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Felt, feltmaking and feltmakers (including feltmaking workshops)
My work - as seen in my
Gallery
and my
abstract textile art
page - is unlike traditional
felted wool work
but I thought, as a
UK feltmaker, that my customers would be interested to hear about the international history of
feltmaking and feltmakers:
Felt is the oldest fabric known to man.
Highly sophisticated felted artefacts were found preserved in permafrost,
in a tomb in Siberia and dated to 600BC.
In the process of
feltmaking, wool fibres shrink and come together to form a dense mat when subjected, by feltmakers, to heat,
friction and a change of alkalinity - ie hot water, soap and a lot of rubbing
and rolling!
Many cultures have legends as to the origins of
feltmaking.
It is said that Noah's Ark was lined with fleece and the combination of
urine and the trampling animals left behind a
felted wool carpet.
In early Christian times, the story goes that St Clement and St Christopher,
whilst fleeing from persecution, packed their sandals with wool to prevent blisters -
at the end of their journey, the movement and sweat had turned the wool into felt socks.
In Britain, UK feltmakers often used felt to make hats, whilst clothes were woven and then felted (to make them
warmer and more waterproof) by trampling in troughs, or by use of water-powered mills.
The nap of the fabric was then raised by brushing with a teasle (the head of a type of thistle).
English wool merchants made huge fortunes in the 15thC and were the richest in mediæval Europe.
Sheep raising was the main source of income for many monasteries and other great landowners.
The superb quality and range of English wool was renowned throughout Europe and the Islamic world -
for many centuries raw wool was by far the most valuable export from England.
-
By contrast, modern-day British farmers have to virtually give away their fleeces, because of
the widespread use of man-made
fibres. I feel that it is very important, therefore,
to encourage the practice of the ancient craft of
feltmaking - particularly by developing new techniques and uses.
It is the nomadic
Mongolians
(and other central Asian peoples, such as the
Kyrgyz
and Kazakhs),
who have become particularly well known for their
feltmaking techniques and
use of felt
- especially for their
felted wool tents - yurts or gers
- which are so weatherproof, well-insulated and strong that they amount to
fold-up houses!
The Scandinavians and Russians traditionally make - completely waterproof -
thick felt boots, whilst the Romans used the fabric to prevent armour chafing
and as a form of armour.
In essence,
felt is one of the most versatile natural fabrics:
it can be moulded, by the
feltmaker, into solid three-dimensional forms, such as children's toys,
sculptures and balls; made thick and hard, to produce, for example,
boots or buckets; or very fine, to make scarves or my own
'Floating' felts,
which are very thin, almost transparent
fibre art
(fiber art) pictures.
Now you can
learn felt making yourself!
I run regular - and very popular -
felt making workshops in Abbotsbury and beyond.
to email me for information,
click here
to look at the 'slide-down' box about my felt making workshops again
or - even better -
click here
to go to my new website
www.feltmaking-workshops.info,
which gives full information about my
feltmaking workshops.
The principal organisation promoting
feltmaking worldwide is the
International Feltmakers Association
(IFA).
The IFA's aims are to foster worldwide interest in
felt, promote members' work
and to keep members in contact with each other, for exchange of ideas and
knowledge.
The International Feltmakers Association was founded in 1984 by an international group of
feltmakers, who met after seeing a travelling exhibition
The Art of the Feltmaker, showing traditional felts from
around the world.
This exhibition was curated by Mary Burkett, the chair of the
IFA, after her book
of the same name.
The Association publishes Echoes,
a quarterly journal which members
receive.
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text ©
&
Andrew Green
the gallery, 13 Market Street,
Abbotsbury, Dorset,
DT3 4JR,
UK
web design ©
Andrew Green
(website design - Dorset)
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abstract contemporary fiber art - abstract art pictures - abstract contemporary textile art - abstract art gallery
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