FELT!
Felt is such a wonderful fabric.
I'm starting with this image, because a few weeks ago I went over to Melbourne to view 'Van Gogh And The Seasons', and Vincent is still on my mind.
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| 'Self-Portrait in Dark Felt Hat' |
It is one of the oldest known textiles and is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibres together. Originally made from 100% wool, today's felt it is often created using synthetic fibres, or a blend of natural and synthetic.
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| CdG's brilliant collection which used felt, A/W 2012 RTW |
Felt can be used in
- Arts & Craft
- Art & Design
- Fashion
and in
- Home Construction, such as a Yurt.
These following images display what felt making on a big scale may have involved.
When E & I were making our way back to NZ, via the Trans Siberian Railway, we visited a Mongolian couple who lived in a traditional Ger, as the Mongolians call them. (Yurt is the Turkish name.)
Sitting around the stove, smoking a pipe after a day working outside in cold conditions, must be relaxing. He might even be wearing felt boots.
I remember E feeling sorry for the dog because it wasn't allowed inside the Ger.
I remember E feeling sorry for the dog because it wasn't allowed inside the Ger.
This link will show you a group of Mongolian people making felt for their Ger. It's a wonderful team effort.
My little textile memento of the Mongolian Ger,
and a wonderful Mongolian felt drawstring pouch bag, which pulls shut with a knuckle bone.
Initially I thought it was for a game of knuckle bones, and I'm sure it could be, but the four knuckle bones are actually for fortune telling - 'Complicated Fortune Telling'- it's all in the way the knuckle bones fall.
What else for 'felt and home construction'?
Armchairs, couches and stools, all made from wonderful felt
Felt seating resembling river stones...
what fun!
Tanya Aguiniga, an L.A. based artist, created these fabulous felted soft rocks. I like their strong sense of things made by hand. They remind me of work Sheila Hicks has done. Check out my Blog # 12, and the section re Hicks 'treasures and secrets'.
Aguiniga also works felt into more traditional chair works.
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| Hand-felted chairs |
Making felt is not that difficult, it just takes some time, some raw wool and a soap solution.
This wiki-how site shows how to go about it via some straight forward illustrations. Look through the various steps, they help to explain it really well if you are new to the felting process.
Now, check this video, you can watch it on mute 'cos there are written explanations running underneath the visuals. Play your own music as you take it in! It is a good demonstration of how you go about creating felt in your own kitchen. Have a go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtcRDK4f9E
Margaret Cooter, a fibre artist friend of mine who lives in London, took me through a bit of felt making one weekend. It was a very satisfying activity, the tactile aspect, working with lovely soft wool...so nice, (check out Margaret's website http://www.margaretcooter.co.uk/ )
and it's cool how you can create images/shapes within a piece.
Mine isn't a patch on this work though.
I found this at school, no idea who did it, but I'm impressed with their effort. It measures 74cm x 121cm.
When it is rolled up, it is very reminiscent of animal hair, which in itself, I find rather appealing.
One of the best specification is, 'you don't have to finish the edges because they don't fray.' That's what I tell my Yr. 7, 8 & 9 classes.
This is a neat site about some cool crafts to make using felt.
http://www.coolcrafts.com/felt-craft-projects/
I like the crown project. Make one and it could become an accessory head piece, like this CdG one, which is worn with a jacket that, I think, came out of CdG's S/S 2014 collection 'Not Making Clothing'.
Another well known image of that felt crown from 'Six', early days RK/CdG.
One of Joseph Beuys' most famous works took place in 1974, 'I Like America and America Likes Me'. It involved his spending 3 days in a room with a coyote. He flew into New York, was swathed in felt, loaded into an ambulance and taken to an art gallery to perform his work. Beuy's explanation was "I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than the coyote." To Beuys the coyote was a symbol of the ecological and ethnic damage caused by the arrival of the European in America.
These two photos, taken by Caroline Tisdall, record aspects of the event.
In 1970 Beuys presented 'Felt Suit'.
A 2 piece suit constructed from coarse grey felt. Beuys commonly wore clothing made from felt. This particular piece was number 77 of 100 identical felt suits made by Beuys.
Watch this interesting short video about a Beuys 'Felt Suit', and what became of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCOOHzENIfY
One last felt work of Beuys I want to include is, 'Homogenous Infilitration for Piano', created 1966
The felt encasement has trapped the sound of the piano. The human connection is in the red cross. If we remain silent, what happens?
