Felt Matters | The Podcast, Season 1 Episode one (part 2)
This new podcast has shown us just how much there is to chat about amongst feltmakers. At times, Heather and I felt as though we were trying to capture half a lifetime of felt making and three quarters of a year podcast conversations into our first four episodes.
We hope, like us, you will be intrigued to see images from behind some of the chat as we share some more with you now.
On my Felting Table: Mini eco rugs
In recent years, we have all become very familiar with eco seat rugs. Gorgeous, uncarded fluffy small rugs felted directly from raw fleece together with carded wool backings. These mini rugs act like cushions but without the volume which is often too much on a chair. We can throw these mini eco rugs onto our favourite seat and they will help keep us cosy for hours. I must regularly waft mine to reinvigorate the wool fibres after the cats have slept off their nights out.
I have felted quite a few of these chair pads, often made from a quarter of a whole sheep’s fleece straight from a wool show or occasionally directly from the shepherd. As I love to share and teach this as a workshop, that’s how it came to be sitting on my felting table on the day we recorded the podcast. This Saturday workshop gives students all the opportunity to work directly with raw wool, the skirting, the handling and experience, with none of the overwhelming volume of felting a whole fleece from scratch. In fact, it’s possible to felt a beautiful mini eco rug in just a couple of hours.
The top tip here is to select your fleece with care, looking for one which is clean, straw-free, preferably in one piece and maybe a lovely rare breed or first cut with curly locks.
In the photos shown here, the felted backing is created form three layers of Gotland or Corriedale carded tops. When felted it becomes stronger than the front fleece, giving stability and longevity to the mini rug. There is no prewashing of the raw fibres, just picking out any dags and vegetation, and arranging the curly locks just so. In this way, when the back is felted, the front fibres are felted at right angles to the sheared edge, leaving the front locks to move freely.
Since recording this first season of the podcast, Heather has also gone on to felt a mini eco rug with feltmaker and tutor Janna Turner, another member of our IFA Education Team. This delightful felting interview will feature in a future episode.
Felt Matters | The Podcast is available on our YouTube Channel, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Article by Vivienne Morpeth Region 10 with Heather Potten Region 13