Cindy Obuck - Felt
February 02, 2010

Seeds and pods from the dirt inspire this exhibition. I have used merino wool and the wet felting technique to create abstracted vessels and wall hangings. I challenged myself to create vessels that were an abstract form of the pod, yet still somewhat representative. By carving the felt and adding beads and hand stitching this gives each of these pieces another dimension. The wall hangings were created by “painting” with the wool to create the image and then further enhanced with stitching and embellishments.

The Felting process:
Felting is the process of transforming wool into a dense cloth by bonding and shrinking the fibres together. This is done by laying out the fibres, pouring water and soap over them and then creating an agitation to cause the fibres to join together. This agitation is done by rolling the fibres in a bamboo blind or in the vessel process where the fibres are around a ball, bouncing the ball lightly. After the fibres have bonded together, the fulling process of rubbing and throwing the cloth creates a strong bond.