Making Felt Workshop
One sheep, two sheep, three sheep… FELT!
When a local friend invited me to join her to make a felt cushion I jumped at the chance. I had no idea what felt really was and I actually thought we were going to cut material into shapes and form some colourful squares, put some fluff inside and then we would go home with a cushion for the sofa. I was completely wrong.
So for those of you who don’t know, making felt is actually a really complicated and tough process. No wonder those cute felt hats cost so much.
The shop owner Sabine has lessons for 3-4 people inside her shop in the evenings. When you walk in, you are immediately surrounded by wool of every colour, felt bags and shoes, accessories, gloves… the choice is magnificent.
And bang in the middle of the shop is a huge table, which was set up for us to start on our project. In case you are wondering, this is when I realised we were going to be making felt from raw materials. Most of the wool we used came from New Zealand sheep. It was so soft. My friend who spends all day working at a computer said how lovely it was just to run your hands through such soft material at the end of the day.
There were four of us (my friend had bought a workshop voucher for her mother and another friend came too). Two people picked flat seats for a chair, one lady made a table top cover and I had to be different (ahem) and make a wall hanging. Basically, we were beginners and we had to make something two-dimensional. We chose our base colours and got to work. The threads of the sheep’s wool run from top to the bottom, so we had to lay out a square and then do the same with another batch at a right-angle to it. This meant there were threads running in all directions. Then the hard work started.
You put a thin material (like a mosquito net) over and under your square and push boiling hot water through the net with vigour in order to get every thread wet. Whilst rubbing your whole hand on the netting we poured more and more hot water onto the fabric. My hands were tingling from the heat and the pressure I was using. You rub in circles, bit by bit and it probably took over half an hour. You have to make sure it isn’t too thin, otherwise you will end up with a hole. Sometimes the wool gets caught in the netting, so you use soap to push it out again.
Next is the fun part. You choose a pattern and colours and get to it. From dots and spirals to a field and lines, it was amazing to see how different the four of us imagined our art work. We used the tiniest bits of very thin thread and placed these onto the now wet square. Then once again you push hot water through the netting and stage one is complete.
I picked a purple background (Jason’s favourite colour) and a pink spiral with dots (my favourite colour). Sabine asked whether it would fit into my room design at home. I told her that we were moving in March anyway, so we could just paint our new place purple and pink to fit the wall hanging. She may have thought I was joking but…
Then it was noodle time! No, I don’t mean it was time to eat. We were given water noodles from a swimming pool. We rolled our squares around the noodles and rolled 60 times. It was like rolling sushi, so I had an advantage here at least. Then we turned the square 90 degrees to the right and rolled again. It’s a good thing I enjoy baking… Then we did it again. And once more. Until we had rolled each side. Then the square was turned upside down and we did the same again. The purpose of all this is to shrink the wool by around a third of its original size, which makes the piece strong and stable. I will say that the room was cold, but we were working so hard we felt warm. It was almost like a workout. I earned that massive Kinder Surprise when I was done!
I thought that we were finished then, but alas, it was just the beginning. We did the whole rolling out process once more (eight times, once for each side and direction) without the noodle. Then we did it with just a towel. It was hard to remember how many times I had done it and which sides I still had to finish. But it was a good giggle. The next challenge is to get it into a proper square shape, as all the rolling pulls one side more than another (e.g.: you put more strength into the right side if you are right-handed). When one corner is stretched too much you need to roll it back towards the middle. If you want straighter edges, you use a ‘mouse’, a little wooden instrument, which you bash at the material and it magically straightens it out. Luckily we had an expert to guide us.
Felt is handmade, so each piece is unique and never perfect. I kinda like my slightly curved edges. Once you are happy with the shape, it is done. All that is left, is to stick it in boiling hot water, immediately shock it in freezing cold water and then dip it into cold water with some added vinegar essance. Then stick it in the dryer, iron it flat and voilà! Four hours of hard work made a piece to treasure forever.
I think they all came out beautifully.
Next time we can move onto 3D work, so I’m going to make a hot water bottle. I can’t wait! It’s definitely cold enough for one now…
Website: http://www.moutare.de/