Carroll County Arts Council

Workshop Description: This workshop will incorporate both wet felting and dry needle felting to create various mushrooms and ferns, small flowers and other debris found on a forest floor.

Several different types of mushrooms call for different methods. Students will learn how to use a resist to create a conical mushroom cap as well as flat wet-felting and shaping. Students will learn how to create ferns using wire and wool and heat and bond product .

Instructor Name: Gayle Mathues

Ferns, Fungi and the Forest Floor

Minimum Age of Student: 18 or older, 12-16 with a parent who also registers

Materials Fee & List of What Fee Covers OR kit contents: $10. Fee includes wire, core wool, merino wool, other types of wool, silk, nepps, glue, photos .

All other non-consumable supplies furnished by instructor (felting pad, wet felting surface, rolling noodle, bubble wrap, heat and bond strips, needles and photos, et)

Materials Student Should Bring (from home or purchase, with names of suppliers.)Students need to bring a piece of wood to mount felting project on. This could be a simple and clean round cut of wood, easily purchased at Michaels or Hobby Lobby or a found piece of weathered wood or drift wood in an interesting shape. If using found wood, please bake in an oven on low heat for at least an hour to make sure any insects and larva are killed. Also, students should have done a little research on the type of mushrooms they would like to make and study woodland scenes with mushrooms in them. Students need to bring two hand towels for wet felting purposes.

Instructor bio

Gayle Mathues has been a Certified Sarafina Instructor for 3 years and has been needlefelting seriously since 2017. She teaches at Carroll Community College, Carroll Arts Center, Natural History Society of Maryland and Common Ground on the Hill. She has her work at Off Track Art and participates in Sheep and Wool of Maryland and various other shows from time to time.