walks of life and from the wider Galgael community started to meet regularily. This blog is mainly about their modest but magical 'adventures' from 2008 onwards as the 'woolcraft at Galgael group'..

Our woolcraft group is a motley crew, consisting of professional weavers, crafters, artists and teachers, and of beginners and medium level skilled folks. Many of the women who come along have only these 2 hours to give expression to their creative side through woolcraft. Some of the group members come infrequently but are still part of the wider Galgael community and intent (see Galgael related websites or google it for more about the Clan). Others have a bit more time to actually produce woolcrafts items. The emphasis is on creating a fun, friendly and active woolcraft group, teaching and being taught, at 15 Fairley Street.

Looking at the wider context we all feel and believe that it is essential today for women of all ages and backgrounds to connect or re-connect with wool and fibre craft. We feel this is important for personal satisfaction and also for respecting the natural resources of materials and skills, and to celebrate and nurture our families.

We offer tuition in and demonstration of wool craft for all ages, and we are preparing the ground to attract woolcraft accreditation. All this will help us with woolcraft services and sales development, and to support the sail-loft reconstruction at Galgael, where a big loom is waiting to be assembled as soon as funding has been granted to redevelop the building's upper level. This upper level of the wider workshop premises at 15 Fairley Street will house at last properly the 'soft crafts' (wool, basketry, leather). The hard crafts (wood work, boat building, smithying, pottery) fill the ground floor already.

If anyone of you readers can help to assist (fundraising; planning; hands on) with the manifestation of the soft craft area - please get in touch.

(the big loom again, with the rainbow-ed banner Colin painted on silk in respect and rejuvenation of the Longhouse Cultures of the North Atlantic rim : practical democracy common to all people of this part of the globe. In the foreground: one of the recent trainees sporting a Hebridean fleece rug he helped us waulking)