Diatribe
abuse, castigation, denunciation, disputation, harangue, invective, jeremiad, objection, onslaught, philippic, reviling, screed, stricture, tirade, vituperation
Have you ever felt disappointed by something you have purchased? How does it go… If you are happy with something you tell three other people… If you are not, you tell ten!
What is a Feltmaker…
Felt is a relatively “new” material for the mainstream consumer, it’s also looked upon as weaving’s poor cousin. Very frustrating and very unsympathetic for those persons who make their living from actually making felt. I’m talking about the craftsperson rather than teachers; individual makers who sell their products on the open market.
On the market place…
It’s difficult enough for craftspeople in Europe competing with cheap imports without having to deal with local hobbyists or students selling their work drastically under priced to the same market.
(Regarding the cheap imports, a lot of which have no sense of quality control as the importers and exporters are only interested in quantity. As everyone knows, these arrangements can be quite suspect vis á vis the amount the original makers get paid and their working conditions. Even so called “fair trade” organisations are quite reluctant (or even refuse point blank) to divulge actual profit margins. Happily, more and more consumers are becoming aware of the exploitation involved and make more discriminating choices.)
It’s easier for people to understand the difference in price between imported and locally hand crafted goods, (after all, we all pay the same taxes, dentists, etc… well, in Finland we do anyway) than it is to appreciate the differences between those of the part-time and full-time craftsperson.
Specifically felting…
When someone attends a feltmaking class that lasts say, 30 hours, goes home, continues to practice their felting and then decides to sell the end result for pocket money. Where is the harm in that? The fact is it undermines the lifestyle and work of fulltime craftspeople… how can they compete?? You don’t have to earn your living from feltmaking so the price doesn’t matter and anyway, you need to make some space so you can make some more.
What to do?? How do you explain yourself??
In the long run it’s better for everyone, including you, to just give everything away… When you have some experience and make good, high quality products come back and sell them for real money. That way you support the market (by which time) you are an integral part of, you get paid for your time, get given the respect you deserve and more importantly, you help educate the public to appreciate and value felted products. Don’t get me wrong, I want people to learn and enjoy felting but I feel we are in need of some kind of definition… The edges are too blurry… (bit like the felts.)
Felt Appreciation…
The most irritating phenomena are the persons who have done a short felting course, or worse, know someone who has, and tell their companions how they, their daughter, aunt or cousin are feltmakers too “How easy” it is and “Look at the price of that Mildred” Gosh, don’t feltmakers make a lot of money… I could do that… No you couldn’t… you wouldn’t know where to start… You don’t have the experience or the dedication… They therefore, in reality, have not the slightest clue as to what they are talking about. More tolerable, the general public, who in the majority of cases have no idea of what they are looking at, can be forgiven for thinking your work is SO expensive… is woven?? “What do you use to paint it with” is the most common…
Feltmaking Quality…
Feltmaking is an extremely labour intensive process and like most things in the west we are always looking for the quick and easy solution… I’m sorry to have to say this but there just isn’t one.
Take felted clothing for example, felt is such an alluring material, hangs well, so colourful and complex… so much easier than conventional fabrics? (imagine processing the raw fibres and weaving the cotton or silk… let alone being a competent dressmaker to put all your ideas together…) felt is SO easy to use, in next to no time you have a hat shawl jacket dress, and unfortunately, in many cases, in next to no time you have a shapeless fluffy mess…
Say no more…
And so onto furnishings, cushions, upholstery and worst of all, Rugs…Well, what is a rug in the first place? A floor covering? Dirty socks can be a floor covering, doesn’t make them a rug! Substantial is the word we’re looking for, thick and heavy. If it wrinkles up along the edges, gets wrapped around the baby as she crawls across it, can be folded up and stuffed in a bag it’s not a rug, it’s more like a throw or a blanket, and of course if it’s not a rug it ends in a complete state if it’s used like a rug… not the impression we need to give to the world… and this is one of the biggest killers… felt blankets, wraps or wall hangings that get called rugs… How can feltmakers make a living if the consumers are bombarded with misinterpreted goods??
The Dark Side…
It’s not so easy after all… If your soft and colourful hat was a present from someone, and after three times in the rain and sitting on it on the way home in the bus it turns into a giant furball.. Ah well… (except they will remember that stuff called felt that is only useful for the cat to sleep on…) But if someone paid money for it, that’s eleven people who know that felt is just not durable or desirable for sure… So where does that leave your feltmaking community?? And more particularly, where does that leave the professional, full time feltmaker… Struggling to convince a sceptical public of the marvels and wonders of felt perhaps??
Being a full time, self-supporting feltmaker is not about the money… it’s about satisfying an expressive nature… being able to dream something up over breakfast and go down and make it in the afternoon. It’s about 12 and 14 hour days sometimes, unpaid holidays and no “weekends”, there’s no time for workshops or teaching jobs… it’s about “FELTING”
So come on all you teachers and instructors of felt…spread the gospel of “HIGH” quality felt for the sake of feltmakers the world over… Look to real feltmakers for guidance, there are enough of them around… Make yourself and your students work towards excellence… no half measures…
I really don’t want to see another quick and easy way to make felt on TV, the Net or in one of the countless craft/hobby magazines… In the end it works against us all…
I think we owe it to our present and future feltmakers to make the effort…
Rod…I feel like you are living in my head! I Just about cry every time someone proudly shows me some “felted” piece they bought and I know it is crap. It isn’t until they see and feel “real” felt that they can even begin to understand the difference. Thanks for these words and discussion.