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LEARNING

ONLINE & ON POINT! COURSEWORK
Felt Jewelry Series:
Material, Technique & Impact
Course 1, Ed 7 ENROLLMENT OPEN
Course 2 Content is published!

2023 FACE TO FACE WORKSHOPS

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.

For Exhibitions, Lectures and Gallery Listings visit PLACES TO FIND STRONGFELT

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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!

Recent Work from Strongfelt

* Denotes item available for purchase or exhibition

feltstrong

First sheep sighting on the streets of Auckland li

First sheep sighting on the streets of Auckland literally on the block of the airport shuttle drop. Good sign, I think.

#strongfelt #aucklandnz #collaborationz

Oh my, where to begin? A year ago, or so, I recei

Oh my, where to begin?

A year ago, or so, I received an invitation in my inbox that really made me smile big and do a happy dance. I had been intrigued by a collaborative artist event at Emma Lake in Saskatchewan for years, but no go, and here I was being invited to a rendition in the southern hemisphere on the North Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. I said yes, of course, but NZ borders where still closed at that time, the assistive funding offered for an international resource artist was a blessing, but it was still a stretch for me and I had a second online course to produce in the fall of ‘22. Fast forward to February 2023 with open borders, a new class produced and enrollment nice and full up and an artist support grant recently awarded by the regional Arts Councils of Western North Carolina to assist me in working among 80 other artists at Whangarei Heads in the Northland.

I leave a week from today and with the recent cyclone, happy to know the event can continue. I spend a few days in Auckland at the Museum and the National Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki before heading north to create collaborative artworks. Who will I work with, in what media and what will be made?! It’s been half a year of focusing on making course content and I am so excited to explore. There is no internet service at the camp, but I promise I’ll share some insights after.

If you are in New Zealand there is a Public Open Day Tuesday, March 14 from 10-3. Also an auction event, Saturday, March 18 at Hihiaua Cultural Center, 56-58 Herekino St, Whangarei where the works made will become the seed money for CollabNZ 2025. The preview starts at 11pm and the auction at 1pm. More information about the event at www.collaborationz.co.nz.

Thank you to CollabNZ for the invite, to the felters who continue to support my artistry by participating in my workshops and online coursework and to the jurors organized this year by the Haywood County Arts Council for finding my application worthy of funding. Psyched to represent WNC in the Northland of NZ 🙏🏻

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #felt #felting #strongfeltinnz #collaborationz #ncartscouncil #whangareiheads @collabnz

F2F Workshop 📢 Announcement! Another workshop j

F2F Workshop 📢 Announcement!
Another workshop just a train hop from Brussels and Antwerp in the lovely border town of Essen, Belgium. Is it surface design that interests you? Do you love the texture that is created with fusing wool through silks and lighter weight fabrics, but want to take it to another level or 2? STRONGFELT’s Patterning, Fabric Fusion and Machine Stitching workshop October 10-12, 2023 will add depth, texture and a bit of spunk to your felt work.

In this three-day STRONGFELT workshop you will overstand the variables that effect the textures that can be achieved related to fabric density and structure with, of course, the weight of wool fiber. We’ll explore the use of partial felt to both resist and assist texture development and to respond compositionally to enhance the fabrics’ colors, shapes and patterns. AND THEN apply free-motion embroidery to add more color and texture through fine line work and strategically compressing areas of the felt to emboss shapes.

I love the image on the left side that looks like foot prints with the top of the shapes showing how dramatic and satisfying the impact of adding machine stitching to your work can be compared to the lower half without. Speaking of foot prints, for this stitching aspect of the workshop you will need a machine with a darning or free-motion embroidery foot and with feed dogs that lower so you can move the fabric freely. However, without a machine you can still join the course and keep your focus on the myriad textures that can be created with wool and fabrics!

Follow the link in the bio to www.strongfelt.com and to the TEACHING menu to learn more.
www.vrouwwolle.be to enroll.

