Wool felt and Christmas trees

Surprisingly, in the hot summer weather we’ve had in Canberra my felted scarves and wraps have attracted a lot of interest at the local markets.  People are thinking ahead to winter, I guess.  As a long time feltmaker it’s really great to see a broader acceptance of felting now – a very different situation to when I started making felt.  Most people buying my felt are familiar with the felting process, or know other feltmakers. This growing enthusiasm towards felting might be due in a large part to our very active Canberra Region Feltmakers group, set up in the mid-nineties.

My stall at the Old Bus Depot Markets

Starting to have a stall at the markets at this time of year featuring wool felt has been quite challenging.  Before the interest shown in my wearable felt, my ideas for new things to make for local Canberra weekend markets steered right away from wearable scarves and wraps.  My current summer stock includes more practical things such as hand-woven home furnishings and tableware, as well as delicate felt lattice bells for hanging on Christmas trees.  My wearable wraps and scarves are displayed at the markets more as a backdrop to my newer woven and felted homewares.

I’ve also been developing an idea to make felt Christmas trees, based on ones I exhibited many years ago for one of the Crafts for Christmas exhibitions organised by Craft ACT.  The current tree is a scaled down version more suited for display on table tops.  With an oiled timber base and post, the Christmas tree all comes apart and stores flat for storage in a box.  Finalising the design details is proving to be rather slow, hopefully I’ll have some ready for the Old Bus Depot Markets this weekend.