N289-Mechanoreception

Megaphone-full-frontal-close-up_rside478-copy

storm-window

Foundation

ghost-head

Locks

What-Remains

Between-the-Lines-clothes-pins-SM-2022

Ghost_Balloons-3-across-top_604-copy

Unful - test hp slide

Changing Perspectives

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2024 LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

ONLINE & ONPOINT! COURSEWORK
Felt Jewelry Series Enrollment Open
Course 1 Foundational Structure, 4/7-6/16
C2, Application of Partial Felt 1/7-3/24
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.

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!

StrongFelt Recent Work

Studio View November 8, 2023 #strongfelt #lisaklak

Studio View November 8, 2023
#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #strongfeltstudio #studioview
#ashevilleartist #fiberartist #fiberart #felter #feltsculpture #feltjewelry #feltstudio #feltworkshop

📢 ENROLLMENT IS OPEN Edition 8, April 7-June 1

📢 ENROLLMENT IS OPEN
Edition 8, April 7-June 16, 2024
Pictured are some of the stunning projects made by participants in past editions of Course 1 Foundational Structure using techniques taught through the studies pictured next. All course details and the link to enroll are in the linktree in my bio 🔝

These images also represent some of the felters who will be engaging with the content in Edition 2 of Course 2 Applications of Partial Felt that begins January 7. I can hardly wait to see where they take those techniques this winter session!

#strongfelt #lisaklakulakteachesonline #feltjeweleryseries #jewellerydesign #contemporaryjewellerydesign #statementjewelry #materialstudy #wool #felt #wetfelting #felttechnique #feltsolidform #feltobjects #feltconnected #feltschool #feltart #finecraft #crafteducation #whatisfelt

📢 Enrollment is OPEN! I’m teaching a 5-day wo

📢 Enrollment is OPEN! I’m teaching a 5-day workshop next summer 2024 in Louden, New Hampshire at Sanborn Mills Farm in their beautiful fiber studio space. Check out their story, operating farm and offerings at Sanbornmills.org or link direct to this workshop through my instagram bio 🔝 to my teaching schedule.

We’ll be exploring a myriad of ways to achieve Depth of Surface, better known as texture. Through the layering of fabrics, wool fiber, partially felted shapes, entrapped objects and machine stitching, we’ll create more Depth in the possibilities of Felting, better known as innovation.

#strongfelt #feltwithlisaklakulak #feltworkshop #feltschooled #whatisfelt #depthofsurface #texture #depthoffield #feltinnovative #feltexplored #feltoverstood #wool #felt #wetfelting #fabricfusion doyoucallit #nuno #foundobjects #weightofinclusion #textureresists #feltedgingtechniques #freemotionstitching #surfacedesign #fiberarts #fiberworkshops2024 #northeastfiberarts #northeastfeltmakersguild @sanbornmillsfarm

A fresh pair of 2.25” diameter trampoline discs

A fresh pair of 2.25” diameter trampoline discs with a swirl of shimmering lava-inspired folds framed by radial black stitching. $250

These ear-rings compliment the curling lines of lava that flow from the neckpiece, “Circuitous Path” with a 15” inner circumference. $1200

The black tensioned fields are the largest areas of darning stitch I have yet to make joining the beginning and the end of a line to create a gentle twist that rolls across ones chest. I was thinking about the interconnecting and flow of lava tubes descending a shield volcano. Also, the steam from the central caldera, which I emulated with pieces of beach glass loosely gathered in transparent pouches around the neckline. I must get an image of this piece on a neck and a video clip of its motion…

My last post for now, dangling treats of available STRONGFELT adornments before your eyes. Winter has arrived and I am turning my focus more inward to some new bodies of work in my home studio while tending to participants in my upcoming Online Courses and of course, to my Osity 🐈