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #felt #feltsurfacedesign #feltfabricfusion #fabricstudy #fiberarts #feltwool #nunofelt #itsnotjustforsilk #wetfelting #differentialshrinkage #texture #textureart #feltpattern #freemotionembroidery #embossingfelts #feltinbelgium #feltworkshops2023 @vrouwwolle

F2F Workshop 📢 Announcement! Spend four days th

F2F Workshop 📢 Announcement!
Spend four days this fall with 10 other felt enthusiasts focused on constructing small scale hollow form in Essen, Belgium. STRONGFELT’s Resist-based Pendant workshop was a blast last year at Vrouw Wolle’s atelier with participants bringing a fantastic range of forms to encase in a contour revealing felt skin and I’m psyched to be coming back so we can keep moving these ideas forward and upward. We will also explore techniques using partial felt to develop protruding surface planes and extreme differential shrinkage to push felt surfaces into convexities and concavities that sculpt the form in unimaginable ways. Link in bio to www.strongfelt.com and follow the TEACHING menu to the F2F WORKSHOPS and SCHEDULE for more details.
www.vrouwwolle.be to reserve your spot.

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #felt #wetfelting #feltworkshop #feltinbelgium #felthollowform #feltpendants #feltjewelry #feltjewellerydesign #differentialshrinkage #sculptingwool #feltskin #feltencasedobjects @vrouwwolle

Perhaps you’ve gotten a bit jazzed about the app

Perhaps you’ve gotten a bit jazzed about the approaches, results and possibilities of Course 2, Applications of Partial Felt and are interested in beginning STRONGFELT’s comprehensive Online & Onpoint! coursework in the Felt Jewelry Series this coming year?

There will be one 10 week offering of Course 1, Foundational Structure Studies this summer starting June 4 with the formal course ending August 13 + platform and video access through to October 22.

Learn the nuances of creating strongly felted surfaces on solid forms, 2D felt and object encasing felt skin with an appropriate amount of drape and strength for your intended function and concept. Explore and overstand a methodology of component construction and connections allowing for repeatability as well as strategic variation that will empower your relationship with this wonderous wool material to achieve desired results. Detailed description of the module studies, project framework, a gallery of prior participants work and the course enrollment link can be found on the Online & Onpoint! Coursework page at www.strongfelt.com. Links in the bio.

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #felt #wool #woolfelt #wetfelt #wetfeltingtechnique #felttutorial #feltschool #feltcourse #feltclass #feltonlinestudy #feltsupported #whatisfeltiswhatisreal #feltcraft #feltart #feltwearableart #feltjewellery #finecraft #fiberart #fiberjewelry #fiberartists #wearableexpressions #sculptingfiber #fibersculpture #materialstudies

And just a bit of humor for the share. This memory

And just a bit of humor for the share. This memory just rolled up on my personal page. For those outside the US who don’t know what a 1099 is, it’s obligatory to be issued by an entity that has paid you over a certain amount to assure that you report that income to the government. They had the correct account number though…

#klakulak #strongfelt #strongfat

A detail of another STRONGFELT Banksia menziesii i

A detail of another STRONGFELT Banksia menziesii inspired piece of body adornment from the 2013 series followed by an image of the full neckpiece. “Seeded Undulation” is a good example of building a composition in felt through tiered development, the theme of my most recent newsletter paralleling my pedagogical approach to teaching felting with blooming, that is three-dimensional expansion via shrinkage. Link in bio.

Dry prepared and wet felted cords are connected to partial felt discs creating hinge pins, that hold the flowers onto the main cord representing the long spike of this conflorescence. The sculpting of the hollow tube to mimic the protuberations of the seed follicles, seen opened in the second image, is the result of extreme differential shrinkage and directional (perimetral) agitation. As the follicles open only with 🔥 the woody seed separators hold the seeds longer until cooled and/or moistened and also the working of the seeds outward with the cycle of wetting/expansion/curving and drying/shrinkage/straightening assuring the seeds land in ideal conditions to develop. Fantastic.

