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ORIGINS OF FELTWEST by Judith Shaw. Our story belongs with the contemporary practice of hand felting in New Zealand and Australia before formal Feltmaking associations were formed.
By the time feltmaking took hold in Australia, Mary Burkett in England and Beth Bede in the USA were researching traditional feltmaking around the world ,experimenting with complex techniques and encouraging others to share the excitement. Beverly Gordon’s book, Traditions, Techniques, and Contemporary Explorations FELTMAKING, 1980 N.Y gives comprehensive information about the craft and the feltmakers in the USA at that time. Although materials and equipment have made the work easier it might surprise new feltmakers to discover the level of expertise achieved before 1980.
In a letter to the Felt West editor in 1996 Marion Valentine in New Zealand refers to the increasing interest and expansion of feltmaking since 1990. Val Gilmour of Bunbury, now an Hon.Life Member of Felt West, travelled back and forward to New Zealand and saw what was happening there, influencing the creation of the first WA felting group in Bunbury. Earlier still, Peggy Buckingham co-ordinated TAFTA’s only WA Convention at Muresk Agricultural College near Northam in 1978.
Two feltmaking enthusiasts from Queensland’s Toowoomba Spinners and Weavers calling themselves the “ Gundawindi Greys”, demonstrated hand feltmaking taught to them by “a migrant lady”. Their technique was passed on by participant Ellie Eaton (Royal Agricultural Society & Melanian Society) and others, when they met with woolcraft practitioners. Ellie recalls that the felt was very thick, which was usual in countries with colder winter climates. All of this occurred in the midst of the hand spinning craze which resulted in an increased use of natural fleece and increased understanding of the properties of different types of wool for knitting and weaving.
So, felt making began as demonstrations showed the way for a further and exciting use of wool already on hand. At this time wool crafters washed and carded raw fleece. Demonstrations often included advice on washing wool. Some country people had their own sheep, others bought from emerging seller breeders or from Elder Smith’s wool stores where fleeces for hand spinners were put to one side and sold by a helpful character in the back of the shed! Wool was also imported from NZ.
West Australians who went to NZ for the National Woolcrafts Festival, Manawatu, in 1990 saw prepared, dyed wool on sale for the first time. New Zealand had many wool processing outlets and feltmakers there could choose the type of wool batt they wanted for specific felt works or purchase sheets of machine made natural wool felt. Wool batts were even available in broadloom widths which allowed for commercially viable production of felt coats etc. In a demonstration, well made felt sufficient for a large car coat was made from a large wool batt in around 20 minutes using a cane blind, soapy water and woman power.
During the Woolcrafts Festival a group of leading N.Z feltmakers posted a notice inviting anyone interested in becoming part of a Southern Hemisphere Feltmakers register to come to a meeting. Elaine Hutchinson and Judith Shaw attended that meeting of a group which went on to host two NZ Conventions followed by the Third Convention and first in Australia organised by Val Gilmour and Bunbury Feltmakers, at the Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School in 1994. It drew an incredible group of talented feltmakers nation wide plus representatives from NZ. Registrations from other States included Polly Stirling, Molly Littlejohn, Clare Carolan, Jan Clements, Christine Sloan, Jenni Farrel, Liz.Evans and others who went home to form felting associations and undertake teaching. Bunbury inspired the formation of groups in Canberra and Victoria and the recognition of felting by existing woolcraft organizations in other States.
Undaunted by the huge joint effort required for that first Australia wide Convention, Bunbury hosted a second live-in retreat for WA feltmakers which offered a programme of demonstrations and exhibition of work by all participants. All shared their experience on an honorary basis.
The first Felt West newsletter was issued to approx. 50 members in July 1996 after the three day retreat in Bunbury at which participants agreed to work towards a formally constituted felters’ network. It was agreed that this should now be based in the Perth Metro.area with Judith Shaw as co-ordinator. The first newsletter was paid for with funds carried over from the Bunbury retreat. Our stated aims were
i) to send out two or more Newsletters annually
ii) Plan a felters’retreat once or twice a year at a suitable live-in venue
The Bunbury Feltmakers with Val Gilmour at the helm and Hon.Treasurer Gloria Truman had done a marvellous job of providing for felters’ interests over the last few years and thanks from all concerned were gratefully recorded.
The first Newsletter invited all members to attend felting days at Craft House on Friday 15th November and Saturday 16th 1996 to give them an opportunity to meet and share. Arrangements were made to billet out of town members. Thus began Felting days & teaching sessions in Craft House, Menora. Seven current members have been part of Felt West from that beginning.