Check the links in my bio 🔝 and reach out for more info on purchasing work and upcoming Online Courses…
#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #whatisfelt
#lines #filaments #crisscross #crosshatch #interlace #twist #curl #roll #bind #stitch #freemotionstitch #lava #lavatubes #shieldvolcano #felt #wool #wetfelting #statementjewelry #artjewellery #feltjewelry #jewelrydesigner

With our weather temps here in Western North Carol

With our weather temps here in Western North Carolina sliding below freezing this week, I am depending on the warmth of wool, the comfort of handmade and thinking about this NEW pair of 🔥 ear-rings! Inspired by the last available neckpiece naturally dyed with a combination of madder and weld from STRONGFELT’s Lava Cocoon Series, the earrings have a swan-like form suggestive of their elegant feather weight and fluid movement when worn.

Earrings $375
2.5”x 2.5”x .75” diameter sterling silver hoops, merino wool fiber, metallic silk organza, cotton thread; wet felted and free-motion machine stitched
Lava Cocoon Neckpiece $600
37” inner cord circumference

Link in my bio 🔝 to STRONGFELT’s Adorn Gallery for more works and to purchase. #strongfelt #lisaklakulak #feltworksoflisaklakulak #felt #wool #finecraft #contemporarycraft #americancraft #fiberart #wearableartjewelry #artjewellery #statementjewelry #feltearrings #feltjewelry #feltcords #feltlavaheat #lavainspired #lavaflow #naturaldyedwool #madder #freemotionmachineembroidery #stitch #darn #mend

The start and the finish of #stitching on these 2.

The start and the finish of #stitching on these 2.25” diameter #wetfelted trampoline style #hoops. #Mending holes within holes to create a new skin. #strongfelt #connections

The neckpiece that inspired my making of this pair of ear-rings found its person in my recent workshops in Belgium and now these feather weight delicacies need to be homed. A #heathered #merino #wool #felt base of #fibers: natural colored (as in grown on the #sheep), #weld dyed and a touch of a commercially dyed slate gray tensioned across a sterling silver framed expanse and then further #textured. Available in the Adorn Gallery at www.STRONGFELT.com.
Link in bio 🔝

photo credit: myself & Steve Mann
#feltjewelry #feltearrings #earrings #bighoops #statementearrings #strongfeltdesigns #lisaklakulakmakes

Though I very much enjoy the design challenge of c

Though I very much enjoy the design challenge of coordinating earrings to neckpieces or vice versa, they need not be purchased as an ensemble. In fact, as evident in my last two postings, I will often create new work, such as the earrings, in response to pieces from previous collections. This visual prompt serves as the fuel to jump start a motion in the studio after sometime of being out and about or even in and focused on online teaching. I think you might understand?! You just need to get started!

This ear-ring pair, admittedly one of my favs from the STRONGFELT Serpulid Collection, had its pairing with a lava cocoon neckpiece, but captured the attention of the lovely Corrine Stocker, a participant in my Sculpting Hollow Form Workshop recently taught in Switzerland. There were two pair that she was vacillating about and I think she chose the right pair, don’t you?!

Visit STRONGFELT’s Adorn Gallery in my bio link 🔝 to see all that is currently available for purchase and is marked with an asterisk *️⃣
photo credit: myself & Steve Mann
#strongfelt #feltworksoflisaklakulak
#fiberartist #fibersculptor #whatisfelt #felt #wool #fiber #wetfelting #solidformfeltingtechniques #freemotionstitching #darning #joiningsides #connections #feltjewelry #feltearrings #serpulidjeweleryseries #earrings #hoops #contemporaryadornment #jewellery #schmuckdesign

Brighten your days with a pairing of NEW ear-rings

Brighten your days with a pairing of NEW ear-rings and another neckpiece from STRONGFELT’s 2017 Lava Cocoon Series. “Reach” incorporates nylon netting that has been cut, ends singed and then reconfigured and free-motion machine stitched to pattern both a cord and the hot little extensions breaking out from the cocoon. The inner circumference measures 27” and is $460.