And the top tier, that of free-motion embroidery adding: finer detail, color and embossed surface texture, will be part of the content covered in Course 3…a few years still for that production ;) And with this post, I conclude this little journey back in time through STRONGFELT works that inspired the development of techniques that I bring forward in Course 2 of the Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series, Applications of Partial Felt. Thank you for your interest 🙏🏻

#strongfelt #feltworks #lisaklakulak #fiberartist #strongfeltinspirations #banksiamenziesii #fiberprocess #felt #wetfelting #feltdimension #feltfoundationalstructure #feltpartials #partialfeltcore #feltshape #feltsurfacedesign #feltprotrusion #feltstudy #feltgrowth #feltjewelery #bodyadornment #statementnecklace #contemporaryjewellery #fiberart #handmade #handmadejewelry #sculptingfiber #materialstudy #wetisbetterthandry #biggerisntbetter #craftisntabadword

Bringing the posts back still, but here, returning

Bringing the posts back still, but here, returning to the jewelry format. One of the first small scale hollow forms I explored in 2013 using differential shrinkage and perimetral agitation, this boldly shaped and free-motion embroidered neckpiece was inspired by my first encounter with the Banksia plant in Australia, specifically on the West coast when on a teaching stint in 2012. Don’t know that flora? Slide on over to the next image and have a look at that velvet-like AMAZING fence-like pattern created by the bracts/bases of leaves on a flowerhead after the flowers have fallen. I think this is the Banksia menzies. 👀

In Module 6 of STRONGFELT’s Course 2, Applications of Partial Felt in the Felt Jewelry Series, we’ll be exploring the raising of surface patterns using extremes of differential shrinkage, which applied to the wall of a hollow form allows for the sculpting of form through developing concavities and the resultant convexities.

There are a few seats still in this first course edition of Course 2 for those who’ve completed Course 1. Enrollment remains open until the course begins April 16 or is full up! Details of the Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series in the bio 🔝

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #feltedwool #feltpatterns #patternrepeat #feltforming #fencepatterns #freemotionembroidery #stitchingfelt #feltjewellery #feltbeads #hollowform #hollowformjewelry #banksiamenziesii #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #feltonline #feltstudy #applicationsofpartialfelt #partialfelt or do you call it #prefelt

Instead of surface patterns, textures and outward

Instead of surface patterns, textures and outward extensions, this handbag from 2014, "Cushioning," was inspired by the idea of inward tending. With the process of extreme differential shrinkage and either circumferential or perimetral fulling, depending on the shape of the partial felt, a denser area of fiber is elevated off the 2D plane. That protruding outward creates a concave deficit and therefore I turned things around here ;) This pulling inward is an action of reserving, perhaps protecting, but certainly self-nurturing and is reminiscent of the stitching or buttoning of a cushion.

Module 5 in Course 2 Applications of Partial Felt of STRONGFELT's Online & Onpoint! Coursework focuses on this raising and hollowing of surface dimension. Sometimes examples of techniques are better demonstrated with pieces of work that are different than what will be created in the course. To get through a lot of content the studies are smaller which is why jewelry is such an ideal vehicle for felted technique, composition, function and conceptual/material relevancy.

#strongfelt #whatisfelt #vday #whatwecarryandforhowlong #feltbaggage #cushioning #inwardtending #felt #wool #selfnurturing #differentialshrinkage #shinkageisreal

My initial intrigue with the wet felting process,

My initial intrigue with the wet felting process, and I imagine many a fiber-based artist working with wet felting would agree, was based on the ability to develop seamless hollow form. Prior, sewn construction, crochet and beaded gourd stitch in the round were the methods I used to satisfy my desire to sculpt space. Like, throwing clay, turning wood, raising sheet metal or blowing glass, wet felting brought to my hands a more fluid manipulation of material mass then an approach of accretion.

