Home at last….
We also hung around in Denmark for a while and enjoyed the weather…
Thunderbirds are go….. our hotel….
The workshops were stupendous…. More about them later.. Unfortunately we lost all the photos from Gotland but I’m sure we’ll get some sometime soon… Many heartfelt thanks to all… especially Laila and Gunilla, Joke, Jacques and Ellen… xx
Cookies, Land and Sea…??
A couple of examples of the superlative work everyone was doing… Lovely strong felts that could stand up for themselves… Not quite thick enough for rugs but getting that way… Perfect wall furniture… All done in Finnwool of course, the bestest, fastest felter… While we’re on the subject, take a look at this link www.conkece.com
Dorie, the “Cookie” author, sent us this link… She had been in Turkey years ago at Mehmet’s and other feltmakers there, and we got talking about felting machines and techniques… Take a look at the videos linked on this site to see a wonderful felting machine…
Someone asked what was the difference between our felt rolling machine and the other ones available except the size… This is the difference… the action of this machine in the video is reciprocated in our machine, but in a much gentler manner…. felting machine
Talking about Finnwool, we have been plant dyeing and overdyeing with indigo since we got back last week… The plants were just our local undergrowth that now dominates our back yard… a strong, herbal mixture of Cow Parsley, Fireweed, Wild Roses, Dandelions, Hemlock, Angelica and Lupins… (now at 5 foot high in places…) and grass of course… Got some very uninteresting yellows but beautiful turquoises and emeralds with the indigo overdye…
Story Felt… 140cm x 70cm
Had a bit of an inspired moment before we left…. I really like playing with wool…
Enjoy the summer and we’ll make a full workshop report somewhere, sometime later when we get some photo’s back….
Info Update
Thanks for your encouragement everyone… Lets see where this all takes me…
we are going to be away for a week from to-day…
The weather is driving me nuts… it’s 3 degrees above freezing today… last year by this time it was also warmish, -2C to -6C but it dropped to -27C by the 16th of Jan… we’ll see. Worst thing is there is no snow so it’s dark…
When we’ve got back we’ll start thinking more about the felting machine… (see my web page)
There needs to be some sort of general machine felting instructions of course but there should also be a clear idea and explanations about wet felting processes and all the in’s and out’s of that.
If you can’t felt… you can’t use a felting machine… it’s a simple as that…
Some have also asked for a video… Not sure what you want. A video of the machine felting?? (well that is pretty boring…) Or a video of us making machine felt?? (well that sounds like a lot of unpaid work…)
What might be fun is a video about Värtsilän Villa ja Värjäämö (try saying that when you are drunk…) See us processing our wool… so, shearing, sorting, dyeing, (from exhaustion…) carding and even a bit of felting at the end, plus all the local attractions…. (sounds like a travel documentary…) I guess we shall have to start on that this year…
But now I must go and wake Karoliina up, we should leave within the half hour… (I bet we get away at about 11.30…) See you soon..
remember this time….. it’s coming, to a place near you…..
eventually….