Felting Classes
All felting classes will be held in the Sparta United Methodist Church fellowship hall.
Needle Felt a Sheep with Irene Heckel-Volpe
Beginner to Advanced
In this class we will honor the animals that gives us our raw materials—sheep! We will make a sheep using traditional colors, learning to use wool locks to create its fleece. Different supplies will be available to make the legs. This is a great class for beginners, to needle felting, but it is also an opportunity for more advanced students to expand their sculptural skills.
Friday afternoon - $60.00 plus $15.00 Materials fee
Nuno Felting with Victoria Andrews
Beginner to Advanced
Nuno felting is a technique for making thin, flexible felted items. Fine fibers, including wool, alpaca, and mohair, are bonded to sheer fabrics. The result is a lightweight comfortably wearable item. Students will learn 3 different techniques of nuno felting and then make a fashionable scarf out of fine wool bonded to silk.
Friday all day - $75.00 plus $20.00 Materials Fee
Mosaic Felting with Victoria Andrews
Intermediate
Take your nuno felting skills to the next level. Learn to make gorgeous prefelts using silk and viscose, that are then cut up and arranged to make colorful wearable art. This will enable you to create designs using shapes that are either abstract or naturalistic. (Flowers, leaves, birds). There is always an element of chance in felting, but this process gives the artisan greater control over motifs and design. It will open-up a whole new world of possibilities in nuno felting allowing the creation of incredible works of wearable art.
Saturday all day - $75.00 plus $20.00 Materials Fee
Needle Felt Mr. Owl with Irene Heckel-Volpe
Beginner and Beyond
If you have ever wondered how needle felt artists create lifelike images of animals, this is the class for you. Use needle felt techniques to create a fiber painting of an owl. Learn to blend fibers to create shading and depth to bring your owl portrait to life. The techniques that you learn in this class can be applied to making fiber paintings of other feathered and furred creatures.
Saturday morning - $60.00 plus $12.00 Materials fee
IRENE HECKEL-VOLPE discovered the art of needle felting in 2002, and she soon began to explore the creative possibilities of sculpting with wool. She developed techniques that pushed her to continue designing and developing her unique style. Most of her work makes use of mixed media. Since needle felting is a relatively new craft, Irene has been called on to demonstrate and educate at many shows. Her work has been exhibited and awarded both locally, nationally and internationally.
VICTORIA ANDREWS loves fiber in all forms. She spends most of her free time knitting fanatically, felting, weaving and dyeing her own silk, fiber and yarns. She has successfully sold her work online and at shows and fairs, but her greatest skill may be her ability to inspire her students. It is great to have her back to teach felting at the Blue Ridge Fiber Fest.