See a film relating to Beuys "I Like America and America Likes Me' performance. There is some talking, which explains a little more about the artist. I found the coyote quite appealing.
https://vimeo.com/5904032
Heather Belcher is a contemporary artist who explores the hand made felting process in her art work. She is interested in the 'materiality' of felt and its reference to the human figure in early body coverings. Belcher explores issues of concealment and identity in many of the felted images. She also likes the aspect that the end result of the real clothes is to be worn and washed to destruction, whereas she starts with that actual process in order to create her works.
A wonderful felt wearable creation from Kei Ito
leading nicely into...
CdG's 1994 A/W collection 'Metamorphosis' worked with fabric similar to felt, but it is actually shrunken boiled wool. RK made the most of it in lumpen rolls of boiled wool protuberances,which foreshadowed the infamous AW 1997 'Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body'.
CdG 1997 S/S 'New Essentials' collection also appears to have worked with boiled wool/felt like garments.
Laser cut unfinished clean edges.
This wonderfully warm looking garment comes from a Shaun Samson F/W 2012 collection and it demonstrates a joining together of traditions, styles and fabrics in an extremely cool felted way.
and Samson perfected a technical needle punch felting technique, which enabled him to combine several dissimilar fabrics into a almost seamless gradation of materials.
This link enables you to learn a lot more about Samson's collection and his cool needle punch technique.
http://stylesalvage.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/unpicking-seams-shaun-samson-aw11.html
Want to see needle punching in a more domestic form, take in the link below. It might help to make some sense about this form of felting.
Felt capes....I like felt capes.
Look at these amazing ones, they are serious about keeping a human being, who works in cold climes, warm!
They are called Kepenek and are traditional Turkish shepherd felt capes.
What about capelets, they are also fun to wear.
Three capelets I constructed out of felt.
Take these capelets and add some "chapeaugraphy"(hat writing). Make a felt ring and twist it to take on the appearance of various shapes of head gear.
I think it is sort of avant-garde 'Handmaids Tale'!
That same pink felt is now making an "over the shoulder boulder holder" outer garment, for those who dare!
One last felt creation, an effective pin cushion made by one of my Yr. 13 students, Claire, when she was in Yr.10. I think she could still be using this pin cushion when she is 50, and I think that is very cool!
The last words are going to VvG in his dark felt hat.
SLTSLTBsigning off from 'Felt'
Margaret Cooter, a fibre artist friend of mine who lives in London, took me through a bit of felt making one weekend. It was a very satisfying activity, the tactile aspect, working with lovely soft wool...so nice, (check out Margaret's website http://www.margaretcooter.co.uk/ )
Mine isn't a patch on this work though.
I found this at school, no idea who did it, but I'm impressed with their effort. It measures 74cm x 121cm.
- Felt in Arts & Craft
One of the best specification is, 'you don't have to finish the edges because they don't fray.' That's what I tell my Yr. 7, 8 & 9 classes.
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| Gaia is sorting her 'DANCE' applique in felt. |
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| Josephine is prepping her passions in felt, which she will stitch on the outside pockets on her bag. |
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| Ayssa is making a fab job of her happy felt feature. |
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| Chloe's is also looking effective |
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Talia is going to be stitching these felt shapes on her skirt for her applied decoration.  |
http://www.coolcrafts.com/felt-craft-projects/
I like the crown project. Make one and it could become an accessory head piece, like this CdG one, which is worn with a jacket that, I think, came out of CdG's S/S 2014 collection 'Not Making Clothing'.
Another well known image of that felt crown from 'Six', early days RK/CdG.
- Felt in Arts & Design
Joseph Beuys, German artist (b.1921- d.1986) frequently used felt in his work. He associated felt with the production of warmth.
Beuys said he joined the German Luftwaffe in 1941. In March 1944 his plane was supposedly shot down over the Crimean Front in the Ukraine. Beuys was rescued by a nomadic tribe of Tartars, who saved his life by greasing his battered body with animal fat before wrapping him in felt.
Animal fat and felt are considered ancient healing aids, as they enrich and sustain, consequentially they came to play highly relevant roles in Beuys art work.
It is said that fact and fiction did play a major role in Beuys art.
Beuys believed "every fully thinking and feeling person is, by definition, an artist."
