It is midnight and I just came back from the felting marathon. Will have to write the details tomorrow. But I do now posess designer quality felt hat, somewhat made by me.
OK, continuing this the next day. Somehow the entire day was filled with felting. I left home at 10 in the morning and arrived ready and willing to the felting shop. The owner was going through the inventory of the beautiful hats and other things that were brought by the designer Regina from Klaipeda. I wandered around looking at even more incredible designs. She is really talented. In time Larisa got to me and explained how to do the first felt cloth. Below is somewhat technical. Recommend to skip.
She laid out a towel and put out a little bamboo mat you would use to make sushi. On top of that she put a something like a white cheesecloth made from a former curtain, she left a half of it open to cover the design. Next she showed how to split the felt rope (all the thread pointing in the same direction) and pull out pieces and lay them out in small overlapping rows vertically and horizontally. Next she gave me some brightly colored threads (cotton, linen, synthetic, and wool) to put on top as the decor. I am still not sure how each type of thread responds to the felting process. It seems like the wool fully integrates and looks like it was painted on, while syntetic curls up. Next we covered the whole thing with the cheese cloth, sprayed with a mix of water and liquid soap (1 spoon of soap to 1L of water) and gently rubbed down with soapy hands. We checked periodically if design is sticking to the cheese cloth When the design set, I rolled the it up into the sushi mat and rolled it back and forth. Repeated for a really long time on the different sides and eventually without the cheese cloth. Finally I rubbed it with my hands to make the design mat shrink. Then I washed off the soap and laid it out flat to dry. Took about 2 hours the whole thing.
I thought it would be it as a prep for the evening class but then I accidentally asked Larisa how to make the 3-d stem of the flower. So I was in for another 2 hours. She showed how to gently roll the felt rope with soapy water while leaving the tail of it dry and intact to be integrated with the flower. Once the stem is formed, the process is similar to how the mat is made. Except a stensil has to be made so that the plant has 2 sides (or a pocket inside). It is a little weird to remember which side is outside of the flower and which side is inside. And once the felting is complete, it is necessary to cut the flower to open it up. Larisa tried to explain how to do it but I still don't not get it. Next it is necessary to stretch out the petals to make them appear more realistic.
During the time I was at the studio Regina came to the store. She is a tall, strong looking girl, looking very young for her 36. She has a tatoo on her arm, funky haircut with colors and like a true believer of the art was dressed in felt jacket and had a felt hat. Regina hanged around, keeping an eye on my work and occasionally coming over to correct me. She is clearly a natural born designer and is able to see things much differently than Larisa. She has advanced intestinal cancer and was getting a chemo earlier in the morning. I kept asking myself with a diagnosis like that what is there to keep you doing what you are doing. Regina was really upbeat, very welcoming to the customers, talking to everyone, very involved. And she smells faintly of pot, which may be a part of the answer. Another part could be that she has 4 kids, the littlest one not quite 2 years old. A bunch of ladies came during the day to buy mostly the thread. Only one customer actually bought the finished product.
After a short break at home during which I barely even got to see Georgia because she was asleep, I went back in for the class to make the hat. While another girl Laima was setting up I wandered around the store, listened to the customers and Larisa. She really took liking for me and tried to "open the eyes of the blind kitten".
There were 3 students all together. Elena, the 11 year old Belgian girl from the family of 5 chilren. Her family travels continually. She would most likely win if we were to compare the countries we had been to. She speaks English, Dutch, and French. The other student was a Russian middle school teacher called Inna. She speaks Russian, French and Lithuanian. Regina speaks Russian, English, and Lithuanian. We had fun time figuring out in which language to teach. Any way you put it, one person would be left out. So she spoke English and Russian. I spoke English with Elena and Russian with Inna, and Elena spoke with Inna in French. By the time we got around to talking about hats it was already past 8pm. More technical stuff coming up.
Regina showed us how to measure our heads' circumference and the distance from the swirly on the back of the head to the eyebrows (the height). Then we plotted the numbers on the graph paper. X axis is the width, Y for the height. Take the circumference and add one cm to account for tightness. Divide the number by 4 and plot both coordinates on the plus/minus side. Divide by 2 and add that number to the number plotted (this amounts for 50% of length lost due to the wool shrinking). From the final number subtract 2cm on both sides to account for the hats being tight (did not do it because we were not doing that design). So I had 55cm circumference. Plus 1 cm it is 56. Divided by 4 it is 14. So it was plotted on the positive and negative side. Then add 7cm on both sides, that makes it 21. So together the length would be 42. That would be for one side. For two it would be 84. Minus 33% due to shrinkage, it makes it the 56cm initially calculated. For the sides we plotted 10cm on the negative Y axis and marked -15 as the bottom point of the hat to account for shrinkage. The top was easier. Simply take the height and add 50%. We drew large arches to connect the points in the shape of a hat. Next we cut out stensils in firm plastic using those dimensions.
After that the process was the same as with the 2 things I did before. I really wanted to replicate one had that Regina made and she helped me with that. I had a really hard time visualizing the final product with the decorations from a bunch of thread. Inna was an old timer, this being her 4th class, so she expertly laid out silk pieces on the base. It was confusing to lay out multiple layers. Hopefully I will remember it when I do it at home for Georgia.
Next we felted the hats for almost 2 hours. Having a cup of tea and the conversation during the break helped. Started with the edges to make them set and moved slowly to the actual hats. And finally rubbed the hats with soapy hands to make them shrink to the right size. Regina was working on all our hats during this time to help us out. After that she put the hats on the dummy heads and shaped the final product on still wet hats. It was very exciting. Dan came to collect me at midnight while Regina was still working on it. Ladies were planning to have a drink of wine after that to call it a night.