Similar to my last posts relating the design of jewelry to the body, my work with hollow form was related to its function for humans, that of carrying, holding, containment. The concept of walls, boundaries and security permeated my felting (still does actually) and informed the type of surface patterning I explored using partial felt in my early years. These handbags deliberately referenced houses, a variety of fence constructions, wood grain patterning, brick and stone walls as I played with the idea of the literal securities we carry in our handbags and the needed walls of protection in an unequal society.

It was during these surface design and ideological investigations that a methodology developed in my felt making related to the making of partial felt at various weights of layout and to different degrees of fulling to achieve sharp design edges and surface textures, which eventually led to pushing the extremes of differential shrinkage through the use of perimetral and circumferential agitation to undulate the wall from a 2D plane. Many may wonder about the length of these courses in my Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series, but it is a material journey we take, not simply the making of an object. In Course 2, we explore the Applications of Partial Felt from its internal use as “core” to its topical use for patterning and extending beyond surface to protrusion and the sculpting of space.

If you haven’t before, skip on over through the link in my bio to my website’s WORKS menu and follow through to HOLD and HANDBAGS, all of these surface details are pulled from patterned hollow forms dating from 2005-2009.

#strongfelt #feltpatterned #walls #fences #boundaries

Going back to 2010 with STRONGFELT’s first felt

Going back to 2010 with STRONGFELT’s first felt collar I made after travel to Mali and Russia, seemingly disparate places and cultures, but I combined influences from both into myself and my work, as we do, consciously or not. I was thinking about the reference to breast plate armor I made in yesterday’s post and how the partial felt structure of that neckpiece mimicked the skeletal elements of the body.

Here, the sword-like pointed shape of the collar does reference the sternum tip (did you know that is called the xiphoid process?), but it is the partial felt surface patterning that comes across as protective with the fence like grid repeat. In Course 2 of the Applications of Partial Felt Course in the Felt Jewelry Series, we dive into, or rather start layering up, surface in Module 4.

When I first began felting, I was sculpting larger hollow carrying vessels on which I did most of my preliminary exploring of surface patterning with partial felt. More on that in the next posting…

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak
#wool #felt #wetfelted #freemotionmachineembroidery #indigodyed #resistdyed #strongfeltinspiration #feltcollar #feltarmor #feltguarded #feltpattern #feltsurfacedesign #fencepattern #partialfelt #feltnecklace #feltjewellerydesign #feltonline #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #feltjewelrycoursework #fiberarts

Not that one would want their teacher to come acro

Not that one would want their teacher to come across spacey, but I have been so hyper-focused on getting this course together that I actually questioned someone in the grocery yesterday who wished another patron a good weekend. I said “It’s only Wednesday.” EVERYONE around looked at me, like were have you been 🤣 As if they would understand a response like “Deep, deep in the meshwork of wool felt and course construction.”

TODAY IS THE DAY that enrollment for Course 2: Applications of Partial Felt, the second course tier in the Online & Onpoint Felt Jewelry Series: Material, Technique & Impact, opens at 4 PM EST/USA for participants who completed Course 1 Foundational Structure. 👏 👏 👏

“Develop an in-depth understanding of the variables in making and applying different layout weights and densities of wet felted partial felt. Explore refinement of structure for material durability and effects on aesthetic qualities using partial felt as ‘core’ in solid form, as surface patterning/texturing and embedded within layouts for raising and sculpting hollow form. With a focus on the concept of space for the wool filaments and the cut edges and brushed surfaces of partial felt shapes to engage, intertwine and shrink in the direction of encouragement by the maker, multi-dimensional forms with unique surface designs will be made. Ideally, demonstrated studies are meant to be repeated, modified and coalesced to become tools and pathways to approach your ideas and visions rather than repeat those of others.”

An edition of Course 1 this summer is also open for enrollment if you are interested in joining in the series of courses. Link in Bio 🔝

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #fiberartist #makersgonnateach #whatisfelt #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #onlineandonpoint #onlinecoursework #wool #wetfelting #felteducation #feltstudy #feltdeep #meshwork #materialstudies #feltjewelryseries #applicationsofpartialfelt

This STRONGFELT neckpiece from 2015 also came to m

This STRONGFELT neckpiece from 2015 also came to mind regarding my last post reflecting on different applications of partial felt as the core in the dry fiber preparation for wet felting. This piece is harder and stiffer, though, coming across as the protective collar bones or rib cage that protects our most vital organs, a breast plate of armor.

The size of the piece of partial felt is quite larger which creates some challenges…change one variable and it effects others and maybe just leads to knew ways of working. Let’s just say those holes aren’t solely for aesthetic purposes ;) The thicker cord stock feels more industrial/mechanical also, which is not a surprise considering where I attribute the inspirations for developing these solid form felting techniques. Read more about it in the Fiber Bridge section of my most recent newsletter. Link in bio.

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #feltcourse #feltworkshops #feltstudy #wool #felt #fiberjewelry #jewelrydesigner #contemporaryjewellerydesign #feltjewellery #feltjewelry #applicationsofpartialfelt #partialfeltascore #feltsolid #feltarmor

The creation of this tiered Online & Onpoint! Jewe

The creation of this tiered Online & Onpoint! Jewelry Series (and teaching in general) provides me with an opportunity to revisit foundational aspects of working with wool and the felting process to explain why I do things the way I do; aspects that I don’t necessarily think about on the regular while making in my own practice having already been informed by such investigative thought. I find that this revisiting while teaching brings to mind different ways I have worked over the years before taking a decisive turn in one direction and then another…and otherwise not looking back.

Today I woke up thinking about what was the most recent work I had made where I integrated partial felt as the core in constructing solid form, the focus of the first modules in Course 2. It was this piece, “Gather, Coil,” from the 2016 series “Hair is Adornment” where I incorporated hot roller pins as a tool used to roll, curl, crimp, and bring volume to human hair through densification of otherwise straight, flat filaments. In this piece I was also considering the gesture of pulling my straight hair back and twisting it into a bun. The central disc, clasping buttons on it and the clasping mechanism at the back are all made using partial felt as core.

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #wool #hair #felt #roll #shrink #gather #coil #gesture #whatisfelt #feltjewery #hairisadornment #hotrollerpins #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #solidformfeltingtechniques #feltcords #feltclaspsandclosures #partialfeltascore

Process Shot. Final final edits yesterday for Cour

Process Shot. Final final edits yesterday for Course 2 videos in STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewelry Series including dropping in the title pages with images of the module studies!
👏 👏 👏

I am so pleased…with the lighting, the audio, how the backdrop of rich colored logs comes across in the videos, that is, when the detail camera isn’t the screen (it most often is) and of course that I am not the one staring at 3 screens simultaneously.

It takes so many, including participants interested in exploring these techniques 🙏🏻

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #onlinefeltingcourse #felt #wool #materialstudy #wetfelting #partialfeltisfoundational #processshot #wip #feltingvideos #feltingonline #feltschool #ittakesavillage

I am very excited to announce that the content of

I am very excited to announce that the content of Course 2, Applications of Partial Felt, is now live on the Online & Onpoint! page of my website.
(Link in bio)

It has been quite the project this past fall to organize the second tier in my Felt Jewelry Series: Material, Technique & Impact! I have showcased particular techniques I have developed in my work over the years as well sharing studies that have informed how I work. It feels purposeful to organize and archive this content but, of course, also to pass along what I have livicated so much of my time on this planet exploring. I hope it inspires lots of interest, joy, and new ways of seeing wool and the process of felting so the possibilities of shrinkage keep expanding.

