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 Magpie Designs Felting Studio began in 2001 as a single classroom in a basement of the Massachusetts lake house of feltmaker Christine White. Having recently turned to feltmaking as a full-time profession, Chris began teaching classes in felting and natural dyeing with plants from the on-site dye garden. Interest quickly grew and a side business of retailing felting fiber replaced the dye classes and kept the numerous workshops well supplied.
By felting full time with constant experimentation in many different techniques, Chris quickly gained the experience to offer workshops in more advanced methods and satisfy the demand for more classes. People were soon requesting time for private tutorial study.  From the beginning, the studio developed a reputation for going “beyond the project”. Workshops in the material aspects of the feltmaking and the creation of lab groups designed to explore fiber dynamics and fiber mixtures began to draw both experienced felters as well as beginners. This unique approach to the medium is what set the studio apart and remains as one of the main reasons artists come to study felt at Magpie.
In 2004, the studio moved to Belchertown in the Amherst-Northampton area of western Massachusetts and in 2005, when it became clear that there were too many customers to continue informal sales, Magpie opened to the public one day a week for retail sales. Requests for additional hours and on-line sales have prompted the newest expansion, a separation of the growing retail operation from the teaching studio. In 2007, New England Felting Supply became a separate business with a 3,000 sq. ft. retail store in Easthampton, MA (www.feltingsupply.com). The Magpie studio continues to offer top level feltmaking instruction at the Belchertown location until June of 2007 when Magpie classes will be offered in the new, larger workshop space at New England Felting Supply.
 Under its guiding philosophy of creative abundance, the Magpie Designs Felting Studio continues to enjoy the exciting interactions between employees, students, customers, visiting guests and teachers which have led to a number of on-going collaborations. And we're proud to announce that spring of 2006 marked the studio’s first apprenticeship in felt for college credit (photo, right of Mai Frank, Hampshire College).
Please join us for a workshop at Magpie or stop by New England Felting Supply to shop amidst hundreds of pounds and nearly three hundred colors of wool. Do contact us if you have any questions or if we can help you in any way. And thank you for your interest!
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