OK, continuing this the next day. Somehow the entire day was filled with felting. I left home at 10 in the morning and arrived ready and willing to the felting shop. The owner was going through the inventory of the beautiful hats and other things that were brought by the designer Regina from Klaipeda. I wandered around looking at even more incredible designs. She is really talented. In time Larisa got to me and explained how to do the first felt cloth. Below is somewhat technical. Recommend to skip.
She laid out a towel and put out a little bamboo mat you would use to make sushi. On top of that she put a something like a white cheesecloth made from a former curtain, she left a half of it open to cover the design. Next she showed how to split the felt rope (all the thread pointing in the same direction) and pull out pieces and lay them out in small overlapping rows vertically and horizontally. Next she gave me some brightly colored threads (cotton, linen, synthetic, and wool) to put on top as the decor. I am still not sure how each type of thread responds to the felting process. It seems like the wool fully integrates and looks like it was painted on, while syntetic curls up. Next we covered the whole thing with the cheese cloth, sprayed with a mix of water and liquid soap (1 spoon of soap to 1L of water) and gently rubbed down with soapy hands. We checked periodically if design is sticking to the cheese cloth When the design set, I rolled the it up into the sushi mat and rolled it back and forth. Repeated for a really long time on the different sides and eventually without the cheese cloth. Finally I rubbed it with my hands to make the design mat shrink. Then I washed off the soap and laid it out flat to dry. Took about 2 hours the whole thing.
I thought it would be it as a prep for the evening class but then I accidentally asked Larisa how to make the 3-d stem of the flower. So I was in for another 2 hours. She showed how to gently roll the felt rope with soapy water while leaving the tail of it dry and intact to be integrated with the flower. Once the stem is formed, the process is similar to how the mat is made. Except a stensil has to be made so that the plant has 2 sides (or a pocket inside). It is a little weird to remember which side is outside of the flower and which side is inside. And once the felting is complete, it is necessary to cut the flower to open it up. Larisa tried to explain how to do it but I still don't not get it. Next it is necessary to stretch out the petals to make them appear more realistic.
During the time I was at the studio Regina came to the store. She is a tall, strong looking girl, looking very young for her 36. She has a tatoo on her arm, funky haircut with colors and like a true believer of the art was dressed in felt jacket and had a felt hat. Regina hanged around, keeping an eye on my work and occasionally coming over to correct me. She is clearly a natural born designer and is able to see things much differently than Larisa. She has advanced intestinal cancer and was getting a chemo earlier in the morning. I kept asking myself with a diagnosis like that what is there to keep you doing what you are doing. Regina was really upbeat, very welcoming to the customers, talking to everyone, very involved. And she smells faintly of pot, which may be a part of the answer. Another part could be that she has 4 kids, the littlest one not quite 2 years old. A bunch of ladies came during the day to buy mostly the thread. Only one customer actually bought the finished product.
After a short break at home during which I barely even got to see Georgia because she was asleep, I went back in for the class to make the hat. While another girl Laima was setting up I wandered around the store, listened to the customers and Larisa. She really took liking for me and tried to "open the eyes of the blind kitten".
There were 3 students all together. Elena, the 11 year old Belgian girl from the family of 5 chilren. Her family travels continually. She would most likely win if we were to compare the countries we had been to. She speaks English, Dutch, and French. The other student was a Russian middle school teacher called Inna. She speaks Russian, French and Lithuanian. Regina speaks Russian, English, and Lithuanian. We had fun time figuring out in which language to teach. Any way you put it, one person would be left out. So she spoke English and Russian. I spoke English with Elena and Russian with Inna, and Elena spoke with Inna in French. By the time we got around to talking about hats it was already past 8pm. More technical stuff coming up.
Regina showed us how to measure our heads' circumference and the distance from the swirly on the back of the head to the eyebrows (the height). Then we plotted the numbers on the graph paper. X axis is the width, Y for the height. Take the circumference and add one cm to account for tightness. Divide the number by 4 and plot both coordinates on the plus/minus side. Divide by 2 and add that number to the number plotted (this amounts for 50% of length lost due to the wool shrinking). From the final number subtract 2cm on both sides to account for the hats being tight (did not do it because we were not doing that design). So I had 55cm circumference. Plus 1 cm it is 56. Divided by 4 it is 14. So it was plotted on the positive and negative side. Then add 7cm on both sides, that makes it 21. So together the length would be 42. That would be for one side. For two it would be 84. Minus 33% due to shrinkage, it makes it the 56cm initially calculated. For the sides we plotted 10cm on the negative Y axis and marked -15 as the bottom point of the hat to account for shrinkage. The top was easier. Simply take the height and add 50%. We drew large arches to connect the points in the shape of a hat. Next we cut out stensils in firm plastic using those dimensions.
After that the process was the same as with the 2 things I did before. I really wanted to replicate one had that Regina made and she helped me with that. I had a really hard time visualizing the final product with the decorations from a bunch of thread. Inna was an old timer, this being her 4th class, so she expertly laid out silk pieces on the base. It was confusing to lay out multiple layers. Hopefully I will remember it when I do it at home for Georgia.
Next we felted the hats for almost 2 hours. Having a cup of tea and the conversation during the break helped. Started with the edges to make them set and moved slowly to the actual hats. And finally rubbed the hats with soapy hands to make them shrink to the right size. Regina was working on all our hats during this time to help us out. After that she put the hats on the dummy heads and shaped the final product on still wet hats. It was very exciting. Dan came to collect me at midnight while Regina was still working on it. Ladies were planning to have a drink of wine after that to call it a night.
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