Woodscape Artistry

a-registration-2008-felt-workshop.doc

Join us for an exciting textile adventure. Students will have the opportunity to study the craft of Turkish felt making at the shop of internationally renown felt master Mehmet Girgic. Students will get the feel of the everday life of the craftsman. There will be opportunities to travel about the interesting city of Konya as well as into the Taurus Mountains to see other textile craftsmen and women at work. Enjoy savory Turkish quisine and other Turkish treats. Get ready to have your eyes filled with color and patterns everywhere you look!

Mehmet Girgic and Theresa May-O’Brien will be teaching a series of 3 1-Day workshops in Felt & Natural Dye making. The classes will be offered at the home studio of Sharon Janda. This studio is located in Potomac, Maryland. On April 21, students will techniques and recipes for natural dyes while working with previously mordanted wool yarn. On April 22, students will explore Mosaic techniques for felt using prefelted wool canvas and prefelts. On April 23, students will explore the Osman technique for felt, learning to craft hand rolled wool drawing material and following with inlay work. The price for all classes is $100/day. Please conact Sharon for more information.

sjanda@verizon.net

Next Meeting: THIS IS A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

Friday, APRIL 18, 2008 FELT AS ART – MEET THE ARTISTS

MEHMET GIRGIC AND THERESA MAY – O’BRIEN

Focus Pointe Global
Two Logan Square
18^th & Arch Street Suite 500 Philadelphia, PA

 RSVP: e-mail: Rabinovic@aol.comOr by telephone: (215) 627-4135 Parking: Between the Four Seasons hotel and  2 Logan Square

$10.00 or street parking.Social hour is 6:30 to 7:00 PM and lectures start at 7:00. It is important that you RSVP this meeting by e-mail: Rabinovic@aol.com or by telephone 215.627.4135

BACKGROUND:This lecture is about the revival of felt making as a contemporary art and the opportunity to meet the skilled artists that made it all possible.If you have ever been interested in Felt Making/Felt Art this is an opportunity to see some unique contemporary pieces inspired by an old age technique. If you have some felt pieces, please bring it to the meeting.About the artists…. MEHMET GIRGIC Mehmet Girgic has been a felt maker since he was a teenager, as were his father and grandfather before him. He keeps traditional and ancient felting techniques alive by creating Kece (carpets), Kepeneks (shepherd’s cloaks) and Sikki (Dervish hats). He has researched and revived many traditional felting methods and has passed on his knowledge to fiber artists who flock to his studio to learn from the Master. His work has been featured in Felt; New Directions for an Ancient Craft and National Geographic. Mehmet has taught classes in the United States and Europe, as well as in his workshop in

Konya, Turkey. THERESA MAY-O’BRIEN Theresa has been an artist since her childhood in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, inspired by the culture, seasons, and fabric of her rural roots. As a landscape watercolorist she studied under artist/teacher Jack Flynn and became a noted artist in her own right. Her creative inquiry took her into the fiber arts where she applied the eye of a painter to spinning.

elNow an accomplished feltmaker, Theresa has studied with the Old World master felt makers of Scandinavia, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary and Turkey where she has traveled and lived, learning both the methods and the culture of the felting tradition. Theresa’s work has reached new artistic levels through mentorship under master feltmaker Mehmet Girgic. She has been a teacher and lecturer throughout the northeast

United States on both the craft of felt making as well as the cultural bridges that can be built through art. Theresa currently lives and teaches on her small farmstead in upstate

New York. Felt is the oldest fabric known to humankind. It predates weaving and knitting, although there is archaeological evidence in the

British

Museum that the first known thread was made by winding vegetable fibers on the thigh. In Anatolian Turkey, the remains of felt have been found dating back at least to 6500 BC. Highly sophisticated felted artifacts were found preserved in permafrost in a tomb in

Siberia and dated to 600 AD. Feltmaking is still practiced by nomadic peoples in

Central Asia, where rugs, tents and clothing are regularly made. Some of these are traditional items, such as the classic yurt, while others are designed for the tourist market, such as decorated slippers. In the Western world, felt is widely used as a medium for expression in textile art as well as design, where it has significance as an ecologically sensitive textile.