The Earl and Countess of Halifax came and unveilied the felt and we had lovely speeches made by Nigel Pulling the Chief Executive of the Society and Kate Horner the Felting Tutor from Artybird Carnforth. The Day was rounded off with a lovely lunch and we all had a great time. Just have a look at these photos:

What a great day we had and what a fantastic end to the Project! Well done to everybody involved!

Look at these pictures of work in progress:

The wooden panels – although they are made of plywood are still quite heavy so it was quite a job to get them fixed to the wall. I think it was worth it though look at this finished photo - 

Doesn’t it look great – it is hard to photograph though ! – the colours are a lot more striking in reality. Perhaps we will get some good press photos from the unveiling ceremony on the 2nd Nov.

Anyway, we have considered and then subsequently discounted a number of different methods such as a rod and hooks stitched into the back of the felt (these were then discounted as over time they pull the surface of the felt and look unsightly) and a fabric sleeve on the back of the felt which is then used to feed the rod through the felt (this was also then discounted due to some people saying the stitching of the sleeve shows through and the rod leaves an impression on the front of the felt).   

Anyway, latterly we have been considering a velcro solution and yesterday I started to trial heavy duty stick on tape which would stick to the back of the felt and then the opposite piece of the velcro would then stick to the wall.

I am getting much happier now that my trial piece of felt has now been attached to a piece of plywood for 24 hours and shows no sign of peeling off the wall! This may be the solution that we need to attach these 18 pieces to the wall. Watch this space for further updates !

We chose Norwegian wool for our project due to its excellent strength, incredible luster and its ability to resist fading (important when the product will be hung long term in a sunny Reception!). Also we found in our initial search that British Wool is not available in the range of colours we required (hopefully in future years this situation may change and more British wool will be available!).

Anyway the HIFA factory were aware that I was going to visit at some point this week and they gave Lucy (my daughter and I) a fantastic welcome and also a tour of their premises. We looked at the wool as it arrives in its raw state:

and followed it’s progress through blending (incorporating different types of fibres in the blend ensuring consistency and the benefits of different types of wool in the mix), carding (where the fibres are partially straightened and separated into a fine web), spinning (producing a yarn) dyeing and final processes ready for despatch. The Mill produces approx 60% yarns and 40% wool batts and it was fascinating to see how the wool is produced. Here are some photos, firstly of the Carding process:

then of the dyeing:

and then spinning:

and then we stopped to admire the needle felted work of the staff member in the Carding area (isn’t he talented!)

What a great time we had! Here is a photo of 2 members of the family Gunnar Myhr and Arild (father and Son) who still own and run the mill:

We had a great tour and it was brilliant to see the products being produced. Here is a final photo of the Mill:

Very helpfully, Alys and Carole (2 of our intrepid felting team) have also hand delivered the pieces directly to our premises in Harrogate! Here are some photos of them loading up the car:

Alys getting ready to deliver the pieces:

and meeting Morag who looks thrilled to see the pieces:

and Carole and Alys having a rest on the Sofa in Reception and demonstrating where we will be hanging the pieces:

Carole and Alys seemed to have a great time and managed to round it off with complimentary coffee and cake in our Cafe Fodder

Many thanks to Carole and Alys for delivering their precious cargo – having these lost in the Post would have been a disaster! We now have just got to hang them up and organise our special unveiling ceremony (which looks like being the Tues 2nd Nov – more updates later).

 and then Joan and Alys rubbing on the floor:

Alys and Kathy pausing for artistic inspiration:

and then a very happy Ali and Linda (nearly finished you see!:

and Ali looking very pleased with her piece (doesn’t it look great!)

Here is a detail of one of the pieces (I think this is Kate’s):

and then Caroles piece when it had been wetted:

and then a photo of all the pieces on the line drying:

and one of the whole piece so far:

What a great but physically hard weekend! Can’t wait to see the 18 squares together ! Watch this space!

First task of the day was to ensure the felt was still wet and soapy – even after the huge amount of water and soap yesterday I still needed to re-wet and re-soap. More rubbing followed until the top fibres at the front and back were set enough to roll. At this point I was grateful to be able to roll the felt (just for a break from rubbing!). However, have you tried rolling soaking wet felt which measures well in excess of 50 inches square? The rolled package with the bamboo blind was very heavy and bulky and very prone to soaking my feet and the floor. Even picking it up to turn it round on the table was difficult. This is the scene at this point:

Poor Alison and Glynis had the mops in their hands for the entire day – mopping up after all of us. What a good job they did – we were very appreciative – you were stars!

