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LEARNING

2023 Face to Face Workshops…
Washington State, Belgium & Switzerland!

ONLINE & ON POINT! COURSEWORK
Felt Jewelry: C1, Foundational Structure
ENROLLMENT OPEN, June 4-Aug 13, 2023 with access through Oct 22, 2023!

Exhibitions & Purchasing

Pieces marked with an “*” in the WORKS galleries of this site are available for purchase. Send an email to Lisa Klakulak through the contact link with your interest.

Receive STRONGFELT News

An archive of newsletters can be sourced on the INTRIGUE blog of this site offering insights into Klakulak’s artistic practice. Subscribe to the STRONGFELT MAILING LIST & follow STRONGFELT on Facebook or Instagram to receive the most current news!

Strong Felt Recent Work

Then there was the sky full of yucca blossoms, bul

Then there was the sky full of yucca blossoms, bulbous clouds of repeating hollow forms about to pop on the tips of the spiked leaves! A vision of what will drop next in Modules 5 & 6 as participants in Course 2 Applications of Partial Felt move into surface forming and hollow form sculpting! From wool fluff to defined felt form, techniques of extreme differential shrinkage and perimetral fulling will blow open the possibilities 🌬️

Participants in Course 2 completed their Project 1 Design Reviews last week and are busy making AND the 7th Edition of Course 1 Foundational Structure gets rolling tomorrow with a new cohort. Check the Online & Onpoint! link in my Instagtam bio to learn more about STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewelry Series 🔝

#strongfelt
#yuccaclouds
#yuccablossoms
#hollowforms
#sculptingfiber
#wooltofelt
#flufftoform
#wetfelting
#skysthelimit

Module 4 in Course 2 Applications of Partial Felt

Module 4 in Course 2 Applications of Partial Felt drops the topic of surface patterning. And it’s a big drop addressing many aspects…How thick is the layout? How far is the felt felted before cutting? How does the size shape effect the clarity of design? The spacing? The shrinkage of the design vs the background? How thick is the background? Participants learn from comprehensive studies I have done as well as explore a handful themselves.

From top right clockwise: Sue Getchell’s pendant study explores linear gradation and the edge scalloping from differential shrinkage and Jan Klaver’s with a grid of triangles that pulse in their variations of visual depth. Christine Stephan’s collar study with fine blue background outlines around positive yellow shapes and that dramatic 🔵 edge cut! contrasting Suzie Forsyth’s gorgeous linear color gradation that defines the negative shapes of the background blue. I really do enjoy witnessing the progress through the course content and feel really proud of their work!

#strongfelt
#lisaklakulakteaches
#feltonlineandonpoint
@suegetchell @jayemkai @she.felt.designs @xskigal
#fiber
#wool
#felt
#wetfeltingtechnique
#colorcontrast
#surfacedesign
#surfacepatterns
#positiveshapesnegativelines
#positivelinesnegativeshapes
#patternrepeat
#pendants
#collars
#jewelry
#feltjewelry
#feltjewellerydesign
#fiberart
#contemporaryfiber

You’re welcome! Another gorgeous barrel cactus b

You’re welcome! Another gorgeous barrel cactus blossom to lay your eyes on. This one with matching red thorns that have a cable tie texture of parallel ridges. The dramatic central stripes framed by the nearly translucent petal edges brings to mind the cut edge “bleed” effect we’ve been exploring in the first 3 Modules of Course 2 of STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewlery Series. Also the graphic patterning of applying partial felt to the surface as both positive and negative shapes in Module 4 studies.

#strongfeltinspiration #barrelcactusflowerorseaanemone
#colorgradation
#cactusthorns
#cableties
#stripes
#repeatpattern
#boycethompsonarboretum

And then there are these Golden Barrel Cactus bloo

And then there are these Golden Barrel Cactus blooms (Echinocactus grusonii) that ring the top of the, you guessed it, barrel. The petals of the blossoms seem far more numerous than other cactus flowers. Perhaps it is the narrowed, pointed end of each petal that allows for a better visual of all those layered behind or maybe it is the way the points of the petals morph into the surrounding spikes?

Current participants in STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewelry Course Applications of Partial Felt have been exploring different shapes, both for use as the core of solid form and as surface design, and how the size the shape is cut effects shrinkage and color blending through the layers. The repetition of these barrels in the next image informs where we will go next in the course: across larger surface areas to develop pattern in Module 4 and then off the surface in Module 5!

#strongfeltinspiration
#cactusflowersblooming
#barrelcactus
#golden
#spikedcolor
#cutedges
#partialfeltascore
#concentriccircles
#repetitionofform

Participants’ in course 2 of STRONGFELT’s Felt

Participants’ in course 2 of STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewelry Series: Material, Technique & Impact began connecting shapes made by using partial felt as core in Module 3. Starting in the top left corner, Sue Getchell made cord links from the brightest spring green and alternated the planes of attachment while also making a hoop-like disc from her central form. The nesting form on the top right made by Sandi Luck and the one below by Jan Klaver were wet felted with a fiber tail (or rather fiber plume) that remained dry/unfelted for further attachment purposes. The interior diamond shape hangs/hinges within the center hole with a fiber tail to create a snug connection that perhaps deceives the viewer as a singular shape rather than two nested?

Link to the Online & Onpoint! Coursework in my Insta Bio 🔝 to see all the module studies for C1 & C2

#strongfelt
#strongfeltonlineandonpoint
#lisaklakulakteaches #wetfelting
@felttheneed2 @lucksandi @jayemkai
#feltspring
#feltshapes
#feltstructure
#feltchain
#feltlinked
#feltcords
#feltconnected
#solidfeltform
#partialfeltascore
#feltpatterns
#feltmovement
#feltstudy
#feltclass
#feltjewellery
#contemporaryjewelrydesign

Perhaps you thought I was finished with correlatin

Perhaps you thought I was finished with correlating the display of cactus flowers I recently witnessed in AZ and the fruits of the participant’s studies from the first 4 modules of Course 2 in STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewlery Series? Nahhh, the depth of correlation just started with color…

Here the Teddy Bear Cholla cactus, Cylindropuntia bigelovii with its attractive yellow green flowers and deceitful fuzziness, is well known as “jumping cholla” for easily attaching to others. It’s also known as “chain fruit cholla” as the fruits often remain on the stem and flower the next season. For these reasons it makes for a fantastic structural metaphor to the chains participants in the course are making by attaching solid forms using fiber tails and cord skirts as well as surface designs by encouraging the cut fiber edges of partial felt to penetrate deep into other surfaces.

#strongfeltinspiration
#cactusflowersblooming
#teddybearcholla
#chainfruitcholla
#jumpingcholla
#feltattached
#feltchains
#feltconnected

Participants in my Online & Onpoint! Course are ex

Participants in my Online & Onpoint! Course are exploring techniques for creating color variance, gradations and patterning on very small felt shapes with the wet felting process. This particular cactus had the most colorful blooms and brought to mind the bold color choices used in the felt studies by Jan Klaver and Wendy Werby in my prior post.

#strongfeltinspiration
#colorgradation
#electriccolor
#cactusflowersblooming
#desertlightbulbs

Another collection of studies by participants’ i

Another collection of studies by participants’ in the current Course 2 of STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewelry Series, Applications of Partial Felt. Moving into module 3 the focus shifts to how size/dimensions effect shrinkage, nesting solid felt forms made with partial felt as core and expanding design across the surface from its initial use as a connection skirt cover. Just love the bold color of Jan Klaver’s electric ⚡️.

Counter clockwise: Wendy Werby also worked with this color combo and developing surface design that evokes landscape, Christine Stephan achieving a beautiful and subtle edge “bleed” contrasting those bulbous surface forms and oh my the camera angle! And in that right corner, Deb Dumka working a softer palette with two nested forms defined by a pattern edge and a black outline.

#strongfelt
#lisaklakulakteaches @jayemkai @she.felt.designs @deborahdumka
#strongfeltonlinecoursework
#applicationofpartialfelt
#partialfeltascore
#feltdesigncourse
#feltdefinedshape
#feltqualitynotquantity
#feltsurfaces
#feltsurfaceprotuberances
#feltconnected
#contemporaryfiber
#fiberarts
#surfacedesign
#artjewellery
#jewelerymaking
#feltjewelryseries
#feltmaterialtechniqueimpact
#feltskilled
#artoffeltmaking

It is incredible to be present for (and be able to

It is incredible to be present for (and be able to capture in a photo) the glow of these Hedgehog cactus flowers when they first open. Full of moisture and reflecting the powerful Arizona sun they appear like a💡 in the otherwise surrounding dry earth. Here the stigma of the style indeed looks like the tungsten filament of an incandescent bulb.

#strongfeltinspiration
#desertlightbulbs
#reflectinglight
#cactusflowers
#hedgehogcactusbloom
#electriccolor
#boycethompsonarboretum

Loved the stand out subtlety of these cactus flowe

Loved the stand out subtlety of these cactus flowers compared to all the ⚡️ brilliancy flowering all around at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. It’s kind of how I felt when I laid my eyes on the collection of Deb Dumka’s felt studies featured across the top of my last post. Something about a soft mauve…

Near Superior, east of Phoenix on 60, it’s the largest and oldest arboretum in the state of AZ. Mom and I spent nearly 5 hours tantalized by texture, form and color amid the 300 acres on my last day before flying back east to Asheville, NC.

#strongfeltinspiration
#cactusflowers
#subtlecolors
#lessismore
#fortheloveofmauve
#boycethompsonarboretum

From top image clockwise, appreciating the attenti

From top image clockwise, appreciating the attention, handwork, color choices and photos of Deb Dumka, Sandi Luck, Christine Stephane and Sue Getchell. These are studies from Module 2 in Course 2, Applications of Partial Felt, focused on using shapes cut from a sheet of partial felt handmade with specified thickness of layout & density of felting to achieve these distinct forms, surfaces and connections.

Applications of Partial Felt is the second course in STRONGFELT’s Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series where myself, Lisa Klakulak, is documenting and organizing 20 years of felt study in an effort to pass on the depth of learning that comes with doing and analyzing, doing and analyzing and of course with lots of inspiration in between. Come learn and explore what is felt with me!

Edition 7 of Course 1, Foundational Structure, begins in 1 week running June 4- Aug 13, 2023. Details and enrollment link can be found in the Online & Onpoint! link in my Insta bio 🔝

#strongfelt @suegetchell @she.felt.designs @deborahdumka @lucksandi
#lisaklakulakteaches
#strongfeltonlineandonpoint
#felt
#wetfeltingwool
#feltstudy
#feltclass
#feltschooled
#methodolgy
#patterns
#partialfeltisfoundational
#fiber
#fiberart
#feltfiberartist
#feltfibertransformed
#materialstudy
#craftskills
#feltjewelry
#feltjewellery
#feltjewelrydesign
#contemporaryjewelry

On the topic of signals, it was amazing to recentl

On the topic of signals, it was amazing to recently be in Arizona for the blooming of cactus flowers over the past few weeks. This was a first for me! Not only were the brilliant colors and luminescence a heart medicine for the recent passing of a family member, but their reveal also coincided with participants in the first edition of my recently released Online & Onpoint! Course posting their colorful studies exploring Applications of Partial Felt. I could post cactus images for weeks 😂 but wouldn’t want visitors to my site to get confused. So, look forward to a weekend of cactus flowers alternating between collections of felt studies that use partial felt to define shape in solid form and surface patterning while exploring some unique ways to play with color in these wet felting techniques. ☀️

#strongfelt
#strongfeltinspiration
#strongcolor
#luminescence
#thereveal
#floweringcactus
#hedgehogcactusflower

Is the signal strong? There are a good many opport

Is the signal strong? There are a good many opportunities for STRONGFELT learning coming up! Details below…or above 🔝 #feltconnected

Back in 2017 while teaching a class on sculpting hollow form in my studio in Asheville NC, I prepared this design of partial felt to incorporate into a layout for a pendant/bead demo. Initially unaware, but of course a ridiculously common symbol, right?! Can you figure out which Resist-based Pendant in the next photo I used this layout for?!

There’s a comprehensive Online Course with foundation techniques starting on Sunday, June 4 including object encasement! There’s two F2F classes this summer/fall on the topic of Resist-based Pendants including object encasement AND sculpting form with partial felt; one on the Western side of the US and the other Belgium.

AND participant’s in the first edition of the Online & Onpoint! Course 2 Application’s of Partial Felt have been posting their studies from the first Modules! I’m so proud and excited to see results from the long haul of preparing another 10 week course and their interest and hard work. Sharing some pics here over the weekend…

Links abound in my Insta bio: online course info, teaching schedule, recent newsletter, sign ups and/or head to my website to peruse years of felt exploration.

#strongfelt
#lisaklakulakteaches
#strongsignal
#feltsymbols
#learningonline
#onlinefeltcourses
#feltworkshops
#felt
#wetfelting
#feltstudy
#partialfelt
#sculptingfiber
#feltedhollowform
#pendants
#beads
#feltpendants
#foundobject
#feltjewelry
#feltjewelrydesign
#resistbasedpendants
@pnwas @vrouwwolle

Well, its taken me nearly two months to process my

Well, its taken me nearly two months to process my experience at and around CollaboratioNZ 2023 and complete my series of blog posts. Certainly says something for the intensity of that 5 days of making!

Here I am after the auction holding up “Te Wheke a Mutarangi” a lino cut and print by Hamish Oakley Browne illustrating a Maori story using Jo Tito’s harakeke seed pod ink on a fine draping sheet of merino felt I made. I also stitched some muka fibers into the surface of the image of the fish hook as a tribute to the use of muka twine in the lashing construction of fishing hooks that I became absolutely enamored with at the Auckland Musuem. Of course there is more to the story and you can read about this collaboration in Part 3 “Muka Fiber in the Air and Sea” in my INTRIGUE blog series. Link in my Insta bio 🔝

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak @hamishob @wonderingearth @millachippie #collabnz #collabauction #tewhekeamuturangi #linocut #octopus #printingonfelt #felt

Collabed on this set of all natural spinning poi w

Collabed on this set of all natural spinning poi with Jo Tito @wonderingearth and Wendy Naepflin at #collaborationz2023. Hollow felted sphere with muka fiber looped on the surface, para filled and with 4ply plaited cords in natural colored + indigo dyed muka. Jo took the set on their first spin, gave me a little lesson (it’s hard!) and then extended the ropes a little longer for a more soaring flight. We titled the set “Flight of Muka.”
Read more in my Insta bio 🔝 INTRIGUE blog

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #poi #spinningpoi #feltpoi #feltspheres #hollowformfelting #feltandmukafiber #muka #plaited #harakeke #feltschooled #learningnewthings #yeayeayea

Part 3 of my CollaboratioNZ 2023 blog series has b

Part 3 of my CollaboratioNZ 2023 blog series has been published on STRONGFELT’s INTRIGUE page.
Link in bio 🔝

Inspired by the amazing pair of poi taniko that I saw at the Auckland Museum in the second picture, I collabed a pair of all natural felted poi. With input on size and weight from Maori artist Jo Tito, a beautiful set of poi with plaited cords by flax weaver, Wendy Naepflin, in natural colors of the harakeke + some muka dyed with indigo took flight. Jo was first to spin “Flight of Muka” and gave me some rather entertaining spinning lessons one raining night in the fiber tent. I so appreciated the opportunity to gather historical/cultural context from the amazing collection at the Auckland Museum and also to learn in real time experiences.

#lisaklakulak @wonderingearth #strongfelt #feltpoi #shortpoi #feltspheres #felt #muka #houhere #lacebark #wetfelting #plaiting #flightofmuka #collabnz2023 #aucklandmuseum #poitaniko #harakeke #muka #kiekie #raupo

Enrollment is OPEN for Course 1 in the Felt Jewelr

Enrollment is OPEN for Course 1 in the Felt Jewelry Series: Material Technique and Impact! Course starts June 4th...

Link to Enroll and Link to the Online & Onpoint! page with detailed images and descriptions of the content and soooo many truly unique works created by participants over the past three years of running this course online. Check my Instagram bio for the links. I've got the skills to share and a knack at organizing information for optimal learning. Learn how to construct many different solid forms, to change their proportions, means for connecting them to one another, to surfaces, to hollow forms, to encase objects in a contour fitting skin and not just to do it but to understand the why of such approaches. Then make two pieces that you design with my support + learn from everyone's projects!

June 4- August 13 and access to the videos and platform through to October 22, 2023! Next C1 offering will be spring of 2024, but if you jump in this summer you could take C2 beginning January 2024...

#strongfelt #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #lisaklakulakteachesonline #feltonline #felt #fiber #wool #feltskills #wetfelting #wetfeltingtechniquesgalore #feltjewelry #feltfoundationalstructure #feltconnected #feltclaspsandclosures #feltsolid #feltstrong #felt3d

Writing about those blue bottles and their sails y

Writing about those blue bottles and their sails yesterday…thought it was a good time to share these beauties, “Catching the Wind.” I worked on 8 different projects at #collabnz and this was the sole piece of adornment I participated in making that week. Certainly getting out of ones regular routine of making is part of the #artcollab spirit and I did!

I had brought a pair of my big trampoline style felted earrings along for the travel and had shown them to @alexnathansilversmith who along with @denisewallacejewelry were the force in the little metalsmithing studio. I simply suggested if the framework for a shape were made, I’d skin them up trampoline style. This was the result and I am happy he played along! When I asked him what he had in mind, what inspired the shape, he said a sail. I added a bit of dyed muka fiber from the harakeke/NZ flax plant to the outer felt shape and stitched a bit of waxed linen across the felt skin on the one sail. Thought I’d use a bit of both flax plants as both were used to make sails ;)

I have one more big INTRIGUE blog piece to write up in this coming week featuring the last two objects I collaborated on. Wind and water, birds and sea creatures have been the theme of my most recent social media posts and that will carry into the next blog piece also. Blog link in the bio 🔝

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #alexnathan #catchingthewind #sails #harakekemuka #waxedlinen #wool #felt #feltearrings #adornment #feltjewelry #wetfelted #collabnz2023

Walking along Martin’s Bay offered these remarka

Walking along Martin’s Bay offered these remarkable scenes to take in on what was my last day along a NZ coastline this past March 2023. Having come from the Wairere Valley at Horeke, at the inner reaches of the Hokianga Harbor with its fluted Basalt boulders, outward to the mouth at the Tasman Sea, I was met with a massive sand dune on the north head and a rocky south head. Oh how I love geologic extremes! Of course, the fluidity of the moving sands as opposed to the dense rock had me making analogies with how thin skin-like felt moves and shrinks around denser felt to sculpt form. But, what really pulled me (well, not to close) were these bluebottles along the beach!

More commonly known as Portuguese man-o-war they were named after a sailing boat, the caravel, used in the 15th century because of their sail-like form, flotation and being propelled solely by the external forces of wind and water. Perhaps you know I inflate my thin felt skins to assist in template removal, but to also keep the front and back from felting together and see my form better as I sculpt? I wouldn’t want to collapse a wall and make a protruding sail in my felt, or would I?! 🤔 Anyhow…look up these creatures if you’ve never studied their form and if you haven’t ever seen me blow up a felt form and you are interested in geology there is a VIDEO on my www.strongfelt.com homepage for your viewing pleasure. Link in bio 🔝

#strongfeltinspiration #feltingmetaphors #windandwater #geologicextremes #hokiangaharbor #martinsbaynz #bluebottles #portuguesemanofwar #inflation #feltinflation #hollowform #sculptinghollowform #compressionofairspace #felting

I was looking at my last post and thought, I reall

I was looking at my last post and thought, I really like gradients. Why? I asked myself. I think because they represent movement and change. I feel the same about high contrasting elements as they create a vibration, a back and forth between extremes.

This thought process brought to mind “The Feathered Claw,” another piece I was invited to contribute to at #collabnz2023. Camilla Harmston appeared at my work station with her turned wood form and the protruding forged steel claw (attributed to, I believe, Trish Clarke and Henry Pomfret) asking if I would add some felt element to the opposite end. I agreed and a couple days later it was passed to me to work on, but now with darting bird eyes and energy 🦅 after being painted by Alex Gupton. I decided to oppose the three forward facing talons of the back scratcher with a less rigid round bar stock of felt cords and the scraping claw points with a feathery touch from the muka fibers of the harakeke plant. Talk about extremes of what is felt 😂

As the end of the form was a bit bulbous, having a narrowed circumference further up the dowel, I could shrink and secure a felt skin around that indentation. I measured the surface area of the form, flattened it into a 2D template and enlarged it based on the shrinkage of my thin layout of wool fibers and a few strands of muka fiber. It’s a good example of encasing a form in a high shrinkage contour fitting felt skin, but not needing to encase the entire form. I’ll be curious if any participants in my upcoming courses on Resist-based Pendants or in Course 1 of my Online Foundational Structure Course see this post and consider this idea for encasing their objects!

#strongfelt #featheredclaw #backscratcher #contrastingelements #turnedwood #forgedclaws #feltedfeathers #muka #wool #birdeyes #artcollab #collabfamily @millachippie @alexgupton @trishvisual

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