Textiles Creatives
Throughout the September workshops at the museum, project participants have continued to learn and develop their skills of felt making techniques. Guided by Claire they worked towards creating more complex structures using felt making methods.
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Having in previous workshops felted solid circular forms, now the task was to produce a flat construction. Beginning with the familiar process of placing layers of carded wool and threads on top of one another and soaping, instruction was given of how to roll the layers around a sponge rubber mat. The mat acted as a barrier preventing the wool layers fusing together into a solid mass.
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Once the wool had been worked sufficiently and the mat removed, a flat piece of felted wool had been produced with designs that referenced textiles from the museum costume collection.
Pieces of flat felted designs
Now that some fundamental techniques of producing felt had been discovered, participants were tasked with applying these to produce articles. Claire demonstrated the process of engineering the felt into a structure. By placing a piece of shaped calico cotton between the wool layers during the felting process, areas of the felted wool remain separated, the calico acting as a barrier between the wool.
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Participants used this technique and their own designs to produce an outstanding collection of bowl shaped objects.
Collection of felted bowl objects
Continuing to discover felt construction processes, participants were shown how to blend the ends of a roll of felt together to form a ring. Next came the challenge of interlinking a second ring, then a third, and so on to form a chain. Trickier than first thought and needing a degree of dexterity.
Concentrating on making the links