Both the neckpiece and trampoline disc earrings have been naturally dyed with weld; the color variance is from the recipient fibers of metallic silk organza vs wool. The discs are 2.25” in diameter, sterling silver and price at $250.

The beautiful shifting of the warp and weft in the un-dyed fabric in the earrings reveals the tension of the felting process and the correlation of geologic processes with #whatisfelt.

ADORN GALLERY link in my bio 🔝
DM or email to purchase #strongfelt
photo credit: Steve Mann
#strongfeltworksoflisaklakulak
#naturallydyed #felt #fiber #lavacocoon #feltfabricfusion
do you call it #nuno
#freemotionstitching #stitchedtexture
#netting #substrate #rocknetting
#feltjewelry #feltnecklace #feltearrings
#contemporaryjewelrydesign #oneofakindjewelry #statementjewelry
#hairisadornment

New STRONGFELT ear-rings have landed on my website

New STRONGFELT ear-rings have landed on my website just in time for the season of gift giving. This mid-size hoop with a diameter of 1.25” plays beautifully with the neckpiece “Within” that has an inner circumference of 25.5” so you can figure just where it will land on you! This work is inspired by geologic activity and is a metaphor for #whatisfelt in our bodies: #compaction, #holding, #release, #flow, #erosion..

Link to the Adorn Gallery in my bio 🔝
and DM or email to purchase.
photo credit: Steve Mann
#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #fiberartist #designer #maker #felt #adornement #ornament #wearableart #feltjewelry #earrings #neckpieces #statementjewelry #wetfelted #feltfabricfusion #freemotionembroidery #stitchedcompaction #rocknetting

A few of the 16 studies I designed for sequential

A few of the 16 studies I designed for sequential learning about the use of partial felt in Course 2 Applications of Partial Felt in STRONGFELT’s Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series: Material, Technique & Impact. What is partial felt? I define it as a particular weight of wool fiber laid out in an area which is wet felted by rolled agitation for vertical integration of the fiber layers and then fulled for increased density for the purpose of being cut and applied for specific effect. In the structure of my teaching the partial felt is used as core for Solid Form Shaping, Surface Design & Forming and Hollow Form Sculpting. Yes, the learning is comprehensive and deep as I document my felting and teaching practice developed over the past two decades +

“There were techniques in Course 1 that Course 2 helped me understand in a deeper and more thorough way. There was one night I woke up and understood a segment that I didn’t ‘get’ during the day. The course took a lot of time and retirement made it possible for me to complete it comfortably. Your two classes, Lisa, are the best felting classes I have taken, virtual or face to face. Your meticulous instructions, patience, willingness to answer questions, work through the math, and meet with us online are amazing. I think it is especially critical that you ask us to design and complete a project. So much learning!!! Thank you!
-Janice Maatman

Learn more about the Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series by following that specific link in my instagram bio or visiting www.strongfelt.com and the TEACHING menu.

#strongfelt #feltstrong #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #feltjewelryseriesonlinecourses
#felt #wool #fiber #wetfeltingtechnique #feltstructured #feltorganized #feltvariables #feltstudies #feltschooled #feltshaped #feltpatterned #feltformed #feltsculpted #feltdesigned #fibereducation #materialstudy #artanddesign #naturalfiber #finecraft

Another ring of participants’ projects from the

Another ring of participants’ projects from the inaugural edition of Course 2 Applications of Partial Felt in STRONGFELT’s Felt Jewelry Series! The diversity of work that is created from the combination of techniques and learning offered in the module studies + each individuals’ unique design ideas is truly incredible!

“Thanks for the great class, Lisa. In every case, the module exercises helped me to better understand the learning. Even though I thought I grasped the ideas by simply watching, I always learned something unexpected or understood to a greater degree by working through the samples. Also, as in the first course, they make a wonderful reference as I move forward into my own practice. I fell behind a couple times, but could manage (mostly) to keep up and a week between new material was such that I didn’t feel either pressured or anxious to move on, however, I completely understand that this varies for each individual. Congratulations on designing such a course. It’s obvious what a lot of work went into it and your classes are by far the best online classes I have taken.”
-Christine Stephan

Next edition of Course 2 will run January 7 - March 24 with platform access through June 9, 2024. All the information about the Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series including BIGGER photos of studies & participants’ work can be found in the link in my bio 🔝

#strongfelt #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #lisaklakulakteachesfeltingonline
#feltjewelryseriesonlinecourses
#feltstudies #feltprojectssupported
#feltcomprehensive
#feltschooled
#felt
#wetfelting
#wool
#fiber
#fiberart
#contemporaryfelt
#contemporarycraft
#feltjewelry #feltjewellerydesign
#feltonline2024
@suegetchell @she.felt.designs @deborahdumka @jayemkai @feltfeelings_nl @lucksandi @xskigal @gauchofibres

A closing mechanism alluding to a locket. It is ce

A closing mechanism alluding to a locket. It is certainly common in F2F Workshops for both myself and participants to not have time to completely full/finish all the studies approached in the time alotted. So much time is in learning the dry preparing for different forms and the then, wetting out and graduation of agitating. Here is the finished clasp I demonstrated on the last day of the Solid Form Felting Course in Switzerland marking the closure of a beautiful run of courses in both 🇧🇪 with @vrouwwolle and🇨🇭with @filzszene and the end of teaching, for 2023 that is!

January 7- March 24, 2024 I will unlock the doors again to orchestrate the 11 week, 2nd Edition of Course 2 Application of Partial Felt in STRONGFELT’s Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series for those who’ve completed Course 1.

An 8th Edition of Course 1 Foundational Structure will run April 7- June 6 this spring 2024 for those who want to get in on this comprehensive approach to wet felting through a small scale jewelry format.

All info on this Online Series can be found in my instagram bio link 🔝 as well as my mailing list sign up so you receive all the details coming out in STRONGFELT’s end of year newsletter next week if you haven’t previously signed up.

#strongfelt #strongfeltworkshops #strongfeltonlineandonpoint #lisaklakulakteachesfelting #felt #feltstudy #feltschooled #feltonline #wetfeltingwool #woolfelting #feltsolid #feltsmall #feltformes #whatisfelt #feltjewelry #feltjewellery #feltclaspsandclosures #feltworn #feltmatters #felt2024online

The face of the “Shift Change” exhibition cata

The face of the “Shift Change” exhibition catalogue I wrote of in my prior post. With google translate, I am slowly reading the text and I promise I won’t post all of it, but you may know I have a love of geology and often find apt metaphors between it, wet felting and sociology. Yes, that’s correct, STRONGFELT has always been about far more than matting wool fibers into fashionable objects. The text for one of the installations in the town square of mostly vertical stones gathered together reads:

“Some of these from the valleys of the Surselva came to llanz as relatives, others as loners and without family connection. They have stepped out of their ancestral natural space and are now standing upright opposite each other on the Landsgemeindeplatz. The shift in context of their journey to Ilanz raises questions. Why did they come?”

#strongfeltinspiration #shiftchange #schichtwechsel #geology #sociology #movement #space #whatisfelt

I’ve learned to trust my intuition when travelin

I’ve learned to trust my intuition when traveling, to take a side step from a plan enroute for something else I’m to encounter. This particular morning it was the knocker with spirals a plenty and the door closure on this Casa Gronda building dated to 1677 (images 1-3). A reminder for me of the metal forming origins and inspiration of my Solid Form Felting Techniques, the subject I had just finished teaching in Waltensburg.