The early newsletters contain felting hints and ideas which remain relevant. Copies could be available at Craft House for reference on Felting days. When Felt West was formed (later to be incorporated) we had already began to take advantage of tutors with world wide experience. Lene Neilsen from Denmark was the first international tutor. Most of us had learned from each other and from demonstrations at Felt happenings. Lene went on to produce FELT FILT, available in English as well as Danish, setting high standards for hand felting and undoubtedly influencing many subsequent tutors.
E & O.E ( errors and omissions excepted!), many names deserve inclusion. In WA however, we cannot but remember the influence of Susan Seaman, Holly Nutley, Jenny House, Eileen Cresswell, Teresa Lawrence, Val Gilmour and others who set high standards and were inspirational by example and thus contributed individually and collectively to encourage feltmaking in WA.
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Hot on the heels of her recently published e-book ‘Structural and Sculptural: Complex 3D shapes in felt’, Soosie showed us an array of her ‘Bloomin Flowers’ incorporating some of the same principles and techniques detailed in her book.
Using the shape of the lateral view of a flower head and stem, daisies were created using an all-in-one resist technique. The flower head consisted of multiple layers of wool, separated by thin plastic and robustly prefelted before the next layer was added. These layers were simultaneously felted onto the stem in a small area where the head meets the stem. The flower head section was cut open along the top when the resist starts to buckle, opened up, petals cut and fulling continued. A foam gap filler rod was used as the stem resist, which can be easily removed after fulling and replaced with a wooden dowel for strength.
Roses comprised several parts using robust prefelt made from 4 layers of wool in the desired colours. A foam rod was again used as the stem resist. 4 templates in varying sizes were used to create the petals and sepals. 3 rows of petals and then the sepals were stitched to the stem with un-waxed strong natural thread. Each petal requires individual fulling with very soapy hands. Treatment of petal edges produces different results. Cut edges before fulling creates a firm sealed look to the petal, whereas cutting after fulling reveals the colour of the internal layers. Tumble dry to complete the fulling process.
Another variation involved a resist to create a ball shape for the centre of a flower. Once robustly prefelted, it could be cut open, stuffed and stitched onto a stem, with rows of stitched petals added as before. Stitching disappears once fulling is completed.
Soosie’s wrap and stitch method involved 2 elements – a foam rod stem and rectangular strips of prefelt. Covered in plastic except for a small portion on one long side, the prefelt is stitched spiral fashion around the stem. After fulling, plastic is removed and petals can be cut. Different effects can be achieved by varying the size of the rectangle and placement of stitching. Soosie emphasised throughout that prefelts need to be robust and hanging the flowers upside down was the best way to dry them.
And as if that didn’t blow our minds she showed us some experimental flowers under development – Daffodil, Cymbidium and Phalaenopsis orchids. Watch this space…..
1. Workshops:
· Sue Harrington advised that Soosie’s Complex 3D forms October workshop has sold out. Soosie’s latest e-book on the same subject is now available for purchase with a free copy of ‘How to Felt’ to the first 50 purchasers.
· Bookings are now open and filling fast for Hanky Panky with Nancy Ballesteros 6-7 November.
· Members are encouraged to submit ideas and suggestions for workshops and demos to Sue Harrington or Sue Eslick for consideration by the committee for the annual Planning Day 15 November. The aim of this day is to create a diverse and instructive year for the benefit of all members.
· The upcoming Felting Frenzy 30 Nov – 1 Dec is the equivalent of a local retreat especially for those who didn’t attend the annual retreat in May. It is a great opportunity to spend all or part of the time to focus on special or large projects.
· Wafta – To celebrate their 21 years of existence, Wafta is calling for applications for their twentyONE+ 2016 Juried Exhibition. Refer Wafta’s website for details. The Ilka White workshop has sold out.
· Fibres West; 4 – 10 October at Muresk. A few places remain, refer to their website.
· A visit to the Feltmakers of the Great Southern at Torbay Hill Function Centre, 1 Shelley Beach Road, Western Australia during the Art & Craft Trail, 26 Sept – 11 Oct, 2015, is highly recommended if you are in the area.
· Chez Armstrong of FIGS has advised there are a few spaces left in a Fiona Duthie workshop in Cranbrook 21/22 November. Contact: FIGS2015@yahoo.com.au
· Pauline Franklyn workshops are now available – enquiries to twopauls@iinet.net.au
2. Borrowing FeltWest items – a reminder that a maximum of 2 Feltwest items may be borrowed at any time, for a month only. Thereafter the items must be returned or renewal discussed. All items to be returned by November Toss n Tell.
3. Craft House – the APCH committee has made an application to Lotterywest for block-out blinds for the hall and the studio, which should reduce summer heat and enable daytime slideshows and video presentation.
