B. Felt: Exquisitely Crafted Wool Felt Fashions

How To Fix Short Shawls While Celebrating My Birthday

2010-07-26T19:23:13Z

Hello all!

I missed last week but I'm glad to be back and able to show you more new work. My birthday was this past Sunday and my husband and I went out to the beach. Afterward, we had a wonderful lobster dinner. As if that weren't enough, today my assistants surprised me with flowers and a cake!

However it was not all good news. I looked ober two of the shawls that I had made recently and realized they were too short! I like my shawls to be about 8 ft in length because that way they can drape and wrap around the body.

This small catastrophe was not the end of the world though. My son Ian and I stretched them by hand and then pinned them to the wall as tightly as possible. If this happens to you, you may not have access to an 8 ft wall that you're willing to put holes in. The next best way to do it is to build a simple frame for the shawl, even just two saw horses with blocks of wood attached to pin the shawl on will do.

Despite their short length, the shawls did come out stunning. Here are some photos to help you get through the hot days of summer:

Now these scarves look beautiful and are ready for my shows in September and October. Hope this information helps with your own felt catastrophes.

Happy Felting.

The Felt Jacket has Evolved into an Ensemble

2010-07-05T18:35:09Z

Hello Felt Aficionados,

Last week, I introduced a new felt jacket that I've been working on. Well, now the jacket has evolved to become an ensemble that includes a hat, gloves, and, soon, a handbag. These photos show my beautiful assistant Monika wearing the beautiful ensemble. I'm trying to get photos of all my assistants wearing my creations. so that I can show you how full and active my atelier is.

I'm working on two new felt vests today. I'll get to show off later in the blog once my assistants and I have rolled them out and finished them.

Happy Felting!

New Felt Coat: Animal Tracks

2010-06-28T16:14:23Z

I have been working on a new coat that I am overjoyed to show you. The coat is from my earth series, and is entitled "Animal Tracks". The coat is lined on the inside with a leopard skin pattern. On the outside, the combination of blue, yellow and brown brings to mind the ground of the forest after the rain, with sun reflecting off the tiny puddles of tracks.

Here it is modeled by wonderful assistant Octavia. Though she is a size 6, the coat looks great on a size 12 as well.

This coat was made as part of my preparation for my Worcester Art Museum course "Felted Garment Workshop". This coat was meant to end at the hips, but I am still learning how much the wool will shrink. No matter what, it looks great and makes me excited for the upcoming class.

Happy Felting

Barbara Poole

More hats, and an automaton

2010-06-21T15:53:56Z

Hello all,

I've got another hat to show you, this one modeled by my assistant Monika. I'm slowly developing my little studio into a little atelier.

I'm also starting a new project of creating a small automata called battina. An automata is a kinetic sculpture, like a jack-in-the-box. I took the idea from a doll manufacturer, and you can look at the original idea at this website. I've created a small head for the creature and am going to work on creating the wings this week.

I'm planning on doing more of the mixing of felt sculpture and mechanical elements, for my next Bromfield show in March of 2011, tentatively titled "Invasive Species". I want the sculptures to seem alive, but they will all move by different simple mechanisms. I'm really excited for this and will be documenting the progress on this blog.

Today, I'm busy making a jacket for my new class at Worcester Art Museum, a felt garment workshop. I'm very excited for getting to teach this new class.

Next time, I'll have some pictures of the jacket, and an exclusive explanation of how to lay out your pattern to create you jacket.

Hope everyone is well, and Happy Felting.

New hat, handbags, and flowers

2010-06-10T19:11:27Z

Hello Felters!

I've got some new stuff that I've been doing with felt, including refining my flower technique. These flowers are created similar to how I would create a hat, except that it is concentric rings connected by leaving a small hole in the center of the plastics that I use.

I took some pictures of my new hat and handbag, and I'll be ramping up production of both of these in anticipation for my upcoming craft shows. Both the handbag, and hat also have a flower attached to them.

Thanks for visiting and as always, Happy Felting.

Assemblage Scarves

2010-05-31T18:50:24Z

It's been a little while since I've written here, but I do have a lot of new items to show.

One of the things that I've focusing on is creating nuno felt Assemblage Scarves. These scarves start out with a sheet of prefelt and then lay out pieces of silk on top of the prefelt. Here is an image of the scarves before I'd wet them and rolled them:

Two of these scarves were also laid out with a piece of silk fringe on one side. This gives the scarf a more ruffled look than the other two. The silk will be tightly connected by the layers of wool that sandwich it to the prefelt below.

The scarves lose some of the texture that the loose wool gives but in return gains greater definition to the colors and blend as well. I love some of the surprise that you will get from what the wool does as it travels through the wool

Hopefully all of you are doing well. Sorry to be short, but I'll have more info for you shortly.