Rolling the felt was not a very long process – we rolled 50 times turning the felt 90 degrees and then repeated this on the back – so at about 400 rolls we were then ready for the next stage (and a quick spot of lunch for sustenance!).

The next phase was kneading. Firstly we rolled the felt on itself and manually took out as much cold water as we could and heated the felt with warm water to encourage the felting and shrinkage.

 We then kneaded across the sausage to shrink the felt in that direction. We then reheated and re-rolled in the opposite direction to ensure the shrinkage was even.

This was the point at which the felt started to become noticeably smaller and firmer (and also started to fit on the table!).

The next process was to throw the felt to harden it up and encourage the colous at the back to migrate to the front and vice versa (I was not looking forward to this stage as the weather was now atrocious – windy and rainy and could only be really done outside). However, we already had some speedy people who had finished (Linda – well done!) and so the end seemed to be in sight!

The objective of the throwing phase was to reduce the size of the felt to 41 inches across. Some people had noticed a huge reduction in size after 20 throws – I started by feeling 

a little bit optimistic.

However, despite 20 throws I was still at 43.5 inches. I did another 20 throws  and came inside to re-measure (it was now almost impossible to keep everything on the ground outside due to the wind.

Unfortunately my felt had only shrunk by an inch across and was even bigger on the vertical measurement. I placed it in the sink with very warm water.

Carole tool pity on me and offered to throw again for me. Look at these action shots - isn’t she a great thrower?

Carole had a great throwing action – but even she had to throw for another 80 times before this stubborn piece of felt started to shrink. 

I came back in and laid the felt on the table and after flattening with a felters rolling pin, I found it was still not small enough. Alison took the felt downstairs again and threw for another 20 throws. Again after measuring I was still not getting the required measurement of 41 inches (even by cheating with the tape measure!).

I resorted to more hot water soaking and kneading which finally did the trick.

The felt was then rinsed and rolled and there was still 30 mins of the day left!. The result:

 There was just just enough time and energy to collate the felts produced today (14 in all) and get a joint picture:

And an even bigger picture of 9 panels:

and finally 14 panels and the tired but happy group!

Here are some individual shots so you can get a feel for the individual pieces:

I am sure you agree that they are all beautiful pieces of work in their own right and as a collective they are simply stunning!

1 piece of felt is due to be made shortly and 3 are outstanding due to illness and absence. Kate, Pam and I have agreed to go to these outstanding 3 pieces. I have enrolled on a Army style fitness course to summon up the energy to do this all again - further installments to be added as and when these are available!

If anyone has any more photos please send them to me and I will add these to the blog - sorry for any omissions!

We started the weekend by laying out the wool for the back ground. To ensure continuity across the piece everyones background colours were from a limited palette. The colours looked very exciting!

I started by laying out the yellow for the fields, the blue for under the road, the purple under the tree and small pieces of green in the 2 left hand corners (not really visible on this photo):

The tricky part at this stage was knowing how thick the batt should be as the background. Initially I had the background much thicker than this and I reduced it to make it far more wispy (and in theory easier to felt! not really sure this happened in reality but that’s a different story!…).

Various parts of the foreground were then added such as the lower fields on the left and right :

and the upper fields with the distinctive furrows:  

 and then the detail in the fields:

and then finally the road and finalising the field detail  :

Doesn’t it look great at this fluffy stage?

After this stage we wetted the pile of fluff with soap and water and then began 5 hours (yes 5 hours !!) of carefully rubbing the image back and front to set the detail. 5 hours is a long time to rub and I used two 250 ml bottles of liquid soap to force the felt to stay wet.

A low point in this process was when the felt was flipped to the reverse side (a 2 man job most definitely!). During the flip the felt stretched and then no longer fitted on the table which made it quite difficult to rub the whole piece without continually adjusting and hence making more wrinkles in areas which you had already flattened.  Luckily my friend Pam had a super idea (rub one  quarter from the edge to the middle on the table and then work each quarter systematically until you have done the whole). This proved to be a good suggestion and the 5 hours almost passed in the blink of an eye!

Day 1 was now effectively over and day two the dreaded rolling and throwing yet to begin!

This is the result after day 1 seen through the bubblewrap: