Felt Demonstration and Meet the Maker with Mandy Nash

Associated with the ‘Wool Works’ exhibition, MaP member and Wool Works exhibitor, Mandy Nash will be in the Craft NI Gallery on the 27th July from 10am-4pm, demonstrating how to use felt Irish Cushendale wool. She will happily answer any questions on either her work or the Wool Works exhibition.

Mandy Nash is a professional textile and jewellery designer maker. She set up her studio in 1983, directly after leaving the Royal College of Art. She works primarily in colourful, non-precious materials, usually anodised aluminium, producing one off and batch production jewellery, creating large, bold pieces which are both wearable and affordable.

Over the last twenty years she has also been creating felt work, combining this with her jewellery practice, creating both functional and non-functional work. Feltmaking, although an ancient craft, is growing into a popular, exciting contemporary medium, expanding in many new directions. Wool is a wonderful, natural and sustainable material and Mandy is enthralled by the meditative, feltmaking process. During this last year, she has been experimenting with different wools, exploring their individual characteristics to create tactile, three-dimensional work.

She is a member of the Makers Guild in Wales, the Association of Contemporary Jewellery and MaP, a textile group, and is a regional co-ordinator and chair of the International Feltmakers Association. She has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe, Japan, USA and Canada.

About Wool Works:

‘Wool Works’ is an exhibition of contemporary textile design spearheaded by co. Down professor Jane McCann. The Northern Irish textile expert brought together Welsh, Finnish and Northern Irish textile artists who have been working together since 2001. 

The theme of the exhibition is wool and the way traditional motifs and techniques can be reinterpreted in a contemporary setting, embracing links between the cultural heritages of Wales, Ireland and Finland. The exhibits include unique hand-woven tapestries, woollen blankets, framed textile art, one-of-a-kind accessories and garments such as Irish style workwear jackets or house coats (with some of these unique pieces available for sale), and highlight techniques such as felting, free stitching, digital embroidery, knitting, hand weaving and plant dying.

Participating makers have used sustainable materials such as Cambrian and Finnish wool, indigo dyed Merino wool, Irish bainin tweed and Donegal yarns in the works. Professor McCann is passionate about the potential of wool and an advocate of its increasing use in the textile industry. She believes that this unique material deserves to be celebrated and highlighted alongside linen and other sustainable textiles.

Come along to:

Booking:

No booking required.

Social Media Links and Contacts:

Event page

If you have any questions contact the team at info@craftni.org