Today I spent an interesting, stimulating and intense day at the ArtL!nks audio/video podcasting course in Kilkenny and it has really opened my eyes up further to the opportunities available for recording some of my day to day felting activities here at Clasheen.  Many of you have sent me messages over the last year or so wishing you could participate in some of the workshops I organise in Ireland, now I hope to interview visiting international felting experts while they are staying with me and upload their thoughts to the blog via podcasting!  I can also (if I can get to grips with the technology!) film short felting tutorials myself or perhaps have advance notice of future workshops complete with video clips offering a taste of what will be covered during the sessions. 

In January we interacted about the possibility of a collective ‘felt-a-long’ but due to my ongoing water and heat problems that idea went on the backburner.  Now that I have my basic facilities running again at last my plan is that everyone interested in participating will commit to introducing one friend (obviously a non-felter) to the joys of felting and our project would be a simple piece of flat felt which when completed could either be framed, used to cover a book or else stitched into a clutch purse or some other simple and small functional felt accessory.  After the podcasting course today I am thinking that I will be able to record a simple video documenting my own process (is anything ever simple with video???) and upload it to the blog and I will also set up a new Flickr group where everyone can share their photos (and videos!) and let us know how the whole experience goes for them.  If you are interested in joining this collaboration please leave a comment at the end of this post and feel free to let all your friends know as well!  This should be fun and it is definitely not a competition!!  The only commitment that I require from you is that you sign up to participate through your comment here and promise to upload a couple of photos of work in progress and the finished felt to our new group on Flickr. Our felt-a-long will take place sometime during the third week in March and I will set up the Flickr group and fine tune the details over the next couple of days.  For the moment let the comments begin …….