Stories to Felt by

I make felt every day I can. At this time of year it is the necessity to create inventory for the coming years shows, or at least stay ahead of things a bit. So, Im creating all sorts of things, with half an eye to the types of felted things that sold the previous year. Recently I decided to plump up my beret selections. I love making berets but was feeling as if I had hit the creative wall when it came to design. I made the decision to use special merino roving that was hand-dyed by a friend who recently passed away. In a small... Read More

Every once in a while when the stars align a unique opportunity presents itself. Such were the stars when the Felters Rendezvous was able to contract with Maggy Pavlou to teach for our 2018 event. She does not teach all that often and Id admired her felting for a long time. Since Id never taken a class from her or even met her, I thought Id contact her about meeting her when I had some business to take care of an hour away from her studio. The stars aligned again when I was able to spend a few days with Maggy learning the basics of... Read More

Anyone who looks at my felting will know I love color and love working with it. Often people will comment on my "sense of color," but I see it as simply not being afraid and boldly moving forward with bright and attractive colors and colorcombinations. But where does the inspiration come from? I have a few tools in the tool chest that I use. One is that I look at my stash of raw materials and choose a starting color that I feel like working with that day--something that touches me--and work out from there. I sometimes... Read More

The Rollercoaster Ride of Arts Crafts Shows The circuit some of them call it and they seemed to me like circus folk who travel around, astonishing others with their talents then moving on. They re-group at the next show, greet one another as old friends, share stories of the road, try to sell their wares, and grumble about the slow sales or poor publicity provided by the show producers, but have a booth at the next festival. Their mantra was, well, maybe things will take a turn after lunch, sales are certain to increase tomorrow, or... Read More

It's not new, but that is the beauty of it. Shambolic, when you look up the meaning of the word, is chaotic, cluttered, messy, muddled, and untidy, but that is what I love about shambolic felt. My first exposure to it was in a class taught by Marlene Greuter where we made a shambolic jacket. Our pre-workshop assignment was to put together a collection of articles of silk clothing from second hand shops. How fun was that--my kind of homework assignment! The colors I chose were in the teal and salmon families, augmented with cream,... Read More

We all know the ending of that phrase is, "try, try again." Felt making is like that. There are infinite varieties of colors, textures, techniques, and processes out there. Some methods work better than others; some work for some of us but not for other people. Some work once but not twice. But, one of the reasons I love felt is that it is so variable. I love those happy surprises that happen when an edge is turned under with a tad more fiber in one place than another or the edge scoops in a bit more in one place than in another. I... Read More

Felting is like engineering to me. I was an English major, never an engineer and not once took a course even remotely related to engineering. So I really should say felting is like what I perceive engineering to be! It includes thinking inside out, upside down, and devising ways to join which part to what other part in order to make the final result match the imagined piece. Yep; that's engineering. The Icelandic felter, Anna Gunnarsdottir, has an amazing engineer's brain; her pieces reflect the fact that they are thoroughly... Read More

When I took my first class in felt making I thought that was it. Now that I knew how to make felt; I knew felting. How wrong I was! Had I been listening closely to my instructor, I would have heard really heard and understood--when she said, "There are as many ways to make felt as there are felt makers." The longer I felt, the more felt makers I meet, or come into contact with, the more I understand the truth of her statement. I can't remember my second felting class, but I certainly remember that first one--and the most recent... Read More