In early January this year, I had the pleasure of participating in the Albany Summer School’s 3-day Nuno-Felting Hats and Bags workshop with the incredibly talented artist and lifelong felter Martien van Zuilen.
Amy and I booked in for this course several months ago as soon as we saw it advertised - we have both been fascinated by felting for a long while, particularly since we both started adopting pet sheep needing a home two years ago. While our sheep are all pets that have won the lotto of a life of relaxing, eating grass and receiving pats, we soon realised that with sheep comes the inevitable by-product of wool. And so we begun looking for a way to utilise this in craft.
Attendance at Summer School was a unique experience for Amy and I this year. For me being about 22 weeks pregnant I was just beginning to feel some of the difficulties of standing and sitting for long periods of time, which took its toll over the course of three full days of learning felting. For Amy, this was her first time away from her three month old bub Ray, which she managed with the help of her sister Zoe and Mum, Sue, who babysat just down the road, conveniently located for regular feeds (for baby Ray and for us - Sue made us some wonderful lunches!)
Nuno-felting refers to the process of making felt by combining a loose weave fabric with wool fiber. This is a favoured technique for Martien van Zuilen, who has refined and developed this process over the years. Her nuno-felting works generally use loose weave silk or cotton as the joining fabric with a high quality merino wool. Over the course of three days, we learnt how to apply this technique to hat and bag making, with Amy and I both finishing a hat and bag each during this time.
On reflection of what we enjoyed most about learning this new craft, we both agreed that one of the joys of felting is that it is a craft that feels achievable with the changing seasons of our lives. With both of us entering motherhood, the gentleness of felting is incredibly appealing. Many of the crafts that we have been previously drawn to have some challenges as we enter motherhood. It’s not as easy to tend to your baby when your hands are covered in clay, lead lighting is particularly harmful to children and unborn babies and the sharp tools involved in woodworking do not lend well to having small children around.
Felting however, is gentle, soft, natural and open to disruptions. It is a craft where you can easily finish within a day and can complete it alongside little ones. As Amy mentioned to me, it is also really lovely to connect to a craft long associated with femininity and to appreciate the feminine elements of it. We have both since completed felting at home and have found that it transitions well to where our day-to-day lives are at this monumentally changing time. For us, felting feels like a craft that we can continue with these changing seasons of life.
Thank you for reading,
With love and gratitude.
Kaysanne x
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