Happy Felting

Nuno Felt Dress Inspired by Water

2010-04-20T16:36:58Z

Isn't Rachel fetching in my latest nuno felt dress in my series of garments inspired by "The Elements". The first dress I titled "Earth" and that dress gave me fits. I thought I had measured correctly, but I did not take into account the shrinkage of the fabric, which was rayon. Plus I let the dress dry without blocking or placing a form inside. I saved the dress, rather successfully I think, by slicing the back up and turning the back into a corset style back. So, I put those lessons learned into my next dress.

I started with the idea of water and waves gently lapping the shore. I wanted the dress to be fluttery and express the colors of the ocean. I chose silk chiffon, and silk organza in shades of deep ocean blue, sparkling island turquoise, storm gray with touches of white. I designed the dress with a gored skirt, the gore is in the front and back with a dropped waist. I then added v-neck front and v-neck back which means I did not have to deal with buttons, zippers or fastners. Rachel just steps into the dress.

The dress fits Rachel pefectly. I achieved this by using a duct tape dummy to dry the dress on. If you ever have to make something fit perfectly start with a duct tape dummy. I learned how to make a duct tape dummie by following these instructions.

This dress "Water" and the other dress "Earth" are going to be in the 2nd annual Wearable Art Show st the Bead + Fiber Gallery in Boston Ma. I organized this show and it takes place during the SOWA artwalk, May 15 & May 16 at 2pm. If you are in the area please come, and pray for nice weather as the event takes place outdoors.

Happy Felting

Interview With Glenn Williams on Necklace

2010-04-02T11:55:45Z

Hello again.

I wanted to show you the last of the videos from my interview with Glenn Williams. This video focuses on one of my favorite necklaces. Here is a close up picture so you can see it well:

As you can see, the necklace is 3-d, with solid felt balls, protuberances. Everything is hand beaded. The necklace is actually extremely light despite it's size. Here is the video and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

The inspiration for this very organically shaped necklace came from the book, "Seeds; Time Capsules of Life" 2nd edition by Rob Kesseler & Wolfgang Stuppy. This book contains the most astounding microscopic photographs of seeds. One look and all I can see are felt shapes. Every time I turn I page I am left breathless.

Oh, and did I mention color. Well let me say, whenever a student asks me if a color goes with another color, my answer is always look at nature. The most unique juxtapositions of color can be found in nature and this book is a testament to that fact. I will be dipping into the pages of this book for inspiration for a long time to come.

I've got to get going to my studio. I'm making new spring wearables, and am excited to show them off to you.

Till then, Happy Felting!

Interview With Glenn Williams on Nuno Felt Shawls

2010-03-27T13:30:30Z

I want to share with you some clips from the interview I did with Glenn Williams on the Boston Neighborhood Network show: "It's All About Arts".

This video highlights my model, Rachel Worrell wearing the blue circular shawl, which I showed the making of in a previous post, and an iridescent blue shawl. I don't work with blue often, as its a color that I excites me. I am trying to overcome my blue aversion. I think these pieces are stunning and fun. Rachel looks especially beautiful in blue. Fortunately the video features the camera work captures the details of the iridescent shawl.

It was so much fun to do the interview and I had a lot of help. A big thank you to Rachel Worrell, model and friend, Michelle Poor, our make up artist, everybody at BNN, and my husband Chip, who attempted to solve an insolvable technical problem and did it with charm. I couldn't have done this without their help. Yea team!

As I mentioned in the interview, I am going to leap into dye. Well this weekend, I did, in a very intense introduction to dye at Pro Chemical & Dye. I did it all with the help of a marvelous teacher, Vicki Jensen. My head is still spinning from all of the information. I am not exactly sure what I will be dye, probably wool or silk, but I do know that it is in my future. Later this year, I'm going to take another class on dyeing and felting, a master class, this time, called The Depth and Breadth of Color Design in Feltmaking. This class will be with the amazing artist, Jorie Johnson, and will also be held at Pro Chemical & Dye. This is a five day workshop and promises to be very exciting, to quote the catalog: "This class will encourage, even the most timid of dyers/felters to enjoy the ease in overlapping skills in both the fields of feltmaking and dyeing."

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this video as much as I did making it. Next week, there'll be another video about the interview, this time featuring a necklace that I've done. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the studio to work on a new dress inspired by Edith Wharton's home The Mount. I will write more about this project, because it's very exciting new venture for me, and it ties in to the efforts of Rachel Worrell and others to help preserve her home and legacy.

Happy Felting.