4. Missing equipment is ongoing. Return of the FeltWest mannequin is still sought. The general storeroom is now locked. Items for general use can be used on the premises only. Items belonging to user groups and available to borrow must be borrowed officially via Susan Sheath, booking officer for APCH.
5. Soosie gave us more ideas and inspiration about the theme for the MACRO/Micro exhibition expanding on how enormous things can be made small and vice versa. Keep updated via the website and Facebook posts for info and inspiration on a variety of topics. Members are invited to contribute ideas and inspiration. The Exhibition venue – Central TAFE is a great exhibition space. Now is the time to start mulling over ideas. Open to all members, there will be no entry fee.
6. The 3 new ladies doing the beginners course were warmly welcomed.
Toss and Tell
· Teresa O’Malley intrigued us with a small, wet felted ‘poodle wool sheep’ made for a friend who collects sheep ornaments. The body of the sheep was made from the hair of the friend’s poodle and the head incorporated the hair of a Hungarian water dog.
· Judith Shaw showed us some of her very tiny micro pouches no bigger than 7 x 4 cm. Very discreet, detailed and dainty. One of them had a flap, with one side suitable for day wear, the other for the evening. Her brown hat was one of 5 made some time ago. They were looking a little sad and floppy so she went about refreshing them by giving them a good wash in the bathroom sink with a little shampoo. Squeezed and dried off with a bathroom towel, she then re-blocked them, edged and titivated where necessary and voila – good as new!
· Gudren Griffin produced 2 beautiful monochromatic necklaces created from Nancy’s meditation beads workshop, in pink and red. Determining their length was governed by the number of beads her new cat had appropriated for her own use. The Jacaranda shawl she had made using a silk lap had shrunk more than she expected, but she achieved beautiful detailing each end of the shawl by using silk hankies in subtle shades.
· Marion Finneran has been exploring the possibilities of recycling silk fabrics into nuno scarves. While pleased with the result, she noted that on one, where she had used an old silk scarf, the fabric had visibly deteriorated. In future she would be more careful when selecting this sort of fabric for a project.
· Jill Jodrell and Pat Kendall had both made wearable items to suit the theme nights for the upcoming NZ Felt-makers Convergence in Auckland. Jill created a stylish 3-cord necklace to wear herself and an asymmetrical evening bag for a friend which had been felted over muslin and incorporated some stitching. Pat had used fine decorative prefelts on her nuno scarf for the Sky and Sea theme night, resulting in a delightfully delicate piece.
· Sue Eslick made another dotty bag in the style of Atsuko Sasaki whose workshop she attended a while back. Apart from the raised bumps, the challenge was to reduce the 15hrs of rubbing required in the original workshop to get the same extremely firm and flat felt. Her experiment succeeded by using the rubbing technique in conjunction with rolling, tossing and various tools – and took only 8hrs to achieve a very similar result.
· Antoinette Boyd had meditation beads in progress and noted having small components to work on, made it one of those things you can do when away or with restricted time and space.
· Katalin Dobos – This bag was originally a cat cocoon /cave that morphed into a bag once it was established the cat had declined to occupy it.
· Soosie showed us more items made using 3D resists illustrating that the technique can be used for more than cacti and unusual abstract shapes. Her Mandarin fish and Spotted Wrasse or ‘fish on a stick’ was an inspiration in using resist techniques in another direction. She has also donated her ‘Cape to Cape’ scarflette created for the Scarf festival to the Xmas raffle. The elegant shaping of the cape was achieved by using a resist. The distribution of the beads was based on an 80:20 ratio representing the 80% of people living on the coast of Australia and 20% inland. The beads were counted exactly.
· Lyn Blasgund’s small green and brown bag was testament to the importance of fulling… again… and again.
· Sue Harrington made a cat cocoon for a friend. With wattle flowers still to be added, the result was not as stiff or as large as expected, despite a lot of hard work. She used 12 layers of 30 micron Corriedale each side of the resist, and felted every 2 layers. Her original shrinkage rate was based on a sample made with 8 layers each side. Using 12 layers altered the planned outcome. We don’t think the cat will mind, but there was a suggestion the structure had ‘foot warmer’ potential if the cat turns up its nose.
· Sara Quail showed her fulling boards made from a brickies smoothing tool and glass gems attached with Tarzan grip glue. Adhesion was made easier by the already roughened surface. She also showed the 10 metres of silk she had dyed for Fiona Duthie’s Joomchi felting and garment construction workshop she is doing at FibresWest . She had also been experimenting with dyeing wool roving using a variety of techniques, partly because 700g is needed for this workshop which seems a lot of wool for a wearable piece, even allowing a healthy %age for making samples.
· The meeting closed with Sue wishing all the best to those participating in both FibresWest and the NZ Felt-makers Convergence. We look forward to seeing the products of their labours in due course.
