New Felting Classes at Oil and Cotton

Join us this Sunday, January 8 from 3-6pm for the first of our new felting classes with talented teacher and artist, Lizzy Wetzel. Many folks inquire about felting, not having a clear understanding of this ancient craft. Felting is a method of joining loose wool fibers to form wool felt. The resulting felt can be soft and used to make slippers or a fedora hat. Some felt is tough enough to build a yurt or a sculpture. The image above shows loose wool rovings, wool batting, and prefelt before the felting process.

Felt is made by a process called wet felting where the natural wool fibers are stimulated by friction, moisture, and alkalinity (soap). The image above shows felted wall pockets, fabric, and bottle blankets (coozies), no sewing was used to construct these objects.

In the image above Lizzy is laying out a design using prefelts. Prefelt is carded wool that has been partially felted. It comes in comes in sheets that can be cut in to shapes and patterns. Lizzy used a large sheet of prefelt as the base for our FELTED PONCHO class and smaller pieces to create a Native American inspired design. Other natural fibers like silk can be integrated into felted projects.

After the design is laid out, water and soap are added. Then it is time for friction. The felted surface is rolled back and forth inside of a mat. Some of our students decided to use their feet after their arms got tired.

Above is a completed felted poncho. This Sunday students will be introduced to the history and process of flat or wet felting. Learn about this versatile art form and use your creativity and hands (or feet) to make felted art.

Take all four of Lizzy's felting workshops this Spring, and save 10%. Use SERIES10 when you check out with all four workshops:
Jan 8 Intro to Wet Felting
Feb 5 Felted Flowers* 20% of proceeds go to Genesis Women's Shelter
Mar 4 Felted Vessel
Apr 1 Drawing with Felt

About the Instructor:
Dallas artist Lizzy Wetzel has a very strong personal iconography that draws on notions of the spiritual and supernatural from a variety of cultures. In addition to her intensely detailed sculptures and installations, she also performs what she calls “service actions,” which would traditionally be called performance art by anybody else. These service actions are inspired by her grandfather, a medical doctor who routinely made house calls on horseback.
Born in Austin, Texas, Lizzy Wetzel received her BFA from the School of Visual Art at the University of North Texas in Denton. She has shown work at Road Agent Gallery in Dallas, FotoFest Houston, the Wichita Falls Museum of Art, Art Palace in Austin, 500X Gallery in Dallas, and Salon Mijangos in San Antonio.