Earlier this year, Lucy Sparrow, a British artist, created a life-sized fish-and-chip shop made entirely from felt in a gallery in Mayfair. The endeavour involved around 65,000 individually hand-felted pieces, from menus, posters and floor tiles to bottles of sauce and individual chips in varying shades of golden brown. Sparrow, who has previously created a New York bodega and a Soho sex shop from the same material, is far from the only person who values working with felt, with its tactile softness, its modelling capacity and the nostalgia it evokes.
Felt, in fact, is one of the world’s oldest and most doggedly useful textiles. Archaeologists have found samples of it dating back to 6,500 BC and evidence of its early use has been unearthed across Turkey, Siberia, Central Asia, China and Europe. It is made by applying moisture and a little heat to wool fibres and agitating them so that, over time, they clump tightly together, microscopic scales along the fibres interlocking to create a smooth, single sheet that’s soft, dense and flexible. The resulting textile is very versatile. It can be dyed and used decoratively, it’s soft and comfortable and is an excellent insulator.
Over the centuries, it’s been put to use making everything from hats and bedding to sieves and tents. It has been a popular material for rugs for millennia. Traditionally, Kyrgyz rugs or ‘shyrdaks’ use two pieces of felt in contrasting colours to make patterns that recall geographic motifs: mountains, rivers, flora and fauna. Today, the fabric can also be made using recycled materials – wool, of course, but also other fabrics and even plastics, giving some variants environmentally sound credentials, too.
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Given all this, it should be no surprise that all sorts of makers with any number of aesthetics have found myriad uses for felt. It is used by some upholsterers (particularly the recycled, rougher kinds) instead of wadding or foam to add softness and padding.
More visible, though, are the works of artists such as Sparrow, that are meant to be displayed. Staffan Tollgard, of Tollgard Studio, is a fan of the work of another felt artist, Peter Weber – it will feature in an exhibition at the brand’s Belgravia showroom until December 18. In contrast to Sparrow’s tongue-in-cheek nostalgic maximalism, Weber’s work is minimal and refined, unusually monochrome, using large pieces of felt that are folded and/or interwoven, allowing for rhythmic interplays of light and form.
There are practical as well as artistic uses: Selina Rose makes felt screens, rugs and acoustic panels to absorb noise in bars and open-plan living spaces. Peace Industry, an American firm, uses Iranian felting techniques to create rugs, while Muskhane makes felt baskets, lampshades and charismatic floor cushions that look like they’ve tumbled out of a fairy-tale illustration. A world away from Lucy Sparrow’s fish-and-chip shop – but then, felt’s power has always been its versatility.
