SHRINK PLASTIC AND WOOL - EXPORING TEXTURE, STYLE and FORM
OCTOBER 23th 2026 9 to 5 pm
OCTOBER 25th 2025 9 to 5 pm
This class will open you to some of the possibilities that shrink plastic and wool fleece can offer you. Pairing the materials, felt, Shrinkets, beads and sequins make for a beautiful display of surfaces and finishes.
Using Julie Haymaker’s wonderful molds we can easily bring the soft shrink plastic into the 3D realm. We will use permanent markers, pastels and permanent stamping inks as a sampler of possible media. After decorating our plastic shapes we will shrink them in Julie Haymakers
Molds and work them into an assemblage with the addition of felt, beads and
sequins. I personally like to work with a size 10 milliners (or straw) needle for
most of my embellishing/embroidery on felt. The rigid nature of the needles lets
me move throughout the inside of the felt to get to the next place where I want to
place an embellishment.
I use Nymo or KO beading thread doubled, tying a chubby tailors knot at the end
and start sewing into the felt where I know I will cover the knot with a sequin or
Shrinket. Ending and hiding the knot is done by coming up under a sequin, picking up a bit of fiber and tying a surgeons knot to hide under the sequin. I
encourage you to use whatever needles and threads you are comfortable with.
We will be changing the shape of our felt through just a bit of water and hand
manipulation, a wonderful aspect of the wool fibers. We will talk about how and
why felt happens. I will have fleece so people can make their beads or I have
already felted ones.
The second part of the day will take us into the assembly of our objects, I will
have a selection of findings, beads and sequins that we will use to compose our
‘compositions’.
This ‘survey’ class will open the door to some ‘how to’s’ and some ways to
incorporate a variety of materials into an exciting object.
Class Kit to include: Wool Fleece, Premade Wool Shapes, beads, sequins needles and thread, precut shrink Plastic, all colorants, findings and use of tools. $60
THE FOLLOWING CANCELLATION FEES WILL APPLY UNLESS WE CAN FILL YOUR SPOT FROM THE WAIT LIST.
$50 CANCELLATION FEE APPLIES TO ALL CANCELLATIONS.
$100 CANCELLATON FEE APPLIES TO CANCELLATIONS UP TO 1 MONTH PRIOR TO CLASS.
NO REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED FOR CANCELLATIONS 14 DAYS PRIOR TO CLASS.
BIO:
There is a richness on many levels regarding Gail’s rudimentary forms of inspiration. Pods, eggs, seeds and seashells serve to hide, conceal and protect a vulnerable interior as it offers unseen potential: opening doors to hope, beauty and mystery.
Gail’s pieces come from a place where biology and botany might meet time travel.
Seeds, pods, bones, cocoons, shells, cells and eggs; the evidence of lives previously lived or in the process of becoming, are some of what capture her attention and drive her to interpret the forms that embody the essence of emergence, evolution and potential.
Its the yin-yang, push-pull, hard-soft, shiny-mat, coldwarm dichotomy that intrigues her and calls her to juxtapose many different materials. Everything starts with a seed, a thought, an action. Her body of work has grown out of that inspiration and imagery for many years, starting with an education in horticulture which set the stage for a lifetime of honoring this basic life form. She uses the pod as metaphor to illustrate the exceptional phases of life.
Pods house seeds and hidden potential. Seeds emerge into life, meant to reproduce. Life fades, husks decay and are reclaimed by the earth.
