I was looking for an interesting holiday this year as a treat for a ’roundy’ birthday coming up. With perfect timing, IFA Publicity Officer Nadia Rein announced a felt making and cultural retreat in Kyrgyzstan. It was 8 workshops over 13 days, so I knew that there would be a lot of work involved. However, this was an amazing opportunity to learn tradtional feltmaking techniques in the region where feltmaking was born. I’d never been to Central Asia before so this was a very big adventure for me. Thankfully, Region 10 Coordinator, Sue Morgan, decided to come along as well and we were able to travel together from London.
We arrived at dawn at Manas International Airport in Bishkek with the mynah birds chirping loudly. We were collected by a friendly taxi driver and watched the sunrise shining on the Ala-too Mountains as we drove to our hotel. The scenery was stunning. After a few hours of sleep to recover, we met with Nadia and the other retreat members, Helen and Pauline, who are sisters from California. All of us had at least some experience with both needle and wet felting.
We started our adventure with a tour of the Fine Arts Museum in Bishkek. Our lovely, knowledgable guide talked us through the traditional textiles used in yurts. The large shyrdak rugs were amazing and it was wonderful to see them up close and to appreciate the work that went into making them. Over the next 3 days, we had workshops with local felt masters, creating a bag with a unique texture, dyeing a silk scarf for a later workshop and creating a floral picture.
On Day 5, we started our trip around Lake Issk-kul, the second largest mountain lake in the world. The scenery was beautiful and very inspiring for our upcoming landscape workshop. We stayed one night at a yurt camp, eating our meals in a large yurt and enjoying a swim in the beautiful lake. The next day, we continued our loop around the lake, stopping for two nights in the town of Tamchi. We visited a slipper factory and saw how the beautiful slippers are created, from fleece to final product. We then made our own slippers, using traditional motifs. The staff were a great help, stepping in to assist with the rolling, which was very welcome! The slippers then went off to be fulled by a machine and finished by hand by the staff. We went on to our next workshop, learning how to stitch the traditional shyrdak felt. This was a slow process but very enjoyable and Kenzhe, our tutor, was delightful.
By Day 9, we were back in Bishkek, ready for the Oimo Textile Festival. The day started with a visit to the many stalls selling beautiful textiles from both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The festival continued through the day but, unfortunately, the heat caught up with me and I decided to rest in the air conditioned hotel.
Our last three workshops were a wool painting landscape, a nuno felted scarf using the dyed silk that we created the previous week and a traditional embroidery session. I was grateful for the assistants at the workshops, who were not only knowledgable feltmakers but also knew when to step in and help, ensuring that we didn’t go wrong with our work.
One takeaway for me was the fact that the tutors who did wet felting did not use bubble wrap. I’ve been looking for an alternative to plastic for some time now and was delighted with the use of a polyester sheet, netting and a sponge.
I really enjoyed the relaxed nature of the retreat and the flexibility of the schedule. As we were mainly working in a room at the hotel, we also had the option to go to our own rooms for a rest. Living in Ireland, I found the heat in Bishkek (around 30 – 35C) challenging, so being able to go at a slower pace was important. Most of the rooms that we worked in were air conditioned, although our embroidery session was outside in a wonderful sheltered space, full of quirky little treasures.
Several of our tutors brought us into their homes and fed us wonderful home cooked traditional dishes. We got to see a side of Kyrgyzstan that most visitors would not experience. We also had local guides who showed us around Bishkek and Lake Issyk-kul and explained the local culture to us. I found it all fascinating and enjoyed meeting everyone.
I had been thinking that this trip was a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity, however, Nadia is planning two more retreats for next year and I’m already researching flights!
Article by Jane Fox, Region 14