Are you a wool expert with knowledge of carding, felting, spinning and dyeing? We have had an interesting exchange with Beliz Güçbilmez from Turkey, who is setting up a womens' co-operative. They are looking for a tutor to help them use local angora goat wool to provide a livelihood. They have a budget, a great workshop space and a very welcoming atmosphere. If this sounds like an opportunity for you, please contact Kate via this page for more details.
"Dear Craft Courses ,
We are in the process of establishing a women productions cooperation in a region where there is a high population of Ankara goats. The region is called Güdül. The photo you see below is our building.
We plan a four day workshop and have a budget which will cover the pay for a tutor, accommodation, travel costs, transport from the airport and all meals and drinks. Not sure yet if we have enough budget for an assistant but at least we can have accommodation and meals for anyone coming.
During the workshop we'll all stay and cook and eat and work there. Ankara Development Agency gives technical support.
We hope the tutor may considers it as a free holiday and new friends and warm welcoming in Turkey :)
Our first aim is to buy felt wool, angora wool carded by the women in the region with the drum carders we plan to provide for each. And we want to sell it to the domestic market in different natural colours. And as a next step we will try to produce our own designs using felts. So as a start, we would like to know if the goat fur in the region is in a good quality for our purposes. Then we'll need to practice on drum carders and dye some wool and maybe to make some simple felting. Most of us are almost complete beginners.
I myself am a professor of theatre , aged 45, I'm one of the oldest of the group though. I cannot guess the number of the participants for the moment but if the workshop period includes a weekend, I plan to invite more people than the ten of us - founders of our co-op. There'll be a paid translator also.
As for the equipment we have drum carder, fire and cups and a very large space for anything we want to do.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Warm regards,
Beliz Güçbilmez"
