Autumn is the perfect time of year to visit Nome Schoolhouse! Take a break from

regular routines to surround yourself with bright colors, fun conversation and

creative energy. Learn to felt for the first time or enhance your skills as you “paint

with wool”. Our subject matter will be landscapes, and we’ll use soft wool fibers

to create works of art. Do you love the desert or ocean, have a lakeside cabin, or a

favorite work of art? Bring a photo for inspiration!

The projects in this retreat are designed to sequentially build your 2-D felting

skills. You’ll learn both wet and needle felting techniques. Go home with

completed pieces that include art felt fabric notecard, needle felted fiber collage

and wet felted landscape. These will be perfect to decorate your home or to give as

gifts.

This is an all-inclusive retreat! Your charming guest room, all deliciously prepared

meals and class instruction, materials and tools are included. Students will take

home felting needles, foam felting pad, wool fibers, handouts, and projects.

Jean is a fiber artist living in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Her textile exploration began in the 70s when she tried batik, tie dye and bleaching blue jeans. After retiring from teaching special education, she re-embraced textile arts, taking classes and selling her felted and dyed artwork. Jean is a member of Textile Center of Minnesota and has a degree in Art Education from the University of Minnesota. She loves sharing her knowledge of felting, especially at Nome Schoolhouse.

Your Instructors and the Nome Schoolhouse do much to prepare for your arrival. To honor the work that we put towards your place in the class there is a firm time frame around when and how refunds are given. Tickets may be transferred to another person upon approval by the Nome Schoolhouse.

You can read our cancelation and policy by clicking here: https://nomeschoolhouse.com/refund_returns

By making a booking with us, you signify your agreement to adhere to these terms.

Friday check in is at 5:00. Meet the instructor, explore the schoolhouse and

unpack in your room. Enjoy a delicious meal at 6:00 and meet your fellow

participants. Then learn about wet felting and make your first piece, inspired by the

northern lights. You’ll use a plastic bag, water, soap and friction to fuse wool

fibers and beautiful silk roving into a piece of felted art fabric. This “felting in a

bag” technique creates one-of-a-kind results and is one that you can do at home.

Once this piece is dry, it can be inserted into a greeting card. The rest of the

evening is yours to relax by the fireplace, read a book or head to bed in your

beautiful guest room.

Saturday will be filled with projects! After a 9:00am breakfast, you’ll learn about

needle felting tools and materials and how to manipulate fibers to needle felt fine

lines, blend colors and fill spaces. You’ll learn about creating the illusion of

distance in a landscape and how to form buildings and trees. Techniques will

include shading and highlighting to create depth and volume. The morning’s

project will be a landscape collage using prefelt, wool roving, “felted fertilizer”

and yarn. You’ll learn ways to mount or frame your artwork and view felting

resources and examples. Lunch will be served at 12:30. In the afternoon, you’ll use

layers of fluffy wool to create a landscape and wet felt it into fabric using soap,

water, friction and felting tools. We will also tour the mill! Supper is at 6:00, and

the evening can be used to socialize, rest or finish some of the day’s projects.

Ready for more? There will be an optional bonus project!

Sunday morning breakfast is at 9:00. Your wet felted landscape will be dry and

ready for you to add needle felted details. Define, shade, edit, enhance! Your

instructor will provide individualized help whenever you need it. We’ll also have

time to reflect and share. After a 12:00 lunch, you can continue to needle felt your

artwork. The retreat concludes at 2:00. Throughout the weekend there will be

opportunities to shop in the Nome Schoolhouse store.