Every so often I come across something that puts the Textile Art bit of my brain into overdrive. I first saw Haulwen Crafts’ wool batts at Llandovery Sheep Festival last year. Chris has a real gift for colour mixing which is a marvellous aid to colour numpties like me!
Last week I met Chris at Llandovery Station Cafe (great coffee and lovely fire crackling in the grate) and bought her entire supply of wool batts.
These soft, muted hues are perfect for the Welsh landscapes I portray in my Textile Art. I asked Chris to give me the colours of nature rather then anything bright and artificial. my intention was to felt the batts but Chris gave me a quick lesson on using a Mayan Spindle which is a lot more user friendly than a drop spindle. I’m pretty sure I’ll be spinning some threads for embroidery, freeform knitting and weaving too as a result.
A wool batt, incidentally, is unspun wool fibres. Chris at Haulwen Crafts uses a mixture of fibre sources but you can get wool, silk, cotton or artificial fibres.
When I use these batts to create Textile Art for the Coblynnau project at Bryngarw Country Park, I’ll probably felt twigs, seeds and dried leaves into the surface. I’lll handle the texture and leave the colours to experts like Chris.