Free Spirit

Ein Gedi, the famous kibbutz at the Dead Sea in Israel is perfect way to relax and chill out after a hectic five day Felting Master Class presented by International Felting Teacher and my felting guru Phyllis Hoffman from Australia. www.phylstudio.com
This was organized by The Israel Designer and Craftmen's Association of Israel
www.designcrafts.org.il and their very efficient secretary Tali Talmor.

A year ago we started FELT 4U www.felt4u.etsy.com and I must say felting is really unique in that it is dynamic and an ongoing learning exeperience, something like my philosopy of Life itself.

When I was in my early thirties, I met a man who was 21 years older than me. I was in the process of a divorce with two children. He was ruggedly handsome, an artist and bohemian who had been briefly married. He was so different from anyone I had ever met before and I fell head over heals in love with him. He changed my life in many ways made me into the person I am today. He taught me to be a free spirit and that is how I think of nuno felting. www.felt4u.etsy.com
Free and floating with texture, color and simple versatile structure.

Curious Conversation

My journey some years ago en route to Curious Conversation started with the idea of creating a merino wool wet felted sculpture, possibly a hollow vessel out of which would emerge a needle felted head. I liked the idea of creation, and birth and wanted to string them together somehow. That was before we started FELT 4U
Did I know how to wet felt a sculpture? No, but I was sure keen to learn. As a student of hands on learning through books, internet and experimenting, I checked out wet felting vessels and thought it looked easy. Oh dear how wrong I was!
After five layers of black and white wool tops over a large copper milk can, that I had bought at a Flea Market in South Africa in the 1980's, I wondered how on earth I was going to wet it down as it had turned into a kind of unwieldy monster.
I read somewhere about using pantyhose when wet felting. As luck would have it, my sister had given me a bag of her old ones. I found something that looked suitable and tried in vain to cover the monster by myself. I was really panting and sweating profusely, but to no avail.
So I invited a couple of friends and together we managed to tame the monster into a flesh colored pair of used pantyhose. .
I hosed it down with soap and water and rubbed for days on end, as it gradually morphed into a
floppy lopsided grey creation with unexplainable openings.
In the meantime I needle felted a head which evolved into a Sci fi bodiless alien from all the
pricking. Certainly not the newborn's head emerging from birthing as I had envisaged.
But I was not yet finished. My floppy lopsided creation needed some weights to ground as well
as to round it, so I felted a dozen balls and put eight inside.
Aha, now we were getting somewhere, the vessel, the head, the balls and me.
To elevate it to its rightful place I put the vessel on a iron thing that I had found somewhere
(I love collecting junk, but that is another story) and put four balls to resemble a baby pram.
Finally the head completed the ensemble or so I thought. But I was wrong. Something was missing. My eyes scanned the horizon of the mess in the workroom and there I found it.
My Egyptian Cat, just waiting to have his say.

Elaine

SPRING ......
2009 is flying.
"Stop the world I want to get off". Is that a song or a movie?. I'm not sure.
What I am sure of is that spring is in the air.
I can smell it in the scented blossoms of the almond trees.
I can hear it in the soft call of early migratory birds heading homeward.
I can sense it in the vibrancy of the fashion colors now dotting the shop displays.
But mainly I feel it in the yearning to be newly creative.
Like two busy bees, FELT 4U's Elaine and Elana are rocking and rolling as we craft our latest merino wool nuno felted garments for Spring/summer 2009.

Life Lessons from Craft

You could say that I am a serial craft addict. Ceramics, candle wicking, calligraphy, paper making, painting on wood and mosaic are just a few I've tackled. The only ones that I have been truly passionate about have been mosaic and for the last year,merino wool nuno felting for our own on-line store FELT 4U http://felt4u.etsy.com/

This is where you can see and purchase our shibori dyed merino wool nuno felted scarves, wraps and hip wraps. They are all handmade by nuno felting merino wool onto hand dyed tissue silk.
I’ve often asked myself why mosaic and merino wool nuno felting have been such life enhancing experiences with none of the embarrassment and frustration that came with my attempts at other forms of craft. To be honest, my battered psyche was only saved by my mother who beamed with joy when receiving a lopsided coil pot or a birthday card with the greeting written in shaky calligraphic letters.
From the beginning of learning mosaic it all felt different. There were no stars in theclass whose work we had to measure ourselves against. No piece was ever deemed a failure and all had there own intrinsic beauty and personal signature.So too in merino wool nuno felting, every creation has originality and beauty. And unlike mosaic, its easy to just keep working and changing a piece if you don’t like the outcome.After a year, every merino wool nuno felted scarf that I make for FELT 4U still seems like a fun experiment and there are countless ways in which to evolve. Mosaic and merino wool nuno felting let you play with color and liberate us from the expected color combinations.One of my favorite mosaic pieces is a mirror in orange and turquoise. Likewise, a fuschia pink and orange merino wool nuno felted scarf brightens up my day when Iwear it. I think from craft, as in life, we learn that we have to find what suits our personalities,interests (merino wool nuno felted scarves taps into my love of fashion) and talents. Usually when you find your craft you also find that like minded people surround you and beautiful friendships are built (like with my two friends Audrey and Natalie – both professional mosaic artists) and now with my partner, Elaine who sees every item we lovingly produce “as a journey in itself.”

One other tip…doing what you love with great music in the background also helps (nothing like Mozart when you are rolling your merino wool nuno felted item for the 2000th time.)
Best wishes to you
Elana
FELT 4U