Felting Wool at Museo Textil de Oaxaca

Textiles and fiber arts are the primary reason I landed in Oaxaca. It started years ago when I learned to weave in San Francisco, California. Now that I am here in Mexico almost full-time, I get to take advantage of the great workshops at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca organized by education director Eric Chavez Santiago.

Yesterday was a felting workshop taught by Canadian designer and artist Jessica de Haas. She makes incredible felted clothing. Our task was to felt a piece of fabric and make a flower. I was the only one with guts enough to cut into the felt I made. The result, two flowers to adorn a hat or collar or whatever!

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Jessica studied batik in Indonesia and has won numerous awards. She is in Oaxaca for an artists residency sponsored by Foundation Archetopia. She will have a show of her work at the textile museum on April 13, 6 pm. She may even be convinced to sell some pieces!

Felting wool is an ancient process that began in Mongolia. With a slide presentation to start, Jessica showed us the yurts, clothing, and blankets for humans and animals that originated there. She then showed us examples of her stunning work. Jessica has a retail store, Funk Shui in Vancouver, BC where she sells felted clothing and shibori.

I’ll be posting more about the felt making process as soon as I can get back to my computer keyboard!

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