I had taken the hour earlier bus into the village of Ilanz (where I would catch my first of two trains back to Zurich from the southeastern canton of Graubunden) to check out a rock exhibition?! throughout the streets of Ilanz and I don’t mean the cobblestones. Literally, 14 locations where large rocks from the Surselva Valley of the Anterior Rhine had been installed along with a 14 page catalogue/brochure titled “Shift Change” or Schichtwechsel. Image 4 onwards shows one installation in front of the Church of St. Margarethen and the residential tower that survived a 1483 fire.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised by such an exhibit considering this area as well the area of Walensee, where I passed some days prior to my workshops, are in the Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of mountain building!

#strongfeltinspiration #solidformfelting #metalforging #metalwork #clasps #closures #doorknocker #spirals #casagronda #ilanzswitzerland #rockexhibition #shiftchange #schichtwechsel #surselva #sardona #tectonicarena

My body landed back in North Carolina last Wednesd

My body landed back in North Carolina last Wednesday and now 5 days later my spirit has reunited. Jetlag doesn’t ease with age 😂 but so worth the fantastic month abroad teaching! The last class wrapped up and I was quickly on the 🚌 🚊 ✈️ , so have a few more images and sentiments before shifting into newsletter writing and prep for teaching my next Online & Onpoint! Courses.

This great capture by @filzquadrat of my passion for and animated teaching while discussing with @carcaterras_filzunikate puckering vs blocking round the partial felt protrusions on her hollow form is a must post! Special thanks to @grischarte workshop coordinator and @filzquadrat president of the Swiss Felting Organization (who I also caught in a pucker inflating her delightful pinwheel! and again, that shirt!) for checking out my Online & Onpoint! Course Series and subsequently inviting me for my first travel to🇨🇭

The facilities, meals, views and staff @hotel_ucliva were literally top notch in the heights of the Alps 🏔️ Participants were attentive and enthusiastic as evident by their outstanding output in both workshops and in both quality and quantity. Thank you for coming out and up for Filzszene’s biannual gathering to learn with me. Until next time…

#strongfelt #lisaklakulak #felt #wetfelting #feltstructured #feltphysics #sculptingshrinkage #woolisamazing #hairproperties #fiber #fiberart #fiberartsculpture #felthollowform #feltsolidform #feltinternational #feltstudy #feltworkshops #headandhandmade

At first glance, you may think this post is about

At first glance, you may think this post is about the excellence of the food @hotelucliva (which it was excellent!), but more so about the #feltwork in the hands of Claudia Hecker at the dining table. This “handy” at the table, gets my full approval 😂 We had just discussed the concept of #blocking, not simply #shrinking, to develop our forms in the #wetfeltingprocess and that extra level of #finishing to make one’s work sing is exciting!

The plate image also conveys the STRONGFELT technique we worked with on Day 3 of the face to face workshop, Solid Form Wet Felting for #Clasps and #Closures hosted by @filzszene in Waltensburg, Switzerland. We incorporated shapes cut from denser sheets/planes of felt in our dry preparation in order (yes, there is a #methodology here) to develop sharper edge definition. This comes more physically from cutting a thick plane of partial felt at a particular percentage of possible density as well as the visual effect of the cut fiber ends “bleeding” at the edge as seen with the dark line around the plate.

Image 1 & 2 Claudia Hecker
Image 3 Diana Wagner
Image 4 Christine Stephan
Image 5 Karin Litscher

#strongfelt #stronglyfelted #felttools #feltblocked #partialfelt #solidformfeltingtechniques #strongfelttechniques #feltstudywithlisaklakulak #spacegradation

Some of the participants hand and head work from t

Some of the participants hand and head work from the first two days of the STRONGFELT face to face workshop, Solid Form Felting for Clasps & Closures. These techniques also comprise the first segment of my Online & Onpoint! Course 1 on Wet Felting Foundational Structure, which will be offered next in the spring of 2024. More details in my bio 🔝

Image 1 Karin Litscher
Image 2 & 3 Cornelia Balz
Image 4 Ineke Vermaas
Image 5 prefers anonymity

Having taught this particular technique online for the past three years, I found I was very aware of how helpful it is to be able to touch my workshop participants to let them know the pressure I am applying to the felt at different stages in the process, versus digging for analogies of touch. Though, that worked too…my favorite, the pressure you apply on an avocado, like when it is just right to eat in a day.

