The Conservation Centre. Felt making workshop. 8th Ocober 2009.

^ >From going to the felt workshop and making felt pieces of my own i went out and bought some actual felt (flat felt) to sew into. All of these felt pieces are for my practical work which is based on war.

In this free, 3 hour workshop i learnt how to create felt pieces with sheep's wool. The process is quite simple. You get a tray with some depth and some cream coloured wool. And then you feather the wool out every time you pull a piece and lay it down on the tray in a vertical direction. You carry on doing this until you think the wool is thick enough, once you have done this you start feathering more wool to lay it down in the opposite direction. You give the wool base a few layers, until you go onto using coloured wool for your design. You use the same feathering process to lay the coloured wool down to create your design. For me i created 2 felt pieces, one of the United States flag and one of a hand gun firing. Once your design was layed out, you pour warm water over it and rub soap over it and then agitate it by wrapping the piece in bubble wrap and massaging it, this brings the fibres of the wool closely together. Once agitated enough you take the felt piece and place it onto a bamboo mat. Once placed you roll the bamboo mat with the felt piece in it in a rigorous way. This helps shape and flatten the piece. Also if rolled you can squeeze the excess water out. Once shaped, rolled and drained the piece can then be quickly washed and drained again and then left to dry. The process of drying takes a few days. Once dried the felt piece can be left as it is or embroidered into.

I really enjoyed this workshop as i now know how to create a felt piece. I have been to the Conservation Centre in the past to go to various workshops. I enjoyed them all as i learnt for free and in a friendly, helpful environment. I will be going to more in the future.