By Mary Reichert
Karen Flatøy Svarstad’s North House workshop in February 2019, Felting Exploration: Sculptural Felting, was a look into both flat and sculptural forms of felt-making. Karin is well known for her elegantly sculpted bird forms, as well as the strength and quality of her finished felt.
Attentive workshop students
She began class with what seemed to be a straightforward task–making strong, square pieces of felt. It is no easy task making felt that is even, well fulled, and with straight edges (no cutting allowed!) Our aim with this piece was to create layers of different colors so we could then cut designs into the felt.
Student felting
One of her gifts as an instructor is her in depth understanding of how to work with different types of wool. She said if you look at the sheep and how they behave, their wool will behave quite similarly. Those who wander, jump, and play in the hills have a wandering wool (like the Old Norse Sheep), and Merino wool will stay put while felting.
This combination of wandering wool and non-wandering wool made a very dense and strong piece of felt we could cut and then reveal the colors underneath.
The sculptural portion of class focused on creating small song and shore birds. Many of the birds became a cross between a seal and a song bird as we attempted to create a strong core of leftover bits of wool which was then layered with batting into the general bird shape.
Student work–birds emerge!
Karin’s visit brought awareness to the details of making felt, as well as raising good questions about our own local economies in support of wool. Are we doing enough to help sustain the land, sheep, and farmers who make it possible to do all the spinning, weaving, sewing, knitting, and felting that we love?
One of my biggest takeaways in Karin’s class was the world of fleece is incredibly varied, and it’s well worth experimenting to discover the possibilities. The flat-felt we made was very dense, but not just from extended fulling. Karin has mastered the ability to pick and choose different types of wool to blend, depending on the project and her desired outcome. This way she can guide the strength, flexibility, and finish of the piece. She taught me that I still have much to learn about the qualities of individual fleeces and how to blend them to create just the right wool for the project.
Karen Flatøy Svarstad’s felt-sculpted birds
If you would like more information about Karin’s work, you can find Gallery Frøya and the North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference on Facebook.
The SommerAkademiet is on the web at www.sommerakademiet.com
Karin’s website: www.karinflatoysvarstad.com