8th October 2021
This afternoon we had our second skills session with Sue Debney, here we learnt the art of felt making. Wet felting is an ancient skill dating back many years, in today’s session we made a small felt sample. Although I am familiar with wet felting it was nice to have a refresher session.
The skill of wet felting begins with a base, you layer the fibres in one direction and layer them in the opposite direction. When you have completed the two layers you have made a basic base for the rest of the coloured fleece. You then continue to make the felt
thicker by adding more layers which is sometimes refered to as ‘painting’ the surface with coloured fleece. Once this stage is completed you apply warm water and soap and start to fuse the fibres. This is then followed by rolling the felt to immitate a dryer, this coninues to fuse the fibres once again. Finally I like to shock the felt by washing it in cold water then immediatly hot water this also helps with the fuseing procees and removes the soap.
The art of felting is something I really enjoy doing. I find the
that every piece is bespoke and can also tell a story, I believe that it is an amazing form of art. You cannot predict one hundred percent how a piece of felt will turn out and no matter how similar you make them no two pieces are the same.
After the session I decided to continue to explore felt with
recycled materials. In the images below I have manipulated holes within the piece which shows some wear and tear from the ocean, which was quite difficult to complete. I also decided to add bottle tops which I feel amplfy the holes in the piece.
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