Making A Nuno Felt Blue Circular Shawl

2010-03-24T14:05:28Z

Hello, everyone! I've just returned from is New York City,where I bought new silks for my new line of spring scarves and shawls. In the next few weeks I'll have some updates on my unique spring felt fashion creations!

I have been a busy felt maker and marketing maven lately. Recently, I was featured on the Boston Neighborhood Network's program "It's All Abouts Arts" hosted by Glen Williams and Suzanne Schultz. "It's All About Arts" has been on public television for thirteen years and is a respected source of information about the arts in Boston. Over the next week I'll post more clips from the video interview.

Today, however, I wanted to highlight something that ended up on the cutting room floor. My son and I made this video about making a blue circular shawl which I did not use in my video taped interview. A circular shawl is made from circle pattern, so it has no sleeves and is more like a vest with a wide collar that drapes over your shoulders. It is the perfect lightweight covering for summer and spring, especially in summer, when restaurants will last that air conditioning.

I took the circle pattern from the December issue of Threads Magazine. My inspiration for the patterns of the wool was water. For this project I used beautiful hand panted silk chiffon from Gorgeous Fabrics. The silk I used was very special because it had just a touch of glitter in it. In the video, you'll see how I lay out the wool, and how I create the patterns that end up on the finished product.

I hope you enjoyed this and there will soon be other videos that I'll be putting up over the next week. You can find all of my videos hosted on youtube. Happy Felting!

Felt Making On TV With Barbara Poole, March 8th On Channel 9 At 6:00PM

2010-02-28T19:42:13Z

Hey, I am going to be on TV talking about felt making on March 8th 2010! If you are interested in the magic of working with wool to make felt, please tune in. The show is called "It's All About Arts" It is a one hour live interview style (BBN TV Channel 9) show dedicated to promoting and educating in the world of art. The show airs in Boston on Channel 9 from 6:00PM to 7:00 PM each Monday. It should be a lot of fun. You are welcome to call into the show as well and ask questions.

For the show, I have prepared a video demonstration on how to make felt. Rachel Worrall, my famously beautiful model, will be wearing some of my newest creations. I have posted some pictures on my site of the nuno felt dress "Earth", but now you can see the clothes worn live!

The hosts of "Its All About Arts" are Glenn Williams and Suzanne Shultz. This popular show is in its thirteenth season, so it is a real Boston institution.

Busy Felting, Busy Teaching Felting

2010-02-09T02:58:27Z

I had the privilege of teaching five wonderful women. They call themselves the YaYas. They have been friends for over 20 years. They came together to celebrate a special birthday for one of their own, Gayle. Imagine, a whole weekend with your best buds. This, however is not a picture of Gail, but a picture of Suzanne, the organizer of this wonderful event. The event started with a Nuno Felt Scarf class taught by me at Bead + Fiber Gallery. We started at 11 am and everyone worked like mad till 2:30 when the scarves were finished .

What I love best about teaching these classes is the camaraderie that comes about while doing the work. With this class these feelings were amplified ten fold. The energy, caring and love that was in that room left me high the rest of the day.

When they were all finished I snapped this photo for my wet scarf club.Happy Birthday Gail, Gail is the women on the right side of the picture.

Felted Pulse Warmers aka Fingerless Gloves

2010-02-04T01:44:08Z

I love experimenting with new designs and materials, I just like to see if I can do it. These felted fingerless gloves are a perfect example. I wanted to try to create fingerless gloves that paid homage to Karl Lagerfelds' fall collection. In his fall show many of his models wore fingerless gloves in black with a touch of lace or ruffles. Mine are Merino wool with silk, tencel and lace inclusions. I love these fingerless gloves. They have both a feminine feel and a very tough urban feel.They were so much fun to make that I made three more pairs all different.

The green ones are made with Merino wool from my boutique, Algae and Yellow Curry . I also added wool eyelash yarn as an inclusion.These green pulse warmers have turned up cuffs and the opening around the fingers is turned and stitched down. I think they have a very collegial feel. I then decided to experiment with silk velvet. Which resulted in the purple Nuno felt pulse warmers, below..

I used cut silk velvet, Merino wool in Pansy from my boutique. I finished the gloves by hand stitching velvet ribbon around the cuffs and the finger openings. The palms have a vine pre-felt design with hand embroidery emphasizing the design. I can't seem to get a good picture of the palms the color difference between the pre-felt and the wool is very close.
I think these have an Edwardian feel. Purple and velvet, I can just see the women wearing this stepping out of a horse drawn carriage in the 18th century.

In the last pair I finished, I wanted to create something a little bit wild. I really don't know how to describe them. They are a blend of all Merino wool from my boutique, Algae, Deep Water, Dirty Martini, and Hot Tamale. I know they have a reptilian feel but, they are a lot of fun to wear. You will definitely be noticed when you wear these felted pulse warmers.

