Students have been learning a very traditional textile skill this term - feltmaking. Felt is actually the oldest fabric known to man with felted artefacts dating back to 600BC! During feltmaking, wool fibres are agitated with heat, water and soap causing them to mat together to form a dense fibre. Anyone who has shrunk their best wool jumper in the washing machine has effectively made felt! None of the students had seen real felt before, only the synthetic squares often used for craft which are a poor imitation of the real thing. It's a very hands on process - energetic and very clean since we use lots of soap. The students have moved quickly from making simple flat felt:
to making more advanced 3-D pod shapes, using their drawings as inspiration:
