[2014 Symposium registration opens June 23 at 10am.]

2014 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Workshop Funk Shui Felt

Jessica de Haas

$295 includes 100 lab fee

October 7, 8, 9 - Class Limit 14

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

In this exploratory three-day workshop, students dive into the exciting and magical world of felt. The workshop will use both ancient and contemporary techniques and is suitable for both beginning and experienced felters looking to refine their skills and expand their creative vision.

Workshop participants will discover the many fascinating ways to create pattern and design on the felted surface. These include fabric inlays, colour layering and cutout, creation and use of partial felts and wool and silk “papers” to achieve crisp lines, and use of a dyebath.

Students will be guided through a series of sample-making projects, and all projects will be mounted in a sample book for future reference and inspiration. Participants will also select a final project, such as a wall hanging or yardage, to further explore what they have learned.

Instructor Bio

Jessica de Haas has had a life-long fascination with fibre arts. It may have started when she received a Fisher-Price loom for her eighth birthday and wove her first piece.

Growing up rurally in the interior of British Columbia gave her a great appreciation for the beauty of the natural world and nurtured her creativity and imagination. When she was a teenager, she discovered batik and started her first clothing company. At 18 years of age, she went to Indonesia to study with a family of batik artists. This was the beginning of a series of travels involving grassroots study and involvement in the local communities she visited. Formally, she studied fibre arts at Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson, BC. In 2003 she started her felt clothing line, Funk Shui, and she has been creating and selling out of her Granville Island atelier since 2006.