All of these felted pulse warmers are for sale in my boutique.

SO why do I call these fingerless gloves pulse warmers. Well, there is always a gap between the end of the glove and the sleeve of your coat. In our cold New England weather, wind rushes up my sleeves and chills my wrists. When I set out to design these gloves I wanted to make them long enough to cover my wrists to prevent a cold pulse, hence pulse warmers.

Felt Scarves for the Scarf Challenged

2010-02-02T15:32:46Z

It is still bitter cold here in Boston. I know what you are thinking it is winter, get over it, but the harsh winter days just keeping coming on, with spring a distant memory. By now, If you are like me, you are bored, Bored, BORED with your winter clothes. The quickest way to change a look is to accessorize. A new warm bright scarf is just what I needed to banish the gray all around me.

I have made many scarves, Nuno and felt, but I wanted to try something a little different. When I am selling my scarves, I am frequently asked, " How do I wear it?" The question always throws me off kilter, I thought it was intuitive, I couldn't have been more wrong. That was my challenge, to come up with a scarf, that didn't need directions.

Here are the things that people found challenging about wearing a scarf; "what do I do with the excess?", How do I keep the ends from trailing on the ground?", How do I tie it around my neck to stay?" All the questions are design problems and I added my own problem, the scarf would have to be, feminine, light and block the wind around my ears and be versatile.

The three scarves in the video are the result of this challenge. They are all 36" - 40" in length, no more dragging on the ground, and no more excess. They all have a slit near one end of the scarf through which you pull the tails from the other end ,Voila, no more wondering how to tie the scarf.

I created the scarves by using the resist method and by exploiting the felting process. Each felt scarf is double ruffled, the ruffles were created by placing a resist ( a piece of thin plastic) between the layers of each ruffle. Then, because of nature of felt is to contract more (shrink) when it is thicker than when it is thinner, I laid out the center of the scarf with three layers of woo roving, but the ruffles are only two layers of wool roving. This is what causes the ruffles, the center line, three layers thick, contracts, more than the ruffles, the outer edges. I also made each side of the scarf in contrasting colors, making them reversible and because of the sculptural quality of the felt, the ruffles can be made to stand up around my ears, keeping them nice and toasty. I am planning on retailing these fun flirty, felt scarves in my boutique.

Here is one of my favorite fashion quotes that inspires me in my creative process.

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary" Cecil Beaton, English Photograph and Fashion Designer 1904-1980

A Perfect Day for Felt and Web Surfing

2010-01-29T19:26:03Z

Felt is one of oldest non-woven textiles. It is incredibly durable. It can be light weight and gossamer or as thick as saddle leather. It is 20 degrees fahrenheit in Boston today and as I sit in the store Bead + Fiber and watch the people scurry to their next warm destination, I think, they would be so much more comfortable if they were bundled up in felt. Among my many jobs to survive as an artist, I am the curator for a very unique gallery in Boston, MA, Bead + Fiber.

It is unique in that it sells the materials for bead and fiber artists, conducts classes and workshops in bead and fiber techniques and about every six weeks I change the windows and the gallery space with a new show. Presently, the show I have up now, "Handle With Care' is a group show of artists who use the handbags as as a means of expression,

The owner of the gallery and a bead artist, Andrea Garr is off visiting her girls in Colorado and then off to Tuscon for the biggest, baddest bead show in the US. SO I am gallery sitting for her today, and since it is so bloody freezing here in Boston, no one is coming into the store, I have decided to spend the day surfing the web looking for felt artists.

This image on the left is not an anthropological find. It is the phenomenal art of Stephanie Metz. Her art is an example of what a humble craft, can become in the hands of an artist. Stephanie creates her sculptures, by needle felting, yes, just one poke at a time, this sculpture is from "The Teddy Natural History" series . Her work is elegant, well executed and frightening. Her work makes me question the innocence of toys, evolutionary science, genetic engineering and parenthood. I love going back to her site repeatedly to see what has evolved out of her very fertile imagination.

On the right is " Super Suckler" from the series "Overbred Animals" . This series addresses genetic engineering for our betterment, bigger chicken breasts, more milk and the unintended consequences of these quests.

Her latest work is titled " Pelts " in her statement, she talks about the overwhelming feelings of becoming a parent and the all encompassing instinctual urges we all have to protect and care for our young. She goes on to say that after you strip away all our fancy gadgets, abilities, we are just mammals and the thing that all mammals have is hair. This image is titled "Pink Checkered Dress" it is felted wool over a found childs' dress. Stephanie lives in San Francisco. I hope to somday meet her and see her work in person, to let her know how deeply her work has affected me.