Felted wall pieces made by year 7 students at St Dominic's School, Brewood, Staffordshire, UK

          

 When you have just one day to spend of teaching felting to school students you can choose to work on making an item such as an item of felted jewellery or a small bag. Alternatively if you want to combine the introduction to wet-felting lesson with the study of an artistic style and also to build on design and composition skills then a Hundertwasser inspired felting project is an excellent choice.

I have had the pleasure of working with year 7 students at St Dominic's School in Brewood in 2010 and also 2011.
Ms Farrow the senior art teacher a St Dominic's values the benefits of bringing in artists from outside the school to teach occasional lessons and she also has an enthusiasm for felting herself. It's good to feel that your knowledge is valued as all too often people think that they can teach felting after having hardly any experience themselves. I do pride myself in teaching in an easy to understand way and I aim to demystify the process however there is still a lot to felting and over 15 years I have built up my skills and knowledge.

Hundertwasser had a very bold style both in his paintings and also in his architecture. He used strong colours and repeating motifs such as these 'lollipop' type trees.
                      

 The year 7 girls had already studied Hundertwasser's paintings and had done some painted designs of their own prior to my days in the school.

We pinned up the designs on the wall and the students referred to them when they laid out their own merino wool fibres to make their own felted panels.
I stressed that we should be using Hundertwasser's style as inspiration but that the work was definitely to be the girls' own interpretations. There was time in the sessions for me to chat to the girls and for them to make changes as they went along.
          

 

             

Dry merino fibres laid out and a felted picture, still wet but dry enough to photograph! 

            

 One of Hundertwasser's original paintings and one of the year 7 student's felted wall pieces. The inspiration is very clear. 

         

 What a great wall display to have in your art room! And of course when the students took their Hundertwasser inspired felted piece home they could either keep it as a wall hanging or transform into a very individual cushion just by stitching a back on and stuffing it.  Cushions are always extremely popular as my Felted Cushion Birthday Parties for Kids and cushion workshops for adults keep on proving.