STRONGFELT’s first newsletter of 2023 has been published with more insights into the coursework and the year ahead. Links to read it and sign up to receive it in the bio 🔝

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #fiber #fiberartist #fibereducation
#strongfeltonlineandonpoint #felt #wool #feltonlineandonpoint #wetfeltingwool #wetfeltingtechnique #feltlessons #feltschool #feltstudy #feltjewelry #feltjewelrydesign #feltclaspsandclosures #feltpendants #feltcollars #feltbeads #sculptingfiber #applicationsofpartialfelt #partialfelt #partialfeltascore #feltpatterns #felthollowforms #shrinkageisreal #differentialshrinkage #sculptingshrinkage #contemporarycraft

Tooo much computer time and not enough handwork ma

Tooo much computer time and not enough handwork makes Lisa and Osity cats’ mandatory daily walks a creative endeavor!

Photo session for the content of Modules in Course 2: Applications of Partial Felt in STRONGFELT’s Jewelry Series this weekend and then pics will be up on the website next week 😁

#strongfelt #braided #fortheloveoffiber #gingercatsrock

Just have to share some images here of a recent po

Just have to share some images here of a recent post from the Pacific Northwest Art School propping up my August 2023 workshops! @pnwas did a remarkable pairing of the image of the Salish Sea and the protruding land mass that is Whidbey Island with my class studies of sculpting wet felted hollow forms with differential shrinkage and directional agitation to undulate a form’s 2D surface. And then that image of Coupeville’s colorful water front full of windows to view the curving shoreline full of rocks and a larger pattern field of birds juxtaposed with the image of my felt collar entrapping glass and stones in fabric windows!! 📸

Come explore with me the fascinating possibilities of working with wool felting, the beauty of Skagit and Snohomish land/ Whidbey Island, WA and in August ☀️ Resist-based Pendants Aug 21-24 is nearly full up and Fabric Fusion August 26-28 has a handful of spaces, so grab a friend and have an adventure!

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #felt #feltschool #feltworkshops #feltclasses #felthollowformpendants #feltsurfacesandtextures #foundobjects #fiberarts #fiberartsculpture #pacificnorthwest
#salishsea #coupeville #ilovewhidbeyisland

I absolutely love this part of the process….pull

I absolutely love this part of the process….pulling the blade of a razor over the densely felted surfaces to remove the halo of fiber hairs and using a pair of snips to clean up the edges and protuberant profiles. The hollow form bead and pendant studies in the last Module of Course 2: Applications of Partial Felt, STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewelry Series, are fiber jewels. 💎

I am so excited to see what course participants make inspired by all the fresh studies as a result of introducing partial felt for shaping, patterning and forming! It’s been a long incubation for this course, but it’s a hell of a way to bring in the New Year ✨

🤞 for enrollment launch in early February

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #feltstudies
#strongfeltonlineandonpoint #fiberjewels #feltjewels #feltbeads #feltpendants #feltprotuberant #takingupspace #feltjewelrydesign #hollowform #hollowformsculpting #shrinkageisreal #sculptingbyshrinkage #trimmingtime

A still capture that does a good job at illustrati

A still capture that does a good job at illustrating my state of mental multi-tasking while being filmed, while I am otherwise appearing to be 💯 focused on the object in my hand. Thinking about what I’ve said already, what I’m currently saying and doing with my hands, what I need to say next, what multiple of the study to pull into the frame to condense the making process into fluid stages that highlight major changes in material and handling and how the front and detail camera is capturing my hands, my mannerisms and expressions. It’s certainly a different kind of strategizing and massive prep then teaching face to face. I don’t get to see participants making and navigate the process in their hands step by step, so I prepare them for what they will encounter.

To be 💯 transparent, when I say I have been editing, I mean I have been noting what needs to be cut out or where the shot needs to be hyper detailed, etc. As someone who likes to be in control and figure things out, I have also learned to hire to my weakness and I am grateful for the skill sets others have mastered. After watching and noting 36 hours of video, I’ve passed the job off for the final nuancing for participants’ viewing and auditory pleasure. Onto the Module naming game and photos!

#strongfelt #lisaklakulakteaches #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #feltonline #feltcourses #feltstudy #fiberartistteacher #felt #feltsmall #feltjewelry #feltjewelrydesign #materialstudy #multitasking #handwork #craft #craftdocumentation #passiton

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