YORKTON - The artform ‘felting’ continues to see interest in Yorkton.
Last October learning the basics of needle felting proved a popular Culture Days Yorkton event with close to 20 participants taking part in an evening program.
This week another evening to learn the basics of the artform was held at the Godfrey Dean Cultural Centre with a full house on-hand.
So why the level of interest?
“I think there was a resurgence after COVID,” offered program instructor Angelina Kardynal Thursday.
Kardynal suggested after being rather housebound through the pandemic people have generally emerged wanting to get back to being active.
“Now they’re looking for things to do,” she said.
In the case of felting it is a natural fibre medium which is quite easy to work with.
“It’s a different medium that is very easy to work with,” said Kardynal.
At the October program instructor Angelina Kardynal said needle felting for art uses raw wool – wool that has not be spun into yarn -- as the medium.
The natural wool is dyed to provide artists with a palette of colours to work with.
Since the art is basically created by layering the wool fibres, Kardynal said if the artist makes a mistake, or wish to change something they can just pull off the last wool applied.
“You just pull it off, and start again. That’s really why I like it,” she said.
Kardynal said the one drawback to felting is that the dyed wool generally needs to be ordered online, but is still “relatively inexpensive” in terms of art creation.
Instead of a brush a painter would use, needle felting uses a long, thin needle which has a series of notches at its tip.
When the artist pokes the needle into and out of the wool, these notches tangle the fibres of the wool together, and as you felt, the wool will start to feel firmer, and will shrink in size.
“I kind of compare it to sculpting with wool,” said Kardynal in October.
The use of wool to create art is not new.
“It’s sort of an ancient art form,” said Kardynal, who added the basic process was likely used for more practical creations such as mitts and hats, with pure art efforts likely evolving from there.
As an art form Kardynal said felting is a good one for beginning artists in the sense “it’s very forgiving.” If something is not going as the artist envisioned it can be pulled off and started again.
“It’s a really nice medium to begin with,” she said.
Even as an experienced artist in other mediums Kardynal said she appreciates felting as it helps her in terms of seeing shapes and colours.
