See Day 1 and Day 2, if you haven't already.

Today I’ll finish the details and really work it hard to shrink it down to size. That involves more rubbing with more soap and hot water, with my hands and with hand tools. Whatever area I focus on, that area will shrink more in comparison with others. That’s how I shape the garment. Right now, I am finishing the cut edges and a cut buttonhole, and am reducing the shoulders, which I want to be the most dense and strong for the best wearability. 

 I have the piece in a big developing tray to keep the heat and soap localized around the area. In the first photo, I am hand-rubbing, and in the second photo, I am using a  manual sander with ribbed shelf liner attached instead of sandpaper - a simple felting tool. 

The most effective finishing technique is also my favorite - whacking. I soak the piece in hot soapy water again and squeeze out most of the excess water, then I fling it onto the table with a big whack! over and over again. I think of it as goosing the fibers - they go Yikes! and hurry to snug up against each other. I get out a lot of aggression at this stage. 

(I just discovered the “Movie” feature on my cheap digital camera. It isn’t great, but you get the idea... the music is from the tv in the background.) 

This part of the process is called “fulling,” making the fabric hard and dense for use. The felt-making cultures of the Mongolian steppes roll up the partially finished felt for their yurts in a big roll and trail it behind their horse, letting it bump along as they ride across the plain. The fulling process was also used with woven cloth to make it dense and weather proof. In Scotland, the tartan wools were fulled by the village women with collected urine and they’d gather and sing “waulking” songs as they slap the urine-soaked cloth on the table and work the wool. Anyone named Walker or Fuller had an ancestor who worked in the wool trade. 

But why do people become craftsmen these days? Why make something slowly by hand that is cheaply and quickly made by machine and distributed widely? A craftperson’s biggest competitor, in the end, is WalMart. I can’t afford to make a handmade item at the same daily rate as a factory worker in China or Indonesia. If you just need a warm jacket, at the cheapest price you can find, WalMart or Target can fill that bill. Who buys a garment that will last a lifetime in this disposable culture? Why do we even struggle to keep these skills alive when so few understand or appreciate the process anymore, when the economy is telling us that making and selling “things” is not going to pay in the foreseeable future? 

My only answer is that I am compelled to create, and always have been. I’m also compelled to design and invent functional things, as I try to reinvent my environment.  I also crave the connection to the environment, and to the past. Felting is tens of thousands of years old, pre-dating twisted fibers, weaving and knitting. Felting was likely discovered by cavepeople who gathered wool to sleep on and discovered it had compressed and transformed into felt by the heat and sweat of their bodies. Felt is still being made daily to make yurts in Mongolia and clothing in Sweden; the Turkish army wore felt boots as late as 1950. But felting is still largely unknown in this country. 

 The finished piece is laid out on the original plastic pattern to show how it has shrunk during the process. It will shrink a little more while drying. 

 This jacket will cost around $350, which works out to about $14 an hour, though actually after I back out materials, overhead and the cost of sales, it’s more like $10 per hour.  If I sold it through a gallery or shop, I would be getting half that. But this is what I love to do. 

 pruney fingers are the main occupational hazard of felting. 

Most craftspeople make their living by teaching their crafts, and the sale of their work comprises only a small portion of their income. And, this keeps the knowledge alive, by sharing the techniques and appreciation for the craft. 

 So, the piece is done. It’ still slightly wet, and a little big for me. I've got a little more whacking and spot-rubbing to do, but you get the idea - a nice warm stadium coat. I still have to sew on buttons and press it with the steam iron. I will also fluff up the mohair to give it a three-dimensional effect of having a scarf around the neckline.

Thanks for spending these three days with me. I’ve got one more piece to do before next Tuesday!