I’ve been reviewing the future direction of my felt work. I’ve decided to stop having so many exhibitions and sales. I will still do some exhibitions but I’d like to focus less on what people might buy and more on the things I’d like to make, irrespective of whether or not they are saleable. 

In particular, I’d like to do more complex 3D & sculptural work as I particularly enjoy it. So it was a happy coincidence that Gladys Paulus was offering an online felt sculpture course called SHAPESHIFT.  

My very first blog on this site was about a 3D seed pods workshop I took with Gladys Paulus in November 2019.  Herfe’s a link if you want to take a look.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/11/14/a-felting-adventure/

I really admire her work and found her an excellent tutor so it was a bit of a no-brainer: I signed up for SHAPESHIFT with a glad heart. 

You can find a full description of SHAPESHIFT through the link below. Essentially it is about developing your eye and aptitude for sculptural felting rather than producing a specific ‘thing’. Working from a 25cm flat circular resist, Gladys takes you through play, intuition and discovery, building confidence and a developing a sculptor’s eye.

https://onlinetutorials.gladyspaulus.com/courses/shapeshift–458f1e58-42de-4b8f-af48-722cf56fd241/salespage

The course materials are clear and thorough with extensive text and video descriptions. Gladys also gave generous, thoughtful, insightful and encouraging personal feedback, which was invaluable.

So, let me introduce my 10 sculptures. 

The materials list suggested working with light coloured wool batts.  The only light batts I have in a large quantity are Corriedale (25-29 mic) and Merino (23 mic) both from World of Wool.  I started with the Corriedale, which is quite a bright white colour. All the sculptures start off with the same flat circular resist.

1) SEEDHEAD

This was my first sculpture. It’s quite a complicated shape and took me a long time but I was happy with the result. I could do with de-hairing it (I tried a heat gun but didn’t really get on with it).

2) CONTORTION

I lost sight of the overall shape of this one and had to go back and felt it some more. Isn’t felt a wonderful material that it lets you do that! It’s my least favourite shape but I learned a lot from it, which really is the point.

3) WRAP

I called this ‘wrap’ as it feels a bit like a hug. It’s less complicated than the previous two. Although it’s not obvious from these photos, it also tips slightly which gives it a slightly fragile feel.

4) SLIPSTREAM

With ‘Slipstream’ I was specifically working on getting smooth transitions between different planes: some nice sharp edges.

5) RINGS

I may go back and re-work ‘Rings’ to exaggerate the fact that the rings aren’t parallel. At the moment it feels a bit ‘meh’, although I do like the way you can see the light though the hole.

I thought my sculptures so far were tending to look like vessels. I’ve made a lot of vessels in my time so I decided to try to move away from those shapes. At this point I also switched from using the Corriedale to the Merino batt. It’s a more cream colour, felts slightly more quickly and gives a lovely smooth finish.

6) LEAVES

With ‘Leaves’ I worked on making more concave shapes. I particularly like that it looks completely different from the top (picture 2) than from the sides.

7) PLANES

More work on refining planes and angles

8) LEAF OR SHELL?

Similar to ‘Leaves’ in that I used some of the same shapes and didn’t want the sculpture to look like a vessel. I also like this one as it looks very different from different angles

9) UPTIGHT

I think with ‘Uptight’ I pushed the limit of how many different ribs and planes I could get across the shape. It was a bit of a tussle to get it as I wanted it, though I’m happy with the result. For a long time it was a horizontal sculpture but near the end it became upright, which contributed to its name.

10) TILT

I knew ‘Tilt’ would be my last sculpture for the course and tried to go with something a little more relaxed. I like that it seems to be balancing. I thought I might make a shape like three pebbles balancing on top of each other but decided they would be too small – I may make something like this using a long oval resist.

It was good to see other participants’ sculptures – they were all so different. For me it really illustrated the enormous flexibility of the medium, and how much the shaping is entirely in our hands

I absolutely loved this course.  I learned some new techniques, which I will continue to use, but most of all I reveled in taking time, letting things develop slowly, experimenting and learning as I went along.  I have a bit of a felting gap now due to other commitments but I am already thinking about what sculptures to make next.

I’ve always enjoyed wet felting, but this course really re-awakened my excitement in making felt.  I woke up in the morning thinking about felting and couldn’t wait to create my next sculpture.  That was joyful and a great gift.  Gladys is working on a more advanced sculpting course called RESIST! Will I be signing up? What do you think?!