#strongfelt #lisaklakulakteachesfelting #felt #wool #wetfelting #feltworkshops #feltstudy #feltschooled #solidforms #feltconnections #feltcords #felthoops #feltballs #feltbarrels #feltcones #neccesityofspace #shrinkageisreal #formedthroughagitation
#feltswitzerland
@filzszene

Staying with the visual of a spiral as gradual cha

Staying with the visual of a spiral as gradual change between extremes is a foundational aspect of how I approach felting and of course, then, teaching in my workshops. A spiral of the same diameter has a gradual change in the severity of its curve. It is the movement of that interior curve that solidifies the form vs merely bending it into place when wet felting wool fiber. The air is pressed out and the fibers able to bind tighter. Here, in a demonstration piece for my last workshop in Switzerland on the topic of Solid Form Felting, I also share how to dry prepare or structure the fiber to create a dramatic taper with a change in diameter.

The inspiration for demonstrating this form, at this time, was no surprise to me. Just a few days before, I spotted this pair of snails near the top of the Seerenbach Falls, far above the lake. I spent some time with them contemplating the incremental journey taken to reach such a height of destination. Wet felting isn’t a quick process, results are incremental. Initially, hard to gauge, but if you keep your attention, intention you bring it to fruition.

#strongfelt #felt #wetfeltingwool #feltworkshops #feltstudy #lifelessonsinfelting #gradualchange #betweenextremes #stupidwindowofperfect #spiral #curl #curve #littlebylittle #intention #movement #jiggle @filzszene

What a beautiful whirlwind! Started my travel this

What a beautiful whirlwind! Started my travel this morning…circling back westerly after the STRONGFELT workshops on Sculpting Hollow Felt Form and Solid Form Felting Techniques for Clasps & Closures @hotel_ucliva in the small mountain village of Waltensburg, Switzerland. I had wonderful groups of participants, a number of them on the board of the hosting organization @filzszene and three who had participated in my Online & Onpoint! 10 week Felt Jewelry Courses who I had yet to meet face to face. I love how this piece felted by @filzquadrat represents the circumferential fulling used to raise its form from a 2D layout with it’s ability to spin and of course the translation of Stefanie’s joy in the audio 😆

I am thrilled that plans are already in the works to return to teach again with both @vrouwwolle in Belgium and @filzszene. I’ll post some images from the last course tomorrow, once I land in Brussels for the day. A newsletter will be in your inbox in a couple weeks when back at home in the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina with details of the next offerings of the Online & Onpoint Courses and my schedule of face to face workshops for 2024. If you haven’t signed up for my mailing list, find the link in my bio 🔝

#strongfelt #returntrip
#feltworkshops
#feltingineurope2023
#feltingineurope2025
#felt #wetfelting #feltwool #wool #woolfiber #fibersculpting #hollowform #felthollowform #differentialshrinkage #feltdifferent #feltconnections

Between the grassy hills and the snowy peaks, on t

Between the grassy hills and the snowy peaks, on the second floor studio @ucliva, STRONGFELT workshop participants and their handwork thanks to the organizing by @filzszene.

Left to right: Christine, Violetta, Esther, myself, Dorothea, Evelyne, Claudia, Stefanie and Corrine. It was a pleasure to work with each of you!

#strongfeltworkshop #internationaltutor #feltswitzerland #filz #feltclass #feltstudy #feltform #hollowformfelting #differentialshrinkage #peaksandvalleys #feltonthemind
@she.felt.designs @grischarte @carcaterras_filzunikate @filzquadrat

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