Embed and Embellish: Felt, Stone and Bead Jewelry
"Go-Felt-A-Fish"
Biography of Sharon Costello

SHARON COSTELLO


Embed and Embellish: Felt, Stone and Bead Jewelry

Thursday October 13, 2011
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Class Fee – $ 125.00
Class Size - 18 Students

Create a stunning cuff style bracelets that combine the contrasting qualities of soft wool felt with the hard shine of glass, stone and metal. Learn the art of traditional wet felt making (no knitting) and a range of techniques for surface embellishment. Create “settings” for treasured objects, such as stones and beads into the wool without stitching or glue. Add 3-D effects to accent your settings even more. Add shine and texture with surface embellishment using silks, bamboo or linen. Integrate attractive closure systems into their design. You can also finish your one-of-a-kind cuff decorative stitching and beading if time allows. 
Maximum number of students: 18 
Student Supply List:
• A large flat sponge
• A  large eye darning needle (I will bring some for those who don’t have them)
• Plain dish washing liquid (without additives) or other felting solution
• A couple of old towels
• A pair of scissors
• A small plastic dish pan or tub

To register online click here.
To print and mail your registration click here.

“Go-Felt-A-Fish”

Friday October 14, 2011
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Class Fee – $ 125.00
Class Size - 14 Students

 
A fun, “everything goes” approach to teaching surface design in felt. Students will learn all about creating surface design in the felting process while creating a one-of-a- kind, three dimensional fiber fish that can be used as a small bag, or hanging art piece. We will combine wool, shear fabrics, silks and synthetic fibers, designer yarns, wool locks and beads to create fantasy fish full of texture and shine!. This class will includes mostly wet felting techniques.

Maximum number of students: 14
Student Supply List:
• A large flat kitchen sponge
• Needle and thread
• Plain dish washing liquid (without additives) or other felting solution
• A couple of old towels
• A pair of scissors
• A large plastic dish pan

To register online click here.
To print and mail your registration click here.



Biography of Sharon Costello:
Sharon Costello started as a fiber artist twenty-five years ago with a small flock of sheep and a love of creative experimentation. She has been a full time, professional feltmaker since 1995. She is well known for her prize winning needle felted art dolls and felted vessels. She has studied feltmaking in the US, Turkey and Scandinavia and shares her knowledge of the craft teaching workshops through national and international conferences, fiber and doll guilds, art centers and colleges. She also sponsors “Felters’ Fling”, a bi-annual conference that brings instructors from around the world to introduce new techniques to American feltmakers. Sharon has produced two teaching videos; one on her felt doll making techniques and one on featherweight felting methods. Her work has been featured in several books:1000 Artisan Textiles (Quarry Books), Uniquely Felt (Storey Publishing), How We Felt, (Interweave Press), 500 Handmade Dolls (Lark Books), Needle Felt (Felt Crafts), Yet More Felt in the Kitchen and Felt Figures Great and Small (Ewa Kuniczak).She has written articles on feltmaking and been featured in several magazines such as Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot (Handweavers’ Guild of America), Fiber Arts, Spin-off and Felt (Interweave Press), Echoes (International Feltmakers’ Association), North American Felters’ Network, Cloth Doll Magazine, Soft Dolls and Animals Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, and a wide range of fiber guild and doll makers newsletters in the US and abroad. Her work has been featured in one woman and group shows from New York to California, as well as on the Home and Garden Television Network. Sharon is a member of The International Feltmakers Association, North American Feltmakers and Original Doll Artists Council of America (ODACA). Her feltmaking business, called Black Sheep Designs, specializes in kits and supplies for needle and wet feltmaking. Sharon has a design degree from Syracuse University and an MBA from the State University of New York at Albany.