----- Original Message -----

From: Sandy

To: AussieFeltmakers@...

Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 12:55 AM

Subject: [AussieFeltmakers] intro from the "new Sandy"!

Hi everyone,

As Sandie said, I moved back recently (well, actually last year) from
the Netherlands.  I moved there in 1998 to be with my sweetie (a
Dutchie by the name of Ad - we got married in 2003).  We met in 1997
while he was in Australia on a working holiday.  It was a lot of fun -
the Dutch are easy going people - but I do also feel glad to be back
in Oz.  I don't really know anyone here as I also spent 9 years in
other countries from 1986-1994, and I don't have any family here any
more either, so it's been like a whole new start for us both.
Fortunately, Ad loves it here, too.  We hope to buy a small farm in
South Gippsland as soon as we've sold our property in the Netherlands,
but for now we live in Preston, in Melbourne.

We don't have any kids, but we do have 2 cats, Bontje and Zetor.  Once
we have our farm we plan to get a lot more animals of different sorts,
and also hope to become wildlife carers.

I learned feltmaking - quite by accident - while I was in Holland.  We
lived in a village called Boskoop, not far from Gouda (yes, like the
cheese, although they don't actually make it there).  Near our village
was a medieval historical park, and I was trying to get a place as an
apprentice bootmaker there.  There were no places, but I was directed
to the feltmakers who, I was told, could also make boots from felt.

I didn't end up working there, but I did end up getting lessons
privately from Marian, one of their feltmakers.  She was quite
talented, and also quite unorthodox.  Soon after I met her, she took
me to see a Dutch feltmaking exhibition (I think it was the 20th
anniversary of the Dutch feltmakers organisation or something).  The
stuff they had there was absolutely mind blowing - I had no concept
that you could do things like that in felt - and it I was hooked.

There was a huge tent (not a yurt, more like a teepee) with elaborate
decorations; there was a pile of cushions that looked just like
boulders (rock shaped foam rubber which had been felted over in
natural wools); there was a haute couture fashion show (many items
were from major feltmakers who make fabric for the big fashion houses,
or who make their own garments); a variety of hats and bags; and of
course lots of people wearing their own creations.

And there were some fantastic boots - my big passion! I remember that
one was shaped like a swan's neck, with your foot as the head.

I only heard about felted knitting much later.  It definitely makes a
lot of items easier to make.

One thing Marian showed me was how to make a "sheepskin" (like the
usual sorts we have in Australia) from a fleece, i.e. without killing
the sheep.  She was a vegetarian, and said she loved sheepskin but
preferred the idea that she could get one from the sheep every year
rather than as a once off.  I've never been able to do this as well as
she did.  She now works as a feltmaker in Iceland.

I haven't done any felting since moving back.  I still have a lot of
the wool and other bits, but it was always a thing I did with others
over there, so the mood just hasn't grabbed me.  I also do a lot of
knitting (currently into fine knitted lace, and Norwegian jumpers),
and mosaics.

It will be nice to meet some of you eventually, hopefully including
some who are also at my end of Melbourne, as I'd love to have some
more "cuppa" friends!

By the way, this is definitely the most welcoming yahoo group I've
been in!  I was quite surprised to see details about me in a post
letting others know that I've joined.  I'm a member of 7 groups; I
posted an introduction message on two of them but no one responded, or
even acknowledged, so I didn't bother after that.  Thank you, Sandie,
for that!

Cheers for now, Sandy

P.S. Sandie: I've tried going to the Victorian Feltmakers site, but it
won't open for me.  Is www.vicfelt.org.au still the correct address?