Felt United Day

Yesterday was the second annual international FeltUnited Day.  In my day dreams I'm preparing a great interactive community  project.  In my real life, I displayed a variety of feltwork and demonstrated feltmaking on the lawn of Frittelli & Lockwood's Textile Studio as part of Saratoga Springs, NY's Beekman Street Arts District celebration of American Craft Week. 

Typically, I arrived to set up missing the sides of my tent, so the breezes were my enemy.  I was trying to make very fine nuno.  As any felter knows, the slightest breeze will set fine fibers aloft.  In frustration, I switched to felting mice (cat toys) easily shaped in my hand where the fibers could be contained.  I quickly decided that it was too lame to make mice on such a special day.  In defiance I decided I NEEDED TO MAKE NUNO and the wind would not beat me!  I started laying out merino and silk fibers a few inches at a time, patting down and dribbling water on the layout to hold the fibers, rolling up as I went along.  Visitors asked if that was glue I was putting down.  They said they just couldn't wrap their heads around the process.  After I explained in detail, they were usually in awe of the possibilities.  (Me too).  By the end of the afternoon I had  finished my layout, but didn't get to the rolling stage.  I was curious how long it would take my fibers to migrate through the fabric in the cold, but not curious enough to stay late. 

 I was eager to warm myself up.  We finished with dinner at the pub across the street.  The day was long and cold, but satisfying.  I feel like an under achiever in the scope of all the FeltUnited activities going on around the globe, but at least I did contribute to our universal goal- to raise the awareness of felt as a craft and an art form.
Hats off  to Elis Vermeulen and Cynthia Reynolds for their contributions of time and energy to make this global event cohesive.  It is a wonderful thing to feel united.