Art Therapy, Well-Being centre

[zed]

Thanks everyone

I do have some more photos from this week, we had a lot of people this time, even my dad came down for a nosey

Yep, that's Jo's bowl, Lyn. She made it at the other centre when we tried resists.

Frances, we spent about £90 in total on supplies from WoW, that was in July last year and we still have loads of supplies left. I asked on here if any of our UK members had a few bits they could donate too, and got absolutely tons of gorgeous supplies sent to me. Finding an organisation with a space for volunteers would be the first thing to do, and if they had a budget for a grant, I don't think it'd be long before there was lots of interest.

[lyn]

Jo made a lovely job of the bowl. The group's interest is growing - that's great news!

[Shepherdess]

I am starting to get a group of ladies that want to be felters at the guild. I am hopeful I might get a few that will take the next step and do the intermediate course. I am hoping I can get a group that likes to meet and play. I love teaching but it's nice to felt with others without having to teach.

[zed]

That's what I'm hoping our groups will turn into, Ann. It's nice that after just a few classes people start having ideas about what they could make and wondering what might work. I've got a few ideas for the next courses: nuno, naturals, resists and hope that everyone has an idea of something they want to make at the end of each one. Then before long we'll be making all sorts

[zed]

Latest update:

The course at the Coppice has finished for now, they have a few art and sewing courses planned, then I'll be going back later in the year.

I'm going back to Old Trafford from April, probably till about August/September.

Kirsty who got me involved with it all moved to a new centre (Broomwood) before I even started at O/T and was interested in me doing felting there too, but it's not easy to get to at all and even the Coppice is a lot harder because it's an extra long day being further. BUT, one of the women from Kirsty's centre came to the Coppice classes because they're interested in getting felting started at Broomwood and hopefully she'll be able to make it to the O/T classes to learn more and I can pass on my course plans and try to get down to Broomwood every now and again.

It's spreading like a rash!

[MTRuth]

Felting spreading like a rash! LOL!

[zed]

I've not done an update for a while: Felting at Old Trafford is going well, I had a loose plan depending on who turned up, and whether they'd been before/done much felting, and mostly it was people who had so we've mostly done some experimental pieces with fabrics or some sampling for projects. Being on a Monday though means we've already missed a few weeks because of Bank Holidays or other centre closures. The week before last no one but me turned up, but last Monday 8 people came! We'd planned on doing a 10" sampler before making a larger piece big enough to make a variety of things like a small bag, or things like a coin purse, couple of glasses/phone/gadgets case etc, but skipped that and a few people who got there early enough jumped in to make big pieces, they all turned out really well. I hope they bring them back to get photos.

Ann got her felting group going at Broomwood and has managed to get to ours a couple of times too and I gave her a bag of locks, embellishment fibres and fancy yarns last week. So, a big thanks to everyone who donated wool and fibres and other embellishments, you've now supported 3 wet felting for well being courses

I finally managed to make some little individual felting tools which went down well when they were tried out last week. I'd been looking for perspex discs to make small ones but when Judith posted her wooden ones, I started looking for something suitable, but didn't find anything until I went looking for wooden wheels to make drop spindles and found this site: www.woodworkscraftsupplies.co.uk/

I had to glue handles on because the disc was too thin for the screws, but they held fine with WeldBond


glass bead felting tool par Zedster01, on ipernity

[MTRuth]

Sounds like it is going really well Zed. And your felting tools are great.

[lyn]

Great news Zed! And can I see a nice little sideline in felting tools? Very neat little round agitator.

[chookie2]

Be interested to know what glue you used Zed.I made a large fulling board with the same glass marbles but keep losing them when it is wet. Not all - just few fall off and need to be reglued. I used Indoor/outdoor liquid nails (Maxi-Bond Construction Adhesive) which builders use - it is in a dispenser like Glazing acrylic but still lets go. So I am interested to know what glue won't let the marbles fall off.

[lyn]

I used "Gorilla Epoxy" on my little marble board - brilliant stuff - here's a link:

Gorilla Epoxy

[zed]

Thanks, Ruth and Lyn

It really is, Ruth.

I was thinking of making a couple more of the prototypes and selling at cost to get feedback, Lyn

Sue, I used UHU contact adhesive for the glass beads, and I used WeldBond universal adhesive for the handles. It's more of a PVA type so I thought it'd be better for porous wood to porous wood. I also smeared some around the edge to protect the wood.

A couple of beads did fall off when one of the tools fell off a table, not bad considering it landed on paving stones.

[chookie2]

Thanks Zed and Lyn too.No "gorilla " brand in Australia that I know but plenty of epoxy which I probably should have used.I will use epoxy as I reglue the fallen ones back on.

[Pandagirl]

The brand I used I think was E1000 waterproof epoxy. Works like a charm.

[chookie2]

Thanks Marilyn I think we have E1000 here.