Bridging Cultures Through Design: Class Day 3 - Felting

Needle felting! Needle felting is a dry felting technique that uses special felting needles to create a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woolen fibers.

Examples that the day's instructor, Kate, brought into class:



My classmate Jessie's needle felted eyeballs:
My needle felted rose. And notice the light grey-colored hair in the center? That's Bunny's hair ... I needle felted that too!

I've been wanting to learn how to make hats ... particularly, mini hats (for me, not my dog). So my instructor Mimi taught me how to make a hat using a wet felting technique.

Cover ball with 3 layers of clean fleece. Then cover with the tops of control-top pantyhose. Wet in hot soapy water, and then bounce the ball about 300 times. This is what it looks like after the bouncing:

Shape the hat by continuing to massage the fleece in warm soapy water, focusing on areas that you want a tighter felt and in turn a smaller fit:
Mini hat!:

Bridging Cultures Through Design: Class Day 2

Spinning and felting!

I walked into a classroom with fleece from 3 different sheep - oh what a sight. We learned to clean the fleece and get it ready to be spun. We learned to spin the fleece both on the spinning wheel and on a drop spindle. And we learned to felt too!

I almost cried at this site .... so beautiful:




**NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!
I've been saving my dog's hair for months for the right moment to use it in my artwork. And today I spun Bunny's hair using the drop spindle. And it worked! It actually felt pretty silky and soft. I guess beware if you receive a knitted present from me (and definitely don't get it wet!).

Spun dog hair:

xoxox Annie

Bridging Cultures Through Design: Guatemala

Up until about 3 years ago, I never liked the idea of traveling. I mean, I had traveled a lot ... but the concept didn't always sound that fun to me. I felt like I would miss something by leaving whichever city I was living in. So ridiculous, I know. But that's the truth.

Fast forward a couple of years ... and without a blink of an eye ... I found that everything was lining up to be a part of a design class in Guatemala. I mean, the the trip was practically planned for me. I didn't have to do much work. It just happened.

This trip is a dream for me. The vastness to the truth of that statement can not even be described in words ... dramatic interpretation ... or even a short skit.

The name of the course is "Bridging Cultures Through Design." The name of the course just makes me want to cry. There are 7 students, including me, an accomplished professor who works with 3rd world countries, and an assistant to her. We're all going to work with artisans in Antigua .... they'll teach us, and we'll teach them. Among the things I'm going to learn while there ... weaving, spinning, natural dyeing, felting, embroidery ... oh my.

There have been a lot of natural disasters recently in Guatemala - and it's ever-important that our class still go on our trip. The artisans get paid for teaching us these things - and this $$ is especially important to them right now.

This week, our class is in San Francisco together, designing rugs that we will be executing in Guatemala ... learning to felt and spin ... and doing research.

On Sunday July 4th, I leave for a total of 3 weeks - 2 weeks doing work with the artisans, and a week on my own doing God-knows-what.

I'll be blogging about my experience the whole time. I hope you enjoy! <3