Workshops
Felting Workshops for Adults and Youth:
Workshops range in length from 2 – 6 hours, with a capacity for 10 – 15 participants, depending on the project. Contact Sarah for more details.
Options include:
Felt a Hat, Puppet or Bag (4 hours)
Create a soft, expressive hat or puppet in your own size, style and design. We will be using the finest Canadian wool, silk and other fibres to create your masterpiece, using wet felting techniques achieved around a “resist”. Discover and practice this trick and you can felt many things!
Making felted Slippers or Shoes ( 5 – 6 hours)
Create hand felted slippers or slip-on shoes in the size of your choice with cork, rubber or jute soles. Requires some rigourous felting.
Felt a Forest Necklace (2 – 3 hours)
Create a necklace inspired by the forest, bountiful and brilliant with berries, flowers, acorns and colourful leaves. Both wet felting and needle felting techniques will be involved, as desired. Equipment for further at home creation is included.
Make a Nuno Felted Scarf or Lantern (3 – 4 hours)
Learn the Nuno felting technique, creating a large lantern or scarf, by felting wool onto thin silk or cotton.
Felted a Cat Cave, Birdhouse or Child’s Play Cave (4 hours)
Make a cozy, hollow forest bed for a cat/small dog, a cave for child’s play or a functional birdhouse. Try carding wool for felting preparation learn needle felting techniques for details/embellishment. We will be using coarser wool which is durable but takes longer to felt.
Painting with Wool: Wall Hangings and Play Mats (2 – 3 hours)
Using wool and other fibres as your “paint”, along with soap, water and elbow grease, create wall hangings, either landscape or abstract. Or make an interactive 3 – D play mat based on the bird’s eye view of a landscape.
Diverse Workshops for Children/Schools:
Sarah is an Ontario Certified Teacher, currently an occassional teacher for the WRDSB. Funded by the Ontario Arts Council, Sarah has delivered extensive arts programming in schools. Other arts education activities relate to Sarah’s Artist-in-Residence positions with the Joseph Schneider Haus (2013) and the City of Kitchener (2016).
Glove/Mitten Puppet Making:
Have a lonely glove or an unloved mitten?
Add some teeth, some hands and ears and be a budding puppeteer. Make a troll with bits if junk, with wool and felt and thought and love.
Bring a mitten or a glove. And if time is tight, just bring yourself. Come make a sprite or a woodland elf.
Troll Building:
From moss to empty dental floss, from rocks to lonely holey socks, use anything we would have tossed…Participants create trolls or other mythical beings according to their own vision, using upcycled and natural materials, such as rocks, moss and acorns. (link to photo). Hot glue is used for constructing the sculptures. Writing activities include character profiles, narrative writing and reflection.
Upcycled Puppet Building:
Participants create characters using upcycled and natural materials. Writing activities include character profiles, narrative or script writing and reflection. Requires return visit.
Left: Viper Fish Marionette and Crab with Clothespins Centre: Teapot duck
Poetry/Song Composition for Performance:
Participants work as a team to create a visual map for composing lyrics or poetry with internal rhyme. Participants explore the importance of rhyming in the literature of oral cultures and how it can create both meaning and a means for recall. In preparing for performance, participants practice effective and expressive methods of delivery (Requires 2 sessions, minimum 1.5 hours, at least one week apart)
Felting:
Participants will explore the history/techniques of felting and wet felt an accessory (necklace, fridge magnet etc.) or part of another project (such as a mask or puppet). Students can also try their hand at needle felting with a special tool designed for safety and with gloves. Additional activities include research and procedural writing.
Playing the Mouth Harp:
Participants learn how to play the Mouth harp – a universal instrument. (Also known as the “Juceharp”)
The instrument is explored in a cultural, global and historical perspective, while participants learn how to play familiar songs on their very own harp. Participants will engage in a game of “name that tune”, as they listen to familiar songs played live on mouth harps from around the world. Participants will play the Dan Moi, Vietnemese harp, which is the easiest, and cheapest, harp to play. (Cost of instrument per participant: $3 – $4) listen to the mouth harp
Purpose for Genres of Folk Music:
…from dances to animal calls, to lullabies and warning signals
Wordless Singing Traditions:
…from the “joik” of Sami reindeer herders to the “tralling” of Norwegian farmers and “kjuling” of Swedish urban youth.
Environmental Reciprocity in Traditional Storytelling:
How did the relationship between the Hidden People and humans uphold a kind of environmental stewardship? Participants will explore traditional examples and create their own stories relevant to issues of today.
Oral Narrative and Literature: what’s the difference?
Play the telephone game, hold a rhyme-off and laugh your head off! Give students who often struggle at reading and writing a possible chance to shine. Through fun activities, listening and responding, students gain an understanding of oral art forms, throughout history and today. This workshop is a great way to introduce a student composition and performance project, relating to areas of study from ancient times to energy conservation to mathematics. Contact me for possibilities.