Felt making is an ancient textile process. Come and learn, in one day, how to transform washed and combed sheep's fleece into beautiful, tactile, durable felt; using nothing more than soap, water and friction!

Course outline

We will start the day learning the secrets behind the felting process, why some breeds of sheep felt better and faster than others, and why felt shrinks so much.

The morning session will be spent learning and doing the "how to" of felt making; using pre-dyed combed and carded wool fibres.

We will go through making up felting soap solutions, laying out the wool, wetting out, creating pre-felts (half felt) and fulling (shrinking) the finished felt.

There will be plenty of opportunity for experimentation and we will make at least one roughly A3 sized sheet of flat felt before lunch. There will be a selection of books provided to get the creativity flowing if you get stuck for inspiration.

In the afternoon session we will build on the skills learnt earlier in the day and each make a felted bowl or vessel using a seamless three dimensional felt making technique.

Neither piece of felt will be totally dry at the end of the day, so some plastic to wrap the felt in to transport it home is advised. Also please wear comfortable, sturdy non slip shoes as you will be up on your feet and someone always spills a little bit of soapy water!

All materials will be provided at a charge of £10 per person.

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