You made your sample and its not square. 🙁 Which measurement do I use?
If the difference is minimal use an average of both. For example:
Assuming you have laid 30cm x 30cm accurately.
One side measures 15cm and the other 17cm then use 16cm.
The maths: 15 + 17 = 32. 32 / 2 = 16. This is the average.
If the difference is large there are a couple of questions to ask:
If all else fails remake the sample and try again.
But if you have used an odd number of layers then you need two shrinkage rates, one vertical and one horizontal:
Now apply to your template. I’ll use the bag example from the last post – the finished size is 60cm deep (vertical) and 45cm wide (horizontal).
Therefore:
Full until bag is finished size.
Next post recommended shrinkage rates.
Shrinkage – What’s wrong with percentages? Part 3
I think I have ranted enough about why we need shrinkage rates (and not percentages) now it’s time to discuss how to apply them. Firstly, lets address why we need to know how much our felt will shrink. You always need to calculate this if you NEED a fairly accurate result. I say fairly as it is almost impossible to replicate an exact size of felt, but shrinkage rates are the most accurate method. For example: you need a shrinkage rate if you wanted to make anything that fits over, around, through, between or on an item. The item may be: hats, slippers, bags, pockets, pouches, clothes, even wraps and scarves. There’s nothing worse than a wrap of scarf that just isn’t long enough or wide enough or is so big you drown in it.
To apply your shrinkage rate you simply multiply your finished size by your shrinkage rate.
For example:
I want a bag to be 45cm wide and 60cm deep. My shrinkage rate is 1.7 (anything under this is probably not felted properly and I will address this in another post later.) The calculation looks like this:
My template ends up being 76.5cm wide and 102cms deep. When I am fulling my bag I will keep fulling until it is 45cm wide and 60cm deep. It will then be fulled.
I can hear some saying BUT my sample is not square! I will discuss this next post.
I will attach a PDf version of these instructions on the last post so you can print them out.
Just to recap using percentages to calculate how much wool to lay is wrong.
For example:
Jane made a piece of felting that ended up 20cm by 20cm. Soosie admired it and asked how much did it shrink by? And like so many other people she said, “Oh about 30%”.
Soosie heads off to her studio to make a similar piece and thinks to herself (obviously its not me cos I would have said it aloud. To my dogs.) “Mmmmm. It ended up 20cm, shrank by 30% so 30% of 20 = about 7. I have to lay 27cm of wool.”
Off she goes felting away. BUT when she is finished the piece is only 18cm x 18cm!?!?! She made it exactly the same way Jane did – same wool, same layers, same decoration yet it ended up smaller. WHY?
Because 30% of 27cm is 18cm. Jane laid 30cm of wool to get 20cm of felt. You can’t calculate something you don’t know the starting measurement of. Soosie only knew the finished measurement. Here in lies the big problem with using percentages. How do we fix this? Use shrinkage rates. Once you have determined the shrinkage rate you can apply it to any finished size to calculate accurately your starting measurement.
And the only way to calculate shrinkage is by making a sample.
How do I apply a shrinkage rate? That’s for the next post.
I will attached a PDf version of these instructions next post so you can print them out.
Keep sampling! Soosie 🙂
Now down to business. Anyone who has been at one of my workshops has heard my tirades about this subject. Using percentages to calculate the end result of your felting is wrong. It is wrong – mathematically, logically and importantly feltingly. (Is there such a word? There is now.) When someone says “it shrank by about 30%” could very well be correct BUT you can only calculate that after you have made the felt and NOT before. So instructing, advising or informing someone to just add 30% to the size of their template is WRONG!
For those who are not familiar with shrinkage a little lesson first.
We all know that felt shrinks. The age old question has always been by how much. Well that depends on multiple factors:
the wool – species, micron size, colour, coarseness, fibre length.
the number of layers of wool – odd, even.
what you add to the felt – silk, fabric, decoration etc.
rolling and sanding – which direction, how many times, evenness.
tossing and tumbling – which direction, how many times, evenness.
which way you held your tongue in the corner of your mouth..
I think we’re all getting the picture. There are plenty of things that affect shrinkage. So how can we possibly calculate shrinkage? Make a sample first. This is a pretty good motto for all craft, firstly if you have never made this particular combination of the factors (listed above) before, how do you what’s going to happen? I would rather make a mess of a sample and learn from my mistakes than waste my resources on a larger piece that can not be salvaged and is doomed for the BOYD pile.
Secondly, it is the ONLY way to calculate shrinkage.
So enough ranting for one post, next post will explain the mechanics of calculating shrinkage.
Keep felting! Soosie 🙂
