get felt depressed??
Another quote from the feltmakers list from a quote from a quote from a knitters list….
The problems with wool and fleeces….. starts like this…
All fleeces are not created equal. Certain breeds have certain characteristics, ie soft and crimpy, short or long, shiny or matte, and so forth, as an average for the breed. Some merinos are less soft than others, some Romneys are coarser than others and on and on. That aspect is specific to the individual sheep and won’t change.
info… info… info…. and ends like…
On the up side, there are few fleeces that can’t turn into something.
There is always felting, after all, or stuffing for that matter.
Felting… Stuffing…. (they forgot to say Fertilizer… wool grows wonderful tomatoes…)
What’s the difference…
and still more miraculous inventions for the future of felting…
Art Felt and the “easy felt paper”…
Well, if this is the future of felting, with “Pencil Roving” at over 1000USD a kilo, would anyone like to try a sample of pure organic Finnwool fertilizer??
Can’t experienced feltmakers get together and come to some kind of consensus?? Last time it disintegrated into backbiting and unfriendliness…
Despairing of it all in the fertilizer capital of North Karelia….
on March 12th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I would love a dialog. What about setting up a list for “serious” feltmaking discussions?
on March 14th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I feel I personally can only do so much to lessen misinformation about what is felt/what is not felt. The best I can do is when I exhibit, show the highest quality work that I can. I ask myself if I would be proud to show this alongside my felting peers. If it is not, it does not get hung or I make it better. When I teach, I stress that these are techniques that take time to master and taking my class does not make them qualified to teach felting to the masses. I gather with other feltmakers and discuss felting standards. I will be teacing at a contemporary textile center in Montreal and cannot wait to talk to all the fibre people there about this very issue. There is lots of crap out there. Sad thing, many of them think their work is great. It may have lots of creative merit, but as “felt”, it doesn’t make it. Perhaps they learned from an inexperienced person or a book and have not truly seen good felt. I could complain about all those people, but I have better things to do. I think the best way to tackle the issue is to make good felt and get it out there and to educate my audience when I teach.
on March 14th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Unfortunately, Andrea is right. There is little that anyone can do aside from doing their own work and educating the public when opportunities arise. For instance, the now infamous “Whimsical Wrap” is still, today, labeled as a form of feltmaking. In spite of communication from numerous feltmakers around the world, the people marketing this kit persist in calling it felt and any number of people will read the advertising and/or buy the kit and believe that felt can be made by simply dipping stitched together ribbons and threads in water.
The growing popularity of felt and feltmaking is a truly double edged sword!
On the positive side, “real” feltmakers are finding that more and more people are receptive to the idea of buying, collecting or using their hand made felt. Felt has become fashionable - things made of felt are”in”.
On the negative side, hand feltmaking’s rapid rise from relative obscurity has produced a boom in the marketing of the craft of feltmaking by people with very little real education or experience in the art to people with none.
The current popularity of feltmaking will pass. In due time, “crafters” will become fascinated by some other technique and flock to it.
All we can do is hope that feltmaking’s reputation will not be permanently tarnished by all the mislabeled, poorly made felt being produced.