Jennifer Searles
University of Tasmania
The felt making process is a meditative engagement of hands, fleece and water. Raw merino or alpaca fleece is layered in a hatching pattern onto bubble wrap, wet with soap and water, covered with a second layer of plastic and rolled around a cylinder of polystyrene. Rolling back and forth in short motions for some thousands of times causes the fibres to become entangled, reconfiguring the fleece into a single, concise layer.
Textile Artist and Felt Maker, June Hope, embellishes the fibre with silk or yarns, producing her signature fabric, later to be transformed into wearable items and pieces of art.