One of Joseph Beuys' most famous works took place in 1974, 'I Like America and America Likes Me'. It involved his spending 3 days in a room with a coyote. He flew into New York, was swathed in felt, loaded into an ambulance and taken to an art gallery to perform his work. Beuy's explanation was "I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than the coyote." To Beuys the coyote was a symbol of the ecological and ethnic damage caused by the arrival of the European in America.
These two photos, taken by Caroline Tisdall, record aspects of the event.
In 1970 Beuys presented 'Felt Suit'.
Watch this interesting short video about a Beuys 'Felt Suit', and what became of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCOOHzENIfY
One last felt work of Beuys I want to include is, 'Homogenous Infilitration for Piano', created 1966
See a film relating to Beuys "I Like America and America Likes Me' performance. There is some talking, which explains a little more about the artist. I found the coyote quite appealing.
https://vimeo.com/5904032
Heather Belcher is a contemporary artist who explores the hand made felting process in her art work. She is interested in the 'materiality' of felt and its reference to the human figure in early body coverings. Belcher explores issues of concealment and identity in many of the felted images. She also likes the aspect that the end result of the real clothes is to be worn and washed to destruction, whereas she starts with that actual process in order to create her works.
A wonderful felt wearable creation from Kei Ito
leading nicely into...
- Felt in Fashion
The best place to start this section is the wonderful CdG A/W 2012 Collection 'The future's in two dimensions'. Many of the flat oversized shapes are expertly delivered in felt.
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| My own take on the garment above. I found some good quality felt at Spotlight, cut out daisy type shapes, and stitched them together. It's great to wear. |
This image shows how the seams were sewn. It is from 'The Cutting Class' website. You can read the whole feature in the link below. They discuss many interesting pattern making aspects of the 2012 A/W collection, which was hailed as outstandingly innovative in the field of clothing design.
CdG's 1994 A/W collection 'Metamorphosis' worked with fabric similar to felt, but it is actually shrunken boiled wool. RK made the most of it in lumpen rolls of boiled wool protuberances,which foreshadowed the infamous AW 1997 'Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body'.
I have always loved Cindy Sherman's artistic interpretation of one of the garments from this collection.
So, what is boiled wool?
Boiled wool is woven wool fabric (it can also be made from knitted wool fabric) that has been shrunk and thickened using water and agitation, which interlocks the fibres into a tighter felt-like mass.
The AW 1997 collection included aprons that had a strong work-wear feel.
I think this garment may have come out of this collection
It's inspired me to construct a garment I can wear for work.
Using some left over wool fabric, I gave it a boiled treatment in my washing machine, with agitation in hot water and suds.
In this case it only slightly changed the fabric. I'll still work with it though.
Done, a working apron garment!
A couple of my CdG inspired garments made from felt, a cape/collar and a holster type style. Fun.
This wonderfully warm looking garment comes from a Shaun Samson F/W 2012 collection and it demonstrates a joining together of traditions, styles and fabrics in an extremely cool felted way.
It actually is a Men's collection...
and Samson perfected a technical needle punch felting technique, which enabled him to combine several dissimilar fabrics into a almost seamless gradation of materials.
This link enables you to learn a lot more about Samson's collection and his cool needle punch technique.
http://stylesalvage.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/unpicking-seams-shaun-samson-aw11.html
Want to see needle punching in a more domestic form, take in the link below. It might help to make some sense about this form of felting.
A cool handbag which has 2 different fabric types blended very creatively, needle punched no doubt.
Felt capes....I like felt capes.
Look at these amazing ones, they are serious about keeping a human being, who works in cold climes, warm!
They are called Kepenek and are traditional Turkish shepherd felt capes.
And this cape, composed of thick felt, so thick it can almost stand on its own.
This style of felt cape belongs to the Yi people, of Sichuan province, southwest China. Composed of felted yak, sheep and human hair, it provides an excellent protection from the harsh elements of that part of the world. Remember Joseph Beuys' association with felt as a production of warmth.
What about this cool CdG felt cape. A very interesting cut and construction.
It inspired me to make this one. The fabric I used is not felt, but it has a similar look and warm property.
Three capelets I constructed out of felt.
Take these capelets and add some "chapeaugraphy"(hat writing). Make a felt ring and twist it to take on the appearance of various shapes of head gear.
I think it is sort of avant-garde 'Handmaids Tale'!
And here is lovely Lucy, kindly modelling pill box hats and handbags made with felt. Thank you Lucy.
SLTSLTBsigning off from 'Felt'
P.S.
During reflection last week (Languages Week), this was shared. There's a connection.
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